Religion Pew research on Orthodox Christians

One take away is that it's tied to national identity, sort of the way RC was tied to being Irish? Another is that affiliation is on the rise in certain countries.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Very interesting. Some of the answers in the more detailed article seem to point towards that. Only a couple of countries seem to rate 'personal faith' as more important of a reason than 'tradition etc.'. I'm a bit surprised by the apparent importance of Orthodoxy and religious morality in Bulgaria. Acceptance of homosexuality and democracy (which to be fair, seems to vary quite a bit from poll to poll but overall shows a certain trend) seem to demarcate what people usually have in mind with more and less 'Western' countries to a degree with more accuracy than the rest. Armenia seems a bit all over the place, like a very religious/traditional country with some strong ex-Soviet lingering influence (abortion, science etc.). Catholics dislike Muslims more than the Orthodox do, both like/dislike the Jews at similar levels and almost everyone, Orthodox and Catholic, seems to dislike the Roma.

Also, I suppose it makes good sense adding Armenia to the "Orthodox" from a geographical, cultural and historical perspective but strictly speaking they're a non-Chalcedonian Church and so as distant from Byzantine (Eastern) Orthodoxy as they are from Catholicism.

Armenian and Coptic churches are neither Orthodox neither Catholic,they are by their own

Yetos said:

Armenian and Coptic churches are neither Orthodox neither Catholic,they are by their own

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Probably why both get so little support from the Vatican in their time of need.

It's easy to be 'Orthodox' because you don't have to do anything.

It's so tied down to the national identity that I dont understand their goals anymore.

A. Papadimitriou said:

It's easy to be 'Orthodox' because you don't have to do anything.

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only 3 times at church in your life time

baptisma
marriage
funeral

βαφτισια
γαμος
κηδεια

am I correct?

Yeah my mom tells me that during Yugoslavia times the Catholics went to church more than the Orthodox Christians. Like the Muslims they would celebrate the holidays at home mostly and we Muslims respected the Orthodox and Catholic holidays, we even celebrated Christmas, decorated the Jelka (Christmas tree) and my uncle would dress like Santa Claus. All kids would get Christmas presents at school.
And we're still like that today, not much has changed, very few Bosnians have become strict devout Muslims.
There was also more intermarriage between the Muslims and the Serbs/Orthodox than with the Catholics.

Yetos said:

only 3 times at church in your life time k

baptisma
marriage
funeral

βαφτισια
γαμος
κηδεια

am I correct?

Click to expand...

It sounds like Italian men to me, except that Italian men get their first communion and confirmation before they stop going to church regularly.

Angela said:

It sounds like Italian men to me, except that Italian men get their first communion and confirmation before they stop going to church regularly.

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and the funny is that these 3 times,
you do not go by your own will
they drive or bring you there

Baptism,
they do this to you at the most innocent years of your life,
they find a guy or woman, they named him nonos
and he force you to have a bath and a haircut.
and you cry, but cares? every body is huppy.
Oh yes the name, after your bath, you must have a new name,


Marriage,
only inside church your oaths are pure clear and innocent,
say your fionce, we must get married in church,
so our children to be blessed.
and she drives you to church,


Funeral,
wanted or not,
they pout you to a wooden box,
and they carry you,
your will does not matter,
you must be burried to sacred ground.


well sometimes you go to church for social reasons,
for your sister marriage,
for your nephew baptism
or for an old man's funeral of a friend or a relative

but these social obligations, are also baptism marriage funeral.
so these 3, drive you again and again and again to church.

and the good think.
after the baptism a piece of cake,
after the marriage white candies, and the chosen ones a dish on the wedding table
after the funeral , coffee, cognac, and α sippet, (the old good times had and tobacco) and the relatives a dish of rice

Yetos said:

and the funny is that these 3 times,
you do not go by your own will
they drive or bring you there

Baptism,
they do this to you at the most innocent years of your life,
they find a guy or woman, they named him nonos
and he force you to have a bath and a haircut.
and you cry, but cares? every body is huppy.
Oh yes the name, after your bath, you must have a new name,


Marriage,
only inside church your oaths are pure clear and innocent,
say your fionce, we must get married in church,
so our children to be blessed.
and she drives you to church,


Funeral,
wanted or not,
they pout you to a wooden box,
and they carry you,
your will does not matter,
you must be burried to sacred ground.


well sometimes you go to church for social reasons,
for your sister marriage,
for your nephew baptism
or for an old man's funeral of a friend or a relative

but these social obligations, are also baptism marriage funeral.
so these 3, drive you again and again and again to church.

and the good think.
after the baptism a piece of cake,
after the marriage white candies, and the chosen ones a dish on the wedding table
after the funeral , coffee, cognac, and α sippet, (the old good times had and tobacco) and the relatives a dish of rice

Click to expand...

You have a point. I was very young and religious as well when I got married,so I was going to have a nuptial Mass with communion. My mother teased my father that the church would probably fall down around his ears as soon as he stepped inside. He also realized that most people would be receiving communion. So, not only he but all my uncles went to confession for the first time in years. Our parish priest joked that maybe the Second Coming was upon us!

However, had you asked my father if he believed in God, if he believed in Jesus, if he was a Catholic, he would have said yes. It's just that it was a very different Catholicism from that of the Irish parishioners my mother and I saw around us every Sunday.

Angela said:

However, had you asked my father if he believed in God, if he believed in Jesus, if he was a Catholic, he would have said yes. It's just that it was a very different Catholicism from that of the Irish parishioners my mother and I saw around us every Sunday.

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so it is also easy to be a Catholic since all you have to do is nothing?

as Papadimitriou post at #5

Yetos said:

so it is also easy to be a Catholic since all you have to do is nothing?

as Papadimitriou post at #5

Click to expand...

Well, nobody is going to kick you out for not going to church on Sunday. It's not like it's Puritan New England. People used to go to confession every Saturday so they could receive communion. Now, unless they're in the nature of really bad mortal sins I think it's ok for you just to make an Act of Contrition at the appropriate time during Mass.

However, certain activities remove you from the "community of the faithful". People who marry in the Church, get divorced, and then remarry civilly are prohibited from receiving the sacraments. That's how you used to know who was divorced: they were the ones who attended Mass but didn't take communion. On the other hand, if you committed adultery, repented and promised not to do it again, you could be absolved. If you've had an abortion you can't receive any of the sacraments, including communion, marriage, the anointing of the sick and dying etc. No priest could give you absolution after confession either. I've heard from some people that this Pope has given priests the ability to absolve it and that women are definitely going to confess it. There supposedly are cases where the sins committed are so heinous and the priests so unconvinced that the person sincerely repents that they refuse to grant the person a Catholic burial. That's all rumor though, since the priests can't reveal what was said.

In the case of Albanians being Catholic means you hail from a brave mountain clan that didn't kneel nor except payment as mercenaries (not all though).