From “Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies” by David P. Gushee
While there is a distinctively Russian dimension to these themes, they also resonate elsewhere. An authoritarian male Christian head of government resolutely stands athwart history, sets his feet firmly in holy national soil, and resists left-liberal ideology in order to defend not just one formerly Christian nation but Christian civilization itself. Homosexuality is taken to be the primary symbol of godless decadence that must be resisted. Democracy is sacrificed to this project, in part because Western liberal democracy is now understood to be a Trojan horse for godless left-liberalism, and in part because a Christian holy war to defeat the enemies of God is far more important. Various versions of this account animate the politics of every country we are considering in this book. Many millions of Christian people find such visions compelling.