After the Elton John’s visit and the collapse of the Republican Party, members of the Armenian Apostolic Church have launched a new campaign to stigmatize LGBT people and to spread anti-Christian hate propaganda.
Father Vrtanes Baghalyan has sent God’s blessing to the man who has hit Elton John with an egg, expressing his concern that our society has a lack of people with such dignity.
Father Vrtanes Baghalyan gives a credit to the person who threw eggs on Elton John
Another cleric, Father Ghazar Petrosyan, was sad to know that the Armenian president could make a friendship with a gay man, Elton John, adding that nothing can alleviate the “sin” of being gay.
Father Petros Ghazaryan criticizes president Armen Sargsyan for having a gay friend
Komitas Vardapet Hovnanian was questioned several years ago for some of his statements in the National Security Service, later publicly lied that he was not interrogated, now continues to hold authority on some media platforms. During the Center TV’s “Before the Mirror” program, with the encouragement and support of the journalist, called Elton John an anti-god person who is estranged from the human nature.
Father Vigen Ghazaryan, with a larger post, targeted not only LGBT people but also their defenders, insulting, making discriminatory statements and criticizing the LGBT shelter program.
In parallel with all this, one of the candidates for the Aurora Humanitarian Award was a Catholic monk who supported the LGBT people in trouble. Hector Thomas Gonzalez Castillo, a clergyman of the Franciscan Congregation, in the “72” shelter he founded, provides housing in Mexico for those LGBT people who have been expelled from their homes.
Father Thomas (photo: auroraprize.com)
Speaking to Aurora, Father Thomas noted that providing LGBT people with a shelter is particularly important because these people are often facing discrimination and rejection in their own family or in society. “We give them a shelter, and just as anyone who will enter our threshold, we give protection, regardless of who or how they are (…) Certainly, everyone who comes to us is vulnerable, but some are more vulnerable because of intolerance, and those are especially LGBT people.”
video: unhcr.org
In 2016, on behalf of the Armenian people, the Armenian Apostolic Church donated a Noah’s Ark sculpture to Pope Francis I. The sculpture was made by an Armenian-American homosexual Michael Aram. However, the Armenian clergymen never talked about this at that time, while the Pope, when leaving, announced that Christians should apologize for the past crimes towards homosexuals.
Hovhannes Ishkhanyan
