Putin mocks Church of England's plan to use gender-neutral terms for God trends now
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed to the Church of England's recent decision to explore gender-neutral terms for God as evidence that the West does not know what it is doing and is heading for a 'spiritual catastrophe'.
Delivering a state-of-the-nation address to the Russian people today, Putin railed against perceived Western stupidity and said the West was waging a culture war against Russian Orthodox Christian values.
'The Anglican Church plans to consider the idea of a gender-neutral God... Millions of people in the West understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe,' Putin declared.
He went on to accuse Western nations of changing historical facts to suit 'woke' ideologies and staunchly criticised the Church's recent discussions on allowing priests to 'bless' same-sex marriages.
'They distort historical facts, constantly attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, and other traditional religions of our country.
'Look at what they do with their own peoples: the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion, and the abuse of children are declared the norm. And priests are forced to bless same-sex marriages,' Putin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed to the Church of England's recent decision to explore gender-neutral terms for God as evidence that the West is heading for a 'spiritual catastrophe'
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby listens during a discussion at The Church House on February 09 in London, England
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he gives his annual state of the nation address in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday
The Church of England earlier this month announced it was considering alternatives to referring to God as 'he' after priests asked to be allowed to use gender-neutral terms instead.
Any potential alterations, which would mark a departure from traditional Jewish and Christian teachings dating back millennia, would have to be approved by the Synod, the Church's decision-making body.
It is currently unclear what would replace the term Our Father in the Lord's Prayer, the central Christian prayer which Jesus Christ is said to have instructed his followers to say together down the generations.
Rev Dr Ian Paul earlier this month told The Telegraph that any change would represent an abandonment of the Church's own doctrine: 'The fact that God is called ''Father'' can't be substituted by ''Mother'' without changing meaning, nor can it be gender-neutralised to ''Parent'' without loss of meaning,' he said.
Putin's speech in Moscow today was not limited to hammering Western religious and cultural doctrine.
He also accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine and of trying to turn it into a global conflict against Russia to gain 'limitless power' - a statement condemned by Ukraine and the United States as 'absurd'.
'We were doing everything possible to solve this problem peacefully, negotiating a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but behind our backs a very different scenario was being prepared,' Putin told lawmakers in Russia's parliament.
He said he was addressing them 'at a time which we all know is a difficult, watershed moment for our country, a time of cardinal, irreversible changes around the world, the most important historic events that will shape the future of our country and our people,' and vowed to 'systematically' continue with the offensive in Ukraine.
Ukraine quickly hit back at the Russian leader, with presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak saying the speech demonstrated the 'hopelessness of [Putin's] position' and that he was 'in a completely different reality'.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said there is 'a kind of absurdity in the notion that Russia was under some form of military threat from Ukraine or anyone else', hours before president Joe Biden was set to give a speech of his own in Warsaw.
The United States has slammed the 'absurdity' of Vladimir Putin's state-of-the-nation speech on Tuesday (pictured), in which he accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine and of trying to turn it into a global conflict against Russia to gain 'limitless power'
Attendees wait for the start of Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow
A family watches a TV broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual state of the nation address in Moscow on February 21
'This was a war of choice - Putin chose to fight it. He could have chosen not to. And he can choose even now to end it, to go home. Nobody is attacking Russia,' he added.
Putin's address comes days before the war in Ukraine passes the one-year mark on Friday. Putin ordered his forces into the country on February 24, 2022 in what the Kremlin calls a 'special military operation' instead of a war.
Since then, tens of thousands of men have been killed, and Putin, 70, now says Russia is locked in an existential battle with an arrogant West which he claims - without evidence - wants to carve up Russia and steal its vast natural resources.
The West and Ukraine reject that narrative, and say NATO expansion eastwards is no justification for what they say is an imperial-style land grab doomed to fail. It was Russia that was the aggressor and who attacked Ukraine unprovoked, they say.
Putin levelled several accusations at the Western world, claiming Ukraine's allies were trying to change the conflict into a global one to gain ultimate power, and that they were trying to divide Russian society.
Flanked by four Russian tricolour flags on either side of him, Putin also vowed Russia would press on with the invasion - which the Kremlin had expected to last a matter of days culminating in the overthrow of Kyiv's government.
'Step by step we will carefully and systematically solve the aims that face us,' he said.
The West, Putin said, had let the genie out of the bottle in a host of regions across the world by sowing chaos and war.
'The people of Ukraine themselves have become hostages of
