How to Survive the End of Comfortable Christianity

How to Survive the End of Comfortable Christianityby Fr. John Moses –
This time persecution will come under the banner of equality, uniqueness, and freedom.

If you were born in America, or if you have been here for a while, you will eventually hear about what is called “the American idea.” I recently heard Bono, the lead singer of the group U2, speak about this. The American idea holds that we are all equal, and each person is unique. Each person has the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. Bono said that it is a gift not just for Americans, but for the world.

Well, the times they are a changin’. This American idea has evolved into the idea that the right of self-expression is now the highest American virtue, and it trumps all other rights. The right to assembly no longer means that I can meet with people who share a common interest. [Read more…]

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Orthodox Christianity: Fighting Off the Heretics Since 33 A.D.

Rebuke and Publicly Denounce Blasphemers - St Nicholas Slaps Arius Iconby Fr. Gabriel Bilas –
For the early Church Fathers and Mothers, false teachings in the Church were taken very seriously. The Saints would say that heresy was even a greater sin than murder!

After an incredible week of services during the first week of Great Lent, we find ourselves temporarily taken away from the solemnity of Lent, and into the celebration of Orthodoxy Sunday! We remember all of the countless men and women who have kept the Truth and Life of Orthodox Christianity alive throughout the centuries, against all of the enemies of the Church; all of the heretics that have sought to water down, confuse, and divide Christ’s flock.

This week, while we remember and praise the heroes of our faith, we are reminded of our own tremendous calling that is given to all Orthodox Christians. From the very first day we are brought into the Church, whether it is as an infant or an adult, we are all made a part of a living link, a living tradition, and unbroken chain that can be traced back to Christ and His Apostles. Being a part of this Divine Connection, we are each charged with making sure that we take this gift that has been given to us, and pass it down intact and unchanged, to those who are coming after us. [Read more…]

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Fr. Josiah Trenham Defends Himself, His Wife, and His Church Against Defamatory and Malicious Attacks by Giacomo Sanfilippo

Fr. Josiah Trenham Defends Himself, His Wife, and His Church Against Defamatory and Malicious Attacks by Giacomo SanfilippoAn Orthodox Christian priest known for his out-spoken defense of the Orthodox Church’s view on marriage and abortion, has sued the editors of an online publication for defamation.

Thomas More Society Special Counsel are representing Fr. Josiah Trenham, along with his wife, Orthodox Christian Ministries, and St. Andrew Orthodox Christian Church, in federal court.

Trenham and his ministry are suing self-proclaimed gay rights activist Peter “Giacomo” Sanfilippo and other editors of the online publication Orthodoxy in Dialogue for outrageously false, malicious, and defamatory statements and accusations concerning the priest and his ministry [see: Giacomo Sanfilippo’s Unholy Vendetta Against Faithful Orthodox Priests and Teachers].

The lawsuit details how Sanfilippo has repeatedly attacked Trenham via the online website Orthodoxy in Dialogue. [Read more…]

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Homosexual Unions or Intercourse Can Never Be Redeemed or Blessed by God

Fr. Thomas Hopko: Homosexual Advocates Should be Denied Communion in the Orthodox Churchby Fr. Thomas Hopko –
While sexual intercourse between a man and a woman has the possibility of being a pure and proper actualization of divine love when enacted in a godly manner, homosexual intercourse does not.

From Chapter Six: Same-Sex Attraction and Passion in
Christian Faith and Same Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections book by Fr. Thomas Hopko

  • Orthodox Christian Scriptures and saints universally testify that when the attraction between persons of the same sex is godly, genital activity is precluded, because divine love cannot be expressed in sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex.
  • This is so because same-sex intercourse—however it is enacted, and however committed the persons are to each other, and however “monogamous” their relationship is, and however much they believe that they love each other with godly love—can never be complementary, unifying, life-creating and life-enhancing in the ways that God intended human sexual intercourse to be between a man and a woman. [Read more…]
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Sin Cannot Be Blessed by the Church

Fr Photious Avant Sin Cannot Be Blessed by the Churchby Fr. Photius Avant –
Sin itself, of any variety, cannot be blessed by the Church. It can’t be. Sin is destructive. It is corrosive. It has within it the principle of death, of dissolution.

