Latest news with #traditionalvalues
Russia Today
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Russia Today
Russian MPs vote to ban films over ‘traditional values'
Russia's lower house of parliament has approved a law that bans licenses for movies seen as discrediting or denying 'traditional values.' If adopted by the upper house and signed into law by the president, the measure will take effect in March 2026, according to the State Duma's official website. In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a decree listing 17 traditional values – such as patriotism, dignity, and strong family – as central to Russia's state policy. Intended to preserve national identity, the move pushes back against what the Kremlin sees as Western moral decline. The new law will allow authorities to deny or revoke rental certificates for movies that undermine 'traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.' The Culture Ministry will be able to revoke licenses for films that violate the law, while media watchdog Roskomnadzor can order streaming platforms and social networks to take down such content within 24 hours. Critics have warned that even cherished Soviet-era classics could be endangered by the new law. One notable example is 'The Irony of Fate', a film traditionally watched by Russians on New Year's Eve, which features a storyline where a woman leaves her fiancé to spend the night with a stranger. Though not directly tied to demographics, the law comes amid growing concern over falling birth rates. Lawmakers have responded with proposals including tax breaks, abortion limits, and a crackdown on child-free ideology. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova warned of a looming fertility crisis due to a declining number of women of childbearing age, and President Vladimir Putin has said the fertility rate must reach 2.1 within five years to reverse the trend. Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, has stressed that 'Russia's demographic issues cannot be resolved without reinforcing the family institution and upholding traditional values.' In July, Russian MP Vitaly Milonov, a staunch supporter of 'traditional Russian values' and vocal critic of the 'child-free' ideology, proposed banning childless women from films. He argues that portraying strong, independent women without children encourages Russians to delay marriage and childbirth.
Fox News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Being single isn't a sin. The Bible says so and more Christians should agree
When I first walked away from years of voting Democrat and being atheist, I was desperate for voices to speak to the unexpected and organic transformation I was undergoing. One of the first voices I found was a Christian podcaster and commentator who espouses the goal of a great reconciliation between men and women, the ending of the seemingly never-ending battle of the sexes. His voice and mission resonated with me as I stepped away from the incoherence of liberalism and back toward God. It made sense to me that the answers we seek wouldn't be found in pointing fingers at the opposite gender, yet I rather quickly found that all too often — even among the Christian conservative right and especially online — that's precisely what we do. This podcaster's proposed great reconciliation between men and women — both of us working together to do our part to lay down arms and heal generations-old battle scars — truly seemed a breath of fresh air. So, you can imagine my surprise when several months later I read a post from him claiming women who are unmarried and childless past age 30 have lived in willful rebellion against God's design. Leaving aside the fact that, by all accounts, he himself is in his 40s, unmarried, and childless, this is a perversion of God's word to us — one that we see too frequently among the recent resurgence of "trad" accounts run by people (often Christians) who believe in traditional values, masculine men, feminine women, and who rail against the degeneracy of the modern West. These are all aspirational ideals and perhaps a much-needed balm in the backwards chaos of the modern era, an era in which no small number of people (including a sitting Supreme Court justice) stumble incoherently when asked, "what is a woman?", an era in which even those brave enough and sane enough to define "woman" biologically often have a challenging time articulating what a woman is spiritually and how her role in the home and in the world might be fundamentally different from a man's. In such a state of confusion, with men and women seemingly all but interchangeable, with birth and marriage rates plummeting, and divorce and suicide rates rising, it's no wonder there's a growing sect of people who yearn to revolt against the modern world. I myself would identify as a woman with traditional values, and — although I'm not yet homesteading on a farm knee-deep in toddlers and sourdough starter — I strive to be a feminine woman. There's nothing wrong with traditionalism or with exalting families or worrying about the declining birth rates in the West. But traditionalism without God is dead. And far too often in the "trad" circle, traditionalism supersedes God. There is nothing in the Bible suggesting singleness is a scourge, a necessarily transitory state, or something you must suffer through in order to get to the "real gift" of marriage. In God's eyes, singleness is not a second-class state — even for a woman, even past 30. According to Paul (a man with a horrible past who went on to become one of the greatest examples of Christianity — and incidentally remained single), singleness