As known, religion has played a hugely constructive role in the sustaining of a lot of states. It is spoken a lot within the literature of the field how the religion of the Jews, the puritanical direction of Protestants, Catholicism have influenced the state building of Israel, the United States, and Ireland respectively. It is not the same with us – the Armenian Apostolic Church was replacing the state itself throughout the history and it had both positive and negative consequences. However, what is done is done. Let the historians argue.
It is more important what the Mother Church was engaged in during the previous 27 years when we received a chance of building a state. It seems to me that the most important structure of ours was keeping itself aside from the primary issue of the state – the formation of a strong, kind and decent citizen of the independent country. Have you ever heard from our priests that stealing is a crime, lying is a crime, fraud, living a luxurious life, neglecting people is a crime? When the state is still a germ, it is extremely important to put certain, I would say even merciless moral limitations for the “tricky ones” appeared on the first plan not to be able to weaken the state institutions by strengthening their own positions. Weak state and strong authority – this very system sustained in Armenia throughout these 27 years, which we endeavor to correct with great difficulties. The state is built by an unshakable belief and scrupulous decency, and here the church and religion’s role is huge, and our priests not only skipped to resist the mentioned negative intentions but in the majority of cases they integrated into the corrupt and stagnated system of the “tricky ones”.
Anyway, should they speak about anything? Should they fight against something? And here the priests have chosen “neutral” topic, where they can use their whole rhetoric art – they have focused on homosexuals, which is not a secondary issue alone, but also a field where no one should stoke his nose into. Here they throw flames and lightning, they are almost a Zeus – acting as if thereby they save our nation from horrible dangers. Meanwhile, homosexuals are not a threat to the nation, but the lavish “master’s of life”, the births and baptisms of who is a good source of income to the priests.
Perhaps they truly think that the primary issue of our state is Elton John’s sexual orientation.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
