What Was Maria Butina Doing at the National Prayer Breakfast?

[UpInArms]

It also should not be surprising that at least some in the breakfast crowd were positively disposed to the Russian visitors. The bond between America’s Christian nationalists and the Russian government goes back a long way, long before anyone conceived of the possibility of a Trump administration.

Paul Weyrich belongs on any shortlist of the individuals who created the religious right as we know it today. He was a central figure in the founding of numerous conservative organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, the Moral Majority and the Council for National Policy. In the 1970s, Mr. Weyrich was one of the strategists who first conceived of outreach to evangelical churches in order to recruit activists to socially conservative causes. He was also among the first to grasp the potential for an alliance with religious conservatives in Russia and Eastern Europe.

[tanyev]

1. Preying.

[HipChick]

2. Beat me to it..

[peekaloo]

7. .

[dalton99a]

8. +1

[Scurrilous]

3. Kissing grits?

[tonyt53]

4. I'll be blunt. She is fucking her way to the top. What better place than with a bunch of hypocrites.

[ronatchig]

5. Playing

round the world in the cloak room,maybe. remember these people are salt of the earth power mongers afterall.

[Hortensis]

6. Russia "defenders of 'Christian civilization' against a secular, decadent West."

Another good article explaining those "what the hell's happening" questions. LGBTQ equality under the law is causing great anxiety and is a hugely motivating factor among Christian social conservatives.

Thanks, UpInArms.

In 2016, the World Congress of Families, a group that formed in Russia in 1997, held an event in Tbilisi, capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Participants cast President Putin’s Russia and the Orthodox Church as defenders of “Christian civilization” against a secular, decadent West.

In the run-up to the 2016 election, the passion for Russian values among America’s religious extremists grew still more ardent. ...

Although the religious right’s affection for Mr. Putin appears to center on a shared disgust with “the homosexual agenda” and other so-called family issues, it is impossible to overlook the attraction that the Russian leader’s authoritarian style has for his American admirers. ...

At the same time that it has been infiltrating the political system of the United States, the Russian government has sought to cultivate and influence far-right groups in Europe. It turns out that anti-L.G.B.T. politics are an effective tool in mobilizing religious nationalists everywhere, which is in turn an excellent way to destabilize the western alliance ...

Anti-L.G.B.T. politics are in this respect no different from the “gun rights” advocacy that Ms. Butina is accused of using to build a bridge between Russian and American leaders ...

The religious right thinks that it’s using Mr. Putin to advance its aims. But a far more plausible interpretation is that he is using them — to infiltrate, divide and weaken our country.

[peggysue2]

9. Because . . .

Guns, God and Gays always play well in Republican circles. Butina obviously found her next mark/target for maximum effect.

A very busy woman!

[malaise]

10. Same as the rest of them

PREYING on the sheeple.

[OnDoutside]

11. You gotta pray just to make it today.....

[UCmeNdc]

12. Building a spy network

[HAB911]

13. God and Guns

That is all