Who shall cast the first stone?

[tilia_tomentosa]

Gentle readers, meet Father Evgeniy Yanakiev of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church who can't make up his mind if the good Bulgarian Christians should throw stones at us Sofia Pride participants, or just slap us because stoning is so Old Testament.

The scandal began earlier this month when he allegedly said in an interview that was only published in bits

Comments

[quirkstreet]

Will it surprise you to hear that my father, who identifies as Orthodox, once pointed out to me that I had the right to live my life as I chose, but that one of the key things he learned as a child was "thou shalt not preach blasphemy" and that times when I tried to "proselytize" were what really bugged him.

Still not sure which times those were, and I *think* he has moderated his feelings on these topics over the years. This is the same father who wanted to go punch a doctor when he found out the doctor had called me "dangerous" for being openly bisexual and not sorry about it. My father's quote on THAT topic was "You've never been dangerous in your life, I'm glad you're not telling me this guy's name."

But yes: the Church seems to be on a par with the Catholics and the conservative Protestants on these things. It doesn't make me long for the Communists to return, but the collapse of Communism has given religious bigots everywhere a great deal of room to maneuver in, both in the former Communist countries and over here in the West.

[tilia_tomentosa]

There is one thing they want, Pete: power. But for now, they are struggling to gain some relevance -it's kinda ironic that the Communists managed to secularize Bulgaria much more successfully than Russia.

To add to the irony, the high clergy is full of agents of the former Communist secret service, and that's no secret.

That priest meant that Pride itself was "proselytizing" and "propaganda," and that is how people catch the gay. It couldn't be any more ridiculous to a secular person like me.

[quirkstreet]

Did not know about the secret service connection the to clergy, but I wish I were more surprised.

But yes, I understood what they were saying about Pride itself. As much as I don't think he intended it to be quite that stark, what I heard my father saying was "I can't even hear you saying that you're NOT DAMAGED without fearing that you're trying to put ideas in my head."

As I say, I think he has either grown, or has figured out that we will never see eye to eye on that and that his love for me in other respects is worth focusing on. But it was there and I've never forgotten it. It was a strong moment. He was comparing me, in some way, to heretics and blasphemers and other people one might burn at the stake. I took it as a serious statement about where some people's minds go.

[mrdreamjeans]

There's some stoning to be done, but it's against the bigoted cleric, not participants in the parade!

[tilia_tomentosa]

He is lucky that we are more civilized than him. :)

[maxauburn]

You are correct.

Ain't it the way of it: the persecuters are usually millions of times worse than the ones they persecute are imagined to be.