THE CHURCH AND THE CRIMINAL The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) had made a very loud denunciation of Milosevic in 1996/7 around christmass, when it officially declared that Milosevic should resign immidiately. In January 1997, after the police cordons and student protesters had been blocking each other for over a week in Kolarceva street, in downtown Belgrade, the patriarch led a religious procession through this street, before wich the police cordons retreated. Now, the church is again asking for Milosevic's stepdown. It is also openly insinuating his guilt for the war crimes. From this, we could conclude that the Serbian Orthodox Church is a great, humanist, god loving community, and that the Patriarch is a wise pacifist. Or, we can take another look SPIRITUAL RENEWAL Few people now remember the days when many of the SOC's priests have gone to Bosnia and Croatia, during those wars to hold religious services for the troops. They have often given the troops blessings and usually agreed to bless tanks and pieces of artillery for a fee. Also, Patriarch Pavle was not so eager to oppose Milosevic during his climb to power in the late 1980s. In those years, the church was holding a far more nationalist position. Actually, Pavle's assuming the position of Patriarch in 1989. greatly coincides whith Milosevic's corporate (country) takeover in 1988. In fact, vladika (a position similar to archbishop) Artemije, the person who held the most radical position against Milosevic at the church's press conference, on June 30th, was one of the leaders of serbian nationalism in the 80s and early 90s. Then, the church didn't find it fit to oppose the growing aggressive nationalism among the Serbs, although it id condemn seccessionism. Then, the church was shouting out it's happiness because of the Spiritual Renewal of the Serbian people. This meant that more people were going to church and a lot more were donating money to it. The fact that these people's "religion" was nothing more than pose or idolatry was not of the church's concern. The number of the faithful donors was much more important. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION In those days, as now, the church was applying heavy pressure, trying to force the government to introduce Religious Science - a school subject at all levels of education (or, at least, kindergarden,highschool and elementary), where children would be thaught to act by the commandments of god and to live up to christian ideals. The church has often stated that this was "the only way for a spiritual renewal of the Serbian people, which has been spiritualy devastated by the communist rule". The church's official viewpoint is that Religious Science would not be mandatory, AT FIRST. This was often stated, even on television, by high church representatives, especially Irinej Bulatovic, episkope (bishop or archbishop) of Backa. UNIVERSITY CONTROL The church has also been most persistent in it's attempts to force the government to return the Bogoslovski (means God's-letters or God-Adressing) faculty, currently church-funded and controlled, back into the wings of Belgrade university, from where it was banished during Tito's government. Milosevic's government has even been ready to accept this demand, but the church has also demanded to maintain control of the faculty at the same time. This means, that the faculty would be funded by the taxpayer's money, and it would have had a vote in the University council (abolished by the University law of '98) but the church would remain in absolute control. The fact that this was a suggestion to openly breach both the univesity code and the country's constitution, which was pointed out by some legal experts, was of no concern either to the church or to the regime. This, however, has not stopped the church from frequently declaring that it supports the division of church and state, as well as the right of people to have their own beliefs. Currently, the students of this faculty have all the same state priviledges as normal students at BU, but the faculty itself is not officialy a part of the university. A highly irregular situation, but a worthy compromise, satisfying both the university staff and the students of the Bogoslovski faculty. WHOSE WAR CRIMES? It has also come to my attention that the church has not even suggested that a resignation should be handed in by Radovan Karadzic, the ex-leader (is he ex?) of the Republic of Srpska, the serbian entity in Bosnia. It hasn't made any insinuations about the war-crimes done in, say, Banja Luka, the second biggest city in Bosnia, now capital of the Repulic of Srpska, which used to have a very high percentage of Muslim population. Did they say anything about Srebrenica? What about Vukovar? TRUE CHRISTIANS AND LONGSIGHTED POLICIES The answers are, as always, simple. In the Republic of Srpska and the Republic of Srpska Krajina (the latter was the Serb-rebel country in Croatia, 1991-1995), the Serbian Orthodox Church had already succeeded in getting the governments to introduce Religious Science as a mandatory school subject in both elementary and highschools . That's why Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are not criminals. They did introduce Religious Science. That's why Arkan is not a criminal. He had priests preparing his army spiritually (and for good money) for every campaign of looting and ethnic cleansing that they had done - from Croatia to Kosovo. The amount of bloodmoney donations to the church will never be known, even by church officials, because much of it had been kept a secret by the priests. The Serbian Orthodox Church has often praised the governments of the Republic of Srpska and of Republic of Srpska Krajina, for their longsighted policy in the introdution of mandatory Religious Science for all students at elementary and highschool levels, regardless of their religious beliefs. Republic of Srpska is still a country of the Serbian people, according to it's constitution, so any notion like "regardless of ethnicity" would be pointless. MILOSEVIC, THE BOLSHEVIK Milosevic's government, however, has not introduced Religious Science at all. So, Milosevic is a criminal, who should resign. In fact, "Milosevic is a bolshevik" (vladika Artemije). He prevents Serbian (who else could live in Serbia?) children from getting a good christian education and thereby, prevents their spiritual growth. This has been the reason for the downfall of the Serbian people. As another vladika had once said in a TV interview: "Children should be thaught christianity from their first year, from the cradle". by Mihajlo Acimovic macim@angelfire.com, mihajlo@angelfire.com https://www.angelfire.com/nv/mihajlo
