An important point I will say what religion is for me, since it is from this position that I will start, trying to answer numerous questions related to religion. For me, religion is a certain path that includes a special form of understanding the world and a set of moral and ethical standards of behavior, which ultimately leads to gaining love for God and for all living beings. exemplary religious life for me there are people who lived and live right, who tried their best to help people by following the path of kindness, not violence, regardless of spiritual tradition. You can also notice that religious people are referred to as holy people, it is these people that should be remembered when talking about religion, and not those who have not yet grown spiritually and follow the path of violence, fanatically trying to change other people.
For me, to love God, first of all, means to love people, to bring good by your behavior, and not the number of church visits or the number of icons in the car, religion for me is more kernel moral conduct rather than some rites or rituals. "Regular church attendance is as incapable of making a man a Christian as regular visits to the garage are incapable of making a man a driver," said Albert Schweitzer. I have repeatedly turned to God in prayer, and He gave answers to exciting questions which helped me to cope and relate correctly to different life situations. Inside myself, I realized what I was wrong about, what lesson I should learn from the situation and what behavior I should adhere to in the future. The issue of blind faith, self-torture and conscious acceptance of the situation will be discussed in more detail later.
religious fanatics
Most people who come to God have difficult life situations with which they do not know how to cope, which pushes them to delve into religious knowledge. Consequently, they are overcome by their selfish desires to help themselves, getting rid of the difficulties and problems that have piled up. I doubt that at this stage one can speak of love for God or surrounding people, because of the behavior of which a person suffers. A person receives knowledge about how to live correctly, but instead of starting to follow it himself, he begins to reproach other people, nag them, and impose how they should live - so there are religious fanatics and religious fanaticism.
In most cases, we blame other people for our troubles, and only in rare cases we start first. For example, the parents quarreled a little and the son comes up to his mother and says: “Here, listen to an interesting lecture on building the right family relations, she can help you,” in response to which mom says: “Go to dad, it would not hurt him to listen,” the son goes to his father, and hears the same thing about his mother, that it is she who needs to listen to this lecture. And there are a lot of such cases when no one wants to admit his guilt, but only shifts all the blame on others.
“Here is human nature in action: the guilty blame anyone but themselves” Dale Carnegie
This behavior is the easiest to stick to, but to forgive, taking the first step yourself is very, very difficult.
A person was told not to behave this way and that, and he comes home and begins “They talked about you, so I know how to behave correctly, and you, look at how you behave”, but surprisingly, a person most often leads himself wrong, although he says that he knows how to do it right. A person is filled with pride, and begins to consider himself better than others - this gives rise to religious fanatics, which only further worsens relations, continuing to consider himself right, and others as fools who do not listen to his advice.
“He who advances in knowledge, but lags behind in morality, goes more backward than forward” Aristotle
Parable "The most big sin»
What do you think is the biggest sin in the world? the priest asked smugly.
Religious knowledge permeates all spheres of human relationships, it teaches how to live correctly, it will be wrong to shift the blame on religion itself, since only people are to blame for the fact that they incorrectly follow religious knowledge, which gives rise to religious fanaticism. In fact, any person who does not accept the opinion of another person, does not respect him, is intolerant of wrong behavior, putting principles above people, tends to argue or oppose, not hearing anything, always wanting to leave behind the last word, is also a fanatic, and religious knowledge only strengthens this fanaticism, expands its scope.
Arrogant and intolerant, they begin to criticize other people, showing their awareness of these issues, their importance, elevating themselves, humiliating others. Receiving religious knowledge, which is saturated with universal human relations, simply more contentious issues, and the imposition of one's own opinion begins to manifest itself at every opportunity due to intolerance and human pride. The seeds of your fanaticism can be seen in smaller things. , a person, for example, is well versed in culinary issues, which means that if he is a fanatic, then in this area he will constantly tell everyone how to do it right, constantly intervene, showing how smart he is. And when a person learns how to live correctly, then the area of coverage of his fanaticism becomes larger, starting to teach people about even bigger issues.
Let's look at an example when a person becomes a vegetarian because he does not accept violence against animals, that is, he wants to become more compassionate by removing this cruelty from his heart. Often, then he begins to dislike all those who eat meat, saying: “Corpses, I will not sit at the same table with them, this is disgusting,” that is, he refused one violence, but came to another. Why ask to shout and reproach someone if you and all the people around you are only getting worse, but fanatics, religious fanatics in particular, do not see wrong behavior behind them or are simply unable to behave differently. As a result, people around not only do not stop eating meat, but also begin to dislike vegetarians, thinking that I would rather eat meat than be such a vegetarian. You need to understand and accept that at this moment it hurts not for animals, it hurts not for other people, but it hurts yourself, because now there is no strength for such behavior because of your selfishness . You need to get away from your personality and see what you have achieved with your behavior, you need to set an example with your right behavior, but people who are overcome by religious fanaticism only set a bad example, undermining the authority of such a life.
Get on the path of vegetarianism - good, but no need to become a fanatic. People who follow the diet incorrectly due to lack of knowledge undermine their health, and in addition kill their faith in such a way of life, and even then others begin to think that it is not necessary to go this way - it is harmful, and they have proof of this. . So people undermine the authority of many teachings, including religion, following this path incorrectly, people create an incorrect understanding of the entire teaching.