“Thine they were. Thou gavest them Me and they have kept Thy Word” says the Lord Jesus Christ in His high priestly prayer to the Father (John 17:6). And it is the Word, Jesus Christ Himself, which the Father gave to the apostles, Whom the apostles have kept.

And, it is the Word Jesus Christ Who is defended at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325 which we commemorated yesterday. A terrible heresy had disrupted the peace of the Church: the heresy of Arius. Now, he was not the first heretic and certainly not the last. But, heresy, all heresy, is destructive because in changing what we understand about Christ, in changing about what we understand about the Holy Trinity, the end goal gets changed. The goalposts have been moved. [Read more…]

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Living in an Age of Many False Teachers

Fr. Seraphim Rose - Living in an Age of Many False Teachersby Fr. Seraphim Rose –

Never has there been such an age of false teachers as this pitiful twentieth century, so rich in material gadgets and so poor in mind and soul.

Every conceivable opinion, even the most absurd, even those hitherto rejected by the universal consent of all civilized peoples — now has its platform and its own ‘teacher.’

A few of these teachers come with demonstration or promise of ‘spiritual power’ and false miracles, as do some occultists and ‘charismatics’; but most of the contemporary teachers offer no more than a weak concoction of undigested ideas [Read more…]

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LGBTQ War on Children: The Queering Of Young America

by Rod Dreher –
The fact that between my generation and my children’s, the number of self-identified transgenders has increased by 800 percent, testifies to the final victory of the Sexual Revolution in destroying all the traditional sources of the Self.
LGBTQ War on Children: The Queering Of Young America [Read more…]

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Mari Iakovou Mars Proudly and Publicly Celebrates LGBTQ Pride Month

Mari Iakovou Mars Proudly and Publicly Celebrates LGBTQ Pride Monthby Jennifer Davis –
As she has done in previous years, Presbytera Mari Iakovou Mars is enthusiastically, proudly and publicly celebrating and promoting homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride for LGBTQ Pride Month this year also.

On her Facebook page, on June 2, 2021 Mars wrote:
“Happy pride, y’all!!! To all my LGBTQ+ family, friends, and clients: I see you, I love you, and I will never stop fighting for you.”

Mars is the wife of an active Orthodox priest in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOAA).

Mars, Presbytera Mari Marilisse, is married to Fr. Christos P. Mars who currently serves at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Atlanta, Georgia. [Read more…]

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Don’t Be Surprised by World’s Hostility to Orthodox Christianity

Dont Be Surprised by Worlds Hostility to Orthodox Christianityby Fr. Geoffrey Korz –
…
We should not ever, ever be surprised when the world responds to Orthodox Christianity with skepticism and hostility.

We should not be surprised when the world tries to reinterpret the Bible, or the Church Fathers, or the lives of the saints, to fit some modern agenda.

We should not be surprised when even so-called Orthodox people follow the example of the parents of the Blind Man, and try to make themselves friends of the world, and won’t say a word that might cause waves with the world.

That’s the way it’s always been. Even since the time of Christ Himself. Even with the Apostles, when you think about it. [Read more…]

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The Meaning of Life: Follow Christ, Seek the Holy Spirit, Desire Salvation

The Meaning of Life: Follow Christ, Seek the Holy Spirit, Desire Salvationby Fr. Gabriel (Hieromonk) –
The answer to the question, the meaning of our life, is the Holy Spirit of God being poured out upon us. It is our calling on the name of the Lord and being saved.

Throughout all the ages of human history, mankind has been ceaselessly occupied with a single question: why? What is the meaning of life, what is the purpose of birth and death, of love and of suffering? Why have we appeared in this world which is so full of both beauty and misery? Men and women of every culture and nation, of every philosophy and religion, have sought for countless centuries to find the answer to this question, and still there are those who seek to find it today despite the modern cacophony of triviality which has all but overwhelmed us. [Read more…]

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