An international conference on, "Religion and the Church in Information Society" is underway in Moscow. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, second in charge of the Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations, addressed it today.
"As we appear on the media nowadays, it is our duty to very seriously pose the questions of the meaning of this life, of the mission of man, nation and state, and of labor motivation.
"If beer-guzzlers keep appearing on the air to fill it in by 90 per cent, we shall be doomed as an independent civilization, even if we have the world's strongest army," warned Father Vsevolod.
He expressed bad grudges against the media. As he sees it, "secular media outlets ostentatiously avoid all-round coverage of religious views and world-outlook. Newsmen and their bosses are deliberately reducing the amount of positive information about religion. They are paying ever greater attention to the folksy interpretation of religion, which concerns not basic spiritual values but interior decoration, the diet, and singing and dancing," stressed the Russian Orthodox Church dignitary.
Thus, a majority of media outlets are referring to Lent as a mere part of the everyday routine to focus attention on Lenten dishes and related folk customs, remarked Father Vsevolod to exemplify his point.
Chairing the international conference is Leonid Reiman, Russia's Minister of Information Technologies and Communications.
Prominent among the conferees are Archbishop John P. Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for the Mass Media; Farid Asadullin, information analytical center co-chair of the Russian Muftiyyate; Sanzhei Lama, spokesman of Russia's traditional Buddhist sangha; Baruch Gorin, chief of PR for the Federation of Russian Jewish Communities; and, last but not least, Pastor Constantine Andreyev of the Russian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The conference has gathered many activists of Russian religious communities and organizations, and prominent experts on religion, theology and information technologies-suffice it to name Father Alexis Lopatin, Book-Publishing Board head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Old Rite; and Academician Alexander Chubaryan, Director, Institute of General History under the Russian Academy of Sciences.
