Russian Orthodox Deacon Fears Defrocking After Outing Church's 'Gay Lobby'

Radio Free Europe, Andrei Shary and Claire Bigg, January 09, 2014

Prominent theologian and firebrand missionary Andrei Kurayev

A prominent theologian who claims to have outed a powerful "gay lobby" within the Russian Orthodox Church says he now fears being defrocked over his allegations.

The allegations by Deacon Andrei Kurayev, a firebrand missionary who taught at the Orthodox Moscow Theological Academy, are potentially damaging and expose the church to charges of double standards.

Not only does the church consider homosexuality to be a grave sin, but it has also helped spearhead a Kremlin campaign targeting gays and lesbians -- most notably a law banning the propagation of "non-traditional sexual relations."

Kurayev is known for his radical but eloquent tirades that have often put him at odds with the Moscow's Patriarchate's official line.

He has made anti-Semitic remarks, spoken in support of recently pardoned former oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and protested the jailing of Pussy Riot members for their iconoclastic performance in Moscow's largest Orthodox cathedral.

But according to him, it is his decision to battle what he describes as a "gay metastasis" within the Russian Orthodox Church that caused his downfall.

On December 31, Kurayev was dismissed from the academy, the church's top educational institution, which explained it was no longer willing to tolerate his "shocking statements" and his "scandalous and provocative" activities in the media and the blogosphere.

Kurayev says he is bracing for more retaliation.

"Anything could happen," he told RFE/RL. "I could even be defrocked."

Kurayev is a protégé of previous Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II, who died in December 2008. He rejects speculation that the current head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, wants to silence him.

Instead, he blames his sacking on the "gay lobby" that he so virulently denounces and that, he warns, is rapidly consolidating its influence within the church.

"It's a very powerful group of people, some of whom hold important posts, including in the synod," he says. "What's really sad is that they influence the church's personnel policies. They appoint each other to vacant posts, and there are currently many vacancies."

Surprised By Backlash

His dismissal has only emboldened Kurayev, who now launches almost daily attacks against this alleged network of homosexual clerics.

He has been using his blog to cite testimonials from men who recount their sexual encounters with Orthodox priests and bishops.

Kurayev is a popular man. His LiveJournal blog is Russia's 37th most read and he has many supporters among churchgoers and clergymen.

He admits having "no recipe" for battling homosexual influence but nonetheless believes that his efforts to clean up the Russian Orthodox Church are overwhelmingly backed by clerics.

"I receive numerous letters and calls of support, mostly from priests but also from bishops. I understand that what I say reflects the opinion of the moral majority."

Kurayev says what prompted him to launch his campaign against gay clerics was the patriarchate's recent decision to fire a teacher accused of molesting students at Tatarstan's Kazan Seminary.

Despite the risk, he admits he never expected the campaign to seriously backlash against him:

"I made a mistake," he says. "I assumed the fact that the patriarchate sent a commission to the Kazan seminary and that, based on the commission's findings, the rector who molested the seminarians was dismissed meant the patriarchate had finally decided to pay attention to this problem and wished to tackle it. But I seem to have overestimated the patriarchate's readiness to follow this path."

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?