by Nick Stamatakis –
AB Elpidophoros took an unannounced trip to Greece and proceeded to legitimize gay marriage by baptizing the children of a famous gay couple (born by surrogate mother)!!
I am truly incredulous writing these lines as this initiative by the Archbishop is something that should never have happened in Orthodoxy, where all such serious decisions are made democratically – synodically.
Yet, for one more time, AB Elpidophoros chooses to shove down our throats whatever novelty pleases his globalist masters.
From the Greek Reporter (Orthodox Editors’ Note):
“Evanggelos Bousis and Peter Dundas, both of Greek descent, became the first gay couple to hold a Greek Orthodox Baptism for their children in Greece on Saturday. The couple’s children, Alexios and Eleni, were baptized by his Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America at the Panagia Faneromeni Church in the southern Athenian suburb of Vouliagmeni.”
“Yesterday was truly a special moment not only for my family and me but for our entire Greek Orthodox Church…Thank you to our great spiritual leader, his Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, for christening the babies and not turning away any child or member of our faith,” George Bousis, brother of Evanggelos Bousis, wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
But let’s take things one at a time… You can read the full story in the posts added below but in a few words here it is: On Saturday (yesterday) night AB Elpidophoros baptized the children of famous fashion designer Peter Dundas (of Norwegian descent) and Evangelo Bousis, an actor, son of billionaire Jim Bousis and Eleni Bousis of Chicago. The gay couple is married and live in Los Angeles and some years ago started this intense effort to “create a family” by a form of adoption that is used by straight or gay couples in recent years, using a surrogate mother. And in that method, they had two children, Alexios (born last year) and Eleni (newborn).
California laws facilitated the whole process as they have declared in their posts and interviews (at the end of this post). But what does it mean to be lukewarm? In this scripture, the lukewarm Christians of the church of Laodicea are being referenced, but it speaks directly to a tragedy that can affect all Christians, particularly in our time.
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Since he was enthroned (and even before he was), Elpidophoros made a conscious choice to depart from most traditions even some very sacred traditions of our Church. But let’s examine the theological issues one by one.
- Neither the Catholic nor the Orthodox Church recognizes gay marriage – and there are statements by the Pope and by the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops in America.
- For the kids to be baptized in an Orthodox Church the parents must be both Orthodox and if married, they must be married in the Church (please link here for a typical sample of prerequisites for baptism from one of our Churches).
- On this serious issue, the Catholic Church and Orthodoxy usually recognize that “guilt or sin is not inherited” and so they usually proceed to baptize all children regardless of the status of their parents.
- A serious prerequisite seems (for the particular case of surrogate mother) to be that the presence of the natural (surrogate) mother is required for a valid baptism; in most other respects it is considered equivalent to adoption. And so in our photos, you will notice that next to the gay couple, the kids, Elpidophoros, the godparents the surrogate mother was there in Athens.
- As you will read (here is the link) about such experiences in the Catholic Church, pastors have been struggling with the decision. A basic requirement from the point of view of the Church is that the parents would raise the child according to the teachings of the Church. This is a very thorny issue for Orthodoxy and Catholicism: If gay marriage is not allowed, would the parents teach that to the baptized child? Furthermore, in our case, you will see that the two gay parents, Peter Dundas and Ev Bousis, are openly against the teachings of the Church and are considering their choices a matter of progress. Says Peter Dundas in the interview with Vogue (below): “What I don’t get about the Supreme Court ruling [that a Catholic social services agency in Philadelphia could refuse to work with same-sex couples who apply to take in foster children], what is the purpose? Do they really think in 10 years from now that’s gonna fly? I don’t think so for a minute. It becomes this holding off on the inevitable, and progress in our society.”
- The requirement about raising the child (children) according to the baptismal faith became important because if the baptized child is not to be raised according to the faith then what is the meaning of baptism? Additionally, in the link w provided, many Catholic pastors were worried that if such a requirement was not there then the baptism would become a vehicle for the (indirect) recognition of gay marriage.
- The case of an illegitimate child is very clarifying here: The Church does not support abortion and the mother in such a case is considered able to raise the child according to faith. But in the case of the gay couple, this is simply not possible…
- In our case were the godparents, supermodel Bianca Brandolini and Eugenia Niarchos, Orthodox? Very doubtful in the first case… How can an orthodox baptism take place without Orthodox godparents?
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Excerpts from: Helleniscope. (Minor organizational edits and bolding of key phrases done by blog editors done to enhance readability.)
Video of this travesty:
From the GOA:
Prerequisites prior to Scheduling the Divine Mystery of Holy Baptism
https://www.greekorthodoxmansfield.org/about-us/expectations-for-baptism-requests
1. Active Church Membership
A Baptism is a privilege that requires a commitment on behalf of the parents to raise the child in the Orthodox Church. If parents are not active members of the Church, you must demonstrate a desire to become active for the sacrament to be approved. Parents are the primary role models for their children in living a committed life to Christ. Commitment to Christ is expressed in regularly attending Sunday liturgy, participating in the sacramental life of the Church and being a current Steward of the Church.
