Russian preacher says beards can 'protect men' from homosexuality

Men. If you want to look like you're straight, then grow a beard.

This is top advice from a leader of a Russian church, who apparently has never heard of the slang term "beard".

Metropolitan Kornily, a primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, which is an Orthodox Catholic sect that left the church in 1666, said in an interview with Russia's National News Service that men should stop shaving to "protect themselves from homosexuality":

God gave us the rules. It is written that God created everyone with a beard.

A Catholic West [has] completely fallen away from this concept.

But this is clear: the icons, we cannot imagine Christ or some saint without a beard.

One should not oppose its creator. It's made a monstrous thing to see men's clothing and hairstyles changing.

Kornily said, adding that the practice of beard shaving was a “departure from the sacred and holy."

He said that the religious status of being bearded has been eroded in the West, which he attributed to rising homosexuality in Russia.

Chechnya has recently been criticised for reports that gay men were being subjected to a purge.

The Guardian published the accounts of four men who said they had experienced beatings and electric shock torture in secret detention camps.

Chechen officials denied the accusations, but an international outcry took place against the reports.

HT NewsWeek

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