What has become of our world? Communist countries like Russia and China supposedly built on atheistic values are now promoting God and His values while Western Countries, supposedly built on the foundation of Christian principles and who gave the world Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation are now rejecting God and His values—but promoting anti-Christian values.
China is the number one producer of bibles! Russia wants God entrenched in their Constitution and want marriage to be between man woman and many in the West want separation of church and state and expansion of marriage to include LGBTQ identities.
What a world!
VLADIMIR PUTIN, TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE & GOD
Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting flaq from numerous media establishments for proposed amendments to the basic law of the land—the national constitution. Here are sample headlines:
The BBC headlined, “Russia's Putin wants traditional marriage and God in constitution”
ABC News reported “Putin's new amendments revere God, ban same sex marriages”.
The Independent UK stated “Putin proposes to enshrine God, heterosexual marriage in constitution”
The Sun UK reported, “Vladimir Putin wants to ban gay marriage in a revised hardline Russian constitution”
Interestingly almost all of these media outlets are saying the reason for the presidents amendments is to hold on to power after his term limit is over. First it does not make sense how mentioning God in a Constitution in Russia or defining marriage as between man and woman would enable him to rig votes and extend his term. They seem to be grasping at straws. Why are none of them analyzing the various reasons given by the president himself.
With regards to the definition of marriage Putin is aware of that the UN is considering changing the definition from man and woman to include LGBTQ relationships. When such definitions reach international law status, nations are bound to honour it but Putin wants Russia to have an out so he made the following statement—"If an agreement contradicts the Constitution, it should not be signed, and if it was signed and we found that it contradicts our main law, it will not be valid on the territory of the Russian Federation."
But why would he be averse to the changing of the definition to include LGBTQ identities and roles? From his conversation, he seems worried about the growing demographic trends in Russia and possibly believes that widening the current definition might further exacerbate the current situation. For more on his thoughts of national demography, a link and his quote is pasted below.
MY POINT
The news can create their own narrative. Sometimes it pays to go to source documents and analyze them for oneself. We cannot truly know Mr. Putin’s motive for such is the nature of social science. Its not natural science where we can know for certainty that 2 plus 2 equals 4. But at the very least our guestimate should be informed by facts and not a narrative the media is trying to push.
ON CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
“What else is crucial? Right now we have every opportunity to carry out a socially-oriented state policy that responds to our citizens’ desire for improvement of the quality of life and living standards.
We all understand how important it is today to support families and family values, to provide overarching protection to our children, to ensure that education and healthcare are accessible and, of course, to make sure that senior citizens, retired citizens, enjoy comfortable living standards.”
ON AMENDMENTS REGARDING THE ROLE AND STATUS OF THE FAMILY
“Vladimir Putin: Let me debate with you a bit, enter into polemics, if you wish.
As you said, a family is the union of a man and a woman. And if it is a single-parent family, then what? Some things need to be clarified. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman. A family is something slightly different. But the idea itself is correct and must be supported. We just need to think about the wording and where to do it.
As for “parent number one,” and “parent number two,” I once spoke publicly and will repeat it: as long as I am President, we will have no “parent number one,” THERE WILL BE A FATHER AND A MOTHER.” [Meeting with the working group on drafting proposals for amendments to the Constitution | February 13, 2020 17:15 Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region] http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/62776
“It is also obvious that the Constitution is the Fundamental Law, but this is not a simple law. It is largely of a political and even a moral and ethical character. Therefore, despite any criticism from the outside, it is important to make sure all social strata and professional communities are represented.” [Meeting with the working group on drafting proposals for amendments to the Constitution] http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/62776
ON DEMOGRAPHY
“There are nearly 147 million of us now. But we have entered a difficult, a very difficult demographic period. The measures we took starting in the mid-2000s have had a positive effect on demography. We have even reached a stage of natural increase. This is why we have more children at schools now.
However, new families are being created now by the small generation of the 1990s. And the birth rate is falling again. This is the main problem of the current demographic period in Russia.
The aggregate birth rate, which is the key index showing the number of births per woman, was only 1.5 in 2019, according to tentative estimates. Is this few or many? It is not enough for our country. It is approximately equal to the figure reported in many European countries. But it is not enough for Russia.
I can tell you by way of comparison that the figure was 1.3 in 1943, during the Great Patriotic War. It was only lower in the 1990s: 1.16 in 1999, lower even than during the Great Patriotic War. There were very few families with two children, and some couples had to put off starting a family.” [Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly | January 15, 2020 13:15 Moscow] http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/62582
