— And who determines whether the war is just or unjust? How to determine this? — It is very easy to determine. First, wars of conquest are rarely just. There are, but rarely. - In Chechnya then, one might say, there was a war of conquest. — Wars of conquest are just, but rarely. Why? Because it was necessary to free a hundred thousand of our captives. - And what about the war in Afghanistan?

- And it was an unjust war, of course. "And at that moment, many believed that this was a just war. "But again, Afghanistan is not our country, and the Afghans, sorry, did not steal ours, but we just came there. "And at that moment, let's say, if he doesn't know if it's a just war?" - To be honest, there was an unjust war in Afghanistan.

"Christians shouldn't have taken part in it, right? — Yes, that's right. When the war in Afghanistan was going on, Christians did not consider the USSR their homeland. For us, the USSR was an enemy country, this is a fact. This is a pure fact, because the USSR hated the Church and persecuted it with all its might. Yes, we served in the army, of course, we fulfilled our duty to the authorities, but we strove first to serve God, everyone fulfilled certain norms, minimal, so that people would not devour each other. But no more.

Christians have never had love for the USSR. "The government seems to have allocated money for the church..." You know, how it was in Soviet times, I remember it. There they ripped eight or ten thousand rubles a month from the church, imagine what kind of money it is! The so-called peace fund, to which the Soviet government contributed funds for communist parties and socialist organizations around the world.

The church was robbed in every possible way. But this is not the worst thing. Until 1986, priests were imprisoned, priests were in camps. Dozens of them were imprisoned. Our apartment was searched because those who distributed religious literature were persecuted. From the point of view of the Church, communism is, of course, a heresy, in the literal sense of the word, that is, it is an incorrect teaching about God, the world and man. About God – is it clear why?

Because he did not believe in God, he denied God. About the world, it is also clear why? He wanted to build the Kingdom of God without God on earth, that is, to build some kind of paradise on earth without God. — And what kind of state structure is justified then? The Church is a kingdom that is not of this world. For example, she believes that democracy is better than communism, and monarchy is better than democracy.

There are different levels, but monarchy is also not an ideal form of government, of course. — And what is the ideal form of government then? - The ideal form of government will be the Kingdom of Heaven. "But it still turns out to be a monarchy. Yes, but this is the monarchy of God, not of man. But again, the Church supports any state to the extent that the state fulfills the direct commandment of God, that is, which one? If it curbs evil.

That is, to the extent that the state, for example, imprisoned people for murders, to such an extent the Church supported him, naturally. To the extent that the state protected its citizens, for example, during the Great Patriotic War, to that extent the Church supported it. But the Church never supports any evil. - And what is the Church's attitude to the death penalty? — In fact, it was the will of God.

After the global Flood, it was said: whoever shed the blood of man, let his blood be shed by the hand of man, says God, because man is created in the image of God. That is, a person thereby committed an act of iconoclasm, his blood must be shed. - In this case, does the Church have a positive attitude towards the death penalty? — Again, we did not install it, it is not for us to treat it in any way.

There is a biblical norm – a premeditated murderer should be punished only through the death penalty. A premeditated killer, of course. "But this means that the one who commits a murder, the executioner, for example, he also takes a sin upon himself. — No, I don't. The fact is that the person who does this, he is simply fulfilling the direct command of God. He administers God's justice.

He is the representative of God, that is, the judge who pronounces the death sentence, in the Bible he is even called God with a small letter. But, again, if he pronounces it fairly. A judge who judges unjustly or contrary to the law of God is an extreme criminal, and God promises to punish him terribly. And there are such examples. Therefore, by the way, God is not indifferent to social life.

If a deputy issues a law that contradicts the will of God – for example, Chernomyrdin, who in the law on abortion increased the period up to which an abortion can be performed from twelve to twenty weeks – he, of course, is a terrible criminal in the eyes of God. — Isn't there a situation where abortion can be justified in any way? - When can you justify the murder of an innocent defenseless person?

— Well, now I can't give an example. "The Church allows tolerance only in cases of ectopic pregnancy, precisely because there is no chance of survival for either the child or the mother. — And what about serious vices? "So you have to kill a person?" This is a very interesting logic, I am always amazed: if a person has a serious defect, then he must be killed.

And let's better kill adults with severe vices. A person was left disabled after a car accident and will not recover - let's kill him. Well, logical. Basically, so. "And what about cloning?" What is the Church's attitude to cloning? - He has a bad attitude towards cloning, of course, negatively. Now let's talk about the commandments. Those who do not worship God, who worship gods other than the Lord, that is, false gods – perun, buddha or someone else, those who are atheists, heretics, that is, those who distort the word of God, as well as those who split the Church, that is, the Body of Christ, for the sake of some of their own ambitions sin against the first commandment. Do you see what is going on here?