Shevchuk Denis Alexandrovich (Moscow),
expert in economic and legal issues, work with the mass media, activist of «The Union of Struggle for National Sobriety » (USNS, www.sbnt.ru), for the Dry law (www.vk.com/szakon),
8968-5882861, 8916-903-6821,
deniskredit@gmail.com, denisshevchuk@narod.ru
Among orthodox believers there are often arguments about whether it is possible to drink alcohol or not. The critics of the Russian Orthodox Church accuse it of being a “drunken religion”, there are many examples of the young people turn Mohammedan only because of the sobriety of this religion. “Ceremonially orthodox believers”, who regularly go to church, very often dispute sobriety and philanthropy in the Russian Orthodox Church and real good works on the whole, showing pharisaism the following way: “the main thing is to go to church and make communion, to asperse each and every thing with holy water, all other things are unnecessary”. Let’s dort out who is right.
According to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM)’s data, 80% of the people in Russia are orthodox (the Russian Orthodox Church).
There exists an opinion that orthodox believers almost have to be wine-drinking people and because of this there often arises a peculiar question concerning total abstainers: “Are they sectarians?”
No, they are rather the contrary.
So, who are these “orthodox abstainers”? Here is a selection of the fresh (and also not so fresh) arguments.
“In 150 saints, whose hagiologies said about their attitude towards wine, 140 were total abstainers, and only 10 of them stuck to moderation (meaning moderation of the wine which, as concerns content, was close to grape juice, it was greatly diluted)”, priest Mikhail Romanyuk.
That means that most of the Saints of the Russian Orthodox Church were total abstainers. Only those hagiologies were analysed in which we could make unambiguous conclusions, but these figures can be extrapolated (that is a scientific method).
13 Hebrew words were translated into Russian as only one word “wine”, though having different meanings (see “Image and meaning of wine in the Pentateuch of Moses”, I.P. Klimenko, candidate of chemical science, deacon.
Many people of the north: Chukchi, Lapps, Nenetses, - have over 20 words to denote different types of snow. In the Eskimo language there are about 40 such denotations.
Prelate Tikhon Zadonsky: “There are two ways, choose either: one is to serve the Fiend, the other is to serve God. If you want to serve the Fiend – drink wine, beer, vodka, treat people to them, celebrate christenings, weddings, hold funerals with treat – and you shall serve the Fiend. If you want to serve God, first: give up drinking beer, wine and vodka; neither much nor little, give it up completely so as not to tempt people. Second: give up the custom to treat others at sends-off, weddings, christenings, do not be afraid of being condemned for that by people. Do not fear people, but fear God. It is a very serious matter. And if we aren’t Christians in name only, but want to serve Christ and God in deed, we cannot drink wine and treat to it as before. And let’s do that and God help us”.
In Zadonsky monastery there are kept the relics of the great saint Tikhon Zadonsky, famous for his sobering activity. Being bishop of Voronezhsky eparchy, he so passionately preached sobriety, that people stopped buying wine in his parish. For that, local wine-makers made a complaint to the tsar about the arrears of alcohol excise tax, and St. Tikhon was dismissed, after which he soon died in Zadonsky monastery.
So, not only was one of the most famous Saints of the Russian Orthodox Church a total abstainer, but also an activist abstainer, he was by definition neither sectarian nor heretic, and to accuse him of these is to blaspheme against the Russian Orthodox Church.
“ Only the call to total abstinence and not just to “moderate consumption” will be able to keep people from alcoholism”, - metropolitan of Kaluga and Borovsk Clement (Kapalin).
Father Seraphim of Sarov: “Here is my testament for you: not only do not have wine in your house, but even wine ware”.
Prelate Theophanes, hermit: “Wine-drinking must be completely banished from the Christian envitonment”.
Do not be deceived: neither … nor drunkards … will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9-10)
“The Devil likes nothing better than luxury and drunkenness, since nobody fulfils his will better than a drunkard”, Prelate John Chrysostom
Priest Georgy Balakin:
“The Homily of sobriety is a missionary service”, “…sobriety as abstinence from drinking spirits is traditional for Orthodox believers too. And this tradition has been sanctified with work and prayers of zealots of godliness: Saint John the Precurser, Apostle Paul, priest-martyr Vladimir (of the Theophany), priest-martyr Andronicus (of St. Nicolas) and many other saint people. … various foes and blasphemers of the Church, having based their deceitful anti- ecclesiastical propaganda on the statement that the Church is allegedly a foe of sobriety, accuses every total abstainer of distain and imposes compulsory drinking on the believers”.
