Russian orthodox church embraces gays

[Salvatorel]

Russian Orthodox Church embraces gays
(AP) – 5 hours ago
MOSCOW — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says that, although the church views homosexuality as a sin, homosexuality is a personal choice.
Patriarch Kirill says gays and lesbians must not be persecuted or discriminated against in any way, though the church still opposes same-sex marriages.
The patriarch's statements, a breakthrough for the Russian church, were made during a meeting Wednesday with visiting Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...j8qOgD9CP0JP80


well,I think it's quite serious progress nowadays,especially considering that orthodox church has reputation for being one of most conservative Christian denomination and main thing is that it comes from Russian patriarch,which if I say honestly was very unexpected for me(and not only). I hope that this was not just another statement to appease liberals and this will open new,more serious and civilised debates about this matter in the orthodox world general.

[Carpathian Wolf]

Nothing new here. I was always taught that homosexuality is a sin...just as smoking (self harm) or anything else. Hate the sin not the sinner. There isn't really any "progress" here since it was always taught like this. The only progress I see is that people are learning more and more about the Orthodox. After hundreds of years under Tatar and Turk oppression and then communist the popular view in the west was that Orthodoxy was just some "catholic off shoot centered around nationalism, and nevermind the Roman Empire in the east that lasted longer even than the western counterpart."

[cfmonkey45]

Jesus Christ embraces an adulteress
(Gospel of John) – circa 2000 ago
JERUSALEM — The head of a new sect of Judaism, the Nazerenes, has made a ground-breaking proclamation, embracing an adulteress. He stated to an angry mob about to stone her "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Jesus of Nazareth still believes that adultery is a sin, and still opposes the act, but has nevertheless decided that he will die for the sake of humanities' sins.

Old news, brah.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

[boofhead]

And this would be Biblical teaching 101.....homo acts are wrong, but love all mankind etc etc etc

[Zenith Darksea]

Exactly. I was told that this was the position of the Orthodox Church when I became Orthodox nearly five years ago, and in fact you can find many similar things said by the Church throughout history. There's nothing new about the position of Orthodoxy on this - the only new thing is that someone in the West has taken notice of it.