______________________________
On Monday, the relationship between the Greek state and the Church of Greece became the focus of a fresh clash between the government and the main opposition SYRIZA party after a leftist MP proposed the introduction of a new tax to pay clerics’ wages. SYRIZA deputy Tasos Kourakis said that the Church should start funding itself instead of relying on dwindling state coffers. Kourakis told a conference organised by the Theology Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki that another option would be to impose a church tax on all Greeks who declare themselves Orthodox Christians. He said that revenues from it could go toward church costs and clerics’ salaries.
The rightwing New Democracy shot down the idea, which likened the proposed tax to “Stalinist measures”. ND argued that such a levy would be unconstitutional, as it would discriminate between Greeks based on their religious beliefs. SYRIZA noted that Kourakis’s proposal was the MP’s “personal opinion”, but said that Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras had mooted a similar initiative in the fall of 2011 when the latter was head of the Foundation for Industrial and Economic Research (IOBE). Stournaras accused SYRIZA of distorting comments that he made during a TV interview, when he noted that other European citizens don’t pay clerics’ salaries through taxation without proposing however that Greece follow suit.
28 January 2013
Kathimerini
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/01/2013_480874
Editor’s Note:
What SYRIZA proposes is nothing more than the system in place in Germany, where citizens pay a “church tax” that goes to the church of their choice. If one isn’t religious, the money goes into a general charity fund. “Stalinist” is usually “right-speak” for “we don’t like this and we want to demonise the people making this proposal” (such as Potapov’s recent crackbrained initiative concerning “Stalingrad” in the ROCOR). In short, the SYRIZA proposal isn’t leftist at all; it’s merely fair. It simply places the burden of support of the Orthodox Church on Orthodox believers. That’s as it should be, kids… New Democracy is sinking into irrelevance along with PASOK… SYRIZA is Greece’s future, as this common-sense proposal indicates. You can have SYRIZA or you can have Golden Dawn (which is neo-Nazi, fascist, racist, and xenophobic… that’s no choice at all)… that’s the real-world choice on offer… there’s nothing else. It’s clear that SYRIZA’s the better choice.
BMD
6 March 2013. What the ROCOR Bishop of Caracas Really Thought about Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías… Aren’t You Ashamed to Have Listened to Rightwing Blowhards Such as Potapov, Paffhausen, or Whiteford?
Tags: atheism, Bolivarian Revolution, Caracas, Christian, Christianity, Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Hugo Chávez, Hugo Chávez Frías, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Kirill I of Moscow, Latin America, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, Patriarch Kirill I, political commentary, politics, poster, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Republican, Republican Party, right-wing, ROCOR, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, socialism, South America, United States, USA, Venezuela
THIS is what the REAL Church did… any questions?
_____________________________
The Russian émigrés who established our Church fled not socialism but godlessness, militant atheism, and persecution. The people who run Venezuela today aren’t the Soviet state. President Chávez may be a socialist, yes, but he isn’t an atheist. Moreover, he openly calls himself a believer, he doesn’t persecute the Church, and he doesn’t propagandise atheism. Today, Venezuela finds itself in a profound social crisis, so, something must be done, so I lean towards sympathising with him. It isn’t the Church’s lot to involve itself in politics or to decide which is better, socialism or capitalism. The Saviour commanded us to tend to our neighbour, to help the poor and orphaned. Christianity isn’t alien to the concept of social justice… unless it’s harnessed to godlessness. At the same time, many of our parishioners have a justifiable mistrust of socialists, which is characteristic for the ROCOR. Orthodox Christians in Latin America are very politicised, and that’s the way it always was. For instance, during Allende’s time, they fled Chile en masse.
Bishop John Berzins of Caracas and all South America (ROCOR)
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/47525.htm
******
The REAL Church doesn’t condemn socialism… only American phonies teach such. HH thinks, “Socialism is Good” (as the old Chinese song put it). He SUPPORTS state-provided single-payer universal healthcare (and a complete palette of state-provided social services)… and Potapov, Paffhausen, and Whiteford are against it (they support the wicked and grasping Anti-Life greedster agenda of the Republican Party). Oh, yes, HH BLESSED Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías and his Bolivarian Revolution (and he hasn’t changed his mind). You can support HH and the REAL Church… or you can support the Unholy Drooling Republican Trinity with their bootless “marches”, alliances with the heterodox rightwing, and witch-hunts of the “unclean”… that’s the only choice on offer in the real world. I support HH and Christ’s REAL Church… what about you?
BMD