Apologia pro vita mea-2

The theoretical physicist, quantum chromodynamics specialist and corruption hunter, known on the Internet as Dr. Z, in his second column for The New Times, argues with fellow believers about why it is possible and necessary to communicate with those whose views are sometimes alien

My Orthodox brethren, after my exit from the shadows, ask me: why do you consider it acceptable for yourself to associate with all these characters when they are so terrible - then follows a more or less vague list of imaginary or real sins and vices attributed to a more or less certain circle of people who identify themselves as part of the protest movement.

It is about this situation that the apostle Paul writes his remarkable: “... otherwise it would be necessary for you to go out of the world” (1 Cor. 5:10). Rav Shaul ha-Tarsi here discusses the question: how should a believer relate to the fact that the society around him does not share his religious beliefs and does not follow religiously motivated moral standards? Should contact with the “wrong” people be completely cut off? And a paradoxical answer: no, it turns out that it is possible and necessary to communicate with them in the worldly realm. Yes, there is a certain rather closed sphere of the life of a religious community, where its own internal regulations operate: “... I wrote to you not to communicate with someone who, being called a brother, remains a fornicator, or a covetous man, or an idolater, or a blasphemer, or a drunkard ... "

So let those of my friends who blame me for talking with the defenders of the famous vocal and instrumental group of hooligans without a voice, hearing and feeling for the poetic word and other “liberals” (this word is usually used so thoughtlessly that it turns into empty trinket - or, even worse, becomes Bacon's "idol of the square"), will look at their environment, consisting of believers (I guess) people: whether they apply to the brothers the rule that they want me to apply to the whole outside world. Have they stopped inviting those who use foul language (“blasphemers”)? Don't they accept donations for churches from obvious corrupt officials ("covetous men"), hung with church orders? About drunkards, I generally keep quiet.

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John Chrysostom gives such an amazing interpretation of Paul's words about the "angel of Satan" who tormented him: "He calls the angels of Satan not any demons, but people who serve the devil," among whom he names tyrants "Continuing the theme of" leaving the world ”, I note that another way to convey this idiom is “you should die.” As long as I am alive, I breathe the same air and walk the same earth with all kinds of people. With all my desire, I could not refuse to communicate with those who, not only according to someone's paranoid accusations, but also according to my own convictions, are bad people.

John Chrysostom in De statuis 1,4 gives such an amazing interpretation of Paul's words about the "angel of Satan" (2 Cor. 12:7), who tormented him: "He calls the angels of Satan not any demons, but people who serve the devil," among whom he names tyrants. These characters may well include the discussion from the fifth chapter of the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul, discussed above. Yes, some people are so disgusting - for example, tyrants - that they, according to the words of the doctor of the Church, can quite be called the angels of Satan. However, this is not a religiously motivated reason not to shake hands with them, not to eat the same bread with them, not to walk on the same land, not to breathe the same air.

photo: Olga Osipova/The New Times