News

By Gudrun Schultz

MOSCOW, Russia, March 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Leaders in Russia’s Jewish community have come out in support of Moscow Mayor Juri Luzhkov, who banned the Moscow Gay Pride parade scheduled for May 27.

The Congress of the Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia made a statement in support of Mayor Luzhkov’s decision, reported the Russian news agency Interfax last week.

“Such parade is not a demonstration but propagation of a sin,” said the statement by chairman Rabbi Zinoviy Kogan.

“We are in solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church, not only for the present, but also for the future of our country.”

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexis II sent a letter to Mayor Luzhkov, made public March 16, congratulating him for his opposition to the ‘gay pride’ parade.

“Please accept our gratitude for your decision to protect Moscow and Muscovites against attempts to organize a public parade of propaganda for sin,” he said in the letter.

“The Church treats people with such [homosexual] inclinations with pastoral responsibility, urging them to reform and resolutely opposes any attempts to present this sinful tendency as a ‘norm’ and example to follow. The Church does not accept any propaganda for immorality.”Â

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Patriarch Alexis II: Homosexuality a “Vicious Deviation From God-Given Human Nature”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06031706.html