Anyone speak Latvian or Russian? I'm guessing this video is in one of those two languages, and would love some translation.

I only made it about half way through the vid before I had to stop it.

Who knew? Latvian acid Christian rock hurts my ears almost as much as American acid Christian rock.

You gotta wonder how seriously they took the good Rev Hutch over there. The crowd looked very Arian to me. If they are that right wing and that homophobic, how receptive do you think they are to a big brash American black man? Granted, I don't suppose there are a ton of blacks in Latvia, but I didn't see a single racial minority of any kind in the audience (at least in the first half that I watched).

Was that Hutcherson in the video with about 1:23 left taking donations in a bucket?

SDA: Keep watching. Also, see this re: whether they embraced Hutcherson or not.

You gotta wonder how seriously they took the good Rev Hutch over there. The crowd looked very Arian to me. If they are that right wing and that homophobic, how receptive do you think they are to a big brash American black man? Granted, I don't suppose there are a ton of blacks in Latvia, but I didn't see a single racial minority of any kind in the audience (at least in the first half that I watched).

I can't really speak for Latvia, but in Estonia, I spent two weekends in the capital city of Tallinn and I did not see a single racial minority member the entire time. No diversit at all there. But they're also very pro-American, and they have a strong kinship with American culture, especially among the segments of the society who resented Soviet rule and were glad to see it end.

Eli, you should FOIA the office of faith-based initiatives for any docs that mention Hutcherson.

Is Russian. Oh man, This is better than the last Slayer show at Qwest exhibition center. That dude should open be opening for Impaled Nazarene.

SOUTH OF HEAVEN!!!

Tight beats.

What's our mayor doing in that last frame?

Latvia is Slavic, not Aryan - the Nazi occupation during WW II -- for the twinkies -- meant wholesale extermination.

They are very pro American, and this is just good Assembly of God stuff ....

After these events the sex is prolific.

Eli, Holocaust Revisionism is oh so much more than blaming gays.

The Holocaust naturally has to be given special legal protection against too much inquisitiveness by non-partisan scholars, since it is the only major event in history whose existence is supposed to be demonstrated by the ABSENCE of evidence: no unambiguous Nazi blueprints or orders, not one photo or frame of film of a gas chamber, confusing forensic traces, very few pictures of mass shootings, attested records of disappearance (never mind death) for only a fraction of the 6m, witness testimony obviously corrupted by interrogation and polluted by propaganda, or obtained decades after the event. There are plenty of people around the world who deny Americans landed on the moon. Wouldn’t it be peculiar, to say the least, if the Americans pressured governments to throw moon-landing deniers in jail for the “crime” of moon-landing denial? In other words, “lots of people don’t believe the moon landings, so we’re going to force them to”? That would be a baffling thing for Americans to do.

There is nothing conservative, or even Christian, about homophobia. Ken Hutcherson is a destructive bigot trying to wrap himself in the Christian flag. He is an embarrassment to our state, to our Seattle metro area, and to those of us who are trying however imperfectly to follow the actual teachings of our prophet Jesus.

The Holocaust naturally has to be given special legal protection against too much inquisitiveness by non-partisan scholars, since it is the only major event in history whose existence is supposed to be demonstrated by the ABSENCE of evidence: no unambiguous Nazi blueprints or orders, not one photo or frame of film of a gas chamber, confusing forensic traces, very few pictures of mass shootings, attested records of disappearance (never mind death) for only a fraction of the 6m, witness testimony obviously corrupted by interrogation and polluted by propaganda, or obtained decades after the event.

I really hope this comment isn't serious.

Eli, a fluent Russian-speaker here...

Most of the clip is in Russian. There is some Latvian mixed in, and at the end some translation into Russian of a Lavtian-speaking politician. And some babbling of tongues during the Megadeth ceremony, which is the scariest fuckin' thing I've ever seen after the Shining.

At the beginning the preacher is promoting a mayoral candidate (who is in the audience), saying that he can't think of a better candidate for mayor of Riga (the capitol of Latvia), that "you simply can't find a better candidate". After some applause he continues, "He will bring new life to our city. There will be new bridges over the Daugava (river). There will be highways circling the city. There won't be traffic jams. I'm speaking the truth." Cut to an image of Juris Lujans, candidate for mayor from the LPP (Latvia's First Party, or Latvijas Pirma Partija, which led the campaign to ban a gay pride march in Riga), with a female preacher in the background: "We ask of you God, all that you have given us, all that you have allowed us to do, that we don't take this in vain... we hope that your wisdom from above will penetrate our church, our lives, our homes, in the name of Jesus Christ...." Cut to Megadeth and really scary screaming.

