Although homosexuality is legal in Russia since 1993, the new anti-gay
laws in Russia to ban the right to speak publicly (also known as banning
"gay propaganda") is an attempt to appease the conservative Eastern
Orthodox Church.
Russia is said to be conservative yet have the highest abortion and
divorce rates in the western world. Officially there were 989,000
abortions in 2011 although the actual figures are said to be much
higher. Gays are a convenient scapegoat for the sins of society.
The Eastern Orthodox Church under the Patriach of Moscow and all Russia,
Patriach Kirill, has turned anti-gay. On gay marriage, Kirill has
lamented:-
"dangerous signs of the Apocalypse"
forces that "convince us all that the only real value is free will, and
that no-one has the right to violate this value, even when a person
chooses evil or a socially dangerous behavior"
"In recent times, in a number of countries the choice of sin has been
approved and justified by the law, and those who in good conscience,
fight these laws imposed by a minority, are repressed" .... "a dangerous
sign of the apocalypse and we must do everything to ensure that in the
area of Holy Russia this sin is never justified by the law, because
that would mean that the nation has embarked on the path of'
self-destruction".
This was in-spite the background of Patriach Kirill who was in 1971 a
representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of
Churches (WCC) in Geneva and in 1975 a member of the WCC Central
Committee and Executive Committe. He was a strong believer in Ecumenism
in the 90s.
However, in the Post communist era the church has changed from a force
for liberal reforms to a banner for conservatives and nationalists.
Kirill has strong ties with President Putin and the KGB in the early
1990s. He has called the Putin era a "miracle of God". Perhaps power,
wealth and status have taken her hold. Kirill was seen wearing a 20,000
pound Brequent watch which he denied until the official photographs
showed a reflection of the watch on the table surface but conviently
airbrushed from his wrists.
Therefore the new Russian Anti-Gay laws is likely to be the result of
influence of Krill 1 of the Russian Orthodox Church. Perhaps religion is
not about love, but imposing religious laws outside the church walls
without mercy nor grace. It is a Russian Orthodox church without love.
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