An Orthodox friend alerted me to Christopher Hitchens’ latest inane ramblings. It is admittedly odd that Castro has built a Russian Orthodox cathedral. Yes, this is clearly a way to curry favor with patrons in Moscow. Why should anyone outside Cuba care one way or the other? Castro is ridiculous, and above all he is irrelevant. The same might be said of Hitchens, which is why I have given up saying much about his articles. However, a few points need to be made about this one.

Hitchens goes through the usual motions of his typically unpersuasive anti-Christian whining, blaming the Church for “the clerical guarantee of serfdom and czarism,” as if the Church had any control over the Ulozhenie of 1649 or other policies of the Romanov dynasty. Did the Orthodox Church teach people to obey their secular rulers? Yes, just as Christian bishops have taught since the time of the Apostles. Far better that than the butchery of Hitchens’ confreres in the name of freedom and equality. Particularly in the post-Petrine period, when the Church was subjected to more direct control by the state thanks to the Westernizing efforts of Peter I, the Russian Orthodox hierarchy was in no position to protest against state policy. This year the Patriarchate did not fully support Moscow’s line on the war in Georgia, but immediately called for the cessation of hostilities. If that is what being “Putin’s most devoted and reliable ally” looks like, Russia could use a few more “allies” of Putin like this.