Three Religions from History (Tri religije iz povijesta/istorije)

When I was on my mission for my church, which is a non traditional religion, (LDS in English or SPD in Croatian), I would actively try to contact people to talk about religion in best light. Generally, people did not want to talk about religion because a) it was a private matter, and b) it was the dividing lines for ethnicity, and the wars twenty years ago. What people would always tell me is that there were three religions from history... Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam...The only mention of Protestantism was an honorable one, as breakaways from the Catholic Church, or sekts and cults,. All other religions excluding Eastern ones, are sects or sektovi. The original three got imposed on the population about 500 years ago.

If you talked with a Serb, the mother church was the Orthodox Church. Roman Catholicism was the breakaway church, with all of its descendant Protestant churches. Thus in the language,  pravoslav, or the right way of worship is the name for Orthodoxy in the language. To be a Serb, one is Orthodox, even if one does not believe in God or religion. It is the genesis of their ethnicity, and it is the image they want to project to others around them.

If you talked with a Croat, the Catholic Church is the mother church. The Orthodox Church is wrong, and so are all the Protestant Churches. “Ja sam katolik” I am Catholic. So long as one is Croat, one can believe what they want or practice how they want so long as they are Croat, and give allegiance to the Pope. Others go to the other extreme of giving as much as they can, looking as Catholic as possible to the outside world. Thus to be Croat, one is Catholic. even if one does not believe in God or religion. It is the genesis of their ethnicity, but there are  wider varieties of expression of faith in the Catholic Church than in Orthodoxy.

If you talk with a Muslim, (Bosnian is the right word in English, but its really more fluid on the ground) Bosnian can refer to Bosnian members of the other faiths, or it can refer to simply Muslims.

Muslims come from a different background. They are the outsiders from five hundred years ago on, and because of the destruction and forced conversion by the Ottoman Turks. Because of this, the Christian nations of Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro have a huge common dislike of Islam. They are tolerable of their neighbors who are Muslim who they personably know, but they still live in fear of the Turkish invasions that battered their ancestors. “Bilo je strašno! “ It was horrible/terrifying!

People who are Muslim generally historically have been more open to accommodation of other groups because of their past. Before Islam came, Bosnian as an ethnicity and language arose as the borderlands between Croatia and Serbia. Serbia and Croatia both warred for supremacy there for religious and political reasons. Because of the differing influences and wanting to be apart from the two bickering parties, Bosnians had two homegrown religions separate from the traditional Christian religions called the Bogomils and the Bosnian Christian Church. When Islam came, it solved the Bosnian politicoreligious situation, but created a third divisive ethnic element in the Balkans.

Obviously, this post is not comprehensive or perfect. There are many kind, good people in all the religions, but these are the attitudes that I have experienced about faith and culture in the Balkans. There will be many more to follow, such as why these are the only three religions from history.