“ Absolute abstinence is God-pleasing ”, “ To live a sober life is a duty of every Christian ”, - priest Igor Bachinin, candidate ofEducation, chairman of All-Russian Orthodox Brotherhood “Sobering up” of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Moscow patriarchate.
“It is more correct to see sobriety as a state, which is necessary for every Christian, the deprivation of which moves you away from God”, “There must be a call to absolute abstinence, and not to “moderate consumption”. There must be fear of drunkenness”, - candidate of theology, archpriest Elijah Shugaev, dean of the Temple of Michael the Archangel of the town of Taldom, Moscow Region.
In the Old Testament the priests were given the following commandment: “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink… This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean” (Lev. 10, 8-10).
“Despite the fact that alcohol is the worst enemy of every true religion, some plan, as you can see, to win the best of all religions (Christianity) over to their side in order to gain the upper hand over us and our yearnings” – the lecture “Is the Bible against us (abstainers)?” by the priest-martyr Vladimir (of the Theophany), metropolitan of Kiev and Galich.
“…Thus, let sobriety be holy and compulsory for all who serve the altar of God”, ”First of all, everyone will personally be a good example of sobriety… Woe unto us, the pastors, if we tempt our faithful to drink wine. It is not even the matter of inebriety, but only of the fact that “the holy father drinks too”, if he drinks just one glass. We need to reckon the people’s psychology and people’s weakness that seeks all sorts of excuse. And, besides, who can assure that the one drinking one glass will not drink hard and become a drunkard? Because nobody was born a drunkard, but they became drunkards starting just from “moderate and reasonable” drinking”, - priest-martyr Andronicus (of St. Nicolas), bishop of Perm.
“If you don’t want your children to drink – do not drink, if you don’t want your children to smoke – do not smoke, ifyou don’t want them to lecher – do not lecher. Bring children up by example of your own life”, - Archimandrite John Krestyankin.
The history of sober Russia and that of the Orthodox sober movement are inseparably linked. At the beginning of the 20th century there are over 1800 temperance societies, 95% of which were temperance brotherhoods of the Orthodox Church, the rest were secular and of other religions. At that time Russia was the soberest country in Europe. Moreover, in 1914 a “dry law” was declared.
Unlike Islam, we are not forbidden to take alcoholic drinks. But it is recommended to regard total abstinence from taking alcohol as a God-pleasing deed. For example, nobody can force you to be a volunteer and do good works, but it is useful and encouraged.
It is a kind of good works. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are even supervised specifically by alms-deed department. In it there is Coordinating Committee on sobriety strengthening and alcoholism opposition.
According to statistics, the Russian Empire, built and grown on the Orthodoxy as a country-forming religion, was one of the least drinking European countries. For centuries, the population had been growing in the aspect of both quantity and quality. All the elite of the Russian society before the revolution, beginning from 1917, had been growing up in the traditions of the Russian Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy specifically fights inebriety as a great vice. Russian means Orthodox. Russian means sober. People in Russia started to ruin themselves by drinking in the second half of the XX century, in atheistic Russia. We came to 1991 specifically thanks to atheistic dissoluteness (I ask atheists not to take offence, this is not slander, this is the answer to the false accusations that the Russian Orthodox church allegedly “accustoms everyone to drinking”, many priests-abstainers died during the repressions, and present priests are like any other people – they watch or listen to mass media in which pro-alcohol myths are imposed, and the former sober traditions are not so quickly restored).
The miserable amount of wine in the Communion is not felt (moreover, Orthodox believers don’t partake of wine, but of “the precious Blood of Christ”, - a half-educated debater can be accused of the ignorance of this fact in answer to the cavil: “but what about the Communion?”). But as for the washing down with the mixture of wine and water in some churches, that is bad, but that doesn’t take place in all the churches – it’s up to the priest, in many churches the washing down doesn’t contain alcohol, so we can work on this issue in particular churches.
The Conception of the Russian Orthodox Church for strengthening sobriety and alcoholism prevention, adopted at the session of the Holy Synod of 25 July, 2014, reads:
“Holy Fathers were often the examples of absolute abstinence in their lives and called to it.
…the duty of the Church is to restore the attitude towards sobriety as to a moral value in the public conscience.
