More than once, Metropolitan Kirill pointed out that various inter-religious and inter-civilisation forums issue general, but not binding, slogans a-la “People, let’s come together”. Today, we’d best insist on, “People, let’s walk honestly”. I don’t mean not to steal, as no one seems to do that, but, I mean we should overturn the idol of political correctness that is, in fact, a “convenient lie”. For example, let’s honestly confess to each other that Orthodoxy and Catholicism consider themselves and no one else keepers of the One True Church, Islam reserves the right to be the last revelation, Judaism thinks it’s the only faith appropriate for Jews, and humanism will never give up defining “human values…”
Yes, such values do exist, but, their hierarchy varies. For example, someone considers this life and prosperity in this world most important, someone else thinks that eternal salvation is the most important value and believes it is impossible to reach without the true faith and a “non-humanistic” organisation of society. If the first and the latter are ready to coexist in dialogue and cooperation… May God bless it. But, purely earthly and practical considerations shouldn’t be imposed on everyone, as they don’t reach further than the life of an individual, or of an ethnos and contemporary mankind. If political correctness keeps me from calling truth the truth, a lie a lie, a sin a sin, and a heresy a heresy, than it’s simply nothing but totalitarianism. Even if it serves “peace and harmony”, any war is better than such peace.
28 April 2008
Fr Vsevolod Chaplin
Zamglavy (Deputy Head) of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=4624 (in English)
