Loosing the bonds of injustice

The firework logo didn’t quite work for the opening of the Winter Olympics last week. One of the snowflakes refused to become the fifth circle, so the logo was not able to fully tell its story. Its story, which took hold of the imagination of the modern world in the early part of the last century, is one of friendly rivalry between nations and of the interconnectedness which it fosters. It is a somewhat utopian ideal but, so far, it has endured. But friendship between nations is only genuine when it rests on a deeper love for the humanity of all who are party to it so, in the context of the Winter Olympics, friendship is not genuine when it only exists on the level of  a snow show. Perhaps the reluctant snowflake sensed this and wanted to make the point.

The run up to the Sochi Olympics has revealed that the human foundations of friendship, which ought to underpin and add lustre to the snow show, are shaky. In fact, they are completely rotten, as was revealed by the Channel 4 documentary, aired on Wednesday, in which organised packs of men and women are seen ‘hunting’ other human beings because of their sexual orientation. This is being done in a systematic and cold blooded way, reminiscent of the practices of the secret police in the era of Cold War Russia.

What is even more disturbing is that the Russian Orthodox Church has given tacit approval to these activities, not only by endorsing the Duma’s recent anti-gay law, which purports to protect minors from sexual assault, but by pressing for a return to an earlier law, repealed in 1993, whereby homosexuality was a crime and the perpetrators subject to long and harsh prison sentences. The Russian Orthodox Church has also publicly declared that it considers all gays to be potential, if not actual, paedophiles.

No commonality of friendship based on love for humanity can possibly exist between such a Church and those who think of themselves as disciples of Christ. Neither can it exist at the Sochi Olympics until forgiveness for what has been going on in the streets of Moscow, and no doubt elsewhere, is sought.

It is easy for many of us to feel we can approach the coming season of Lent with a clear conscience with respect to violence towards gays. But should we not look a little further and ask ourselves whether our so called loving attitudes to gay members of our churches really are loving? Do they derive from the kind of friendship shown by Jesus to all who asked for it? Jesus tells his friends that he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfil, or complete, it.

For us, this means that he has not come to abolish morality but to fulfil all that morality requires in love, thereby making morality complete. He also tells them that their righteousness, or morality, is to exceed that of the Pharisees who are themselves strict law keepers. Perhaps, until now, they had been grateful to the Pharisees for being moral on their behalf. Is there not a small part of the Church’s heart that is grateful to the Russian Orthodox Church, and to other denominations, for their so-called moral stand on homosexuality? Does it not, if we are honest with ourselves, buy us all more time to carry on tolerating gays without actually loving them? 

Another branch of the Orthodox Church has been a sanctuary for those who bear witness to the cause of freedom in the Ukraine. On Saturday, November 30th, 2013, the Kyivan Patriarchiate branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church opened the doors of one of its monasteries to protesters who were under fire from the police. All through the night its monks prayed while exhausted human beings slept on the floor around them. Someone described the scene as ‘mystical’. And so it was, not because of its aura, but because of the palpable sense of Christ as ‘sanctuary’ in that place. For a moment, the monastery revealed the Church as the place where, as the psalmist says, ‘God’s glory dwells’ (Ps.26:8). The idea of sanctuary is the glory of God and the Church's soul. 

This Lent all who call themselves Christians, as well as those who don’t, might think of visiting their nearest church (out of hours or during a service) simply to be there for a few minutes, mindful of the people in our world and society who desperately need sanctuary. Perhaps visitors will leave that particular church willing to give real sanctuary to those they claim to love, but in fact only tolerate. In doing so, they will fulfil the fundamental law of Lent laid down by the prophet Isaiah and by Jesus himself ‘to loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke’. (Isaiah 58:6)