Why do people become fanatics
Parable "Be happy"
A beggar stood by the road begging for alms. A rider passing by hit the beggar in the face with a whip. He, looking after the departing rider, said:
- Be happy.
The peasant, who saw what happened, heard these words and asked:
Are you really that humble?
“No,” replied the beggar, “it’s just that if the rider was happy, he wouldn’t hit me in the face.”
People become fanatics because in their hearts for the people around them, fanatically trying to help others, in fact they want to relieve suffering and make themselves happy. Most often, a person turns to religion far from happy life, so almost everyone goes through the stage of religious fanaticism, some quickly and others for a long time. Spiritual growth can be compared with our growing up, when we were children, we were very unreasonable, someone grew up and gained intelligence and wisdom faster, someone slower, and someone, even becoming an adult, in his behavior and worldview remained a child. Similarly, it happens in spiritual growth, at first people are eager to make themselves happy at any cost - gaining knowledge, they begin to look down on other people, and gradually, doing spiritual practice, serving God and people, they begin to realize that they behaved wrongly, and, repenting of this, they leave the path of hate, and embark on the path of love.
"How more people gives to people and demands less for himself, the better he is; the less he gives to others and the more he demands for himself, the worse he is.” Lev Tolstoy
The easiest way is to simply throw out all the knowledge you have received, the whole truth onto the people around you, that is, simply transfer the burden of responsibility onto others, I received the knowledge, and let others follow it, and then we will all become happy. How much you know should be reflected not in words, but in actions. I want to upset, and as many have probably already understood, close people with whom you have relationship problems will not correct themselves after such behavior, they will not follow what you told them, and most likely will even be even more angry with you . There is no worse method to correct the character of a loved one than to impose knowledge on how to live correctly, which you yourself do not follow, and no better method than to set an example for another person with their correct behavior.
If a certain behavior is capable of leading to improvement, why do people not follow this knowledge themselves, because changing one's character in better side- this is the most hard work, the easiest way is to simply dump knowledge on others, shift all the blame on others and continue to wait for the loved one to take the first step towards. Religious fanatics, while gaining knowledge, instead of applying the knowledge to themselves, often begin to criticize and reproach their loved ones. And instead of improving relations, they only heat up and those close to them move away, and the environment begins to dislike such a person, as he only shows off, as if he lives correctly. Such a person still does not serve anyone but himself - by putting the idea above relations with people, a person will not achieve anything except the deterioration and destruction of relations. The use of acquired knowledge to achieve their own selfish goals is fanaticism.
Why do many become fanatics because they concentrate more on personal happiness. It is painful for people to accept the opinions of other people, to respect them, they have no strength to ignore the shortcomings of other people, because many are very selfish, it causes this pain and intolerance. It is also very difficult to accept that you are wrong, people begin to get annoyed when they hear information that contradicts their worldview, pain arises again, so I want to impose my point of view on any issue. Religious fanaticism with great force pushes people to delve into this or that knowledge, and by imposing it on others, religious fanatics themselves are more and more established in the chosen faith. On the topic of religious fanaticism, I will cite a well-known parable:
Parable "Temple"
There lived a man. When he was still a child, his grandmother always told him: “Granddaughter, when you grow up big, your heart will feel bad, I won’t be around anymore - you go to church ... you will always feel better there.”
And so it happened. Increased. Life became unbearable. Came to the temple.
And then one comes up to him: “You don’t hold your hands like that!” The second one runs up: “You’re not standing there!” The third grumbles: “Not dressed like that!” From behind they pull up: “You are baptized incorrectly!” ... In the end, one woman came up and said to him: “You know, in general, you would leave the church, buy yourself a book on how to behave here, then you would come in!”
A man came out of the temple, sat down on a bench and wept bitterly. And Christ comes up to him: “Why are you crying, child?” The man turns his face and says: “Lord! They won't let me into the temple!"
The Lord hugged him and quietly said: “Don’t cry, they won’t let me go there for a long time either…”
religious fanaticism. How to be?
We must try to be humble towards all those who live incorrectly, in no case should any principles be placed above human relations, above the people themselves. His own example we must inspire people to reform without being violent towards others. It is necessary to become such a person so that everyone around it becomes better to live, only with the help of love, and without terrorizing loved ones, the life of loved ones can be better, although it is very difficult not to be a fanatic.
Religious bigotry makes people show off, but you just need to live quietly, without touching anyone, without showing any violence, it is this behavior that everyone will rejoice at. If others begin to become impudent and take advantage of this, it is possible, and even necessary, to step back, and those close to you will appreciate and respect it, and begin to behave correctly themselves, realizing that they can lose. When a person becomes proud, and starts to neglect people, get angry at them, he becomes the main destroyer, he destroys more than everyone else, he sets a bad example and people turn away from him and from religion.
The first thing that appears after gaining knowledge is pride - I am so good, that is, I am better, and others are worse, I will teach them all how to live correctly. But you need to become tolerant, and learn to tell a person the truth that is good for him, which he is able to accept and follow, and not dump such a truth on a person, such a layer of knowledge, which makes a person only get worse. Often, having picked up knowledge, people often do not notice how their desire to help close person develops into condemnation, continuing to consider himself right, and others as fools who do not want to listen to advice, but you need to remember that compassion can heal more sins than condemnation. It is necessary to understand and accept that when people themselves begin to behave correctly, when they are guided by the principles of compassion and love, then only in this case they will be able to change their lives and the lives of loved ones for the better. We are able to change someone if only we respect the person and show care.