Since most of it is in Russian and speeches by the Latvian politicians are in Russian, the church (or at least this particular service) is geared towards Latvia's Russian-speakers, who make up something like 40 or so percent of Latvia's population.

#10, Latvia is not Slavic, but actually Baltic. Latvia and Lithuania have a separate linguistic and cultural heritage that is only very distantly related to the proto-slavic lingustic group. While they were under Soviet control and Russification has certainly impacted their contemporary cultures to some degree, they are in fact as different from the Slavs as the Germanic and Finno-Ugric peoples and cultures. Sorry if that sounds too anal.

Thanks for the linguistic and cultural/historical interpretation Russian speaker.

In response to a question above about how seriously the Latvians took the Hutch given he's black. From what I gather, folks in the Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) tend to be as racist and xenophobic as the Ukrainians and Russians -- which is really saying something. Gypsies (or Rom), in particular are victims of virulent prejudice.

The Roma are victims of blatant racism throughout Europe, not just the Baltics. Truth be said, the worst are the Rumanians ( not going there again) and Bulgarians, but you experience that crap all over Europe. Most dont even see it as racism. Funny thing being a Latino traveling in eastern europe.

I still say the music is more Slayer than Megadeath.

I've actually gone to Russia with black Americans. To give you an idea of what it's like, as we were walking out of the airport there I heard things like "hey, look at Sambo", "ooh, a chocolate rabbit" and "I thought Vanya killed the last n****r here - I guess he'll have to do it again" (seriously).

Now, not having been to Latvia I don't want to pretend I'm any expert on the situation there. But I have been all over Russia, and know a lot of people from the former Soviet Union. There are VERY few people of African descent in that part of the world. Outside of Moscow and a few other large cities, most people only see blacks on TV. To see a living, breathing person of African descent would be like someone in Seattle seeing Santa Claus and his reindeer land on Boren. If you introduce people, most times they will be friendly to your face, but prejudices and stereotypes are VERY deeply ingrained in many people. I would suspect that the good reverend's hosts would have made an accepting environment for him, and assuming that he doesn't speak Russian or Latvian, that he might not experience a high degree of blatant racism. But let him loose on the streets at night by himself, and he'd very likely find out that prejudice in Latvia is not confined to Gays, Jews and Roma. The LPP, which was the political party present at the church in the video, is known as the "Preacher's Party". They are trying very hard to ban gay marriage (even though it's not legal in Latvia), and led the charge against Riga's first gay pride parade. They will probably take just about whatever support they can get, even from a black American. I would suspect, though, that their acceptance of blacks in general only goes so far, and that once they're done with the gays they'll turn on the next minority group.

Another scary thing, Hutch is allying himself with Slavic churches in Washington State to fight gay rights. I think the Stranger has cross-posted this before:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/faithvalues/2003543693_hutcherson27m.html

hey Russian speaker...ditto your experiences in Russia.

I also heard a variation on the Vanya killing the last n****r comment, but couldn't get a clear expalanation from Rooskie friends about what this was in reference to. Can you help?

gnossos, I think it was one drunk guy's sorry attempt at a joke to his drunk friend as we were leaving the airport... we flew into a city where black people are, to say the least, uncommon. There had been a much-publicized beating of a black foreigner earlier that year in the same city, and his reference was probably to that.

I'm not sure about Latvia, but I imagine that the population of black people there is about the same as Antarctica.

Though there certainly is no lack of bigotry in Latvia, I would note that the situation is not nearly as bad as it is in Russia (the "Apostle" Ledyaev, by the way, doesn't even speak Latvian -- he is a Kazakhstan-born Russophone).

As to the Roma -- yes, they do suffer from prejudice throughout Eastern Europe, but Latvia is comparatively better. In fact, most of the Courland Gypsies owe their existence to the Mayor of Sabile, who saved them from being slaughtered by the Nazis. Latvia was also the first Eastern European country to elect a Gypsy to Parliament.

You can read more about Latvia's Roma my blog.