God of the Crossroads

Which hurts you most- a moralising sermon or a spot fine?

Looks like people are happy to pay  fine and get done with it. Facing a sermon and carrying the weight of words is more uncomfortable, if the report in Moscow News are anything to go by.

In what must certainly be a unique experiment, traffic police in the Central Russian region of Penza have enlisted the help of  Orthodox priests to improve traffic safety and reduce the high rate of road deaths When stopped by police, the drivers who violate road safety rules are invited to have a conversation with a priest.

Thus, instead of being fined, they are forced to listen to a sermon by an "on-duty" priest who is there, alongwith the traffic police. This happens in Kuznetsk, a large town in the region of Penza.

"The results have surpassed all expectations", says Sergei Logov, a senior traffic police officer,  "We already can say that traffic accidents have declined by 30 percent."

With justifiable pride, the Orthodox Church  claims that it "has taken a bold step" toward those shunning church services and religious practices.

Looks like priests have their uses.