Orthodox Churches Fight Back As Eastern Europe Pushes To Modernize, Secularize

By Robert Coalson – 26/5/13 Many were shocked on May 17 to see a phalanx of black-robed Orthodox clergy break into a trot and lead an angry mob in an attack on a gay-rights rally in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Although the official Orthodox hierarchy in Georgia denounced the  violence that left 17 injured , Georgian Patriarch Illia II had called on authorities the day before to ban the rally as an “insult” to Georgian traditions. Across Eastern Europe, societies in countries such as Georgia, Russia, Serbia, and Moldova are pushing, each in its own way, to modernize and reform — and movements supporting the rights of women, ethnic minorities, gays, and lesbians are making unprecedented inroads