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Friday, July 3rd, 2015

How US Evangelicals Helped Create Russia’s Anti-Gay Movement

Author:     Hannah Levintova
Source:     Mother Jones
Publication Date:     Fri Feb. 21, 2014 7:00 AM EST
 Link: How US Evangelicals Helped Create Russia’s Anti-Gay Movement
Stephan:   The Theocratic Right are not just spreading hate and poison in the U.S. They have also pushed themselves and their views into other countries, indeed, Evangelicals are in many cases the only Americans non-Americans know. This report is about Russia, but I could just as easily have done the story about say Uganda. What I find particularly interesting is that no one in media seems to ever ask Evangelicals: "what actual evidence do you have about any of your claims, beyond quoting a couple of verses from the Bible?" Nor have they asked: "Why are you so obsessed with what people do with their genitals?" And, "Why does that trump loving relationships?"

putin_rainbowIn November 2010, Russia’s Sanctity of Motherhood organization kicked off its first-ever national conference. The theme, according to its organizers, was urgent: solving “the crisis of traditional family values” in a modernizing Russia. The day opened with a sextet leading 1,000 swaying attendees in a prayer. Some made the sign of the cross, others bowed or raised their arms to the sky before settling into the plush red and gold seats of the conference hall at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.

On the second morning of the conference, the only American in attendance, a tall, collected man, stepped up for his speech. Larry Jacobs, vice president of the Rockford, Illinois-based World Congress of Families (WCF), an umbrella organization for the US religious right’s heavy hitters, told the audience that American evangelicals had a 40-year track record of “defending life and family” and they hoped to be “true allies” in Russia’s traditional values crusade.

The gathering marked the beginning of the family values fervor that has swept Russia in recent years. Warning that low birth rates are […]

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