Operators Are Standing By

A collection of Russian Orthodox icons.

This week, The Moscow Times reports that the Russian Orthodox Church plans to open an "anti-superstition hot line" to set callers straight on the difference between superstition and religion. Staffed by trained theologians, the free service aims to clarify practices officially sanctioned by the church. "We want people to be able to get to a clear response with no superstition, which arises as a result of ignorance," said a church spokesperson. The church will make the hot line available throughout Russia if it succeeds in the Moscow test market.

It's about time. We've had psychic hot lines for a long while. Why not superstition hot lines?  

Aside from sounding like a great premise for a Saturday Night Live skit with Father Guido or the Church Lady ("Who you gonna call? Spellbusters!"), the Russian phone-in service strikes me as a fascinating ecclesiastical departure. Like most organized religions, Christianity has historically co-opted or absorbed folklore and superstition from various cultures, leading to richly diverse religious practices. Think of how the ancient Britons' ritual animal sacrifices evolved into All-Hallows' Eve (Halloween) in England, or the Aztecs' memorials to their ancestors became the Day of the Dead in Meso-America. I wonder why the Russian Orthodox Church now feels so threatened by what it calls superstition.