Bartholomew's Notes

The website of the New Generation Church in Ukraine has an interesting report of a visit to Northampton; Google Translate allows us to see the details (I’ve tidied it slightly):

Ukrainian pastor-evangelist Dmitry Makarenko spent last weekend with his wife Natalya in… the United Kingdom… where they arrived at the invitation of the local community movement “New Generation” in the town of Northampton… Dmitry Makarenko held an evangelistic ministry dedicated to the discovery [establishment?] of the New Generation Church in London… Also participating in this ministry was the administrator of the base church “New Generation” in Riga (Latvia) Ludwig Koshin,… British Christian human rights organization [Christian Concern for Our Nation] Andrea Miniciello Williams and Alex Spak, who talked about the position of the church and Christian values in modern society that legal methods to defend their organization.

Makarenko apparently gave a standard evangelistic speech, but the New Generation “base church” in Riga is known more for its virulent anti-gay activism; as I blogged here, the church’s head, Alexei Ledyaev (with whom Makarenko has worked closely), is a huge fan of Scott Lively and his book The Pink Swastika, which claims that the Holocaust was the work of homosexuals. I drew attention to a report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2007, which noted Ledyaev’s influence in the USA:

…Lively credits the popularity of Russian-language translations of The Pink Swastika to the support of Pastor Alexey Ledyaev, the head of the New Generation Church, an evangelical Christian megachurch based in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. New Generation has more than 200 satellite churches spread throughout Eastern Europe, Argentina, Israel and the United States.

…The New Generation theology Ledyaev preaches borrows heavily from R.J. Rushdoony, the late founding thinker of Christian Reconstruction. Pastor Ledyaev’s 2002 book, New World Order, calls for evangelical Christians around the world to influence the wealthy and powerful in their home countries to implement biblical law in order to stave off a supposed alliance of gays and Muslims hell-bent on destroying Christianity. “The first devastating wave of homosexuality makes a way for the second and more dangerous wave of islamization [sic],” writes Ledyaev.

…In addition to Lively and Robertson, Ledyaev has cultivated the support of Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the African-American founder of Antioch Bible Church, a Seattle-area megachurch. “Hutch,” as the ex-NFL player is known, played a key role in persuading Microsoft to temporarily withdraw its support for a Washington bill that would have made it illegal to fire an employee for their sexual orientation. In 2004, his “Mayday for Marriage” rally drew 20,000 people to the Seattle Mariner’s Safeco Field to oppose legalizing same-sex marriage.

One of Ledyaev’s nephews saw Hutcherson speak in Seattle at a March 2006 debate on gay rights and arranged a meeting with the Latvian pastor. By the end of the year, Hutcherson, Ledyaev and Lively had teamed up with Vlad Kusakin, the editor of The Speaker, to form an international alliance to oppose what Hutcherson characterizes as “the homosexual movement saying they’re a minority and that they need their equal rights.”

(I blogged on Hutcherson’s views here – he once famously declared that “If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end”)

Following a protest against a gay-rights march in Riga, Ledyaev complained that “Security of the gay was more important than security of the people” and warned that

…Islamization goes full speed wherever homosexual lifestyle is legally accepted. Muslim organizations and committees, centers and mosques, schools are being opened overwhelmingly everywhere…. Homosexuality and islamization are two sides of the medal and integral elements of the one destructive process of European culture and civilization.

Christian Concern for Our Nation has close links with a US Christian Right organisation called the Alliance Defense Fund; I blogged some background on this here. CCFON is also particularly close to Nadine Dorries MP; prior to the election, CCFON members registered and created her campaign website.

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