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23 May 2007, 15:43Stop gay propaganda in Russia - Moscow Patriarchate
Moscow, May 23, Interfax - On the eve of gay pride parades in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church urges the society to jointly oppose ‘the forces that try to make us live without any notice of write or wrong.’
‘The Russian Orthodox Church considers unacceptable the sexual minorities parade, which infringes on our multiethnic nation’s moral norms, on public order, and in a long run - on our people’s future,’ the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations' communication service said in a statement published on Wednesday.
According to the statement, ‘if people refuse to procreate, the nation degrades. So the gay propaganda ultimately aims at ruining our nation.’
The Church recognizes freedom of speech and self-expression for everyone, but she believes that ‘it would be strange if a sovereign nation, acting through its lawfully elected or appointed representatives, created legal prerequisites for self-destruction,’ the document said.
The authors quote the Bible: ‘Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.’ (1 Corinthians 6.9-10)
According to the statement, ‘the false pleasure sinners achieve through committing abominable acts brings about despair, pain and further moral degradation already in this earthly life.’
‘It is lack of certainty it their one-moment false pleasure that makes crowds of spiritually unwell people walk in parades of this sort. They achieve a collective joy illusion; they use pompous words to hide their problems, their loneness before the evil demon that makes them trespass God’s plan for humankind. Therefore the Church extends her helping hand to them, as she has done for centuries in spite their denying any help, in order to help those people to struggle against their most deadly passion,’ the statement said.
According to the Church, gay propaganda is especially dangerous for the young men and women, who are sometimes particularly liable to it.
‘Aggressiveness in promoting gay ideas even under a human rights disguise is obviously provocative. The gay activist nave no respect for other people’s rights and do not even consider that what they do may offend others,’ the document said.
The statement’s authors quoted many international documents that recognize possibility to restrict individual rights in order to protect the rights of other persons.
‘Every believer has compassion on those who are afflicted with this sin. But putting up with its promotion means sharing in calling upon our people the same damnation that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with,’ the document’s authors added as they backed city governments of Moscow and St. Petersburg that banned the gay prides. |