is a gift. As he points out in 1 Corinthians 7, it's better to remain single — if you can commit to celibacy. Most people cannot or will not commit themselves to this — and marriage is also good for those people. But singleness (meaning, in this case, the state of being both unmarried and celibate) is no less good. Paul goes on to call men with wives to "live as though they had none" (1 Corinthians 7:29), which isn't an encouragement to neglect one's spouse but rather to focus oneself on Jesus in the same manner that a single person can. Unmarried people are able to devote themselves wholly to God. There is no spouse or children demanding their time. Spouses and children are good and obligations to them–approached correctly–can sanctify you and bring you closer to God. But so too can singleness. As John Piper points out in a sermon titled, "Single in Christ; A Name Better than Sons and Daughters," "single people in Christ have zero disadvantage in bearing children for God, and may in some ways have a great advantage." Single people often have more time, money, and other resources to devote to advancing God's kingdom on earth. Married people with families necessarily put their time and resources to the family. Single people — or "those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven" — are good in Jesus' eyes (Matthew 19:11-12). He promises them "a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; [He] will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever" (Isaiah 56:4-5). Indeed, throughout the gospel, Jesus — who came to establish a family of believers — emphasizes spiritual family over biological. When a woman exclaims that Jesus' mother is blessed for bearing him, he responds that those who hear God and obey are more blessed (Luke 11:27-28). Motherhood sanctifies, but women who cannot or will not be biological mothers are no less sanctified; likewise for women who may never be wives. Just look at C.S. Lewis' Sarah Smith in "The Great Divorce:" "Every young man or boy that met her became her son … Every girl that met her was her daughter. … Her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more." Clearly, spiritual parenthood is not reserved only for a blessed few or only for women under 30. Not all of us will be married by a certain age or at all, but all of us are called to be spiritual mothers and fathers. That can be done in singleness. That can be done by choosing Christ right where we are now, for — whether or not anyone else ever chooses us — the one who matters most already has. Oftentimes, well-meaning folks will point to Genesis 2:18 and the fact that it's "not good for man to be alone" as if that's condemnation of singleness. It's true that God gave Adam his Eve, when he saw that he was lonely. It's also true that God sent Jesus no wife, and that was also good. Jesus — the new Adam and the perfect man, the Son of God — knows firsthand the full gamut of human emotions and is no stranger to loneliness, and yet he never had a wife. It is possible for us too to know deep and profound loneliness and perhaps never get married or get married much later. It's also worth noting that God gave Eve to Adam in marriage before sin entered the world — which isn't to say that marriage after the fall is sinful but rather that the world after the fall is sinful, and in our fallen state, not everyone will find a suitable spouse before the age of thirty or ever. Perhaps most significant of all: if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you and so, while you may feel at times desperately lonely, you are never truly alone (John 14:16). None of the above is meant to excuse being single due to vanity, pride or worldly desires. If you're unmarried because you've been putting yourself first and not God, that's not good, and it's probably not blessed. But only you and the Lord know if that's the cause for your situation; random men on X (formerly Twitter) who are unmarried themselves don't — and frankly, they'd do well to account for their own singleness before accounting for others. I'm not dismissing very valid concerns over declining marriage and family rates. Particularly here in the states, strong families are foundational to our freedom and American way of life. This is a crisis not to be ignored. But nor are we to remove God from the crisis. Clearly, spiritual parenthood is not reserved only for a blessed few or only for women under 30. Not all of us will be married by a certain age or at all, but all of us are called to be spiritual mothers and fathers. We are not to pass judgment when we have planks in our own eyes. We are not to pretend we know better than him or to add addendums to his unchanging word. We are not to add arbitrary, secular cut-offs of 30 years when no such specifications exist in the Bible, nor are we to scapegoat women for all our problems when God's command for marriage and for sex is the same for men and women both. The world may go easier on unmarried, promiscuous men. God does not. And biological realities exist, of course, and they're different for women than they are men. But there's a difference between acknowledging biological realities and putting words in God's mouth. Singleness isn't a curse, a sin, or a failure. In the eyes of the world, it might be — especially for women. But not in the eyes of God. If we're ever to right this sinking ship in which we find ourselves all jostled about, it'll be by pointing to God instead of pointing fingers at each other. Marriage is good. But it's not required for repentance, salvation or to be in obedience to him. And the only real and lasting marriage is the one we find in him.
