Western countries will degrade in fifty years at the most if they don't condemn same-sex unions - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin

Moscow, June 5, Interfax - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, believes legalization of same-sex "marriage" will eventually lead to the demise of modern Western civilization, which may happen in the next fifty years.

"The main thing in life and international relations is not economics, not politics, but whether or not a specific group adheres to eternal moral norms or tries to contest them. It is known that many Western countries do not back the recognition of this extreme immorality as the norm, which means that calling a black thing white doesn't work, and that means Russia has an excellent chance of telling the whole world that same-sex "marriages" and attempts to legalize incest and pedophilia are death and suicide," Father Vsevolod told Interfax-Religion, responding to the words said by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the EU-Russia summit on his readiness to sign a law banning the adoption of Russian children by same-sex "families".

The priest believes Russia, "which has always wanted and been able to lead the world," can now tell the West it is capable of "reviving" the West and "make Europe Christian again, that is, go back to the ideals that once made Europe."

"Without them, Russia and Europe will not exist. Western civilization will not exist another fifty years without them. It's up to you, dear friends, to decide, you can't avoid making this choice," he said.

Fr. Vsevolod believes the wish of Russian parliamentarians, which has now been backed by the president, to prevent the adoption of Russian children by foreign same-sex couples, is "elementary manifestation of common sense."

Foreign adoption in a country that is going through a demographic crisis is "something deeply abnormal, immoral, and unnatural," he said. "Speaking about adoption by couples of perverts, reliable scientific data indicate that children raised by such couples get moral deviations much more frequently than do children raised by straight parents or even one parent," the priest said.

Considering that this step "is very clear to any normal person," Fr. Vsevolod, however, said that denial of adoption to same-sex couples is "only half of the way we are destined to go as a country, as a civilization."

"We should generally build relations with specific groups of elites and social groups based on their attitude to Christian or at least universal human morals, whose norms remain unchanged because God who gave them is unchanged," he said.

[link to www.interfax-religion.com]