Apology of uniform eros

You will have to start from the stove. That is, from myself. I'm not gay. And not Orthodox. I'm not even a Christian. And not even a Jew. I violate several commandments at once, and above all the very first and most important ones - I question the One God, I include the plurality of the gods and find that some even live next to us.

For example, opposite my window, a huge, height to the sky, incredible beauty of linden grows. I am convinced that this is God. In addition, I constantly deal with various kinds of images "that which is in the sky above, and what is on the ground below." And this is prohibited in the ten commandments of Moses, which Christ later came to approve in the world. The patriarch is just a person for me. I don’t have any sympathy for him, but this does not prevent me from treating his words with complete seriousness. He listened to his sermon in the Cathedral of the Kazan Mother of God. I was surprised that the journalists regarded her as a sermon against homosexuality. There was this shade, it was true, but the sermon was devoted to a more serious and more fundamental problem, the problem of freedom, the danger of freedom and sin. Some places about the dictatorship, for example, looked very contradictory. The sermon sounded passionately and convincingly, but one sensation did not leave me for a minute - the feeling that the Patriarch did not notice that we all (and he ourselves) live in another world. For example, literally his words: "We must do everything so that in the space of Holy Rus', sin is never approved by the state law." This short phrase will have to stop, because it has a lot. Too much. First, what does Holy Rus' mean? It is clear that here the “holy” is not in the sense of “pure, sinless”. Such Rus' never existed. Holy Rus' means the Orthodox state. Saying these words, the Patriarch, thus, ignores the fact that modern Russia is a multinational, multi -confessional secular state. That Russia is not Rus', the Russians in it are one of the nationalities. Ignores the fact that modern Russia is not an Orthodox state, that most of its citizens are unbelievers or are representatives of other religious faiths, for whom both the concept of freedom and the concept of sin are others. That the Orthodox Church cannot impose their ideas to people who have nothing to do with it, and the state who is neither Orthodox, nor Muslim, but secular. The sermon had global ambitions, and under the flock, to which the Patriarch turned, the whole Russian people were understood. Finally, this phrase also contained the fact that the law of the state should be obedient to the Church and that it is, the church, knows that there is a sin that the state should be punished. All this taken together and caused the feeling that the Patriarch lives in some other time and another place.

Opposite my window, a huge, height to the sky, incredible beauty of linden grows. I am convinced that this is God.

I myself could not share the pathos of the Patriarch’s preaching also because I belong to another denomination, denominations called art, and there freedom does not represent the problem of choosing between good and evil, between black and white, like a Patriarch, but between a huge amount of equalized possibilities, in a huge color spectrum, as in my palette, and the concepts of sin are practically not at all. That is why (not only, of course, therefore) art once separated from religion.

The Patriarch’s preaching was not directly spoken about “homosexuality”, only in the subtext, but observers and journalists have instantly caught this subtext. Recently, as you know, this topic for both the Orthodox Church and for Catholic has become especially relevant. Bonfires are not burning yet, but the passions around the same -sex love flare up.

For an unbiased observer, all these passions look rather strange. Why is it suddenly both the Western and Eastern Church took up arms against one -sex love? The main argument of these “fans” - that the same -sex love contradicts the natural laws of nature and the sacred commandments of the old and the New Testament, turns the organicism of human existence, which stands on the reproduction of its species. This is true, a homosexual marriage does not bring offspring. It is not clear, however, why it is so worried about both churches. In the gospel statements of Christ, one can find a variety of things, including this: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his wives and children, and brothers and sisters, and moreover of his very life, he cannot be my student” (Luke 14:26). To suspect Christ in the cult of the family, the cult of natural, organic laws of nature is very difficult. He was not from this world. His interests were focused on posthumous existence, on eternal life, on salvation. “Make up and multiply” - this is a deeply archaic ideology of tribal consciousness, associated with the need to survive surrounded by other tribes. In our overpopulated world, the existence of which is under threat due to the depletion of natural resources, when the earth is no longer able to feed such a mass of people, it would be not only logical, but also humanely to hear the above words of Christ, clearly testifying that the spiritual path of salvation that he proposed was in no way associated with the natural laws of nature, and even more so with reproduction, and to do everything possible to do everything that, so that, to do everything possible, so that it is possible to do everything possible. On the contrary, limit the birth rate. Then the demonization of the same -sex love, against which both churches have now relieved, would lose all meaning.

