Vice President Mike Pence Met Privately With Top Russian Cleric

[MelissaB]

Vice President Mike Pence Met Privately With Top Russian Cleric

Elizabeth Dias
May 11, 2017

A top cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin met privately with Vice President Mike Pence Thursday morning and urged the U.S. to cooperate with Russia to combat terrorism in the Middle East.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Moscow, who chairs the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations department, spoke with Pence backstage at evangelist Franklin Graham’s Washington summit on religious violence against Christians.

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Pence addressed Graham’s summit on Thursday morning. He told the crowd that the topic of violence against Christians was of “enormous importance to this administration,” and called ISIS guilty of “genocide against people of the Christian faith.” Hilarion says he found Pence’s speech “exceptional,” and expects to meet with Putin when he returns home to discuss his conversation with Pence.

... snip

The men planned a summit to be held in Moscow. But shortly after Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president, Graham moved the event to Washington at the Russian leaders’ suggestion.

The relationship between the American evangelist and the Russian President has been forged amid rising tensions between the two nations and as Russia cracks down on religious freedom. But Graham says the two men share a commitment to protecting Christians abroad. Putin, Graham says, sees himself as the defender of “the Christian remnant” in Syria, and Christians and other religious minorities are largely safe if they live in areas the Syrian government controls.

More: http://time.com/4776717/mike-pence-russian-cleric-hilarion-alfeyev/

[anneboleyn]

1. Every day they meet with Russians. Seriously. It's so obvious.

[bettyellen]

2. Hiding the treason behind Jesus.

[MelissaB]

5. I read an article a while back discussing how Russia wooed the christian right.

It discussed their similar ideas and beliefs and pulled in the NRA. There just aren't enough bookmarks for this stuff.

[Zoonart]

3. I may puke... oh wait...

[elleng]

4. Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Moscow,

who chairs the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations department, spoke with Pence backstage at evangelist Franklin Graham’s Washington summit on religious violence against Christians.'

[Thrill]

6. Always secret with Russians

[Solly Mack]

7. Hilarion Alfeyev is a Russian right-wing fundy no different from Pence.

https://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-evangelicals-fueled-rise-russias-pro-family-right/

An alliance is born between anti-gay, anti-abortion American groups and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church’s chief emissary to the US evangelical community is Hilarion Alfeyev, a high-ranking bishop and chairman of the powerful Department of External Church Relations (the position previously held by Patriarch Kirill). In February 2011, the 47-year-old Alfeyev traveled to Washington, where he met with prominent evangelical and “pro-family” leaders; and then to Dallas, where he addressed thousands of members of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church and emphasized the importance of “creat[ing] new alliances,” especially around issues of marriage, abortion and the family. Alfeyev also visited the Dallas Theological Seminary and had an hour-long meeting with George W. Bush.