Hayk Madoyan: By persecuting the Armenian church, we, Armenians, are also being persecuted

The problem of us, Armenians, is that we see God as an abstract being, but God is a person, Hayk Madoyan, a theologian and head of the Zorayan Museum, told Alpha News.
 
“People begin to seek God more when they face problems in their personal lives. When you are healthy and everything is fine, unfortunately, you put God in last place. I have noticed that the elderly attend church more often. The reason is that, at the end of their life, they understand that the most important value is God himself. Our problem is that we see God abstractly; we imagine some power, but God is a person. I attach great importance to the image of a conscious Christian who does not come to the church just to light a candle, sit for 10 minutes at the mass and leave, but tries to understand what is happening,” Madoyan said.

According to him, people come to the church due to both personal problems and the national factor.

“People come to the church mainly because of personal problems, but besides that, there is also the national factor. However, as Gregory of Narek said, the cure for everything is Jesus Christ.

In the USA, it is normal to separate the church from the nation, but in our Armenian reality, this is not acceptable and destructive. Today, our Armenian church is being persecuted, but in this case, it is not the church but the nation that is being persecuted. When we say the church, we imagine the clergy, but we are the church, and we are the ones being persecuted. If we realize that the church is our spiritual mother, our awareness and attitude towards it will also change,” Madoyan concluded.