To the church as in the polls. Why the Russian Orthodox Church does not interfere with the low turnout of the parishioners

According to the fresh survey of the Levada Center, 2% of Russians are going to observe Great Lent. Well, that is, if about 26% of respondents are ready for one or another restrictions with the survey data. 2% are those who plan to comply with all the requirements of the post within all seven weeks before Easter. 73% of fellow citizens are not going to change anything in their lifestyle.

Such polls (along with statistics on visiting Easter churches and Christmas, which can be considered sad for the Russian Orthodox Church: in recent years, about four million Russians have stably at Christmas to churches) is an important argument in the hands of critics of the Russian Orthodox Church.

There are absolutely curious examples. In the summer of 2016, by order of the research service “Wednesday”, the residents of Russia, who consider themselves Orthodox, which of the statements should be correct: “The Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son,” “The Holy Spirit comes only from the Father,” or they are both wrong. The first option won - 69% of respondents replied that the Holy Spirit comes from both the father and the son. The vast majority of the nominal Orthodox, thus, without knowing it, stood in a millennium theological dispute to the side of Catholicism. Knowledge of Orthodox dogmas demonstrated only 10% of respondents.

These figures, probably, can explain the irritation with which it has recently been accepted to meet attempts (by the way, more often successful than not) church expansion in worldly and even political affairs. By the way, in the circles of church publicists, this irritation is called "new persecutions." Sometimes, as in a commemorative story with Pussy Riot, the arguments about the “persecution” were given with frank cynicism, since the persecutors were sitting in a pre -trial detention center, and the persecuted talked about their sufferings at the many thousands of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior under the protection of riot police.

The numbers seem to indicate that the real role of the Church in the life of society is small and certainly does not comply with the claims of the Russian Orthodox Church. But the mechanisms of building political influence - and the church under Patriarch Kirill clearly claims the role of a political institution - more complicated and thinner.

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