"Christian Nationalism" and Patriarch Putin

[Shiranu]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/how-russia-became-a-leader-of-the-worldwide-christian-right-214755/

In early April 2014, as the post-Cold War order roiled in the aftermath of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula—the first forced annexation in Europe since the Second World War—Pat Buchanan asked a question. Taking to the column-inches at Townhall, Buchanan wondered aloud: "Whose side is God on now?"

The former speechwriter for Richard Nixon and intellectual flag-bearer of paleoconservatism—that authoritarian strain of thought linking both white nationalists and US President Donald Trump—wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly City of today[.]" Despite Putin's rank kleptocracy, and the threat Moscow suddenly posed to stability throughout Europe, Buchanan blushed with praise for Putin's policies, writing, "In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity." 

Before 2014 Russia was largely seen as an importer for Christian fundamentalists, most especially from the U.S. But as the Kremlin dissolved diplomatic norms in 2014, Moscow began forging a new role for itself at the helm of the global Christian right.

And Moscow's grip at the tiller of a globally resurgent right has only tightened since. Not only have Russian banks funded groups like France's National Front, but Moscow has hosted international conferences on everything from neo-Nazi networking to domestic secessionists attempting to rupture the U.S. Meanwhile, American fundamentalists bent on unwinding minority protections in the U.S. have increasingly leaned on Russia for support—and for a model they'd bring to bear back home, from targeting LGBT communities to undoing abortion rights throughout the country.
"In the same sense that Russia's [anti-LGBT] laws came about in 2013, we've seen similar sorts of laws proposed in Tennessee, for example," Cole Parke, an LGBT researcher with Political Research Associates, told me. "It's difficult to say in a chicken-and-egg sort of way who's inspiring whom, but there's definitely a correlation between the two movements."

Not at all surprising, but not a link I've ever fully thought of as being directly tied together.

Those Republicans who traveled to Moscow for the 4th of July just have more and more of that "traitorous je ne sais quoi" to them...

[Hydra009]

Despite Putin's rank kleptocracy, and the threat Moscow suddenly posed to stability throughout Europe, Buchanan blushed with praise for Putin's policies, writing, "In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity."

100% chance he's on Putin's payroll.

Also, these sorts of people care less about Christianity than I do.  They care only about growing their own power and religion is just a means to an end for them.  They don't actually give a crap who's side god is on or which cities are godly and which aren't.

[Unbeliever]

They want to be perceived as believing in God, in order to manipulate the flock, but they don't actually believe. I could be wrong about that, but I doubt it.

[Hydra009]

They want to be perceived as believing in God, in order to manipulate the flock, but they don't actually believe. I could be wrong about that, but I doubt it.

Let me put it this way, I guarantee you that each and every one of them would fail the "pick the grail" challenge in Indiana Jones The Last Crusade.

[Shiranu]

100% chance he's on Putin's payroll.

Also, these sorts of people care less about Christianity than I do.  They care only about growing their own power and religion is just a means to an end for them.  They don't actually give a crap who's side god is on or which cities are godly and which aren't.

That was the specific line that made me decide, "Yeah, I should share this article."

I feel like Buchanan has been working more under-the-radar then when I was a teen; he use to be much more loud of voice and quoted with the likes of Reagan and... that old televangelist guy who recently died.

Kinda thought he had died; kinda disappointed to be wrong.