The Morning Offering

Pussy Riot

No Such Thing as Sacrilege in the West

Western media coverage of the Russian political organization (hardly a musical group) known as "Pussy Riot" has been one of the most distorted news coverages of recent memory. Now that they have been found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to 2 years in prison, it is worth taking a closer look at actually what happened.

This whole ugly incident has been made to appear in both Western media, and the White House, as having to do with freedom of speech and the right for these young woman to attack the evil Vladimir Putin, seen as a KGB agent who'd like to silence all dissent. That American singer Madonna would come out in full support of Pussy Riot during her recent Moscow concert, has only added to the fuel. Yet is it any wonder that a woman whose whole career has been filled with sacrilegious usage of Christian imagery would now defend her fellow travelers, the Pussy Riot? Can Christians forget that Madonna opened a concert with herself hanging on a cross, in mockery of Christ's holy crucifixion?

This Madonna woman even had the audacity to call the holy Patriarch corrupt. How dare she step foot in Russia, a land whose very soil is filled with the blood of holy martyrs who died under the previous demonic attack on Orthodox Christianity, the Soviets. She is a fellow traveler of a new breed of Christ haters, whose support comes from "informational totalitarianism," the modern, Christianaphobic, Western media.

Most of what we've read about this infamous moment, when the Pussy Riot women ascended the steps leading to the iconostasis, clad in bright clothing and masks, screaming out profane "poetry" and defiling the main cathedral of the Moscow Patriarchate, was reported by Western media as "an attack on Putin". It was not an attack on Putin, but an attack on the Patriarch and the Church. 

Wasn't it enough that the people in the streets of Moscow have had to be subjected to profane language delivered with music from the depths of hell, yet the West can not see the need for swift and decisive legal action? Two years in prison for such an act of defilement of Christ the Saviour Cathedral seems hardly sufficient, in my mind, to fit the crime. Better that they should have been sentenced to two years hard labor.

And then there are those who would have us believe (including the Pussy Riot girls, of course), that we should now offer Christian forgiveness. It should be noted that before dancing in Christ the Saviour Cathedral they were in another church and did the same thing, all the while taping their activities. The Church Administration did not call the police, but let them go, asking them to not repeat such things. Pussy Riot took advantage of the Church's kindness and went on to film their filth in Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

 As a Christian I believe repentance must come before we receive absolution, and I am praying that two years in a Russian prison will be time sufficient for these young women to take a close look at what they've done, and truly ask forgiveness. I believe the Patriarch himself would come to the prison to hear their confessions and offer holy absolution, if they truly repent. As a Christian I will be praying for these disturbed young women, yet I do not believe letting them off with a light sentence would serve as a warning to others that we must respect the sacred places of everyone. Furthermore, I am quite sure His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has forgiven these young women, but justice must follow course. Civilized societies have laws, and there are consequences for breaking those laws.

Christianity everywhere is being attacked. There is even a movement in the United States to force police and fire chaplains, such as myself, to remove the crosses from our badges, something we will all refuse to do. For too long Christians in the West have sat by in all passivity while symbols of our Christian faith have been mocked and defiled by rock stars and entertainers. We've watched as crosses have been removed from public places and Christ centered prayers forbidden in public places by our courts. Is it any wonder we can't see the justice of the two year sentence that has been handed down in Moscow? Have we even heard what filth was shouted out in the cathedral? Read these words and dare to suggest that this was all about President Putin:

Holy shit, shit, Lord's shit!
Holy shit, shit, Lord's shit!
St. Maria, Virgin, become a feminist...
Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Bitch, you better believed in God

Madonna said President Vladimir Putin should free the three young female band members from prison and asserted that the Russian Orthodox Church is corrupt, and the Western media ran with it. The Western media totally ignored the real truth that Pussy Riot is simply a publicity-seeking group of "performance artists" who make their living by creating scandals. Would the Western media expect this Madonna woman to suggest President Barack Obama free Americans being tried in an American court? No American president would dare try to intervene in an independent court decision, just as President Putin would dare not. The myth that Putin is anything but the strong leader Russia needs at this period in time is just that, a myth. 

The truth is, Pussy Riot actually did not say a word against President Putin during their February "punk prayer" at Christ the Savior Cathedral. They just danced feverishly in the cathedral's solea, kicking up their legs, screaming blasphemous profanity and defiling a sacred place for Orthodox Christians. If this defilement had taken place in an American synagogue or in an American Muslim mosque, you can well bet the media and the White House would have responded differently.

If we think this is the end of the attacks on Orthodox Christianity, think again. A bare-chested woman of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen use a chainsaw to cut down an Orthodox cross, erected to the memory of victims of the political repression in Kiev.

I would like to conclude my essay by pointing out that an official statement was issued by the Russian Orthodox Church's High Council, following the sentence: "Casting no doubt on the legitimacy of the court’s decision, we appeal to the public authorities to show mercy, within the law, on the convicted in the hope they will never repeat such blasphemous actions.”

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Saturday August 18, 2012 / August 5, 2012

11^th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. Food with Oil

Forefeast of the Transfiguration of our Lord.
Martyr Eusignius of Antioch (362).
New Martyrs Eudocia (Shikova) and Novices Daria (Timolina), Dar'ia (Siushinskaya), and Maria of Diveyevo (1919).
New Hieromartyr Simon (Shleev) bishop of Ufa (1921).
New Hieromartyr John deacon (1938).
Venerable Job the Gorge-dweller on the Mezen River (Solovki) (1628).
Hieromartyrs Fabian (250) and Antherus (Antheros) (257), popes of Rome.
Martyr Pontius at Cimella in France (257).
Martyrs Cantidius, Cantidian and Sibelius (Sobel), of Egypt.
Righteous Nonna (374), mother of St. Gregory the Theologian.
St. Oswald, king and martyr (642) (Celtic & British).
Venerable John (Jacob) of Neamp, the Chozebite (1960) (Romania).
New Martyr Chrestos of Preveza (1668).
Uncovering of the relics (1967) of St. Arsenius the New of Paros (1877).
 

You can read the life of the saint in green, by click on the name.

THANK YOU, to all of you who have been able to contribute towards the support of the monastery. These difficult times of economic hardship have impacted the monastery, and those of you who have been able to donate, have been our lifeline. May God bless you for your generosity, and kindness.

With love in Christ,  
Abbot Tryphon

Donations can be made directly to the monastery through PayPal, or you may send donations to:

All-Merciful Saviour Monastery
PO Box 2420
Vashon Island, WA 98070-2420 USA

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Gifts at Corinth

⁴ I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, ⁵ that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, ⁶ even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷ so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Matthew 19:3-12

³ The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

⁴ And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

⁷ They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

⁸ He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

¹⁰ His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

Jesus Teaches on Celibacy

¹¹ But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: ¹² For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.”