Yes, that Putin. No, really.
Oh look, the radical conservative American quote-unquote-"pastor" who helped form a vicious anti-gay movement in Uganda that led to the killing of publicly outed gay Ugandans
is a huge fan of Vladimir Putin.
Last month a federal judge allowed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit to proceed against [Scott Lively] that alleges the pastor persecuted gays in Uganda and committed a potential “crime against humanity” — one that contributed to a bill that would have made homosexuality an act punishable by death. And yet the grey-haired 57-year-old has refused to quiet down.
On his blog this month, Lively praised Putin as “the defender of Christian civilization” for signing this summer a ban on information that treats being gay as valid or attractive — and traced the idea to his own tour of Russia in 2006-7. Last week, Lively suggested Russian officials foil gay activists planning to rainbow-bomb the Olympics by flying a rainbow banner over the games so “the global homosexual movement” would be reminded that “the rainbow belongs to God!”
What the hell is going on? Have we abandoned irony forever, now that the staunch conservatives that saw communism as the be-all, end-all threat to humanity have shuffled into embracing the rather unambiguously creepy Russian leader and the nation's latest restrictions of human rights—nay, even
bragging about their connections to Russian politics? Is there anyone who was alive for even the smallest portion of the Cold War that thought
Red Dawn conservatism would move into being
pro-Russian-government?
Nope, apparently the hatred of gay Americans is greater than all those old fears of the creeping communist menace. John McCain and other old-schoolers keep trying to get them worked up about Russian plots and dangers and diplomatic machinations, but the social conservatives are too worked up about the Gays and the Muslims and the Obamas to even remember what they were supposed to be worked up about in the before-times. The enemy of my enemy is awesome.
Vladimir Putin, the "defender of Christian civilization." There's really no way of making fun of these people anymore, they do it to themselves before you ever get the chance.