AP A statue of Joseph, Bishop of Belgorod, a famed Orthodox priest, towers near an Orthodox cathedral in Belgorod, a traditionally Orthodox western Russian province.

This is the question I ask myself while sitting in on a class on Orthodox culture, as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary gaze at me from posters on the wall and a soft-spoken teacher tells quiet sixth-graders the dramatic story of Russia's baptizing.

A controversy is brewing in Russian society over whether the country's dominant Orthodox Church -- resurgent after decades of atheism imposed by Communist authorities -- has the right to expand into school classrooms to teach kids aged 7 to 17 about Christ and his teachings.

Four predominantly Orthodox western Russian provinces made Orthodox culture courses mandatory, arguing it is only natural for children to learn the traditions and rites of their homeland, or the place where their families chose to settle.

Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities, however, insist the subject should be offered as an elective only. Russia, they note, is a secular state.

Baptized as Orthodox Christian, but having Jewish ancestors on my mother's side, I find myself having mixed feelings on the debate.

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IN THE CLASSROOM

AP Sixth-graders study a textbook and answer questions during a class on Orthodox culture at a Belgorod school.

Love has never hurt anybody, I say to myself, has it?

Flipping through textbooks for the course, I feel a lot of the information could only benefit my (future) children: how to celebrate Easter; information on the country's most treasured Orthodox cathedrals; above all, the message that parents should be respected.

But then come the Ten Commandments, the New Testament, the Old Testament -- simplified and condensed for small eyes and early years. Also, instructions on how to behave in church.

"God created life, he made all those miracles," 12-year-old Kolya Bespalenko told me at the end of the class. "I was born in a Slavic, Orthodox land ... and this is the faith I choose."

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CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

AP Teacher Lyubov Simchuk with her class.

The Orthodox Church claims two thirds of Russia's 144 million people are observant followers, but the country also recognizes Islam, Judaism and Buddhism as its other main religions.

Andrei Ignatyiev, a 25-year-old entrepreneur in Belgorod, is happy to have his 8-year-old son Pavel, attend the class, but he says others might run into a problem.

"I have a friend, he is of a different faith," he says. "How will he send his children here?"

Yelena Myasishcheva, a senior education official in the Belgorod region, disagrees.

"If a person lives on this land ... he must know its history and culture ... the same as how our fellow citizens living in Asia or in the Caucasus learn theirs."

There's another view of Russia's diverse cultures, though. The country is dealing with a rising wave of ethnic tensions and violence, pitting mostly ethnic Russians against foreigners or residents of southern, largely Muslim provinces. Some worry that highlighting religious differences across the country threatens unity and stability.

Nika Muradova, an 18-year-old philosophy student in Belgorod with an Orthodox mother and a Muslim father, says she is still undecided about which God to believe in -- and whether he exists at all.

"For my own development, for my own improvement I would study this course," she says. "But it should not be compulsory and it should include other religions too."

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POST-SOVIET DEBATE

When I tell my parents about the new course, they only sigh. Recalling exams in Communist Party history and "scientific atheism," they say no good can come out of force-feeding any kind of ideology.

The ideology I got as a Soviet-era child consisted of my primary school teacher encouraging us to love Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. "Grandfather Lenin," as he was called.

I was probably heading for the same dose of Communist Party History later in college. But then the Soviet Union collapsed, and we were free to choose whom to believe in.

Are we now?

In Russia's public schools, at least, a post-Soviet debate over culture, religion and freedom rages on.

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asap contributor Maria Danilova is an AP reporter based in Moscow.

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