To suspect Christ in the cult of the family, the cult of natural, organic laws of nature is very difficult.

The historical practice of Christianity itself created an institute that is unnatural, anti -infroder and stands on the fact that it stops the reproduction of the species, the Institute of Monasticism. Yes, and the Church itself - both eastern and to a greater extent Western - a same -sex institution.

Why is the pope and the patriarch so much concerned the same -sex marriages and does not at all concern the existence of such pronounced same -sex institutions as the army, the fleet and the police? And in Russia, by virtue of its civilizational lag, and the male Institute of Policy.

As you know, Christ has set the concept of love at the basis of His moral teaching. Love addressed up to God, and turned down to his neighbor. Love in our opinion, in Greek-Eros. Christianity was originally religion of Eros. Monasticism was understood in Christianity as a voluntary rejection of natural reproduction in order for the most powerful power, the most powerful energy that is in a person, to direct in a different direction, to sublimate erotic energy into the spiritual, in love for God, in love for salvation, in love for people. The process of sublimation of erotic energy takes place in the above -mentioned institutions, such as the army, fleet, police and politicians. This, speaking figuratively, “white clergy”, male orders in which marriage with a woman is resolved, but erotic energy is not fully realized in marriage, a significant part of it is sublimated here in the energy of force and power. And violence, of course.

So what’s the matter, why are some same -sex institutions not only do not cause any concern among church hierarchs, but, on the contrary, they are supported in every possible way, and same -sex marriages are cursed? There may be several explanations, but the main thing, it seems, is the inconsistency of the church and civil society. The church cannot come to terms with the fact that the institution of marriage, rites associated with the birth and death of man, society took on. It would seem, what does she care about the registration of same -sex marriages with magistrates? No, she still believes that this is exclusively her right, for she, and only she, takes care of the salvation of the soul. This is true, civilian institutions, fortunately, do not deal with issues of salvation of the soul, but here the freedom of choice comes into force. It’s not that freedom of choice according to the Patriarch, between to become a “slave of sin” or “God's slave” (he does not imply another), but between the fact that someone arranges your posthumous fate for you, and the fact that you yourself are choosing from all your accessible or inaccessible opportunities.

In general, the hostility of the Church, both Catholic and Orthodox, is very reminiscent of the rejection of any form of sectarianism, any attempts by non -church individual and collective spiritual searches. Traditionally, unlike Buddhism, where a variety of schools existed in parallel, Christianity burned out any forms of dissent.

The church cannot come to terms with the fact that the institution of marriage, rites associated with the birth and death of man, society took on.

As for the homosexual couples and their struggle for their rights in the civilian space, the intervention and claims of the church here look strange. She has no rights here. I myself pose a question as follows. If we accept the institution of monasticism as a special spiritual path, a special practice that interrupts the natural, natural course of things and guides erotic energy to the service of God and people, can we say something similar about the same -sex love? And yes, and no. No - since in homosexuality (in any case, in the foreground) we are not talking about love for God, but about the love of one person for another. Yes - since both there and there the emanation of a certain energy, erotic energy, the energy of love. Even if you imagine an extreme case, some homosexual pair, where two are in love with madness and do not see anything around, it still does not increase the amount of evil, intolerance and violence in the world. It increases the amount of love in our world. This, by the way, is clearly seen in the example of gay parades-the holidays of fun, tolerance and open affection for everyone.

The full contrast to these holidays of joy and openness look like the parades of their opponents - skinheads, Cossacks and other fighters for morality. Unfortunately, Christians - both the Patriarch of Moscow and the Pope - always find themselves on the side of the latter, those that are gloomy and evil. The god of the patriarch and dad does not like to joke.