And here Christians are encouraged to be an example of sober life…
The Church blessed making a vow of sobriety, supported the creation of temperance societies. In 1859 by its edict the Holy Synod blessed the priests “to facilitate the resolution to abstain from wine, arisen in some urban and rural estates, by the living example of their own life and frequent homily in the Church of God of the benefit of abstinence”.
“… The strengthening of sobriety as a kind of Church’s social service includes alcoholism prevention and also rehabilitation and readaptation of people suffering from alcohol addiction. The work of the strengthening sobriety… purposes… the strengthening of the ideal of sobriety and sober lifestyle in the modern society, especially in the family, where the personality is formed.
… The Church considers the caring for people’s spiritual health its duty and in the occurred situation intends to facilitate the strengthening of sobriety in the society and alcoholism prevention in every possible way”.
“ The Bible blesses sobriety. A great number of Orthodox saints lived absolutely sober lives, i.e. they didn’t drink wine at all. As far as Russian saints are concerned, we can name a whole multitude of saints: Saint Sergius of Radonezh, who is said about in his hagiology that “ever since his youth he hadn’t drunk any alcohol”, St. Antony of Pechersk, St. Athanasius of Pechersk, St. Irenarchus, hermit, St. Cyril of Beloozersk, St. Joseph of Volotsk, St. Alexander of Svirsk, St. Seraphim of Sarov, prelate Job, Patriarch of Moscow, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, St. Theophanes, hermit, St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, priest-martyr Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev, priest-martyr Silvester, archbishop of Omsk, priest-martyr Metrophanes, bishop of Gomel – this is far from being full a list of Russian Orthodox Saints, who set us the example of total abstinence by their own lives. St. Joseph of Volotsk, the organizer of the monkery in Russia, stood a very clear ground in this question. In his opinion, in the Orient, in Greece or Ancient Israel people, maybe, could moderately drink wine and not have any problems in connection with that. But here in Russia there had to be a dry law. And for his monastery he imposed a absolute ban on drinking alcohol (dry law – see comments)”, - I.P. Klimenko, candidate of Chemistry, deacon.
The Apostle Peter also called to sobriety:
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter, 5:7-10).
Considering the WCIOM’s data, in order to sober the country up, it is strategic to know special argumentation and have a respectful attitude towards the views of the audience, it is advisable to have connection with priests in local organizations. 8 of 10 listeners, officials, journalists etc. are the members of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to the probability theory, they are among any audience and nearly at every important meeting. It is easier to communicate with “friends”. Unfortunately, not all the listeners or readers are always adequate, but the understanding of the figures dramatically raises the effectiveness of the work. It is upsetting that some comrades try to campaign for fighting against the Russian Orthodox Church instead of fighting for sobriety, the result is negative, the audience is imbued with negative feelings about sobriety (which later on complicates the work for other total abstainers).
This is the example from practice: before allowing me to deliver a lecture to the students of a technical school, the boss-narcologist (the organizer) had interviewed me, the questions ended when she learnt that I was a “friend” and that most of the activist abstainers were the members of the Russian Orthodox Church (the second argument does for the atheists too).
Sources:
Orthodox abstainers www.vk.com/trezvenie_pravoslavie
The brotherhood of John the Precurser “ Sobering up ” of the Russian Orthodox Church (trezvenie.org)
«Seeming safety or the doctrine of priest-martyr Vladimir (of the Theophany) of sobriety», priest Mikhail Romanuk (yadi.sk/d/9wuYwWqs7WiGo)
«How to organize a temperance society in the parish: practical recommendations», priest Igor Bachinin; the Synodal department of alms-deed and social service of the Russian Orthodox Church (yadi.sk/d/IApkY8cd5FdVo)
Klimenko Tatiana Ivanovna trezvo@gmail.com
Doronkin Valery Konstantinovich (Head of the Coordinating Committee on sobriety strengthening and alcoholism opposition of the Synodal department of alms-deed and social service of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Moscow Patriarchate) (vkd1974@gmail.com)
Denis Shevchuk (Moscow), expert in economic and legal issues, work with the mass media, activist of «The Union of Struggle for National Sobriety » (USNS, www.sbnt.ru), for the Dry law (www.vk.com/szakon), 8968-5882861, 8916-903-6821, deniskredit@gmail.com
Translated by Vasily Pantyushin, a member of The Union of Struggle for National Sobriety (USNS, www.sbnt.ru).