For those who are not familiar with the heretical works of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, here’s proof and another reminder that the GOA has been pushing for the Church to embrace homosexual “marriage” for a while.
On March 12, 2016, as a featured speaker at the Christian Family Life and the Challenges of Faithfulness symposium organized and sponsored by Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in California, Fr. Michael Courey called on the Orthodox Church to be more inclusive and welcome same-sex couples into her sacramental life.
Fr. Michael Courey: Orthodox Church Must be More Inclusive, Welcome Same-Sex Couples
https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2017/04/fr-michael-courey-orthodox-church-must-be-more-inclusive-welcome-same-sex-couples/
From The National Herald story:
https://www.thenationalherald.com/archbishop-elpidophoros-traveled-to-greece-to-baptize-the-children-of-greek-american-gay-couple/
John Chryssavgis, archdeacon and theological adviser to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, wrote an atrocious piece defending Apb. Elpi and his actions. This confirms yet again the depth of the spiritual darkness and apostasy raging in the GOA.
And here comes Dn Nicholas Denysenko, former director of pro-LGBT Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in California (funded by the openly-bisexual and maker of movies promoting homosexuality to teens Michael Huffington), defending the heretical baptism ceremony of “married” homosexuals that Elpidophoros performed in Greece.
Denysenko is a long time friend of infamous pro-homosexual activist Inga Leonova. Denysenko also supports other former gay Orthodox who abandoned the Church and encourages many homosexual propagandists who are fighting to normalize homosexuality and gay marriage within the Orthodox Church.
TO BAPTIZE OR NOT: GOD’S LOVE AND IMAGE
by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko
https://publicorthodoxy.org/2022/07/26/to-baptize-or-not/
Are we beginning to see a pattern here folks? Or is it just me?
Children raised by same-sex parents reported a 3-12 times higher incidence of sexual abuse than children living with both biological parents. A July 2012 scholarly, peer-reviewed study in the journal, Social Science Research, by Professor Mark Regnerus, of the University of Texas, Austin, found that:
• Children of lesbian mothers are nearly 12 times as likely to say they were sexually
touched by a parent or adult as those raised in intact, biological families.
• 31% of those raised by lesbian mothers and 25 % raised by homosexual fathers were
raped, compared to 8% of those raised in intact, biological families.
• 90% of children raised in a normative household were heterosexual, whereas 61%
raised by a lesbian parent and 71% raised by a homosexual father were not.
Further, children raised by same-sex parents were:
• Two to four times more likely to be on public assistance.
• More than twice as likely to be unemployed.
• Twice as likely to have contemplated suicide.
• More likely to seek treatment for mental illness.
• More likely to have engaged in unmarried sex.
• At greater risk of poverty, substance abuse, and criminality.
HOMOSEXUAL ADVOCATES FURIOUS
Homosexual advocates were furious about this study and as a result launched a withering attack. It was imperative for them to discredit this study and destroy Professor Regnerus’s credibility. Consequently, they charged him with scientific and scholarly misconduct, possible falsification of research, and deviating from ethical standards.
Because of the viciousness of these attacks, the University convened a four-person faculty committee and hired an outside expert in “research integrity” to conduct an inquiry. The Committee concluded that none of the allegations against Professor Regnerus were substantiated, and that there was no scientific misconduct on his part.
PIVOTAL FINDING IN REGNERUS STUDY
Children need stability in their lives while growing up. Professor Regnerus found that parents who had same-sex relationships were the least likely to exhibit such stability. In this study, children raised by same-sex parents reported the highest incidence of living in foster care, with grandparents or living on their own before 18 years of age. In fact, less than 2% of those with a mother living in a same-sex relationship reported being with their mother for all 18 years of their childhood. The instability of same-sex partnerships is such that spending significant political, legal, social and economic capital to support such relationships cannot be justified. Nor, should children be used as tools and guinea pigs to further the dubious cause of same-sex marriage.
by Reality (The newsletter of Real Women of Canada) November 2012 Edition
REGNERUS’ STUDY:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610
‘For this reason God gave them up to passions of dishonor. For both their females exchanged the natural use into that contrary to nature, and in like manner also the males left the natural use of the female, . . .’(Romans 1:26, 27)
All these passions then were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; . . . But behold how here too, as in the case of the doctrines, he (St Paul) deprives them of excuse, by saying of the women, that they changed the natural use. For no one, he means, can say that it was by being hindered of legitimate intercourse that they came to this pass, or that it was from having no means to fulfill their desire that they were driven into this monstrous insaneness. For the changing implies possession. Which also when discoursing upon the doctrines he said, They changed the truth of God for a lie. And with regard to the men again, he shows the same thing by saying, Left the natural use of the female. . . . But when God has left one, then all things are turned upside down. And thus not only was their doctrine satanic, but their life too was diabolical. . . St. John Chrysostom