Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Russia Orthodox Church Deacon: Xenophobia is KEWL

The increasing number of marriages between ethnic Russians and members of other nationalities and faiths threatens the survival of the Russian nation and should be actively opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church and all those concerned about the fate of this community, according to Deacon Andrey Kurayev.

In an interview posted on the “Russkaya nedelya” portal today, the influential churchman says that such marriages helped expand the membership of the Russian nation “when our faith was strong” but now threaten it because the faith of most Russians who enter into such unions is “weak.”

And that means that in contrast to a century ago when most such marriages led the non-Orthodox partner to convert to Christianity and the non-Russian to re-identify with the dominant ethnic community, now that means that it is often the case that the trends are going in the opposite direction.

That is serious, Kurayev argues, because the number of interethnic marriages in Moscow alone has risen from one in six at the end of Soviet times to one in four now, and they have changed in their composition as well, with the share of ethnic Russian women marrying members of Caucasus and Central Asian nationalities rising significantly.

Although Kurayev devotes most of his argument to religious and ethnic values, he makes it clear that he is concerned about the racial consequences of such marriages. “If defending a population of white bears,” he says, “is considered permissible, “then why should anyone be gladdened by the disappearance of anthropological differences?”

Moreover, he continues, “geneticists have calculated that the last blonde on our planet will be born 150 years from now somewhere in Finland”


If xenophobia is kewl, so too is outright stupidity.

James and I have pointed out why the "beige planet" isn't going to happen.

However, I have encountered this with a relative of my wife's. She really didn't like the idea that Lyuda had married a nonSlav and moved away from her homeland (not in that order). She even offered to take in Lyuda and Avrora if they'd come back (and ditch me). That individual and I have reached some accommodation since then, but ... it's still a sticky bit.

I've known more than a few Ukrainian men to have the same grumbles over Lyuda, too, but they're just sore looooooooooooooooooooooooosers. ahem. ;)

I have to admit that Avrora does not think of herself as Ukrainian or Russian, even though she's 3/8's and 1/8 respectively. She's Pure Product of America in her precocious lil mind. It's her California, darnit!

FWIW, she's also 1/8 Italian, 1/8 Irish, 1/8 German, and a plethora tof Scottish, French and other traces...possibly even Native American since we were pre 1700 exiles here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My wife's family is ethnically Jewish with her father emigrating from Hungary when he was five and her mother emigrating from the Dominican Republic in her early teens. Her parents were very lucky to get in to the DR as only a few Jews were allowed in to escape the Nazis and they were some of them.

When I first met her family I wondered if they'd ever say anything negative about me not being Jewish. Nope. In the three years I've known them I haven't heard a negative word about it from any of them. (Mind you, it's not a large extended family, for obvious reasons).

God bless the American melting pot!