It is really a shame that so many put politics before religion. Having political ideas and trying to find loopholes to fit them into the faith doesn't work. Our faith should influence our politics, not the other way around.
I know you would like to turn this into a debate about whether Orthodox should care about civil issues and how gay marriage relates to that, but if people were to actually read and see what I said in my posts, they would realize that is not what I was talking about at all.
I am surprised that the Russian Orthodox Church would use a man in their ads who espouses views that the Church has unabashedly condemned.
The Russian Orthodox Church has condemned civil gay marriage within the state. Not just condemning gay marriage as it relates to the Orthodox Church, but within the state, as a
civil issue. Therefore, I said it was odd that the Russian Orthodox Church used a man who supported civil gay marriage and condemned churches that do not agree with gay marriage (his own Orthodox Church would fall under that umbrella) in their ads as a model of Orthodoxy.
This I represented in my post which says:
The Russian Orthodox Church used Tom Hanks in one of their Orthodoxy ads.
The Russian Orthodox Church has combatted gay marriage being performed at all within the Russian Federation.
Tom Hanks supports legalizing gay marriage, and has sweepingly condemned churches that disagree with gay marriage.
That is what I meant. That is what I said. Nothing more.