Juris Paiders’ interview with Dace Balode (excerpt):
– In a previous interview in Neatkarīgā you said that the Church must not be isolated from society. Georges Florovsky (1893-1979), in his book The Eastern Fathers of the Church, writes: «The views of Chrysostom on civil society are worthy of note. [..] the clergyman is given the right only to the word and to courage, but he is not permitted to use force. Power, in Chrysostom’s view, remains inviolable, yet it stands under the control of the Church’s reason and conscience.» (p. 215) This means that the Church must not keep silent and turn a blind eye to what religion regards as sin. The Church must influence state power. If we are guided by what John Chrysostom said, then the leaders of the Church must protest against sin with word and courage. Conscience must not be exchanged for the active goodwill of non-governmental organizations.
In my opinion, in Latvia the secular authorities allow church leaders to take part in celebrations, but in return they expect – and also receive – silence, when the Church does not even with a word involve itself in any processes that are important to the greater part of society.
– According to the law, the state is separated from the Church, yet not all churches are equal in their relations with the state. The relations between the largest denominations and the state are arranged with particular ministers, deputies or influential politicians. The relations are not formed democratically but, if one may put it so, they are at the level of deputies’ quotas. Politicians who wish to atone for their sins, driven by metaphysical fears, help to bring about what church leaders ask for, both in connection with property and in connection with financial support for certain events. In my opinion, this is deplorable. It is not the right way for religious organizations to build relations with the state. If a church regularly engages in such dealings, then its leaders must keep silent about these politicians’ actions; they refrain from assessing the activity of political leaders and the political direction they pursue. The cooperation is based on rational advantage, and that makes the Church’s policymakers rather similar to the representatives of the oldest profession.
– To many people I read out several quotations from the recently published book Survival by Linards Rozentāls, without mentioning the period to which these quotations refer: «As a result, the Church, whose task was to proclaim the truth, itself partly lived in lies. The opposition movement strove for an authentic Christian life, for self-expression and for genuine relationships with those like itself. But that meant renouncing its role in the bureaucratic-ideological machinery, while at the same time accepting the consequences in one’s personal life…» (p. 219)
«The governing institution was more occupied with building flexible relations with the existing authorities and with the supervision of church employees (p. 222).»
As well as a passage where there is a reference to Elīza Zikmane: «But the Church’s efforts not to confront the prevailing ideology and to adapt to it led only to an illusory separation from this ideology. In reality it meant an imperceptible merging with the structure of Soviet ideology and cut the Church off also from the public life of the state (pp. 222-223)»
All those to whom I read this – Catholics, Lutherans and even the Orthodox – were convinced that this is a criticism not of the Soviet era, but one that applies to today and is precisely about their own denomination.
– Indeed. The Academic Press of the University of Latvia has just published the monograph Survival by Linards Rozentāls, the senior pastor of the Riga Luther congregation. It is based on Linards Rozentāls’ research carried out in developing his doctoral dissertation in theology, The Synodal Principle of Governance in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia 1948-1984. The passages you quote refer to the circumstances in which the movement of Juris Rubenis, Modris Plāte and other pastors of the younger generation of Lutherans began, in order to initiate, at the beginning of the 1980s, changes in the Latvian Lutheran Church, calling for the introduction of democratic civic and social elements both in the governance of the Church and in the Church’s relations with society.
Read the full interview here (Theologian Dace Balode: In Latvia the Church Keeps Silent about Politics, NRA, Juris Paiders, 6 April, 18:18)
Source: NRA.lV (SIA “Mediju nams”)