CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
A Russian Orthodox Church spokesman said Wednesday that the country's schools should teach religious principles and moral values, and he accused some leading scientists of trying to impose the ''ideology of science'' on the education system.
Father Vsevolod Chaplin was responding to a group of prominent scientists who recently protested the church's growing influence on society.
Chaplin urged teachers to instruct children not to follow the examples of ''homosexuals and prostitutes.''
His remarks come after 10 leading academics wrote to President Vladimir Putin last month to protest the introduction of a class on Orthodox Christian culture. The group also opposed an initiative to give universities the power to award degrees in theology.
''The scientific viewpoint cannot be a state ideology,'' Chaplin told journalists at a discussion between clerics and scientists. ''It never made anybody happy and failed to answer fundamental questions of human existence.''
The church, he said, should play a leading role in setting moral standards for youths.
''We have to show them an unhappy homosexual in his 40s and an aging prostitute,'' he said. ''Otherwise, in 30 years our children will turn into animals influenced by the cult of glamour and debauchery.''
The Russian church has experienced a revival since the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union in 1991. It now claims more than 27,000 parishes and 700 monasteries throughout the former U.S.S.R.
Government and religion are separated under Russia's post-Soviet constitution, but some Russians atheists claim that religious symbolism is as omnipresent and oppressive as atheism was during Soviet times.
An outspoken Orthodox cleric at Wednesday's conference called on the government to exercise more control over religious affairs and help the church fight superstitions spread on its behalf by poorly educated priests.
''We are ready to put part of our life under government control,'' said theology professor Andrei Kuraev. ''The church has been living without censorship for too long.''
The revival of the Orthodox church's centuries-old ties to the state, meanwhile, have prompted concern among religious minorities and scientists.
''Education of schoolchildren should be based on teaching scientifically proven knowledge,'' said Andrei Vorobyev, a leading medical researcher and one of the authors of the letter to Putin. ''Interference of the church in government affairs (has) always been deplorable in Russian history.''
Administrators at dozens of Russian schools say the class on Orthodox Christian culture will be taught in the new academic year, but attendance will be voluntary. (AP)
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Meet all 37 of the queer women in this season's WNBA
April 17 2024 11:24 AM
Here are the 15 gayest travel destinations in the world: report
March 26 2024 9:23 AM
21+ steamy photos of Scotland’s finest gay men in Elska Glasgow
February 01 2024 10:07 PM
More Than 50 of Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Moms
May 12 2024 11:44 AM
Conjoined twins Lori Schappell and trans man George Schappell dead at 62
April 27 2024 6:13 PM
Latest Stories
Nancy Pelosi endorses Kamala Harris for president
July 22 2024 4:07 PM
Charli XCX declares Kamala Harris IS brat & our next President's campaign agrees
July 22 2024 3:08 PM
Pete Buttigieg roasts JD Vance and his gay tech bro billionaire
July 22 2024 1:42 PM
The AIDs pandemic can be ended by 2030, but governments must act: report
July 22 2024 1:01 PM
Conservatives' first attack on Kamala Harris: Pronouns and accessibility?
July 22 2024 12:45 PM
Advancing equality during Disability Pride Month
July 22 2024 11:30 AM