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Editor:
Righties such as Dreher and Whiteford would have you believe that the Church refuses communion to homosexuals. That’s a lie. They’re spouting their unbalanced personal political idiosyncrasies… not the Church’s teaching. The Church takes ALL of us as individuals, not as members of this-or-that group… it considers ALL of us sinners. Do have a care with much posted on the internet, as most isn’t “kosher”, it’s by ungrounded people with no real Church education or experience. We do live in dicey times, kids, so, please, do show caution…
BMD
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If there’s a “Gay Agenda”, then, we must refute it. We must uphold the Doctrine of the Orthodox Church at all cost. However, upholding it shouldn’t entail language of hate, malice, pejorative, or lies. We can state Church doctrine clearly, unequivocally, and directly without ever using terms, words, and expressions that are clearly sinful in themselves. The Ecumenical Councils established Orthodox doctrine; they spoke in the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Some people asked me if I actually thought that there was a “Gay agenda”. No, of course, I don’t believe that. Nor is there any such thing as a “Gay Lifestyle”. That’s just part of the usual rightwing detritus, and few forces in our world today are as fraudulent and evil as rightwingers… i.e., ISIS is a rightwing movement. One of the most dangerous things in our world today is the Rightwing Agenda, especially, its war against the knowledge of and action against global warming and climate change. What do people think that a “lifestyle” consists of, anyway? It encompasses one’s economic status, whether one has an urban or rural lifestyle, whether one has the “lifestyle of the rich and famous” or of the homeless. A lifestyle involves whether one eats out often, what kind of car one drives, if one pays a mortgage or rents an apartment, what kind of job one has, what kind of friends one has, if one is vegetarian, religious, or atheist, if one helps to feed street people, etc. So, to say that there’s a “Gay Lifestyle” is just ideological propaganda, generally laced with hate, fear, malice, and (often enough) a “cover-up” for one’s own shameless “behind the scenes” activities.
We don’t accept same-sex marriages in the Orthodox Church, but many Orthodox communities embrace gay Orthodox Christians with openhearted love and recognition of their humanity. One can’t defend truth with lies nor can one defend the faith with slanders, wilful falsehoods, hate, malice, and anger. I’ve carefully studied more than a hundred careful, well carried out, provable, and repeatable medical/scientific studies that clearly demonstrate that being gay is not a “choice”… only an angry ideologue would add “a lifestyle choice”. Like [transsexuality], this is something that develops in the womb, its present in every studied species of mammal, as well as birds. This doesn’t compel us to alter our Church Doctrine… what it should compel us to do is to stop being just plain old liars. The only thing that I can see that gay people desire is to have full equality under the law… full total equality, not be deprived of their full rights as citizens of a nation, as full complete human beings, who are just as loving, just as compassionate, just as charitable, who give their lives in wars because they are just as patriotic, just as heroic, have just as much valour, humanity and, yes, just as much decency as any other human being in any society, in any nation under the sun.
Whilst I’ll defend Orthodox doctrine to the last breath, I deeply and sincerely believe that hateful homophobia is expressed only and solely by deeply self-hating homosexuals who project their self-loathing out toward others. Let none of these rightwing fanatics accuse me of not upholding Orthodox Christian Doctrine, though being natural liars, I’m sure that some will.
Voices from Russia 
8 December 2016. Pravoslavie FUCKS UP ROYALLY… AGAIN! Bad Translation from the Platina Nutters, Yet Again
Tags: Catholic, catholic bishops, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Christian, Christian ethics, Christian views on marriage, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, ethic, ethical orientation, ethics, France, homosexual marriage, homosexuality, Kirill Gundyaev, Kirill I of Moscow, marriage, moral, moral stance, moral theology, morality, morals, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodox hierarchs, Orthodoxy, Paris, Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, Patriarch Kirill I, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic Church, Russia, Russian, Russian culture, Russian Orthodox Church, same sex marriage, spiritual culture
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Shevkunov strikes again! That is, he hands over translation of material to dumbass rightwing Amerikantsy converts, with predictable results (he likes sending stuff to the Platina nutters… the Rose crowd or to rightwing bozos like Jesse Dominick). His handling of HH’s comments on same-sex marriage and homosexual orientation were interesting… in the sense that Chinese people mean when they wish you, “May you live in interesting times”. First, we have the Russian original posted on patriarchia.ru. Next, is my translation… the Pravoslavie abortion is last. Note the howler in the name of the Parisian archbishop. That’s a proof of ignorance and laziness… two things seen in abundance amongst konvertsy… read on, kids…
BMD
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Russian original
Ваше Святейшество, мы видели, насколько болезненна для многих французов тема легализации однополых браков. Были массовые протесты. Касались ли Вы этой темы в ходе своего визита?
