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The Orthodox Christian News Service

Published by Stetson University Russia Religion News, December 15, 2003

Members in new duma still want Orthodox culture class

GROUP OF STATE DUMA DEPUTIES ASK RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND MAYOR OF MOSCOW TO INTRODUCE "FOUNDATIONS OF ORTHODOX CULTURE" INTO SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Interfax/Radonezh, 11 December 2003 - More than forty deputies of the State Duma of the third convocation sent a request to Russian Minister of Education Vladimir Filippov and Moscow's elected mayor Yury Luzhkov to introduce "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" into the federal component of education and to remove hindrances to teaching this subject in Moscow. "For several years now the elective "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" subject has been taught successfully in a number of regions of Russia," write the authors of the appeal, whose text was delivered Thursday to Interfax. In their opinion, the subject "is an organic part of national education and is supported by both the pupils, their parents, and pedagogues." In Kursk province, for example, the deputies note that 97% of those questioned expressed support for the teaching of "Foundations." The authors of the appeal state that "everywhere that this subject has been taught--in Moscow, Smolensk, Kursk, Kaliningrad, and many other provinces--practically nobody, including representatives of other traditional religions and nationalities, has opposed it."

The deputies express the opinion that study of the foundations of Orthodox culture "is the best inoculation against moral degradation, alcoholism, and drug addiction which are ensnaring our youth." Regretting that "as a result of pressure and intrigue of a few opponents of 'Foundations of Orthodox Culture,' permission for teaching this subject was reduced from a regional to a school educational component," the deputies who signed the appeal request the ministry to introduce this elective into the federal component of the educational system. The deputies who issued the appeal are members of the interfractional deputies group "In support of traditional spiritual and moral values," which has existed in the State Duma of the third convocation. Some of them were reelected to the lower house of the fourth convocation. The authors of the appeal include the leader of the "Rodina" (Motherland) bloc, Sergei Glaziev, his colleague Alexander Chuev, the first vice chairman of the National party Valery Galchenko, and other deputies. (tr. by PDS)