You don’t need to put your knowledge on display, you don’t need to boast about it, fight arrogance, trying to humbly convey knowledge to people out of a desire to help, without criticizing or condemning them. I know how difficult it is, even now, understanding these many things, raising questions about how to live correctly, I sometimes become proud, raising my voice, sometimes filled with hostility, speaking somehow haughtily, but after waiting, after being silent for a while , I calm down, and also gives strength to do the right thing in the future, defeating yourself from time to time you become more humble.
“You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to listen to advice” Benjamin Franklin
Religious life is inner life but that doesn't mean staying away from people best app forces - to invest them in the people around, that is, to serve them, becoming more indulgent towards others and more strict towards oneself - only this path will lead to happiness. Let's hope that all those religious fanatics who are critical and do not have a deep enough understanding will grow spiritually over time, but for now we should draw conclusions looking at people who are already on the right path and in the right direction, we do not judge adults by the way they were not intelligent in early childhood.
It is a difficult and long way, on which there are many difficulties. When you embark on this path, even if you do not impose anything on anyone and the stage of religious fanaticism has already passed, there is a high probability that there will be people who want to protect you from this path, who have their own idea of \u200b\u200breligion, perhaps saying that it is a sect , and if you behave wrong, they will say that religion is to blame for everything, we said that it spoils people. Most people have already developed their own understanding of things, and this must be taken into account, showing patience and not harboring malice, faith is a fragile thing, you spoke about something with enthusiasm, but it was not approved, not accepted - everything is like a stake in the heart .
I have always been sure that a person with my intellect cannot become a fanatic. When they call me a fanatic for going to church twice instead of once a week, you think: I wish I had more such “fanaticism”.
And here on one Orthodox forum they touched on the topic of fanaticism, and someone gave an original interpretation by an unknown priest. According to him, a fanatic is one who thinks: "Everyone will perish, I alone will be saved." But the Orthodox think differently: “The commandments are for me alone, and the Lord will have mercy on the rest.”
If so, I have noticeable signs of bigotry. Walking down the street, I see only the dying. God! I thank You that I am not like other people (Luke 18:10). meet good man and immediately I lower him in my eyes: can he be good if he rejects Christ? There are not so many Orthodox people around. Yes, and among them, many scare me away with the non-canonicity of their Orthodoxy.
There are fewer and fewer friends left. What can they tell me wise or new?
The only meaning is if someone convicts. One said not so long ago: “You are in Lately became a terribly disgusting type. It became impossible to communicate with you." He probably meant that feeling of superiority with which I smash his Buddhist-Hindu arguments and declare that the truth is only in Orthodoxy. There are very few such honest people. And as for this friend - I can not agree that Hinduism is just another path to truth, equivalent to Christianity? He is a good guy, but where will he go with such reasoning?
So, I'm a fanatic.
And as soon as I discovered fanaticism in myself, several events happened to me almost simultaneously.
First. I responded to a notice posted in our church calling for blood donation for little patients in a children's hospital. Donated blood. The idea came up to write an article about this initiative group that puts up advertisements, writes about children in newspapers, maintains a website, receives hundreds of donor calls and, as a result, uninterruptedly provides the hematology department, where children are sick with leukemia and they need blood every day. The example in our merciless society is all the more instructive because, as always, it is set by the Orthodox.
No sooner said than done. I came to the hematology department, talked to the mothers, took pictures of their children. In the face of death, everyone becomes better - both children and their mothers living at the department, and you, even looking at all this through the lens. Many people seemed almost holy to me. Including those about whom I decided to write. All young, selfless. It can be seen that they have become members of a single family, in which all mothers are like sisters, and the children, therefore, are nephews, including donors.
And God blessed their work with obvious miracles. First, He independently invested a desire to help the hospital to two girls who worked in the same commercial firm - Tanya and Lena. Secondly, He gave these girls, who had never written, an amazing gift of words and helped them to break through literally all large-circulation Moscow publications with essays about children, burning in strength. In those same ones - yellow, commercial, which, they say, cannot be brought into the temple.
But here's the surprise. It turned out that Tanya is an atheist, Lena is a Catholic. Announcements in churches are hung by their Orthodox assistant Sasha, but these two "non-Orthodox" are still the locomotive of a good deed.
30 Jesus said to this: A certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was caught by robbers, who took off his clothes, wounded him and went away, leaving him barely alive.
31 By chance, a priest was walking along that road, and when he saw him, he passed by.
32 And the Levite also, being in that place, came, looked, and passed by.
33 And a certain Samaritan, passing by, found him, and seeing him, had compassion
34 And going up, he bandaged his wounds, pouring out oil and wine; and put him on his donkey,
35 And the next day, as he departed, he took out two denarii, gave it to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him; and if you spend more, I will give it to you when I return.
