Protestants support Moscow Mayor’s ban of gay pride march

Bishop Sergey Ryakhovsky, a Russian Protestant leader and a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, refused tolerance for gay parades’ participants.

‘The tolerance our sexual minorities mention so often, does not in reality correspond to the concept of ‘right.’ The fundamental human rights as formulated by the UN General Assembly in 1948 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, do not include anything like a right to vice and or a right to moral crime,’ Ryakhovsky said in his statement received by Interfax on Tuesday.

According to the bishop, the Russian Evangelical Christians (Pentecostals) are ready to hold up the traditional family values not only by personal examples or by sermons. ‘If they try again to plan a gay parade in Moscow or any other Russian city, we reaffirm our readiness to bring our protest out to the streets,’ he said.

He also regretted that heads of European capitals ‘miscall the aggressive propaganda of moral corruption “a spirit of respect of the universal human rights”.’

Mayors of London, Paris and Berlin should remember the Bible that says God made a man and a woman, not ‘a universal creature,’ he added.

‘Dear Mayors, you were born only because you daddies were men and mammies women, and they behaved accordingly. The traditional family guarantees a healthy society and promises new generations to come, while homosexuality as an unproductive form of life destroys human ability to procreate children, given by our Maker, and endangers the very existents of the nation,’ the bishop noted.

On behalf of his congregation Ryakhovsky supported Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s resolution not to allow a gay parade in Moscow. ‘We pray for Yury Luzhkov that our Lord may strengthen his determination and courage as he participates in the conference of the mayors of four European capitals, London, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow,’ the bishop added.

Interfax