Defense of The Faith
When Orthodoxy Is Mistaken for Russia
Why Orthodox Christianity in the West is increasingly viewed through the lens of Russian politics
The founding traditions of the United States and the European Union agree on something that is easy to forget in wartime: a person’s religion is not an indication of their loyalty. The founders of postwar Europe built a Union on the same convention after a war in which regimes had persecuted whole communities for who they are.
Since February 22, Russian Orthodox Christians have been faced with accusations that a parish with a Slavonic name is treated as a Russian embassy. The assumption is that to be Orthodox is to be Russian, and to be Russian is to answer to the Kremlin. The assumption is wrong. It is also at odds with the legal commitments that Western democracies have made on religious freedom.
