For several years now LGBTQ activists have annually applied for a permit for a Pride celebration in Moscow.
And each year, their request is rejected…
And each year, in an act of civil disobedience, the activists attempt to hold some sort of demonstration anyway.
What I find most disturbing about this year’s video is more of the same: Eastern Orthodox Christians who show up at the protests to participate in violence against against the activists.
From signs declaring that "Moscow is not Sodom," to cries of "Where are the militia (police)? They’ve caught a Sodomite!" to chants of "Sodom won’t pass!" it is clear that these folks are short on actual biblical knowledge, but long on zeal…
Others add rhetoric about the corruption of children and the fate of other civilizations that have already fallen as a result of allowing homosexual activity… The discourses of heterosexism are in full array. And like their Western counterparts, it’s not really about any individual argument — each of which can easily be debunked — but about the endless barrage of interchangeable charges and accusations designed to stoke fear and prevent any real dialogue with real people about their real lives… Instead, all we get is caricatures of evil.
If you watch long enough you’ll see a contingent of Orthodox Christians wearing black t-shirts with skulls that read "Orthodoxy or Death." Their spokesman claims that this is the choice before every Russian: either Orthodoxy as the way to salvation or death without it. But without his explanation, the images seem much closer to the threats leveled against non-believers for centuries as Christian "evangelism" has taken on coercive forms.
In another scene, a young Orthodox man declares that the actions against the activists are a show of mercy because life is short, but eternity in hell will be very long…
My brothers and sisters, sometimes you are your own worst enemies. If you truly want to show mercy, there must be a better way…
