Hey, have you heard this one before?

Modernity vs. religious bigotry is not solely a phenomenon here and a few other places, it's an age-old worldwide conflict.

Feminism is a "very dangerous" phenomenon that could lead to the destruction of Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has said.

"I consider this phenomenon called feminism very dangerous, because feminist organisations proclaim the pseudo-freedom of women, which, in the first place, must appear outside of marriage and outside of the family," said Patriarch Kirill, according to the Interfax news agency.

"Man has his gaze turned outward – he must work, make money – and woman must be focused inwards, where her children are, where her home is," Kirill said. "If this incredibly important function of women is destroyed then everything will be destroyed – the family and, if you wish, the motherland."

"It's not for nothing that we call Russia the motherland," he said.

A vocal supporter and close ally of Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill has helped spearhead Russia's turn toward conservative values. He supported the case against Pussy Riot, the anti-Kremlin feminist punk band tried after performing a song criticising Putin and the church's explicit support of him, inside a Moscow cathedral. During their trial, prosecutors argued, successfully, that feminism when proclaimed inside a church was heretical.

Women, worse than Stalin.

Yeah, that whole Pussy Riot prosecution worked wonders in world opinion.

Until women are allowed to take their fairly earned place in politics everywhere, men are going to be paranoid about lady-parts.

Or whatever Mitch McConnell can think up.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]