Telegraph
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
People with traditional values could be extremists, Canadian police warn
People with traditional values could be extremists, Canadian police have warned. Staff Sgt Camille Habel, the spokeswoman for Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), urged people to be vigilant following the arrest of four people in Quebec, who were allegedly involved in 'ideologically motivated violent extremism'. Two of those arrested in a plot to seize part of Quebec were members of the armed forces. Sgt Habel was asked by CTV what Canadians should look out for in the wake of the arrests. 'Well, radicalisation in general quite often will show by people isolating themselves and changing their behaviour, like changing what they're saying on a subject, like becoming more extremist,' she said. 'If someone you know believed in equal gender rights but all of a sudden is leaning towards traditional values, that might be a sign that they're becoming more extremist. 'But we also have to remember that having the most extremist views is perfectly legal in Canada, and that it's only acting with violence to prove that view that becomes a criminal offence.' Her remarks triggered an angry backlash among Canadian conservatives. Ron Chhinzer, a former conservative candidate, accused the RCMP of labelling mainstream views as extreme. He said the police were ignoring Left-wing extremism in an interview on True North News, a conservative media outlet. 'What we see here is our national police force utilising the most basic concept of every religious group that a strong family is a strong community…and now we're being told by our national police force that any pivot back to that, to revalue family values as we know it here in Western society, is actually moving towards an extremism,' he said. 'I've never seen, and I looked for it, really much about any mention of other extremisms like Left-wing extremism. Why is it always pivoting this way to the right way, and since when has the thousands of years of historic values that we all carry now moved to any other pivot?' 'Come and arrest me' Maxime Bernier, leader of the libertarian People's Party in Canada, challenged the police to arrest him. 'This @rcmpgrcpolice officer says not believing gender nonsense anymore and switching to more traditional values may be a sign of 'radicalisation'! Come and arrest me, woke moron, I'm clearly a radical extremist who may be about to commit some terrorist act!' he wrote on X. Marie-Eve Breton, another RMCP spokeswoman, sought to clarify her colleague's remarks. 'It's the observed and sometimes sudden change in one's behaviour, beliefs or goals as well as tolerating the use of violence to achieve those goals, that could be one of several factors that signal a shift towards extremism,' she said. 'Each instance would have to be examined on a case-by-case basis, and all indicators would have to be considered in their totality.'
Russia Today
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia never banned gays — Putin
Russia has banned propaganda promoting same-sex relations but has never sought to outlaw homosexuality itself, according to President Vladimir Putin. In 2023, the Russian Supreme Court declared the 'international LGBT movement' to be an extremist organization. 'We have only discussed a ban on propaganda. We have never spoken about banning non-traditional relationships. Moreover, we have always maintained that all people are equal,' Putin said in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin released on Sunday. 'Adults have the right to live as they choose.' Putin emphasized that he backed the 2013 law banning 'LGBTQ propaganda' for minors because he believed that 'Western mainstream ideology was being injected into the minds of the Russian people.' In 2022, the law was expanded to include adults. Although Russia is ethnically and religiously diverse, the majority 'shares common core beliefs about morality,' Putin said. 'If we stop upholding our traditional values, Russia will lose its identity and, as a consequence, its statehood — which is extremely dangerous,' he added. 'So-called global liberalism has outlived itself and transformed into a form of totalitarianism,' Putin said, arguing that many people in Western Europe and North America share his views. 'I hope that our open, honest, and clear position on these issues has emboldened like-minded people in the US and other countries,' he said.
Russia Today
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia never sought to ban homosexuality
Russia has banned propaganda promoting same-sex relations but has never sought to outlaw homosexuality itself, according to President Vladimir Putin. In 2023, the Russian Supreme Court declared the 'international LGBT movement' to be an extremist organization. 'We have only discussed a ban on propaganda. We have never spoken about banning non-traditional relationships. Moreover, we have always maintained that all people are equal,' Putin said in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin released on Sunday. 'Adults have the right to live as they choose.' Putin emphasized that he backed the 2013 law banning 'LGBTQ propaganda' for minors because he believed that 'Western mainstream ideology was being injected into the minds of the Russian people.' In 2022, the law was expanded to include adults. Although Russia is ethnically and religiously diverse, the majority 'shares common core beliefs about morality,' Putin said. 'If we stop upholding our traditional values, Russia will lose its identity and, as a consequence, its statehood — which is extremely dangerous,' he added. 'So-called global liberalism has outlived itself and transformed into a form of totalitarianism,' Putin said, arguing that many people in Western Europe and North America share his views. 'I hope that our open, honest, and clear position on these issues has emboldened like-minded people in the US and other countries,' he said.
