Bishop Hilarion gives WCC firm talking to

Complete text is here.

I would like to draw your attention to the danger of liberal Christianity,” he began. “The liberalization of moral standards, initiated by some Protestant and Anglican communities several decades ago and developing with ever-increasing speed, has now brought us to a situation where we can no longer preach one and the same code of moral conduct. We can no longer speak about Christian morality, because moral standards promoted by 'traditional' and 'liberal' Christians are markedly different, and the abyss between these two wings of contemporary Christianity is rapidly growing.”

The room grew quiet, and many eyes were no longer looking directly at Bishop Hilarion. People understood what he was saying. They knew well the elephant in the room. But, unlike Bishop Hilarion, most declined to actually talk about it, and obviously many disagreed with his calling their theology a danger.

Bishop Hilarion brought up homosexuality: “We are being told by some allegedly Christian leaders, who still bear the titles of Reverends and Most Reverends, that marriage between a woman and a man is no longer the only option for creating a Christian family, that there are other patterns, and that the church must be 'inclusive' enough to recognize alternative lifestyles and give them official and solemn blessing.”

He didn’t shy away from naming abortion: “We are being told that human life is no longer an unquestionable value, that it can be summarily aborted in the womb … and that Christian 'traditionalists' should reconsider their standpoints in order to be in tune with modern developments. We are being told that abortion is acceptable … and that the church must accommodate all these 'values' in the name of human rights.”

Bishop Hilarion did finally ask a question—several of them. However, his questions were logically rhetorical. “What, then, is left of Christianity? In the confusing and disoriented world in which we live, where is the prophetic voice of Christians? What can we offer, or can we offer anything at all to the secular world, apart from what the secular world will offer to itself as a value system on which society should be built? Do we have our own value system which we should preach, or should we simply applaud every novelty in public morality which becomes fashionable in the secular society?” As a reader of my blog of any length one knows how often I beat this issue into my posts.