{"id":350,"date":"2008-03-21T15:37:45","date_gmt":"2008-03-21T15:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2008\/03\/ex-soviet-leade.html"},"modified":"2008-03-21T15:37:45","modified_gmt":"2008-03-21T15:37:45","slug":"ex-soviet-leade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/03\/ex-soviet-leade.html","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Soviet Leader Gorbachev Admits He’s a Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all of you who love Russia, this article will be an encouragement to you. Every time I travel to Moscow (over 50 times now), the words of Leo Tolstoy ring in my ear, “Moscow is a city filled with demons.” With the troubles Russia has faced regarding Christianity over the years, it’s good to see that a former leader is a devoted follower of Christ. Thanks to Mike Todd<\/a> for the link.<\/p>\n

“Mikail Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, admitted publicly for the first time Wednesday that he is a Christian.<\/p>\n

Rumors had circulated for decades that Gorbachev was a \u201ccloset Christian,\u201d but it was only confirmed yesterday when he made a surprise visit with his daughter Irina to pray at the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy. The former communist leader spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.<\/p>\n

“It was through St. Francis that I arrived at the church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb,” said Gorbachev, according to U.K.\u2019s Telegraph newspaper.<\/p>\n

“I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity.”
\nRead the ChristianPost article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all of you who love Russia, this article will be an encouragement to you. Every time I travel to Moscow (over 50 times now), the words of Leo Tolstoy ring in my ear, “Moscow is a city filled with demons.” With the troubles Russia has faced regarding Christianity over the years, it’s good to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia"],"yoast_head":"\nEx-Soviet Leader Gorbachev Admits He's a Christian - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/03\/ex-soviet-leade.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Soviet Leader Gorbachev Admits He's a Christian - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For all of you who love Russia, this article will be an encouragement to you. Every time I travel to Moscow (over 50 times now), the words of Leo Tolstoy ring in my ear, “Moscow is a city filled with demons.” With the troubles Russia has faced regarding Christianity over the years, it’s good to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/03\/ex-soviet-leade.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-21T15:37:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ex-Soviet Leader Gorbachev Admits He's a Christian - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/03\/ex-soviet-leade.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ex-Soviet Leader Gorbachev Admits He's a Christian - Red Letters","og_description":"For all of you who love Russia, this article will be an encouragement to you. 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}