These prominent Americans are speaking at far-right Russia conference linked to sanctioned oligarch

[riversedge]

This scares me. RWingers seem to be popping up everywhere.

Link to tweet

John Eastman, Jim Garlow, and Sean O'Hare are among the Americans slated to speak at next month's World Congress of Families conference in Verona, Italy. PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY, ILLUSTRATION BY DIANA OFOSU


https://thinkprogress.org/here-are-the-americans-speaking-at-a-hate-group-friendly-with-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs-bb7564932db2/

Clarence Thomas's former clerk and a megachurch pastor leading Bible study groups in Washington decide to join the World Congress of Families.



Mar 4, 2019, 8:00 am


The World Congress of Families (WCF), a notorious anti-LGBTQ group that’s reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, is hosting its annual conference in Verona, Italy next month. And a number of Americans have decided to join them.

Among the Americans slated to speak at the WCF conference are John Eastman, former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and now a professor at Chapman University, and megachurch pastor Jim Garlow. According to the WCF’s roster, they will also be joined by Mike Donnelly, a higher-up at the right-wing Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), and Sean O’Hare, the chairman of one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups aimed at American youth.

Donnelly confirmed to ThinkProgress that he would be speaking at the WCF conference next month. O’Hare, Garlow, Eastman, and Chapman University did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment.


There’s nothing illegal about these Americans attending the upcoming conference, which will be hosted at the end of March. But WCF is currently the most prominent group linking the American religious right and sanctioned Russian oligarchs, and just a few months ago, the group hosted a Russian official sanctioned by both the Trump and Obama administrations.


The WCF — which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group — is a joint Russian-American project dating to the mid-1990s. It has reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs like Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin, the latter of whom is a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Multiple media outlets, and even WCF’s own promotional material, have all linked Yakunin to the group, but a representative for Yakunin denied to ThinkProgress that Yakunin has funded the group.)..........................................






Moldovan President Igor Dodon celebrated the end of the World Congress of Families by posing with two dozen young girls. CREDIT: CASEY MICHEL
Christian fundamentalists gathering in Moldova want you to know they’re not extremists

[Iliyah]

1. History repeating itself . . .

Ya think we would have learned from past failures.

[vlyons]

2. The Christian Taliban works diligently

for the return of Jesus to rule and reign over the world. Jesus, the guy, who reportedly sits at the right hand of their God Jehovah, who is a very jealous god, who will wipe out all the competition, including women and children. I personally, do not want anyone to rule and reign over me or you. As a Buddhist, I don't believe in a creator God. It's not someone else's job to tame and discipline my mind. Those Evangelicals don't live up to the Beatitudes of Jesus. They practice prosperity for themselves only. They are a cult of grifters, who run family business scams, called churches that do not pay any taxes.