ONLY MONKS DO NOT VOTE. RELIGIOUS RENEGADES MAKE THEIR CHOICE
Dasha Progon

The widespread opinion among ordinary folk that the truly believing person is sufficiently removed from the burdens of daily life, at least those that have to do with politics and state power, is not confirmed by today's life. A small investigation into the attitudes toward the current elections, conducted among representatives of various Christians groupings, shows the opposite. There are not people who are absolutely indifferent to the potential changes in the political life of Russia.

On the contrary, the position occupied by several believers is remarkable for its unpredictability. For example, one of the priests of the so-called "Mother of God Center," which is one of the sects against which war has been recently declared, stated that all parishioners of this church would want to see the Mother of God as president of Russia. But recognizing that the realization of this cherished hope is not possible today, they have decided not to work for any specific candidate and to permit full freedom of choice to all believers. The only representatives of the "Mother of God Center" who did not vote were the monks, since it was not fitting for them to take part in the "vanity of vanities."

The leadership of one of the Protestant confessions, the New Apostolic Church, actively encouraged believers to take part in elections, since it was convinced of the importance of this democratic procedure. The vicepresident of the administrative center of NAC, Alexander Kondrashev, posited that nothing secular should be alien to Christians. In this matter parishioners of the church were granted freedom of choice and were not given any recommendation with regard to specific candidates.

For Russian Mormons, who recently were mentioned by the new national security secretary (see below), the political fortunes of the country also were not a matter of indifference. And although in the Mormons' meetings the question of the fulfillment of civic duty was not officially discussed, the majority of them support democratic reforms. This is completely natural, since Mormons originated in America, where, as is known, the democratic traditions are strong, even though sometimes representatives of the current regime grieve Mormons greatly with they sharp expressions. The head of the Russian association of Mormons, Alexander Lokshin, reported the decision of the "sect" to appeal to Lebed with a letter of response.

The True Orthodox Church, who are Christians who do not recognize the supremacy of the Moscow patriarchate, also treated the elections rather seriously and even devoted one of their meetings to a discussion of this question. Parishioners came to the conclusion that there is no sense in their voting since the situation of deprivation of the TOC, which did not have a single church building available to them under the soviet regime, still has not changed. Obviously, by ignoring the elections the TOC hopes to draw attention to their problems. On this matter the "Holy Synod," the administrative body of the church, did not issue an official prohibition to believers who wished, in spite of everything, to participate in voting. (translated by PDS)