{"id":174,"date":"2008-03-29T19:45:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-29T19:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html"},"modified":"2008-03-29T19:45:41","modified_gmt":"2008-03-29T19:45:41","slug":"gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html","title":{"rendered":"Gorbachev Says He’s Not a Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"

He’s an athiest<\/a>, despite the rumors. <\/p>\n

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy.
\nGorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had been a closeted Christian during an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.
\n“Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies \u2013 I can’t use any other word \u2013 about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit to the Sacro Convento friary, where the remains of St. Francis of Assisi lie,” Gorbachev said, according to an Interfax article posted Friday.
\n“To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me say that I have been and remain an atheist,\u201d he stated.
\nRumors for decades had circulated that Gorbachev was a Christian after he moved to loosen restrictions on religious worship and expressed to a party congress a year before the communist state dissolved that \u201cspiritual rebirth is as essential to society as oxygen,\u201d according to the Chicago Tribune.
\nAs a result, media agencies had jumped to conclusions when Gorbachev visited St. Francis\u2019 tomb last Wednesday and was seen kneeling for half an hour in silence at the tomb.
\nBut Gorbachev, who was baptized Russian Orthodox as a child, explained that his visit to the tomb was as a tourist and not a pilgrim. He acknowledged the important role religion plays in society and said he looks forward to visiting Orthodox churches in Russia, Catholic and Protestant churches in the United States and Europe, synagogues in Israel and mosques in the Arab world, according to Interfax. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He’s an athiest, despite the rumors. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy. Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGorbachev Says He's Not a Christian - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gorbachev Says He's Not a Christian - Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He’s an athiest, despite the rumors. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy. 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Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy. Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html","og_site_name":"Feiler Faster","article_published_time":"2008-03-29T19:45:41+00:00","author":"bfeiler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html","name":"Gorbachev Says He's Not a Christian - Feiler Faster","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-29T19:45:41+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-29T19:45:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#\/schema\/person\/cd560df5c2f027ddc9a594e3313de1d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/gorbachev-says-hes-not-a-chris.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gorbachev Says He’s Not a Christian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/","name":"Feiler Faster","description":"The Blog of Bestselling Author and Commentator Bruce Feiler","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#\/schema\/person\/cd560df5c2f027ddc9a594e3313de1d8","name":"bfeiler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ce3\/ce3529dc7e8bc71c31414750eb2dfd45x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ce3\/ce3529dc7e8bc71c31414750eb2dfd45x96.jpg","caption":"bfeiler"},"description":"Bruce Feiler is one of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most popular voices on faith, family, and finding meaning in everyday life. 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