Arabic version: كاهن وموسيقي يوضح مواقفه من المثلية الجنسية

According to The Guardian, Greek Orthodox priest and experimental musician Father Dionysios Tabakis has issued a public statement addressing his views on homosexuality and the Greek radical right. Tabakis, whose home-recorded album Paradise Metal blends drone metal and religious dubstep, said his musical expression supports “unity, love, empathy and help” for people who are needy, wronged or suffering.

Scrutiny followed two 2024 posts on the Orthodox Christian WordPress blog The Doors The Doors, written around the time Greece legalised same-sex marriage. The posts used derogatory language about gay people and described gay marriage and the same-sex marriage bill in hostile terms. In his new statement, Tabakis said his view on homosexuality was “the same as that of the Orthodox church for 2,000 years, nothing more, nothing less.”

He said homosexual people should receive love and acceptance, noting that many have experienced rejection, including from their families. Tabakis said people had come to him for confession and that he had received them with acceptance and love. He also appeared to continue describing homosexuality as a sin, saying that people sin and repent with freedom and that it is better to sin freely than to be virtuous under oppression.

Tabakis also addressed a resurfaced 2013 YouTube video showing him conducting a sanctification at the opening of a Golden Dawn office. Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party that held Greek parliamentary seats between 2015 and 2019, was criminalised in 2020 and its leadership received prison sentences for murder, assault and weapons possession. Tabakis said he acted in an official duty at the request of a superior authority and had attended ceremonies linked to other political and municipal groups. He said he opposed nationalism, citing its role in bloodshed and war.