"Traditional Values" Up Close

The Case of a Certain Metropolitan

Let me try to put this briefly and carefully. Putin and Kirill have spent years going on about “traditional values,” eliciting a degree of admiration in Africa and counting on at least some sympathy from American conservatives — but all of this works only from a distance. It’s a con played on the gullible. Up close, things look rather different.

And how much the events of recent days tell us about the state of officialdom in Russia — both state and ecclesiastical. Here is Kirill’s loyal and devoted aide, who has left for Europe — not for a few days on official business, but for years. And the picture changed at once: the very homosexuality denounced by the apostles of “traditional values,” and, right alongside it, the “white powder”…

I am reminded again and again: the Lord is a Great Jester. We are all in plain sight. And especially those who have spent years claiming the right to speak of Christ “with authority.” No books, no lectures, no concerts, no vestments of gold brocade, no little videos will be able to conceal what comes into view up close.

Such is the world God has made.