36 Which of these three do you think was the neighbor of the one who fell into the thieves?
37 He said: He who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said to him: Go, and you do the same.
Gospel of Luke, chapter 10
What, according to the holy fathers, should be the motives of good deeds? Either in fulfillment of the will of God, or to cultivate mercy in oneself. And these girls have pity for children and a desire to eliminate the injustice of fate towards them. Pity is wonderful, but as far as justice is concerned, it is, of course, a mistake, you cannot accuse God of injustice and imagine that you are more merciful than Him. I did not hesitate to tell my heroines about this. The interview turned into an argument. It seemed that he spoke correctly, but his heart was getting heavier ...
Second. Wanting to get rid of some of the Orthodox books I had read (according to the principle “On You, God, what is not good for me”), I found Victor through the Internet in Riga, who is engaged in missionary work with prisoners. Handed over books, communication continued by e-mail. True, Victor's tone seemed to me somehow a little enthusiastic, not Orthodox. I dug deeper. It turned out that he was Orthodox, and in the Church for almost as many years as I have been on earth. But with deviations. Instead of relying on the holy fathers in everything, he places above all Old Testament on the basis of a revelation personally given to him by God. You understand - a clear charm, which I soon announced to him. And since he resisted, did not want to accept my hints, I became more and more irreconcilable with each letter. And although he persisted, he remained with me patient and benevolent. And after all, in the end, I only gave away the unnecessary, and he spends time and effort helping those who need it so much. Correspondence became more and more difficult for conscience ...
An email dispute with Tanya, who ended up with her parents in America, took place at the same time. Every morning I turned on the computer, read the misleading letters of these two people and sent them my admonitions, trying to seem as tolerant as possible. (I hope you catch the sad irony of my words.) But the question that God knocked on my heart became more and more obvious. Why does my conscience convict me when I am outwardly right?
The site turned out - there is no more Orthodox. The creation was blessed by the hieromonk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, after the creation, blessings came from several priests, who really liked it. We even rejected in advance news about church life as vain things, distracting from prayer and struggle with passions. And, as befits an Orthodox site, it included a section on “Will the Gentiles Be Saved?” Of course, with a negative answer, confirmed by the holy fathers.
God's providence regarding my comrades, employees in the work on the site, was also confirmed by how well they worked and what kind of people they turned out to be. Olga, with whom she has to communicate more often, with her humility, her constant readiness to help and her joyful state of mind, is like an Orthodox nun, and one who has already succeeded. I don’t even know what makes me more happy - that the site was a success or that thanks to it I managed to get to know such people. Having no hesitation in Olga's religion, I congratulated her on church holidays, she me. But then one day, after two years of working together, congratulating her on the holiday, I suddenly heard: “You know, I'm not Orthodox. You have the right to remove me from work on the site.
I was hit on the head like a brick. The most pleasant thing is to find out how someone took a step towards salvation, and the hardest thing is to see that someone, as you thought, going to salvation, is actually going the other way. In order not to be even more upset, I did not even begin to specify what her faith was. But, listening to himself, he answered that it was not for me to dispute God's providence. She accepted my answer gratefully: "Thank you for sharing God's grace with me." And everything flowed as before, only I stopped congratulating her on our holidays.
And so, having begun to understand my fanaticism, I decided to ask her: “Who are you, Olga?” Turned out she was a Muslim! She and Valery are Russians, but they came to Moscow from Tashkent. Olga herself considers her involvement in this work a miracle. She had her first Ramadan in her life. And in Ramadan, you need to pay zakat (something like our tithing). There was no money. In this case, it is supposed to do something good for free. Olga asked God to send her some useful deed. And so her heart responded to the call to work on an Orthodox website. And at the first acquaintance with the texts of the site, she found the answer to an important question that worried her. Which I accepted as the voice of God.
There are not so many Russian Catholics and Muslims in Moscow. And if the Lord so often introduces me to them and shows me how good they can be, then He wants to tell me something. He wants to help me heal from the arrogance, from the bigotry that prevent me from loving.
May my comrades in misfortune, fanatics, not misunderstand me. I'm not going to praise someone else's faith, and even more so atheism. I just doubt more and more that I can judge people by belonging to one or another faith. If Tatyana, Elena and Olga have more love in their hearts than I do, which of us is more pleasing to Christ? In addition, “the end is the crown,” and it is not known what will happen to each of us in the end. kind person it is much easier to become a Christian than evil person good, someone said.
Once upon a time, the thought occurred to me as to why one becomes a fanatic. A person gradually realizes that he is no better than others, maybe even worse. But instead of coming to terms with this and starting to work on himself, he suddenly begins to extol such a quality that you don’t need to work on. And this is how you stand out from the crowd. For example, a nationalist begins to boast of his nationality. This is a psychological explanation. On the spiritual side: Satan, introducing into the human mind the idea of the special significance of some human quality, kills two birds with one stone: he sows hatred between people and deflects them from repentance.
Our religiosity, belonging to a certain church really has a special meaning. But the trouble is that I forget: my belonging to Orthodoxy is determined not only by attending services and participating in the sacraments, but also by keeping the commandments. First of all - the commandments about love and the commandment protecting it about non-judgment.
How to belittle yourself in your eyes without belittling your faith? I would like to receive an answer from church authorities who know the answer to such questions.
So far I have decided the following for myself: since it is impossible not to measure people, let their love be my measure.
