On-Screen Harmony

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.