Да, мы коснулись этой темы во время беседы с архиепископом Парижским кардиналом Андре Вен-Труа. Всем хорошо известна роль Католической Церкви, которая категорически выступала против легализации однополых браков. И миллионная демонстрация французов, в основном, католиков, была ясным свидетельством несогласия значительной части населения с тем, что произошло.
Нужно сказать, что ничего не меняется в позиции Церкви, и измениться не может, потому что это против христианской морали. Еще раз хочу сказать, что мы никого не осуждаем – ни католики, ни православные. Мы не требуем некоего ужесточения в отношении людей, у которых есть какая-то особенность в сексуальной ориентации. Но мы категорически против уравнивания этих взаимоотношений с браком, который определен Богом и в результате которого рождаются дети, продолжается жизнь человеческого рода. То, что входит в Божий замысел, не может корректироваться никакими политическими доктринами и никакой политической практикой. На этом основывается позиция Церкви.
http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/4706946.html
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My translation
Your Holiness, we’ve seen how gay marriage is a painful topic for many French people. There were mass protests. Did you touch upon this subject during your visit?
Yes, we touched on the topic during a conversation with André Cardinal Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris. The role of the Catholic Church is well-known in this; it strongly opposes legalising same-sex marriage. The demonstrations involving millions of French people, mostly Catholic believers, were a clear sign of that; they showed that [Catholics] disagreed with the majority opinion [in France]. I must say that nothing has changed in the Church’s position; it can’t change, as [any change would be] against Christian morality. Once again, I want to say that we never condemn anyone… [“we” meaning] both Catholics and Orthodox. We don’t ask that there be restrictions against people of a different sexual orientation. However, we categorically oppose any changes equating such relationships with marriage, which is Divinely Ordained, within which children are born, so that the life of the human race continues. That is part of God’s plan. We can’t modify that with political measures or political ideologies. That’s the basis of the Church’s position.
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6 December 2016 Pravoslavie.ru article
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all the Russias has noted that while the Orthodox Church has strict traditional stances on marriage and family matters, it doesn’t condemn people, who are always called in love to repentance. In Paris to consecrate the new Trinity Cathedral and spiritual centre, His Holiness also met with the Catholic archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andrew-Ben-Tura in which the theme of sexual orientation was raised. Summarising the Church’s stance, at a press conference the Patriarch stated:
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/99221.htm
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The rubber hits the road with какая-то особенность в сексуальной ориентации. Literally, it’d be some feature of sexual orientation. That jangles in English, doesn’t it? OK, how do we “English” this in a way both correct and pleasing (not so easy, as my experience tells me)? What’s the primary word here? I’d say that it’s особенность. It depends on the context, but it mostly gets “Englished” as feature or particularity. Other possible choices are quality, factor, or trait. It’s clear to me that some konvertsy brat chose peculiar as it fit their ignorant Yahoo rightwing opinions. HH was being very careful not to be judgemental, so it’s clear that’s not what he meant. Indeed, the choice of such an unusual idiom (usually, Russian uses non-traditional sexual orientation to indicate homosexuality) proves that he bent over backwards in his effort not to offend anyone. To carry over this into English, I chose people of a different sexual orientation. It has the same flavour of vagueness and nonspecificity found in the original. The “translation” on Pravoslavie destroyed that… peculiar turned HH’s carefulness and wish not to offend anyone into a mindless Yahoo rant. That’s unforgivable. I believe that we’ve ordained far too many ex-Evangelicals… things such as this prove that they’re not “of us”. I’d say that the bishops would do well to defrock most former-Evangelicals. They’re not of us, never can be, and they distort what the Church truly says. Shall we have the courage to do it, though?
BMD