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{"id":1802,"date":"2013-08-25T09:57:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T09:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/08\/does-the-russian-orthodox-church-wants-to-ban-atheist-parades.html"},"modified":"2013-08-25T09:57:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T09:57:00","slug":"does-the-russian-orthodox-church-wants-to-ban-atheist-parades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/08\/does-the-russian-orthodox-church-wants-to-ban-atheist-parades.html","title":{"rendered":"Does the Russian Orthodox Church wants to ban atheist parades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

However, I do sympathize. \u00a0After all, the \u00a0admittedly atheistic Soviet State brutally oppressed and crushed the Orthodox Church during its roughly 70 year run. \u00a0A former Soviet I knew in graduate school likened being a Christian in the USSR to being a Black in the American South in the 1930s. \u00a0And those were the relatively lenient Gorbachev days of the USSR\u2019s twilight years. \u00a0Imagine in the heyday of Soviet mass-slaughter under Stalin.<\/p>\n

So while I think the Church is wrong, I think the proper approach would be for atheists to use this as a learning tool (atheism doesn\u2019t always turn out right, sometimes atheists have done bad things, etc.), rather than attacking the Church as if they can\u2019t fathom the reason it would be bothered by atheist rallies \u2013 which must prove just how mean and hateful those religious types are. \u00a0 On the always ironically titled Friendly Atheist<\/a>, I\u2019ll leave you to guess which approach is preferred.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"