Slavic immigrants' crusade against homosexuality collides with gays' battle for acceptance

Sacramento Bee ^ | Aug. 6, 2006 | Dorothy Korber and Deepa Ranganathan

[FairOpinion]

In the last few months, the growing conflict between Sacramento's Slavic Christians and its politically savvy gay community has erupted on campuses, at school board hearings, and on the grounds of the Capitol.

Russian-speaking hecklers lined the march of this year's gay pride parade downtown. At least 15 Slavic students were suspended in April for wearing shirts proclaiming, "Homosexuality is sin." This spring, Slavic Christians packed board meetings in three local school districts to make their position clear: Being gay is not OK.

Even more offensive to them is the increasingly strong push by gay leaders to bring acceptance of homosexuality into public life and public schools.

The region's large Russian-speaking Christian community, usually shy of publicity, is stepping into the public eye, saying they have to save California from a dangerous moral decline. Gay leaders worry that these protests will erode their community's political progress and spoil the security they have come to feel in Sacramento.

[Westbrook]

They are not only Christians, but "Slavic Christians!"

Actually, they are Slavic Baptists. There are at least 100,000 of them in Sacramento.

We have several very strong Slavic Baptist communities here in New England, as well. They are good, clean, hardworking people. I have been in their homes. They are very neat and tidy and orderly.

I went to a couple of their Thanksgiving services. At one of them, after the meal, they had a time of testimony and song. They passed out a card with two questions in Russian on it.

• Were there times in your life when your circumstances made it difficult for you to give thanks to God for them?

• Can you look back at those times now and give thanks to God for them?

Of course, the answer to both of those questions for everybody in the room was, "YES".

However, the things they spoke about as difficult times were not about the kinds of difficulties we have here in the States, but of persecutions, State-authorized murders and kidnappings; the disappearances of fathers and brothers and their church leadership; the razing of their church buildings. We don't know what persecution is here in the States.

They are willing to fight for their Faith, because they are not afraid of the State. They have faced a much less tolerant and much more brutal State than we have here.

.

[Suzy Quzy]

Wow...GO SLAVS!! The rest of us are SPINELESS.

[Elsie]

This spring, Slavic Christians packed board meetings in three local school districts to make their position clear: Being gay is not OK.

 

TADA!!!

 

Genesis 13:13
  Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
 

Genesis 18:20-21
 20.  Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
 21.  that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

Genesis 19:4-7
 4.  Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house. 
 5.  They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
 6.  Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
 7.  and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.

 

Psa. 12:8 8 The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.

         More?

Isaiah 3:9
   The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

 

Ezekiel 16:49-50
 49.  "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
 50.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

 

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But there IS hope!!!

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1 Corinthians 6:9-11

 9.  Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
 10.  nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 
 11.  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

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If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape.....

TADA!!!

[kassie]

I was thinking the same thing. Where are the other Christians in this fight?

[A. Pole]

At least 15 Slavic students were suspended in April for wearing shirts proclaiming, "Homosexuality is sin."
[...]
Gay leaders worry that these protests will erode their community's political progress

Bump

[A. Pole]

However, the things they spoke about as difficult times were not about the kinds of difficulties we have here in the States, but of persecutions, State-authorized murders and kidnappings; the disappearances of fathers and brothers and their church leadership; the razing of their church buildings. We don't know what persecution is here in the States.

Not yet. But when the "community's political progress" advances enough it WILL come to that.

[ohioman]

I hope the Slavs give 'em hell!

[spanalot]

Great Post!

[Bokababe]

I live in Sacramento and this is the first I've heard about this. This group did it on its own, and didn't solicit any help from other churches.

But, I really think that the author screwed up with calling them "Slavic Christians" -- it is too general a term and as the article states, they are only about 1/3 of just the RUSSIAN community. They are virtually all Russian Baptists.

I belong to an Orthodox Christian Church across from a Russian Baptist Church in Fair Oaks. These people are -- for better or worse -- Bible literalist, "it's my way or the highway (to Hell)" people.

Yes, they are clean, hardworking decent people -- as long as your beliefs don't collide with theirs. Anything like a glass of wine, buying a lottery ticket or taking a spin around the dance floor, and you are in the same toilet as the homosexuals -- "an unrepentant sinner". It doesn't surprise me that they would be out there doing something like this.

While I would agree with them re protesting what is taught in school, I wouldn't be joining this group any time soon when it came to the rest. They make Southern Baptists look like "party animals".

[annalex]

it WILL come to that.

Step #1 is to declare anything tainted with religious conviction as a private matter. "Preach all you want in your churches, do not preach on public property". This immediately leaves the field to the gays and their state, because they are, of course, not speaking from religion.

Now, we are not completely there yet, but we are getting there. The principle that religion does not belong on public property is all but an established legal doctrine. Note that the La Jolla Cross victory was hollow: the cross has been saved (has it?) not by challenging the assumption of the atheist plaintiff but through a political maneuvre.

Once religion is chased off the public space, there will be little difference in principle between the USA and the USSR of its late years. In 1960-80 blatant religious persecution there was rare, and when it happened it was cloaked under some other reasons, either as defense against political subversion or simply as a bureaucratic matter of licenses and permits. By and large, the exercise of religion in the late USSR was free, but it was confined to private space.

Of course, one difference is the Internet, the remnants of capitalism, and generally the global economy. A Bible had to be smuggled into the USSR because pre-1917 copies became rare and none were printed in state-monopoly publishing houses. A similar shutdown of the flow of information is not likely to prevail here.

On the other hand, the surveillance capacity of the gay state far exceeds that of the USSR.

We sure live in interesting times.

[EverOnward]

saving this thread with pride for the Slavs in my family to read

[annalex]

As a Catholic, I agree that this is the case when a wrong theology results in wrong accent marks here and there. The truth is that in a society that allows abortion and divorce on demand and where people who consider themselves Christian routinely ignore the teaching of their Church on premarital/extramarital sex and contraception, we lost the right to object when the gays push they agenda. They only say Z after we have said A, B, C, and D.

But on the other hand, when the gay state wants to teach outright gay propaganda in public schools (but would not allow a creationist or a priest within a 100 yards), I cannot blame the parents for feeling pushed.

The central issue here is the rights of religious communities to defend itself from the gay state, not whether you and I agree on everything they say and believe. The paper, following its worst leftist instincts, did everything it could to marginalize the Russian Baptists as old-country cooks. Do not assume that the same venom will be spared the Orthodox, and it certainly has not spared the Catholics.

[sergey1973]

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[sergey1973]

Very interesting article--thanks for posting it ! Is there are any guest email we can use to read the entire article ?

When I click on the link, I'm routed to registration page.

Thanks,

Sergey

[Elsie]

Great Post!

Give thanks unto the LORD!

[kassie]

They make Southern Baptists look like "party animals".

wow.

[dcwusmc]

If you use Firefox, there is an extension for it called Bug-Me-Not which will provide phoney login ids that work for most such places as the SacBee.