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A collage of a Bible, Valdimir Putin, and the Kremlin and an outline of Russia

Putin’s ‘Year of the Family’ Declaration Blends Russian Nationalism with the Far-Right Rhetoric of the Global Pro-Family Movement

By Irina Smolevskaya

…percent of the total Russian population in 2021—according to the official numbers. When read against the dwindling numbers of some of Russia’s largest ethnic minority groups, such as Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Avars, Armenians, and Ukrainians, this data suggests that many Russian citizens do not feel safe enough to disclose their ethnic identity in the current political climate defined by the Russification of the nation. See Robert Coalson, “Russ…

Pope Decries ‘Ideological Colonization’ of Family; Islamic State Executes Gays and Others; Gay Couple Gets Long-Delayed Wedding in Mexico; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…owly writ that most of their initiatives and arguments don’t hold up under international law.” WCF, however, is gradually chipping away at international laws designed to protect human rights, posing a direct threat to LGBTQ people, women’s reproductive freedom, single parents, mixed families, and other family structures that do not fit into the parameters of WCF’s “natural family.” At best, those who are deemed “unnatural” by WCF standards could b…

Failure to Grasp the Distinct Character and History of Eastern Christianity is Compromising Our Understanding of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

By Katherine Kelaidis

…nd it motivates so much of the rhetoric on, if not the actual invasion of, Ukraine. The skirmish over “Russian World” in particular highlights the ways in which both sides of this conflict draw on legitimate elements of Orthodox Christian history and theology to support their position. Moreover, it’s clear that the two sides are speaking primarily to one another, and not to the Western world whose values and norms are ostensibly at the center of t…

Can Eurovision’s Rainbow Arch Undermine Ukraine’s Orthodox Value System? This and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…wrote about the contradictions around this year’s Eurovision being held in Ukraine’s capital Kiev: Ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest final in Kiev, an extravaganza embraced by the LGBT community, Ukraine’s “Celebrate Diversity” motto sounds more like wishful thinking than a fact of life. Weighed down by a restrictive Soviet heritage but filled with lofty European aspirations, the crisis-torn east European country hopes to use the global spotlig…

Kirill’s Sermon May Be Bad Preaching and Even Worse Theology — But it’s a Top-Notch Rejection of Liberal Democracy

By Daniel Schultz

…completely, arguing that a hegemonic global culture requires nations like Ukraine to allow pride parades in order to “join the club.” “Therefore,” Kirill says, “what is happening today in the sphere of international relations has not only political significance.” Indeed, he says, it is of “metaphysical significance.” And here is where the cowardice comes in. First, Kirill reiterates and defends the Russian justification: Who is attacking Ukraine…

Mile-High Identity Politics: What We Can Learn From the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

By Eboo Patel

…omen have long been marginalized by men. A man asking a woman to move on a flight may reasonably be interpreted as another chapter in a seemingly never-ending story. I am sympathetic to such a view. But haven’t Orthodox Jews experienced a long history of oppression? As far as who feels marginalized in the specific context of a typical commercial flight, consider that separation of sexes is far more common in traditional religious environments. Doe…

Our Failure To Understand Ferguson: A Cognitive Explanation

By Andrew Aghapour

…e had canceled our flight to JFK, the first leg in a thirty-hour series of international flights, without notification. At the airport we learned that our savvier co-passengers had already filled the Delta flight that was our only alternative. I assumed that the system would somehow take care of us—we had paid good money and followed every rule—until our travel agent called with frantic instructions: “You must make this connection. Bribe two Delta…

How Belief in Moscow as ‘The New Rome’ Explains Kirill’s Astonishing Declaration That ‘Russia Has Never Attacked Anyone’

By Katherine Kelaidis

…ght by any child with a map, but instead thinks it’s the map that’s lying. Ukraine doesn’t exist and thus Russian military action in Ukraine is Russian military action to defend its borders. This isn’t just a political supposition but a theological one, underwritten by Moscow’s centuries-long claim to be “the Third Rome,” a belief that’s not only powerful in Russia, but helps simultaneously to foster both pro-Russian sympathy and to elicit anti-Ru…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ant geo-political factors in Obama’s decision to initiate regime change in Ukraine, I am convinced that the primary impetus was to nip opposition to the international LGBT political steamroller in the bud. Unfortunately, Obama’s strategy has worked and Russia has been forced from its former trajectory toward global cooperation with the west into an increasingly adversarial posture as Obama and the GOP Establishment Neo-Cons (united by perversion)…

Putin’s Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There’s Reason to Believe it’ll Go Mainstream

By Thomas Lecaque

…has wider application. I’ve written about the rhetoric of holy war in the international far-right before, as have many others in its seemingly infinite varieties. Russia has been using holy war rhetoric for a long time, and has used it to talk about its invasion of Ukraine since very early in the war. But in the last week or so it’s taken a new twist, suggesting a broader appeal to holy war, to fighting against Satanism, that’s coming from multip…