Apparently, we are standing on the threshold of some great future — unprecedented prosperity, the very ideal world in which, according to the words of Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, there will be neither Hellenes nor Jews.
Only a little differently: there will be neither a Jew nor a Christian. In a good way. It will not be because they disappear, but because they will merge in delight of like-mindedness. How else to interpret such unanimous agreement?
The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church said that the church opposes the removal of works of art from the law on the protection of religious feelings. And the vice-president of the Congress of Jewish religious organizations agreed with the representative of the Orthodox Church.
The state, still the only true connoisseur of freedom in our country, proposed to soften Part One of Article 148 of the Criminal Code. This part assumes criminal punishment for public actions aimed at insulting the feelings of believers. It is supposed to make this part act for everyone until someone calls himself an artist. If you create a work of art, it seems like you can not offend anyone.
What artist to take? He is that the child is unreasonable - it exists in its hermetic space, it creates as much as possible. And if someone insults, it is not for ideological reasons, but for negligence.
In addition, as we understand, finding an insult to feelings is quite easy in any work of art. The aforementioned Jews can easily and naturally be offended by any novel of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Orthodox, of course, in vain, built on God's anointed king John IV by Ilya Repin in his famous painting. That picture, by the way, is under restoration, because someone was so offended that it cut it with a knife.
But religious denominations are not prepared to go on easing the law and support each other in this - both the Orthodox in the person of the deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media Vakhtang Kipshidze, and the Jews represented by the Vice President of the Congress of Jewish Jewish Communities and Organizations of Russia Zinovy Kogan.
Religious leaders proceed from a clear message - it is impossible to create an isolated space within which a certain legal norm would be applied differently than in the rest of the field of social interaction.
Feelings are not taxes. You can create a zone of tax benefits or even offshore. But how to make an emotional offshore, in which you could do anything without fear of being brought to justice?
Article UK No. 148 is called “Violation of the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion” - it is in this title that the essence of possible claims to what is called insult is revealed.
Confession of faith or religious life suggests a very close connection with the object of worship - a person considers what he believes as his own. Religious consciousness is closed to external understanding, to the laws of logic. This is not his negative characteristic, by any means. It's just a fact.
A participant who approaches a bowl will never say that inside there is unleavened bread and cahors - this cannot be called so. It is the flesh and blood of Christ — faith is built upon it. To discuss this does not make sense. And the believer considers this knowledge to be his. And believes that his ownership of this knowledge is the expression of his freedom of will.
From this it follows logically that when an institution — an artist, a writer, a director, a musician — tries to comprehend part of religious discourse from a critical point of view, to shift once and forever the rules and images into the language of provocation, this causes a natural rejection of religious consciousness. Not because the religious consciousness is so touchy and only looks for a reason to be offended, but because it considers as an integral part of itself what the art is encroaching upon. And he sees in this a violation of his rights to free will - and who will not be outraged by the encroachment on property?
The Spanish thinker, scientist, theologian and physician Miguel Servet was burned at the stake in 1553 as a heretic. Jean Calvin asked for his humane execution - beheading with a sword. But it turned out differently. There is a version that Serveta was burned for his scientific work - he opened a small circle of blood circulation, and the religious community was so outraged by a scientific breakthrough that it destroyed the torch of progress.
In fact, the problem there was in the other: Servet was anti-Trinitarian, that is, he believed that God is not one in three persons, but simply one, there is no Trinity and is not necessary. They burned him for his theological work - encroachments on the whole picture of the religious world could not forgive him. You know, brother, you can practice medicine there for your own pleasure, make any discoveries, but you don’t touch the Trinity!
The irreconcilable differences of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches are also based on this. There are some differences - from the side to see it will be funny. Does the Holy Spirit come from both God the Son and God the Father or only from God the Father? Orthodox believe that the latter is true, Catholics - what is the first. Tell me, is it important to you? Not really, right? Nevertheless, this is a fundamental disagreement. Why can't it be resolved? Because the object of faith is the inalienable property of the believer. This needs to be understood and accepted.
Do not ban something again, do not put restrictions, but keep in mind this feature.
What does this mean for artists? For artists, this means that you need to learn to live and create more elegantly and carefully - to understand that creative freedom has no boundaries, but boundaries have a result.
And these boundaries are common sense, empathy and respect.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.