The unholy alliance of religion and state in Russia and beyond
by David Atkins
Even as the United States is turning a major corner on LGBT rights, things don't look so good in Russia right now:
A public kiss between two men could be defined as illegal 'homosexual propaganda' and bring a fine of up to £10,000 if a bill that comes up for a first vote this month becomes law in Russia.
The legislation being pushed by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church would make it illegal to tell minors information that is defined as ‘propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism.’
It includes a ban on holding public events that promote gay rights.
The bill is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values as opposed to Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and church see as corrupting Russian youth and contributing to a wave of protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
It's the usual unholy alliance of religion and state--all of it a backlash against every piece of social progress since the Renaissance began to displace the chokehold of religious feudalism in the West and theocracy in the Middle East.
From Putin's unholy alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church, to the unholy alliance of Middle Eastern petro states with Islamist butchers, to African kleptocrats' unholy alliance with evangelicals, to Confederate Ayn Rand worshippers' unholy alliance with right-wing churches, it's all the same illiberal vicious disease. Nation-state boundaries are as irrelevant to it as they are to the plague. The disease is widespread, communicable and variegated. But it always has the same symptoms: militarism, theocracy, violence, paranoia, nationalism and an obsession with "local control."
One day the world will be free of such villainy. But sadly, it will probably not be in my lifetime.
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