The Rest of the Story?

I’ll admit, I haven’t been following the news out of Russia with any particular effort.  I’ve seen the headlines about a punk rock group being repressed by the government over differences of opinion regarding freedom of speech.  But I haven’t read any further than that.  After all, is this sort of thing really surprising from Putin, given his background?  

Then I this interesting essay examining the issue behind the headlines.  Now I’m a little more curious.  Particularly, his analogy at the end is very convincing.  I’ve since done a little (well, 5 minutes worth) research trying to figure out what Pussy Riot actually did and said.  And I’m conflicted now. 

It would seem that regardless of their message, their approach was questionable at best.  Frankly, it was outright rude and insulting to the church and the people gathered there for worship or other religious-related activities.  It shows a total disregard for propriety and sacred space.  

But if their message was protesting the church’s close ties to Putin, a betrayal of the faith for political or religious expediency or gain, that becomes another issue.  Or does it?  When I was growing up, I had the impression (not sure if I got this on my own or from how it was presented to me at church) that Martin Luther had done a pretty brave and controversial thing, nailing his 95 Theses to the church door.  Later in life I learned it wasn’t such a controversial thing – it was the typical fashion of calling for discussion on a topic.  Luther knew the appropriate way to initiate conversation, even if what he wanted to talk about was quickly ruled as too inappropriate.

Which is hardly an analogy for the Pussy Riot situation.  Here we have people that are likely not self-described Christians (I can’t verify this, though their background data on Wikipedia [assuming it’s accurate] doesn’t lead me to think they are Christian) utilizing in a very inappropriate and rude way a worship venue.  If it had been a mosque or a synagogue, would the world have been so sympathetic?  Is their protest more political or religious?  Both equally?  So many unanswered questions.

But at least I’m a little more interested in trying to find some of the answers.