I applaud Russian authorities for convicting "Pussy Riot" — the very name suggesting sex and violence — of committing a hate crime against religion. The all girl punk band willfully, maliciously and blasphemously desecrated a Russian Orthodox Church.
Everyone has a right to freedom of expression. This includes those who were attending the religious service in question. These people's rights were obviously denied and violated by the surprise guerrilla invasion. Many of them — especially the older and religiously devout — may actually have been seriously traumatized for life by the devilish antics of these young, radical feminists.
I believe a two year jail sentence is rather harsh for such a crime. I would rather have seen the girls forced to faithfully attend Holy Mass each day followed by an hour of bible school — perhaps for a year. In this way their punishment could be served out in the form of rehabilitation. If the girls were encouraged to understand religion a little more they might actually come to appreciate it more fully. Then their raw and wicked energy could be converted into a more positive and powerful force for good in this world.
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may actually have been seriously traumatized for life by the devilish antics of these young, radical feminists.
I rather doubt this; offended maybe, but not traumatized.
I would rather have seen the girls forced to faithfully attend Holy Mass each day followed by an hour of bible school perhaps for a year.
Of course you would, otherwise you wouldn't be a proper fundie.
In this way their punishment could be served out in the form of rehabilitation. If the girls were encouraged to understand religion a little more they might actually come to appreciate it more fully.
Why would they need to be rehabilitated? Oh I get it, because they disagree with you.
They don't have to appreciate religion. Typical fundies, forcing your beliefs on others. See why people don't like you now?
Edit: And no it wasn't a hate crime, learn the meaning of words before you use them.
I can understand that they are convicted for singing in a church without receiving the authorisation fom the propetaries* but the sentences are way too tough.
But forcing them to follow religious instruction, as you suggest, would be forced conversion and a violation of their consciences and would be worse than a "mere" sentence of forced labor, which impacts "only" the body.
P.S.: I'm not a fan-boy of Putin.
*(even if the real motive for the sentences is expressing anti-Putin semtiments; they would have been convicted even if they sang in their house)
"If the girls were encouraged to understand religion a little more they might actually come to appreciate it more fully."
This has been tried on many people. It tends to have the opposite of the desired effect.
> @Canadiest, without defending the communist party, the blood on their hands is minuscule in comparison to the amount on the hands of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Not that simple. Russian Orthodox Church, unlike the churches in the West, was completely taken over by the state. It became, pretty much, an unofficial "ministry of religion" in Russian Empire. So all of the blood on their hands is shared with the Russian government.
What is it with these fundies that share names with gay men?
THE FUNDIE - THE GAY CELEB
Tony Perkins - Anthony Perkins
Rick Martin - Ricky Martin
>>Leighton Buzzard
Y'know, if Putin stood for the Republican nomination, he'd walk it.<<
There's a Canadian psychologist called Altemeyer, whose career has centered on understanding authoritarianism. In the late 1980's, he and some Russian researchers did a parallel study in the US and Russia. They found that there were roughly equivalent fractions of the population in both countries who tested out high on Altemeyer's psychological questionnaire designed to identify people who were predisposed to be dogmatic rigid supporters of the current power structure.
The only difference: that population in the US were almost all Republicans. In Russia, they were almost all Communists (at the time; now they could be followers of Putin). Altemeyer reasons that the only reason people followed one or the other was the accident of the culture they had been born into.
You can read more about this in Altemeyer's popular-science book, The Authoritarians , which is available free online through the University of Manitoba.
People who probably lived through Stalin are going to be 'seriously traumatized for life' by multi coloured balaclava helmets ?
Pussy Riot were jailed for speaking out in a country that does not allow speaking out. The location of their act was, and is, irrelevant.
"The all girl punk band willfully, maliciously and blasphemously desecrated a Russian Orthodox Church. "
Did they take a dump on the altar? Shed blood on it? Murder inside the premises? Spit or masturbate inside? Use liturgical artefacts in an in any of the aforementioned activities?
No? That was no desecration, then. Get over it.
Search for the name Lindisfarne. That was a desecration.
Putin has used the Church as a propoganda tool for years. And I believe the song Pussy Riot performed in the church makes reference to this, rather than criticising religion per se. The lyrics actually include an appeal to the virgin Mary. So I'm surprised that you take the side of the corrupted church rather than that of the protesters. Or maybe you just don't actually bother to look at the facts. Hmmm.
Blasphemy is a victimless crime, fuckwit! Anyway, anybody with two neurons to rub together understands that this is just Putin the autocrat using a transparent pretext to strike at people who dare to oppose him, and the Orthodox church being his servile lackeys.
And (P)Rick Martin here should should be forced to watch BBC News/read Reuters.com for 20 years, until he realises that Pussy Riot were actually protesting against the dictatorial policies/regime of Vladimir Poo-tin.
'I'm not draconian. And I'll send to the Gulag anyone who says different'
-Vladimir Poo-tin
@The Crimson Ghost
Voldemort? Just search in Google images the words 'Putin Dobby'. Legend has it that an aide pointed this out to him, and Poo-tin punched him. Vladimir Poo-tin. Dobby the House Elf. Separated at birth? Are they somehow related? I think we should be told. [/"Private Eye"] (contd. P. 94)
[You're fired. Ed. ] X3
I believe a two year jail sentence is rather harsh for such a crime. I would rather have seen the girls forced to faithfully attend Holy Mass each day followed by an hour of bible school perhaps for a year.
Oh, HELL no! Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Can't I just go to hell right now? Judge, please, shoot me now, I beg you.
I applaud Russian authorities for convicting "Pussy Riot"
To be truthful, in a way I do too, but for diametrically different reasons.
In 20 years those girls will be known as the innocents who started Putin's demise and that of the whole Putin system. They are the poisoned pawn and Putin was dumb enough to play it. Lech Walesa in young, female and cool.
Two years to change and save your country. In retrospect they might be proud of it.
Where were you, Ricky, when the Soviet state used churches for storage, museums, party pads, etc.?
> Everyone has a right to freedom of expression. This includes those who were attending the religious service in question.
Yes, the people who are attending the religious service are "expressing" something. The people who barge in to, you know, express something are not expressing something.
Yeah. Sounds legit.
'Religion is the opiate of the masses'
-Karl Marx
Re. those T-shirt designs with that slogan ('I warned you that this would happen') that have appeared in recent years, and have been big sellers ([/irony]), seems he was a forward thinking chap, that Marx.
What about the three women's rights to freedom of expression? That right was definitely denied and violated, as they are now in jail for it.
Devilish antics? If three women singing is what you consider devilish antics, then you are way too sheltered, Ricky.
They ARE religious people, stupid, they protested against the ROC getting political and aiding and abetting Putin in his removal of human rights.
Fighting for human rights and freedom of expression IS a positive and powerful force for good, stupid.
Force feeding religion to people is precisely why many people have rejected religion. How do you force someone to believe anything so absurd as religious dogma?
I have no idea what Russian law says on the subject, but I'd like to see forced attendance of religious services and bible school attempted as a legal sanction in any Western society. I doubt personally that this would be remotely legal in 21st century Russia. Pussy Riot's antics would pale in comparison to the backlash.
Believe it or not, only in the mouldy and deserted space known as a fundie's brain could Rick's suggestion even start to make sense as an alternative punishment. However, I do like the irony of forcefully attending Mass as a form of punishment, which irony seems to have escaped Ricky boy's feeble intellect.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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