Religious fanatics can be divided into two groups. Some are fanatical about the idea (their church is the coolest, their teaching is the most advanced, only they receive real revelations from God, only they truly worship, only they have the most correct understanding of Scripture, and so on). The latter are fans of their religious leader, who often becomes for them an apostle, a prophet, and a father of all times and peoples. It happens that both categories of fanaticism are combined in one person.
However, one should not confuse the concepts of religious fanaticism and dogmatism. The religious dogmatist meticulously adheres to his beliefs, traditions and faith. He, like fanatics, may admire a religious leader and often considers representatives of other religions as heretics. However, the goal of a religious dogmatist is to follow his faith, he enjoys his own activities, he remains whole for himself. Admiration for someone does not go beyond the reasonable for a dogmatist, does not impoverish his personality, but only complements it.
How to recognize religious fanatics?
* The religious fanatic derives pleasure not from his activity, but from the very fact of the existence of an ideal or idea. He dissolves in his passion.
* A religious fanatic wants to experience passions and emotions. He is not self-sufficient, which is why he creates an idol for himself - from an idea or some strong and bright personality. He finds something paramount for himself outside of himself.
* Imitating a bright religious leader, the fan seems to become a part of this successful personality, he reflects the radiance of a person who has achieved something, ascended to the pedestal.
* The fanatic transfers responsibility for himself into the hands of his idol and subordinates his whole self to someone else's idea.
* A religious fanatic is a vain, but insecure person. It is easier for him to live by the reflected light of his idea or his ideal.
* A religious fanatic has a need for like-minded people and like-minded people. He is looking for his own fans, among whom he feels like among his own, speaks the same language with them, they “savor” their idea or their hero and understand each other perfectly. The environment of a fanatic is a kind of psychic association of people, electrified by a common feeling, which grows in the circle of its own and can reach unknown values.
* Religious fanaticism is often aimed at destroying a foreign culture, religion, value system. Considering his idea to be the most correct and his leader to be the most "advanced", the religious fanatic aggressively subverts other ideas and the authority of other leaders. This is done as proof of love for their leader. Because only his idol is true and his church is the best!
* Often fanaticism is a teenage disease. Many outgrow it, but not all. V adolescence a person begins to reject former idols and authorities. Neither parents nor teachers can satisfy his spiritual and moral aspirations anymore. Teenagers ask themselves: who am I with? Who are my friends? They need to feel like part of a group.
* Religious fan on his own by and large is of no interest. Fanaticism impoverishes a person as a person. Religious fanatics are easy to manipulate and control.
* Fanateya, a person is more and more involved in what is happening. Some unfamiliar energy begins to overwhelm him. In this strange state, he disconnects from himself, begins to sincerely rejoice, grieve, and wait for a miracle along with everyone else.
How do people become religious fanatics?
The future fan subconsciously suffers from the fact that his own life colorless, there are no exciting events in it, so he involuntarily looks for someone to turn his eyes to. Suddenly he liked some religious leader, how he is dressed, how he preaches, how he moves around the stage. Having listened to the meaning of his teaching, he suddenly realizes that this wonderful person is talking about him, that he understands his soul! At the next stage, he wants to know more about his idol. Over time, the fan begins to identify with him, he needs to be like him in the manner of holding, speaking, dressing. In the end, a person who is unremarkable and of little interest to himself becomes involved in a person who is known and loved by many.
In fairness, it should be noted that many religious leaders themselves often provoke such a "dissolution" in their personality. They quote passages of Scripture, taking them out of context, such as the words of the Apostle Paul "imitate me, as I imitate Christ", and sometimes even develop a whole doctrine that one must be "baptized into a leader", concentrating only on the revelations of "modern Moses", professing only his teachings, following only his instructions.
Religious fanatics are easily convinced of the need to have their one and only idol. The crowd has always needed authority, a personality that evokes love, respect, fear. Since the day of the creation of the world, mankind has had spiritual leaders, kings, prophets. Religious leaders easily become someone's idols. They are always in sight - heard, seen and loved.
But the time comes when it is already necessary to ask the question, not “who am I with”, but “who am I”.
How to get rid of religious fanaticism?
The first objective step in the rehabilitation of a religious fanatic is to stop denying the existence of this problem. The fanatic must realize that his fanaticism has a negative effect on relationships with the people around him. Sometimes this requires confrontation and outside intervention. If a fanatic does not recognize his problem, then there is little hope for his recovery. As soon as the fanatic recognizes his problems that destroy his relationship with God, with others and his relationship with himself, the first step has already been taken. This is the start of recovery.
Second important step to restoration is the realization of oneself in faith and submission to God. The starting point in humility before God is the fanatic's ability to eventually admit that his life has become unmanageable. Without a relationship with God, change is impossible. Humility before God is a process. This is an extremely difficult step.
A religious fanatic needs spiritual restoration. It involves replacing bigotry with thinking based on reality. The religious fanatic needs to get rid of the extreme way of thinking. Fanaticism always considers events and people as black and white, everything is only good or only bad, absolutely right or absolutely wrong. For a fanatic, everything is extreme. He is driven by the principle of "make or break".
Humility before God and obedience to the Word of God will place the right emphasis in the life of the recovering individual, and will also help him treat himself and others in the right way.
