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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

On-Screen Harmony

26 June, 1999 - 00:00

By Klara GUDZYK, The Day
Mark Twain describes in a short story how a group of campaign workers advised
their candidate, who was on the hustings, to pick from the crowd the dirtiest,
most runny nosed, and scruffiest child, embrace him/her tenderly and kiss
the urchin for the sake of popularity. The candidate balked at it for a
long time, but when it came to the crunch, he courageously stepped down
into the thick of electors and began to hug and kiss all the children -
white and black, clean and dirty - interspersed in the crowd of adults.
What will you not do in order to win? I recalled this classic scene in
connection with one of the many television spots dedicated "unobtrusively"
today to one of our presidential candidates. The program in question dealt
with the President and Religion. (I hope the Mark Twain analogy is not
taken too literally).

Many of our candidates are now trying to enlist the support of religious
believers if only because the churches, unlike parties, have managed to
give society at least a bit of structure. For example, the Communist Party
of Ukraine banks on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate),
which has the largest by the number of parishes (but not believers). (This
did not, however, prevent Comrade Symonenko from recently saying, "The
Communist Party of Ukraine does not repudiate... defining religion as opiate
of the people"). Hromada enjoys the support of some Protestant churches;
the Right relies on those who prefer the Kyiv Patriarchate. The current
President has chosen the best option: he kisses them all, as the latest
weekly news review on a certain channel pointed bore witness.

Here we are dealing, however, not with someone's election tactics but
with the program in question. It was made by some very deft hands: they
had gleaned, cut, spliced, and edited materials shot at various times on
various occasions. The common thread is almost unnoticeable, and the overall
impression is given that the President and his religious policy are supported
by many Ukrainian churches. The trick is simple but effective: we are shown
a series of fragments in which church leaders say two or three phrases
taken out of context, with the President occasionally inserted between
them. The result is a picture of idyllic relations between the President
and various church denominations, while the faithful are to watch, draw
conclusions, and take sides.

Why not? The only catch is that this televised idyll has very little
to do with reality. Let me cite some glaring differences. For example,
we see in the spot Patriarch Dymytry (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox
Church) who had just published a series of brochures titled Conversations
about the Terrible Today, complaining inter alia that "in power
there are no honest Ukrainians or even partial believers," ... that "the
regime does not understand the need for order in this country." Also shown
was Patriarch Filaret (Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate), brutally
beaten in Mariupol. Somehow escaping notice was his recently publicized
statement saying, "The state executive organs and President Leonid Kuchma
are completely unable to carry out their duties..." The Kyiv Patriarchate
demands that, at least, "...the President officially apologize to the Patriarch
and the believers who fell victim to the authorities' inaction and connivance
with the offenders." The list can be continued, but what has already been
mentioned is enough to justify our use of the word, falsification.

Let us recall what is common knowledge: the religious situation in this
country is not getting better, and most churches have serious complaints
about the executive and legislative authorities. In particular, the Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church, one of the largest in this country, still demands,
to no avail, official rehabilitation, that the authorities remove the stigma
attached to it by the previous imperial regimes. This church also recalls
that a sizable part of its former property is still in the hands of the
state or other churches. The Roman Catholic Church does not approve of
the government's "habit" of moving work days to Sunday, which is known
to be a sin and violation of age-old Christian tradition. (In the fourth
century, Emperor Constantine banned Sunday labor on pain of death). Meanwhile,
small religious communities consider themselves victims of discrimination
and fear still greater harassment after passing the government-planned
amendments to the current law On the Freedom of Worship. It is also universally
known that the hierarchies of all the three Orthodox churches blame the
authorities for actually fostering the schism in Orthodoxy.

This is, in very general outlines, the situation that shows through
the thin sickly-sweet primitive picture drawn for us by our politically
loyal television.

 

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