Hi! I don’t want to come across wrong, I just want to kindly point out that what you posted about “some important bishop” in montenegro is one of the first things that pops up when looking at posts related to montenegro on all of tumblr. I say this because as someone from montenegro, I felt bothered by the post and I just want to explain- I felt it was necessary to point out that not only were you mistaken when you said that the *metropolitan died of the coronavirus, when he had tested negative days before his death- he died from complications as a result of having contracted the virus- but also, he was important, as you say, because he was regarded as a living saint. He stood up for the religious freedom of a country just coming out of a communist era as possibly one of the most communist countries anywhere at the time, and he was able to bring back the new country to its Orthodox roots and bring back its cultural identity. This may not mean a thing to you, and that’s fine. But it meant a lot to hundreds of thousands of Montenegrins, those living in the country and abroad. Also, I want to point out that every single person that came to that funeral was fully aware of the circumstances. In fact, I would argue that the virus is the main reason why *more* people didn’t come. But people knew the risk, and they came anyway because of how important the metropolitan was, and always will be. Not only did they come because of his importance, but because their faith is that strong. Don’t confuse that with ignorance. No one there was naive enough to think that “their faith would protect them”. They all knew the risks, and they decided that their faith, their religion, their metropolitan, were all more important than the threat of the coronavirus. Another thing I want to comment on is, as you so crudely said, his “corpse”. For orthodox Christians, that was not simply a corpse- I could understand how that looks plain morbid and horrible. However for the orthodox people there, that was simply the body of a man that they all loved and respected like a grandfather figure, and still do. I can honestly say I don’t care if you’ve stopped reading before the end of this (much longer than intended) post, but I hope you do. Not because I want to lecture you on religion or anything else, but because I want to urge you to have tolerance and to not judge, if not to try and understand things from other perspectives. I’m not saying whether I approve or disapprove of the event, but I think that it’s not anybody’s place to judge how people mourn or honor people they respect. I apologize- I truly don’t mean to be pushy or anything, I just couldn’t ignore this and not say anything no matter how many times I scrolled past your post and ignored it.
Hello! I want to thank you for this message, which of course I read to the end - it’s always great to get some perspective from people who live in countries about which our newspapers understand (and care about) next to nothing. If you were looking for an answer from me, I guess I could say:
I’m sorry my stupid post is featured so prominently, but it’s not my fault nobody around here tags anything. When I look for things about stuff I like, I often find my own posts, which is frustrating af, because I want to see other stuff but so many people just don’t tag their original content or their reblogs.
I am not religious, but I did study religion, and I want to think that God wants people to actually take care of themselves, you know? If God exists, surely He is everywhere, so you don’t actually need to do dangerous stuff to prove Him you care? He knows your heart anyway, right? You actually read about a lot of people who put their safety and the safety of others well above ‘doing things by the book’ when it comes to religion, and I have a lot of respect for them. Always protect others first - the gods will sort themselves out, anon.
I have to admit I didn’t know a lot about the guy when I wrote that post, but the more I’m learning about him, the less I like him. I get he was a significant figure for many, but you do know this guy was friends with Milošević, right? That he hated Catholics, Muslims, Croatians, Western Europe and pretty much everyone he considered ‘secular’? That he tried to introduce the idea of ‘theo-democracies’? (Which, anyway, can never be a thing for so. many. reasons., so the actual word was looking for was ‘theocracy’, and look at Iran to see how well that’s working out.) He also did his very best to inflame tensions in the Balkans as much as he possibly could, called for ‘the extermination’ of Turks, opposed LGBT rights and any kind of gender equality, said Pride is a “parade of death, self-destruction, murder and homicide”, denied Covid was even a thing (do I need to remind you how dangerous that is) and that praying was the best cure, anyway - and is probably responsible - even post-mortem - for the pandemic taking a turn for the worse in Montenegro.
I mean - as I said, I can understand he was important to some people, but is this really the best we can do when selecting ‘men of God’ in 2020? Some homophobic, anti-science, pro-genocidal dictators Saruman who is best remembered for ‘claiming’ a sacred mountain by dropping a prefabricated church on it in the dead of night? Let’s hope not, or we’re all doomed.
*Also that ‘they knew the risks but decided their faith was more important’ - that doesn’t really apply here. This is a pandemic. The choices you make do affect others, and may harm others more than they harm you. If you want to eat rusty nails to prove your faith, go ahead. But being all whatever about an infectious disease, knowing full well you could get it and pass it on to people who’re more vulnerable than you are - that’s slightly criminal, anon.