Submission to God does not at all lead a person to abandon his own position. Like, I am a servant of the Lord and I have nothing of my own. It's a delusion. God does not treat people as puppets. But he treats them as personalities, because He Himself is a Personality. God's guidance leads a person to the formation of his personal position, its development and improvement. Ultimately, a colossal difference is formed between a weak-willed and stupid being, worn by various spirits, and a person standing before the Lord as a person responsible for himself. The restoration of a fanatic involves taking responsibility for himself, for his words and actions. Responsibility is the position of a person's personal stand before God.
Builders who reject the Keystone inevitably end up in idolatry. The return to the Truth, to Christ means the rejection of idols and obsessive "important" ideas and makes the person himself important and valuable.
I have always been sure that a person with my intellect cannot become a fanatic. When they call me a fanatic for going to church twice instead of once a week, you think: I wish I had more such “fanaticism”.
And here on one Orthodox forum they touched on the topic of fanaticism, and someone gave an original interpretation by an unknown priest. According to him, a fanatic is one who thinks: "Everyone will perish, I alone will be saved." But the Orthodox think differently: “The commandments are for me alone, and the Lord will have mercy on the rest.”
If so, I have noticeable signs of bigotry. Walking down the street, I see only the dying. God! I thank You that I am not like other people (Luke 18:10). I meet a good person and immediately belittle him in my eyes: can he be good if he rejects Christ? There are not so many Orthodox people around. Yes, and among them, many scare me away with the non-canonicity of their Orthodoxy.
There are fewer and fewer friends left. What can they tell me wise or new?
The only meaning is if someone convicts. One said not so long ago: “You have recently become a terribly disgusting type. It became impossible to communicate with you." He probably meant that feeling of superiority with which I smash his Buddhist-Hindu arguments and declare that the truth is only in Orthodoxy. There are very few such honest people. And as for this friend - I can not agree that Hinduism is just another path to truth, equivalent to Christianity? He is a good guy, but where will he go with such reasoning?
So, I'm a fanatic.
And as soon as I discovered fanaticism in myself, several events happened to me almost simultaneously.
First. I responded to a notice posted in our church calling for blood donation for little patients in a children's hospital. Donated blood. The idea came up to write an article about this initiative group that puts up advertisements, writes about children in newspapers, maintains a website, receives hundreds of donor calls and, as a result, uninterruptedly provides the hematology department, where children are sick with leukemia and they need blood every day. The example in our merciless society is all the more instructive because, as always, it is set by the Orthodox.
No sooner said than done. I came to the hematology department, talked to the mothers, took pictures of their children. In the face of death, everyone becomes better - both children and their mothers living at the department, and you, even looking at all this through the lens. Many people seemed almost holy to me. Including those about whom I decided to write. All young, selfless. It can be seen that they have become members of a single family, in which all mothers are like sisters, and the children, therefore, are nephews, including donors.
And God blessed their work with obvious miracles. First, He independently invested a desire to help the hospital to two girls who worked in the same commercial firm - Tanya and Lena. Secondly, He gave these girls, who had never written, an amazing gift of words and helped them to break through literally all large-circulation Moscow publications with essays about children, burning in strength. In those same ones - yellow, commercial, which, they say, cannot be brought into the temple.
But here's the surprise. It turned out that Tanya is an atheist, Lena is a Catholic. Announcements in churches are hung by their Orthodox assistant Sasha, but these two "non-Orthodox" are still the locomotive of a good deed.
What, according to the holy fathers, should be the motives of good deeds? Either in fulfillment of the will of God, or to cultivate mercy in oneself. And these girls have pity for children and a desire to eliminate the injustice of fate towards them. Pity is wonderful, but as far as justice is concerned, it is, of course, a mistake, you cannot accuse God of injustice and imagine that you are more merciful than Him. I did not hesitate to tell my heroines about this. The interview turned into an argument. It seemed that he spoke correctly, but his heart was getting heavier ...
Second. Wanting to get rid of some of the Orthodox books I had read (according to the principle “On You, God, what is not good for me”), I found Victor through the Internet in Riga, who is engaged in missionary work with prisoners. Handed over books, communication continued by e-mail. True, Victor's tone seemed to me somehow a little enthusiastic, not Orthodox. I dug deeper. It turned out that he was Orthodox, and in the Church for almost as many years as I have been on earth. But with deviations. Instead of relying in everything on the holy fathers, he puts the Old Testament above all else on the basis of a revelation personally given to him by God. You understand - a clear charm, which I soon announced to him. And since he resisted, did not want to accept my hints, I became more and more irreconcilable with each letter. And although he persisted, he remained with me patient and benevolent. And after all, in the end, I only gave away the unnecessary, and he spends time and effort helping those who need it so much. Correspondence became more and more difficult for conscience ...
An email dispute with Tanya, who ended up with her parents in America, took place at the same time. Every morning I turned on the computer, read the misleading letters of these two people and sent them my admonitions, trying to seem as tolerant as possible. (I hope you catch the sad irony of my words.) But the question that God knocked on my heart became more and more obvious. Why does my conscience convict me when I am outwardly right?
The site turned out - there is no more Orthodox. The creation was blessed by the hieromonk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, after the creation, blessings came from several priests, who really liked it. We even rejected in advance news about church life as vain things, distracting from prayer and struggle with passions. And, as befits an Orthodox site, it included a section on “Will the Gentiles Be Saved?” Of course, with a negative answer, confirmed by the holy fathers.
