"BLESS ME, FATHER, FOR I HAVE SINNED." RELIGIOUS HATRED:A COMMON SIN OF LAY PEOPLE AND MEN OF THE CLOTH

Abstract

This paper brings forth the grave danger of religious hatred manifested in the spiritual area of reverence towards Romanian Orthodox religious monastic leaders. It points out specific aspects of religious intolerance, hatred and the anti ‘sect’ teaching and preaching of two of them: Father Arsenie Papacioc and Father Arsenie Boca. The myth developed especially around Arsenie Boca substantially contributes to the fundamentalist and fanatical attitudes of believers in relationship to the ‘other.’