by Bishop Luke of Syracuse –
Yes, you should speak out. Don’t be didactic about it, but otherwise, you end up being indifferent or lukewarm. If you have the opportunity to stand up and express your displeasure, if you don’t do that, it’s a great danger. It’s a danger for your soul because the Lord says, “If you don’t confess me before men, I will deny you before the angels” (Luke 12:8-9). [Read more…]
Priestly Advice on Homosexuality and Transgenderism to Confused Young
by Fr. Lawrence Farley –
I suppose that most pastors have had the experience of a young parishioner approaching them privately and confiding in them their suspicion or decision that they were gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Such confusion is in the air, has the Nihil Obstat [official approval] of both secular culture and governmental sanction, and also bestows a kind of odd popularity, making the person part of a privileged minority of the nobly oppressed. Adolescence has always been a time of sexual ambiguity and confusion, as hormones go into overdrive and leave the young person with a multitude of conflicting emotions. [Read more…]
Transgender Surgeries Mutilate Healthy Children, as Irreversible as Lobotomies
by John Klar –
Mutilating the genitals of young children will surely one day lead to a cascade of lawsuits against the State of Vermont. These sex surgeries are as irreversible as lobotomies. [Read more…]
Orthodoxy is Not For Cowards – When Faith is Assaulted, Orthodox Christians Must Take Courageous Action
by Fr. Zechariah Lynch –
When clear matters of the faith are blatantly assaulted, every sober-minded Orthodox Christian is called to stand up and make a courageous answer.
There exists a pseudo-humility. This false idea turns humility and meekness into spinelessness and cowardice, in which a person is unable to address anything at all. [Read more…]
War on Language and Reality – Five Disturbing Trends Undermining Truth and Normality
by Theodore Dalrymple –
There are several wider cultural trends discernible in the current agitation over transsexualism, or whatever name one wishes to give it. (“Words are wise men’s counters,” said Hobbes, “they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools.” It is only fair to add that, with inflation, money could soon become the money of fools.) [Read more…]
What Does the Cross Mean for Us Today?
by Fr. Robert Miclean –
The cross of Christ, the Lord’s triumphant and life-giving death whereby He destroys death, is so important for us to understand and internalize as Orthodox Christians, that the Church gives special significance and specific Scriptural readings for both the weekend before the Feast and the one that follows. This Sunday after the Exaltation, the Church would have us ask ourselves, “what does the power of the cross mean for me personally, living in the world today?” [Read more…]
Transgenderism, The Left’s Offensive Against Children and Western Civilization
by Patricia McCarthy –
Who among us could have guessed a few years back that today gender ideology would be the clearest, most divisive matter of contention separating the American left from the right? To those reasonably grounded in reality, the notion that gender is fluid, that a Supreme Court Justice would be unable to define the word “woman,” that men can give birth, and that children can and should be mutilated if they are confused about their own gender identity is not only sheer lunacy, it is barbaric.
But the left’s commitment to those ideas is total; it’s the hill on which they are willing to die. Those who disagree with them are vilified as transphobic, haters or terrorists. [Read more…]
The Way of the Saints – Certain Characteristics Belong to All Saints
by Fr. Thomas Hopko –
There are certain characteristics which belong to all of the saints, whoever they were and whenever they lived. Among these characteristics are the following:
Every saint is God-centered and seeks in his or her life the “one thing necessary”—to glorify God by doing His will.
Every saint is Christ-centered and seeks to pattern his or her life after the life of Jesus; following Him, keeping His commandments and imitating His example. [Read more…]
The Lord Directly Commands That We Rebuke a Sinning Brother
by Archbishop Averky (Taushev) –
In order to strengthen their shaky “position”, such false preachers of this trendy, pseudo-“Christianity” like very much to abuse the Lord’s famous saying, Judge not, that ye be not judged (Matt. 7:1). This is their very favorite saying, which nevertheless does not hinder them in the least from judging and condemning in the cruelest manner all of those who do not agree with their heresy, which is no more than a totally deceitful distortion of the Gospel teachings—a fraud by which they confuse and disturb many. [Read more…]
Lazar Puhalo: Morality and Virtue are Evolutionary Constructs
Deposed Deacon Puhalo, who masquerades as an “archbishop” with the blessing and implicit consent of the OCA Synod, continues to spread heretical and false teaching, using the authority granted to him by the same Synod, to directly contradict the truth, the Scriptures, and the teaching of the Orthodox Church.
On October 26 on his Facebook page, Lazar Puhalo made several outrageous and categorically false statements about morality and virtue. Here’s a sampling of his latest non-Orthodox and non-Christian declarations:
“Morality is an evolutionary construct, it is not a product of religion.” [Read more…]