God's providence regarding my comrades, employees in the work on the site, was also confirmed by how well they worked and what kind of people they turned out to be. Olga, with whom she has to communicate more often, with her humility, her constant readiness to help and her joyful state of mind, is like an Orthodox nun, and one who has already succeeded. I don’t even know what makes me more happy - that the site was a success or that thanks to it I managed to get to know such people. Having no hesitation in Olga's religion, I congratulated her on church holidays, she me. But then one day, after two years of working together, congratulating her on the holiday, I suddenly heard: “You know, I'm not Orthodox. You have the right to remove me from work on the site.
I was hit on the head like a brick. The most pleasant thing is to find out how someone took a step towards salvation, and the hardest thing is to see that someone, as you thought, going to salvation, is actually going the other way. In order not to be even more upset, I did not even begin to specify what her faith was. But, listening to himself, he answered that it was not for me to dispute God's providence. She accepted my answer gratefully: "Thank you for sharing God's grace with me." And everything flowed as before, only I stopped congratulating her on our holidays.
And so, having begun to understand my fanaticism, I decided to ask her: “Who are you, Olga?” Turned out she was a Muslim! She and Valery are Russians, but they came to Moscow from Tashkent. Olga herself considers her involvement in this work a miracle. She had her first Ramadan in her life. And in Ramadan, you need to pay zakat (something like our tithing). There was no money. In this case, it is supposed to do something good for free. Olga asked God to send her some useful deed. And so her heart responded to the call to work on an Orthodox website. And at the first acquaintance with the texts of the site, she found the answer to an important question that worried her. Which I accepted as the voice of God.
There are not so many Russian Catholics and Muslims in Moscow. And if the Lord so often introduces me to them and shows me how good they can be, then He wants to tell me something. He wants to help me heal from the arrogance, from the bigotry that prevent me from loving.
May my comrades in misfortune, fanatics, not misunderstand me. I'm not going to praise someone else's faith, and even more so atheism. I just doubt more and more that I can judge people by belonging to one or another faith. If Tatyana, Elena and Olga have more love in their hearts than I do, which of us is more pleasing to Christ? In addition, “the end is the crown,” and it is not known what will happen to each of us in the end. It is much easier for a good person to become a Christian than it is for an evil person to become good,” someone said.
Once upon a time, the thought occurred to me as to why one becomes a fanatic. A person gradually realizes that he is no better than others, maybe even worse. But instead of coming to terms with this and starting to work on himself, he suddenly begins to extol such a quality that you don’t need to work on. And this is how you stand out from the crowd. For example, a nationalist begins to boast of his nationality. This is a psychological explanation. On the spiritual side: Satan, introducing into the human mind the idea of the special significance of some human quality, kills two birds with one stone: he sows hatred between people and deflects them from repentance.
Our religiosity, belonging to a certain church really has a special meaning. But the trouble is that I forget: my belonging to Orthodoxy is determined not only by attending services and participating in the sacraments, but also by keeping the commandments. First of all - the commandments about love and the commandment protecting it about non-judgment.
How to belittle yourself in your eyes without belittling your faith? I would like to receive an answer from church authorities who know the answer to such questions.
So far I have decided the following for myself: since it is impossible not to measure people, let their love be my measure.
Emotionally self-sufficient, self-confident, positive-minded people live in harmony with the world around them. They do not need to defend their rightness, no matter what it may concern. Calmly interacting with others, they carry their point of view with dignity, without feeling the need for someone to share it without fail. However, another category of people is represented in the world, opposite to the one described above and called "fanatics".
Fanaticism... What is it?
However, not every manifestation of excessive interest in something can characterize a person as a fanatic. And vice versa.
Fanaticism is an excessive passion for any idea or person, expressed in the dedication to the object of worship of a significant part of one's life and its spiritual content, as well as in the implacable upholding of one's own view and imposing it on other people, often in an aggressive form. This phenomenon can be related to anything - morality, a famous person, a political trend, etc. However, religious fanaticism acts as its most dangerous form.
Origins of religious fanaticism
Religious fanaticism is a commitment to a particular religion and its traditions, which is combined with an intolerant, often aggressive attitude towards those whose point of view is different. From the moment when mankind acquired its first religion, and to the present time, the same trend has been observed - adherents of one or another spiritual movement sooner or later elevate its postulates to the rank of indisputable truth. And despite the fact that most religions carry very similar truths, the so-called fanatics not only remain faithful to them, they try to make them a monopoly and impose them as much as possible. more people. World history knows a lot of examples of religious fanaticism, which include both the Inquisition and Crusades, and mass self-immolations in the name of old faith… And in different times society's attitude to this phenomenon was very different. In the above examples, there is both religious fanaticism in the highest circles, and pinpoint resistance to dissent. In both cases, any bias of beliefs and faith towards emotions and intransigence carries a serious threat to the well-being of individuals and the state as a whole.
