Russian Orthodox Church not to make morals fit to secular indifferent society

05 September 2007, 16:54

Sibiu (Romania), September 5, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church opposes some Christian groups seeking to compromise morals and ethics to make them more acceptable for secular society.

‘Why the idea of the evolution of moral norms is so popular among some Christians? It seems to me that in this position the secular spirit of this world may be felt,’ the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad said at the plenary meeting of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, Romania, on Thursday.

According to him, some Christian communities ‘have unilaterally revised biblical norms or behavior’ so that ‘in a time they may acknowledge the value of life and one’s right to die, the value of family and acceptability of same-sex relationship, the rights of children and deliberate termination of human embryos for medical purposes.

’This liberal attitude is, on the one hand, preconditioned by certain tendencies in Christian theology that ‘interpret salvation by faith alone to the prejudice of the moral state of man,’ he said.

However, he added, ‘there are suspicious similarities between how morals are seen in some Christian groups’ and the double standards spreading in secular society.

Metropolitan Kirill expressed his anxiousness over this approach becoming obligatory for all ‘through adoption of certain legislations in some European countries and international organizations.’

‘If the a power tries to compel the Christians to do or help doing things that contradict their faith or moral norms, this power will become unacceptable and hostile to the Christians,’ the metropolitan said.

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