GREEK TRANSGENDER LAW IS “CRIME BEFORE GOD”—MET. HILARION

Orthochristian.com – 23/10/17

The new law allowing even 15-year-olds to legally change their gender, recently adopted by the Greek Parliament on October 10, is a “crime before God and the people” and will be met with numerous protests from believers, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk believes, RIA-Novosti reports.

“I think the Greek Church will be openly expressing its opinion and protest, as is happening now. In some dioceses they are ringing their bells as a sign of protest, and the archbishop and many hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church have come out against the government in light of the adoption of this law,” Met. Hilarion stated on the television program “The Church and The World.”

The bill “On the Legal Recognition of Gender Identity” passed with 171 out of 300 deputies voting in favor of it, despite the fact that a recent survey showed that 71.7% of Greeks are against the possibility of minors changing their gender. As Met. Hilarion noted, many hierarchs, as well as the entire Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church have been speaking out against the law. Clergy throughout the Kalavyrta Diocese rang their church bells in protest every day at noon this past week.

According to the hierarch, the people are being instilled with the idea that if they feel like they are of the opposite gender, they “not only have the right to such a self-perception, but doctors must provide them with this assistance.” “We are speaking about young, 15-year-old boys and girls, who may later completely change their minds,” Met. Hilarion noted.

In the Russian hierarch’s opinion, the activities of Prime Minister Tsipras of Greece are contrary to the beliefs of the majority of Greeks, and the foundations of the religious tradition to which the Greek people have adhered for so many centuries.

“Mr. Tsipras, despite being the prime minister of an Orthodox state, does not hide his atheistic convictions and does not hide the fact that religion means nothing for him,” Met. Hilarion noted.

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