I'm not sure how many folks in the Blogosphere will talk about Todd Bentley, Geert Wilders and the now-infamous Russian punk band Pussy Riot in one sentence. All of the have found the edge of discourse on religious issues, going from an in-your face charismatic to a anti-Islam secularist to a Madonna-on-acid anti-establishment group crapping figuratively on both Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The first two made this list for being barred from the UK; a teenaged sex-abuse case of Bentley's was seemingly used against him, but they could have also used his less-than-honest record over the years. The Netherlands can't ban their own people (although Wilders had to fight off hate-crimes charges for some of the more pointed statements about Islam), but the UK can bar people from entering and does. There isn't a First Amendment in the UK; the government isn't honor-bound to let rabble-rousers in the country, whether they be maverick MPs of a neighboring country or crazy preachers from elsewhere in the Commonwealth.
Lastly, lets give PR a once-over. Here's a good overview from Get Religion's Terry Mattingly, a Orthodox convert. The ladies (if we can use the term very loosely) filmed a rather profane video in an Orthodox cathedral in Moscow and have gotten two-year sentences for their efforts. tmatt points out that the PR crew was using the priests-only part of the cathedral that ordinary folks aren't allowed up onto; that desecration doesn't register either with secular reporters or even church-going reporters of a lower-church background.
I'm thinking of the dais/podium area of your stereotypical evangelical church; green carpet, two or three steps off the floor, where the pastor and music team work from during the service, assuming the pastor doesn't go mobile with his wireless mike and start walking around the front of the church as he preaches. That podium area isn't seen as a special area in any liturgical sense; having a five-year-old play hide-and-seek under Hannibal Lectern isn't a sacrilege, even though that last pun might be.
That's not the case in a high-church setting, which the Orthodox would fit into. Filming in the altar area that's reserved for the priests and the other people helping with the service is a deliberate tweak at the Church. Retaliating for such acts is hard to do, since there is very little sacred to a sex-crazed punk-rock band; burning Johnny Rotten in effigy doesn't quite have the same effect.
The gals were asking for trouble, and they got it. Maybe not two years in the gulag trouble, but trouble nonetheless. In many cases, getting arrested is exactly the PR they were looking for; since they picked a fight with Russia's baddest dude, all the usual suspects in the west have to rally to PR's defense.
Fifteen days work at a soup kitchen might be more fitting punishment that what they got, but they knew the wanted to get a reaction from the powers that be and will play this bust for all it is worth. Were they in the US, they'd be trashing one of the East Coast cathedrals and dissing Rick Santorum in their video; they'd shift to Paul Ryan today if the were starting from scratch.
Don't know if you'll appreciate this or not.:^)
http://www.johnstackhouse.com/2012/08/18/pussy-riot-and-churchly-hypocrisy/
Posted by: Bene D | August 23, 2012 at 04:26 AM