Armenians prefer sects to Church
By Rashid Shirinov
No matter how many churches the Armenian government builds in the country the number of believers do not increase in Armenia. On the contrary, more and more Armenians turn away from the Church and head to sects which are also in great diversity in the country.
This is evident from the recent study of the Center for rehabilitation of victims of destructive cults. The survey gave disappointing and even frightening results. It turned out that almost a third of the Armenian population is adherents of the Armenian Church just in words – they prefer various sects and cults in practice.
Approximately 350,000 people are involved in sects in small Armenia, while 250,000 of them are followers of destructive sectarian organizations, the head of the Center, Alexander Amaryan, told reporters. He noted that 54 of 65 religious organizations registered in the country are sects. Moreover, over 200 sectarian organizations operate in Armenia illegally, without registration.
This means that most of the adult population of Armenia is somehow involved in sectarian activities. Amaryan admitted that there are settlements in Armenia with population entirely attending sects.
The case is no more surprising in Armenia as the Armenian Church is a political, economic and criminal structure, but not a spiritual one. The Church does not imply any holiness for the population anymore.
Moreover, there are enough facts that the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and his relatives are actively involved in the robbery of the wealth of Armenia, and lead dissolute and immoral life.
In this context, it is noteworthy to mention the interview of an Armenian web designer Momik Vardanyan to Epress.am.
Vardanyan said that he once joined seminary because of despair, but then left it. “I'm from a small town of Sisian, I didn’t have money to enter somewhere else,” he said.
However, the life of ordinary priests is not that nice. “They are dissatisfied with their lives – they have just a minimum of food and shelter,” Vardanyan said.
He also spoke about the Armenian Catholicos, saying that he sends priests who can easily negotiate with oligarchs to the events where the Armenian Church has chances to gather additional money to its budget.
Poor Armenian citizens are annoyed by too big privileges the government gives for the Armenian Church. The churches are not taxed, priests at military units get salaries more than military officers, etc.
Moreover, the number of churches in Armenia actively grow even in areas where they are not needed at all. There are not enough schools, kindergartens, basic housing for the poor in Armenia, while the government constantly builds new churches.
The main reason of such godliness of the Armenian government is its favorite business – laundering of money. The last year story about more than one million dollars that were found at the Catholicos Karekin’s account in a Switch bank also shows the dishonesty of the Armenian Church.
In this context, the fact that more and more Armenians join sects seems logical – they trust neither the government nor the Church. in such situation, the Armenian society may soon become totally covered with sects and covered with destructive sectarian ideas.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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