Elton John Is Given Some Hope
Recently it was reported that singer Elton John and David Furnish would not be able to adopt 14-month-old Lev, due to Ukranian adoption laws which prohibit same sex couples and unmarried couples from adopting.
It seem as if Yuri Pavlenko, the Youth & Sports Minister of Ukraine has had a change of heart. On Thursday (September 18), Pavlenko said that Sir Elton "has the right and opportunity to invite the family of this boy to visit him, take them under his guardianship and help him grow into a good person."
However, Pavlenko also said that the adoption was not possible because although Lev is under the care of an orphanage his mother is still alive.
The Minister said, "I'd like to ask everyone to be tolerant to the boy. This is not an orphan, the child has a mother and an elder brother and so he cannot be adopted by law. He has a difficult fate, like his mother. Help has been provided to his mother to find strength to bring the family back together."
Elton John still has a rough road ahead of him. Not only does the country's Orthodox and Catholic churches have strong views on gay adoption but The Orthodox Church in Ukraine has already branded Sir Elton a "sinner" because of his sexuality.
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"The Orthodox Church in Ukraine has already branded Sir Elton a "sinner" because of his sexuality." I think this is a bit misleading. The Orthodox Church likely considers EVERY SINGLE HUMAN a sinner, not just homosexuals or Elton John. [That's the whole point of Jesus' gift of salvation. If humans weren't sinners, and if there was any way we COULD save ourselves, then Jesus wouldn't have needed to save us.] The article makes it seem like the church ONLY considers certain people sinners, and only because of certain "bad" sins. That's just not their position, if I understand it correctly and it fuels the fires of hatred between people.
Hi Mig,
I don't believe the article is misleading. The quote was directed to Elton John from Spokesman Father Georgy Gulyaev of the Donetsk Diocese of the Orthodox Church. He is quoted by Britain's Daily Mail newspaper as saying:
"Thank God it's impossible under Ukrainian law for Elton John to adopt a child. It's written in Holy Scriptures that homosexual marriage and relations is a sin."
"It is a sin, it is against nature, and it represents the dead end of human development."
"This is definitely a sin, there is no other word for it, and the church will never agree that people who have created same-sex 'marriage' could also dare to adopt children."
"This applies to all, including Elton John. He is a sinner."
These are just excerpts. You can read the entire article here.
Thanks, Nadia. I read the article you linked, and wonder if we're reading what the spokesman actually said (in context), or rather how the writer perceived it. The writer's perception of things doesn't seem to line up with the Church's belief system. I could be wrong, but I'd like to hear what Fr. Gulyaev thinks of the article....ie whether it speaks for their point of view or if it's a distortion. If it's not a distortion, it's pretty sad, because the language doesn't seem consistent with scripture, and it's illogical. We're all sinners, so if they're prohibiting adoption based on whether one is a sinner or not, there should never be another adoption! That just doesn't make sense, and that's why I think the writer may have misunderstood something. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it. Regardless, the language is inflammatory, and I wish the original writer of the article would have checked with the Church to see if her interpretation of what they said lined up with what they actually did say. More truth, and less sensationalism and fanning the flames is really needed in society today. I think we're heading for disaster unless things change.
Oops, sent that too early. I wanted to say that it fuels the fires of hatred between people to mislabel the church's position, especially using loaded words like "branded."
right on, mig! (:
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