Religious bigotry today
In our time, examples of religious fanaticism can be found in all mass religions. Although the image of the most aggressive religion was acquired by Islam in connection with a significant number of terrorist acts, from which dozens of countries have been shuddering for many years. Nevertheless, the influence of fanaticism can be quite destructive without violence. For example, fanatical parents can raise their child contrary to the modern canons of human development and socialization. There are cases when illiterate children grow up in modern families attending religious sects, because the leaders of the spiritual movement to which the child's parents are committed consider it wrong to teach female children to read and write. Catholic Church strongly negative attitude to abortion and protection from unwanted conception. And although society has gradually developed a fairly tolerant, and sometimes even favorable attitude towards abortion, in some countries or their individual regions, abortion is still prohibited, which is also considered to be a manifestation of religious fanaticism. Sometimes the extreme intolerance of people does not harm anyone but themselves. For example, ardent Buddhists do not impose their faith on others, do not argue, do not prove right. Their fanaticism manifests itself mainly in deep concentration, numerous and prolonged spiritual practices, which sometimes drive people to madness, since the tests to which they subject themselves are often unthinkable.
Attitude towards the fanaticism of the Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church treats this phenomenon with condemnation and rejection. Fanaticism is a sin, according to Orthodox clergy. Lack of love for all people, spiritual death, idle talk without reasoning cannot be encouraged by the Orthodox. Fanatical parents who bring small children with them to the service and do not notice the child's fatigue, his lack of understanding and rejection of the situation, instill in him not love for the church, but fear, irritation, unwillingness to come there again.
Reasons for fanaticism
Fanaticism is a phenomenon that does not arise from scratch. Like any other deviation, it has causes that go back, as a rule, very deeply. Fanatic people are most often aggressive, embittered, do not understand and do not accept someone else's point of view. Sometimes they become part of a community, faithfully follow its dogmas and try to transfer their view of faith to the closest social circle. And there is another category of fanatics - leaders who not only share and follow a philosophy or religion that is attractive to them, but through bright, charismatic actions involve a large number of people, not exhausted by the circle of relatives and friends. And if the former are generally harmless carriers of annoying information, the latter pose an extremely serious threat to society.
Every day, dozens and hundreds of people are involved in the life of sects of unknown origin, turn away from their families, spend huge sums of money to maintain and develop a congenial community, lose themselves in an effort to follow the postulates that have found a vivid response in their souls thanks to charisma, confidence and leader's oratory.
Ways to combat religious fanaticism
Life does not stand still, most states modern world are secular. Despite being very respectful, any power, as a rule, is not interested in extreme manifestations of religiosity. What measures are being taken in various countries to minimize the manifestation of fanaticism among believers? In some Asian countries, over the past twenty to twenty-five years, many bans have been introduced regarding the wearing of religious clothing for ordinary people unrelated to the priesthood. Sometimes such bans are caused not so much by the fight against violent fanatics as by security considerations. For example, a few years ago, France took the path of banning the wearing of hijabs. At the same time, this decision cost the country a lot, given the irreconcilable attitude of Muslims to clothing issues.
A lot of efforts aimed at combating religious fanaticism are being made in the field of education. They try to give children the opportunity to choose and protect their fragile consciousness from the onslaught of savvy religious fanatics. In many countries, the activities of certain organizations that have an ideology based on religion are prohibited by law.
national bigotry
No less terrible, destructive and ruthless is national fanaticism. This zealous worship of the exclusive superiority of this or that nation or race world history many examples of bloody confrontations. One of the most striking manifestations of national fanaticism was Alfred Ploetz's idea of dividing all people into superior and inferior races, which subsequently marked the beginning of World War II.
Another example is the Ku Klux Klan, an organization with great amount people who hated, deeply despised blacks.
The bitterness of the members of the KKK led to an unthinkable number of victims who died from the sophisticated cruelty of fanatics. Echoes of the activities of this organization are periodically heard at the present time.
The psychological nature of fanaticism
Fanaticism that develops on a large scale, as a rule, has reasons of a social or political nature. An extreme display of faith is always beneficial to someone other than the rabid adherents. But what makes it so specific person? Why one becomes a fanatic, and the other, in spite of everything, continues to go his own way life path without reacting to other people's opinions and religious dogmas.
As a rule, the reasons for becoming a real fanatic are rooted in childhood. Most often, fanatics are people who from an early age are accustomed to living in fear and misunderstanding. Mistakes in education made by their parents, at a conscious age, turn into a desire to join a group and become part of it in order to feel safe and confident. However, a person cannot find peace just because there are people with similar views. He will continue to worry, worry, look for a threat in any manifestation of dissent, fight with convincing everyone and everything that his truth is the first. This is how fanaticism manifests itself. What does it mean? Anyone who thinks otherwise threatens his hard-won peace. Therefore, interaction with a fanatic is not so easy.
How to deal with manifestations of fanaticism in a loved one
Fanaticism... What is it? What to do if a person close to you is among the fanatics? Any manifestations of extreme intolerance and blind worship, whether it be selfless love for a star, or an aggressive desire to share one's faith with other people at all costs, are signs of an unhealthy psyche.
According to many researchers, fanaticism is a disease. Relatives and friends of such a person should seriously approach the solution of such problems. And if it is no longer possible to correct the mistakes made many years ago, then support, understanding, elimination of the causes for fears and worries, timely access to psychologists, motivation for self-development and strengthening of the psyche will help to overcome this phenomenon.