Orthodoxy Taught In Schools

Russian Orthodox Christianity is made a compulsory school subject in 4 of Russia's regions

What better way to begin a new academic year in Russia than to have the basics of Orthodox culture made mandatory for schools in the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga and Smolensk regions and optional for a further 11 regions.

Western Europe could learn a lot from this move - along with the influx of Mohammedan immigrants as well as many secular values taking over many aspects of life, she is fast losing her status as the most cultured region on earth. As Patriarch Aleksey said, "If people practicing other religions live in our country, they should study their culture, of course, but they should also know the culture of the country they live in".

All cultured people should know their nation's history and basics of its culture.

"...all young people studying at school should know the histoy of their culture," Patriarch Aleksey II of Moscow and all Russia told journalists at the State History Museum.

Education Minister Andrei Fursenko voiced support, saying "schoolchildren must know the history of religion and religious culture".

Unsurprisingly, secular advocates (many of whom are probably bitter that state atheism has lost its hold on Holy Russia) have protested the introduction of such a course in schools.

[links via The Western Confucian]