Re: Death of Zoya Krakhmalnikova

Catawumpus wrote:

>a history of complicity with the authorities going back to 
>Constantine.  In the East, it was in bed with Byzantium.  There 
>are some nice exceptions (for instance the liberation 
>theology recently displeasing the Vatican), but that's been the 
>rule.
>  
>

Sure, during theocratic times when there was a pretence of a Roman 
emperor, there was some engagement of the emperor with the church, 
chiefly ceremonial.  The reigning emperor called church councils, but 
the highest (or after Rome was excommunicated for heresy) or the local 
Patriarch chaired and opened the meeting.  Some emperors were considered 
heretics.  The appellation julian the Apostate is a prime example, and 
the appellation could be even worse, ex. Copronymous (for that 
particular Constantine having pissed in the baptismal font as an 
infant), but the appellation was used only after he acted egregiously 
against the Church. 

The system of rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar's included such 
things as paying taxes and meeting other legal obligations. 

>     Scripturally speaking, the Church could base itself on Rom.
>13:1-6 -- setting aside any questions about Biblical 
>consistency -- which announces "the powers that be are ordained 
>of God" and conversely damns anyone who resists them on 
>grounds fighting the ruling powers is a rebellion against God's 
>will.
>  
>

We have thousands upon thousands, some in our recent century of 
communism and fascism, Christian martyrs who chose the way of God 
instead of the way of a non Orthodox ruler serving the cause of evil in 
one respect or another. 

>     But that doesn't leave room for picking and choosing.  God
>installs the rulers, Rom. 13 claims, and Christians are 
>required to follow them.  Applied to Russian history that makes
>the Tsars and the Bolsheviks both "God's ministers."  Ditto 
>the gangster capitalists and ex-KGB apparatchiks running things
>today.
>  
>

Not at all and neither is your assertion sup****ted by history.

>-- Catawumpus
>
>  
>
> I'm thinking two main things. In the West, the Church has