Like all faith traditions today, secularism has besieged the Orthodox, and increasingly the younger Orthodox are ready to chuck the olden Faith and embrace the modern secular paganism, especially where south of the waistline issues are concerned. Inadvertently, the Orthodox also aid that by insisting they never jump into politics, but then diving headfirst into things like BLM if they can make the West look bad. America looking bad being a bonus point. Remember, the Left can always bet on 1/3 of its opponents to join the Left at any point in a revolution. BTW, one of my beefs with the Orthodox was their almost pathological resentment, if not hatred, for anything west of the Danube.
With that said, many older Orthodox are fighting the good fight, and doing so much more openly than we're seeing in the West, and especially in the United States:
That comes from being in a tradition where some of your colleagues can still show their scars from being tortured during the days of the Soviet Union.
Fact is, most of us in the US, including our leaders, never imagined we'd face actual persecution for resisting the emergent secular society. Lulled by eternal chanting of never ending tolerance and respect for diversity, we imagined whatever grave evils they indulged in, they would leave us alone.
It doesn't help that those who long ago sold themselves to this new tyranny have said, without saying it, that anything less than shaved heads, striped pajamas, and two steps from a gas chamber doesn't count as persecution. For dissenters of course. Designated minority groups, when in line with the latest progressive dogma, can declare themselves the most persecuted people in history if a conservative says they're wrong. And suddenly those same leftwing believers will weep and lament and declare their plight the worst in history.
So it's a bit of a one-two punch. Suddenly we are faced with a movement with increasing power to persecute any who dissent, mixed with those who betrayed righteousness and our posterity by making it clear that no matter your suffering, they will support it.
Because of that, I think we're seeing a great many leaders invoke the sacred ostrich when it comes to the evils we're seeing. See no evil, hear no evil, run like a baby from the evil, head in the sand at all times.
Again, this isn't to say all Orthodox are resisting, or even all Orthodox leaders. The Orthodox have a long, proud history of throwing their sheep into the wolves' den to save their skin. But among those who are resisting, they are far more prepared to speak openly, directly, and truthfully while addressing the egregious evils of our day.
I don't understand where the persecution is. Nobody is forcing Orthodox people to marry people of the same gender, use birth control, stop having children, etc. Everyone is absolutely entitled to choose his or her own path without judgment. What is far more often the case, however, is that Orthodox people DO want to impose THEIR values and beliefs on everyone else and prevent others from making marital or other choices THEY disagree with.
ReplyDeleteThe persecution comes in many forms. In the workplace, many of these ideals are mandated at the threat of retaliation if you don't conform. In terms of schools, children within them are being hit with varying degrees of such indoctrination, which is itself troubling. Add to it the sudden move to push children into gender confusion, put them into therapy or even surgery to alter their bodies, and now pushing to keep parents from being able to stop it. Meanwhile our secular society has strove for decades to keep any religious influence at bay, while secularism itself is taught, promoted, assumed and proselytized. And all this while using anything from lawsuits to threat of termination for those who don't conform. Remember, we live in a country that acts as if women live in the Handmaids Tale when the idea of unchecked abortion is questioned, black Americans are practically in leg irons when someone suggests perhaps the black community should reevaluate its approach to social norms given the staggering crime rates there, and when someone even suggests there could be problems with homosexual lifestyles in light of issues like AIDS, we're told the LGBTQ community is practically living in a death camp. By those standards? Yeah, the above easily warrants the label persecution.
DeleteYou David, nailed it. A few years ago the big lie from the homosexuals was they just wanted to be left alone and live their own lives in peace. Now if one doesn't bend to their demands persecution in forms that you mentioned above is a constant monkey on our back.. We now have to believe and accept their lifestyles as normal under threat. There is a reason that even homosexuals in some circles are pushing back against those who promote gender dysphoria as just a normal lifestyle that people are forced to accept.
Delete"Orthodox people DO want to impose THEIR values and beliefs on everyone else and prevent others from making marital or other choices THEY disagree with."
And how pray tell will they impose their beliefs on others? Are they in congress? Are there Metropolitans in the justice dept? Is there an Orthodox squad ready to arrest those who resist Christian values? Are they threatening to behead them? They can only spread the Gospel and the Truth of Christ in hopes to turn lives around. And if they can't dissuade a group to repent do they prosecute them? Shoot them? Ruin their lives?
NO one is forcing ANYone from belonging to a Christian church that teaches and lives by the Gospels. If one doesn't agree with the Catholic Church or Orthodox Church no one is forcing them to join OR stay. They don't like the choices the Church teaches then no one is forcing to remain. Why is it that the Church has to change it's teachings to accommodate those who reject them? Do you join the Lion's Club or the Rotary then tell them to change their rules? The power the Church has is through Christ, not the US Constitution.
That was me above
DeleteBob, I'm often amused at the old 'who's persecuting', when we live in a nation that will say the LGTBQ is practically one step from the showers despite having the weight of our institutions of power and influence at their back, and the ability to impose their views on others, sometimes with the ability to see actual retaliation for dissenters. Meanwhile, those who are threatened with such retaliation, or job termination, or other forms of punishment are mocked for saying they are persecuted. Usually, that charge is made by people on the Left who have made it clear they will go anywhere the Left goes, full stop.
DeleteAs they say, the ones who accuse others of wrongdoing are usually the ones who are guilty of the wrongdoing. Projection of ones self to ones enemy.
DeleteNo doubt a common tendency across the board. But like so many things, it seems to be a universal characteristic among those on the Left who will shove an issue like homosexuality in our faces, and when we say we disagree, will scream 'stop obsessing about our sex lives!'.
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