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Grant Shelton

Omnibus VI Primary B
Mr. Stepper
May 1, 2015
Option 1
While observing the state of the church in Russia today, I found
an article titled Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church. This
article was published February 10, 2014, online at Pew Research
Center1, a website which provides religion and public life analysis of
various situations throughout the world. The article I found pertaining
to our subject deals with the two different sides of the seeming return
to devotion of the Russian populace over a period from 1991 to 2008.
While the statistics taken over the past twenty-four years show an
impressive rise in the number of Russians who profess Orthodox
Christianity, there is not a correlation between those numbers and the
numbers of Russians who attended church at least once a month. In
1991, 31% of the population was Orthodox while 61% were
unaffiliated. In 2008, the most recent poll showed that 72% were
Orthodox and 18% unaffiliated. The percentage of those who went to
church at least once a month, however, rose from only 2% to 7% of the
total population. In fact, the largest percentage of respondents (39%)
to the survey question How often do you attend religious services?
replied that they never do.
1 Article can be found at
http://www.pewforum.org/2014/02/10/russians-return-to-religion-butnot-to-church/. Last accessed May 1, 2015

This relates to our book of study One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
in at least one way. While most of Shukhovs prison mates express
some sort of faith, or at the very least a claim to justice/injustice
relying on a moral absolute (God), none of them except Alyoshka
profess any true faith. In other words, God is either a cultural aspect or
a situation-based genie they call upon to save themselves from
harsher punishments. Alyoshka, though, represents the few true
believers and their devotion, much like what is outlined in the survey
mentioned earlier.
While we may think of Russia as culturally very different from our
own, this example of religion-minus-devotion hits unfortunately close
to home. Especially in the South, where I live, it is a part of tradition to
believe in God and go to church. Only very recently, in fact, has it
become somewhat acceptable not to. Americans share this with
Russia in that while they commonly call themselves Christians, they fail
to act this out by something as simple as going to church. Even those
who are truly saved fall to this as well. We profess saving faith with
our mouths and perform acts that even nonbelievers see are hateful
and unchristian. This survey taken in Russia, on the other side of the
world, sadly reflects the hypocrisy in our own lives. As James 2:26
says, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works
is dead also. Are we in America unconsciously letting our faith die?

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