Sunday, March 4, 2018
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Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentiou... -
Sister Vassa recently posted an advice piece to her Facebook page (the letter itself has been removed from Facebook and she is actively b... -
NEW YORK: July 12, 2013 ( ROCOR ) - An Extraordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops is Held On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, an extraordinar... -
When the official letter makes it to the metropolitan website, I'll make the necessary updates below. GREEK ORTHODOX METROPOLIS OF DE...
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This was sent to me and deserves a read. You can read the Calivas article here . We can all agree that we are living in unusual times. Howev...
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It should not be a surprise, with the advent of the new Divine Liturgy texts approved by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, that the peoples' ...
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Bishop Innokenty of Ussuri, a vicar of the Vladivostok diocese, visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from October 9 through... -
This is sadly part of a very common occurrence in Kosovo. Vandals enter churches, set them on fire, then they urinate and defecate in them. ...
Powerful. What is the context and who is this guy?
ReplyDeleteAmerican Enterprise Institute with governor of Kentucky.
DeleteLOL, as if the AEI’s policies aren’t responsible for this “cultural breakdown”
ReplyDeleteI meant to add that yes, the AEI does hold to some consumerist and other philosophies that derive from 17/18th century anthropology (i.e. radical self determination, etc.). That said, this is merely symptomatic of the larger culture of death and it is not like the questioners "progressive" ideology is any less "responsible" for this culture of death. At this political/policy level there is no "innocent" ideology, not in our present culture that I can see - unless one wants to point to a Christian ideology or culture, but Christianity itself has been put in its place (i.e. the "private" sphere) by both the left and the right long long ago...
DeleteThe questioner, being a "progressive" in religious/social/political thought, does not even really grasp the "cultural breakdown". For her the problem is simply the 2nd amendment (and/or other government laws/policy). Tweak this or that law/policy, and mass murder goes away or is "fixed".
DeleteThe shear naivete of her position is hard to get past. Throw in the moral arrogance (her smirking smugness) and you see how difficult it is to even communicate with such folks. The Gov of Kentucky does very very well I think...
The governor’s response is absolutely absurd given the AEI promotes neoliberalism. And it’s neoliberalism’s horrific atomization of society over the last 40yrs (remember what Maggie said on this?) that contributes more to our current state of affairs more than a general turning away from God. I would say neoliberalism has contributed more to removing Christ from society than any boogie man progressive.
DeleteWhen you actively build a world that says your worth as a human is determined by your economic usefulness, a world that rewards those who can extract the most value from their fellow human beings, a world that requires the least of our brothers and sisters to work multiple low wage jobs just to barely survive you can not come along and blame those you abuse for their own problems, and that’s exactly what the governor does.
Daniel,
DeletePerhaps you mean the modern libertarian movement (as a political force) than "neoliberalism", because such a thing infects the "progressive" left as much as it does the "conservative" right (more so actually). It is the left who has commidified the unborn, commodified the old and sick. I am in medicine - the "affordable care act" is a product of the left and it is devastating our system). Yes yes, their is plenty of guilt to go around.
As far as your placing either the left of the rights political policy before/worse "a general turning away from God", I would say that modern Americans tend to be very political animals, and as such get things exactly backwards as you have here.
One of the symptoms of secularism is what the catholic priest/commentator Richard John Neuhaus noted 30 years ago - the reversal of the natural hierarchy of:
politics rests on culture, and culture rests on religion
into:
religion rests on culture, and culture rests on politics
In the secular world view, everything at bottom is political - including our very humanity...
I guess as a reminder that the bulk of the “left” in America is more center-right than anything else. Only in that context can you say the left wants to commodify every aspect of life. However, a cursory look at truly leftist politics will show our desire to decommodify all aspects of life.
ReplyDeleteNow I know the bulk of the left isn’t Christian (and those I know personally are not anti-Christian), but that does not prevent me from approaching politics with eyes towards creating a more humanizing culture because it is closer to the Gospel than tripe peddled by the likes of AEI
"However, a cursory look at truly leftist politics will show our desire to decommodify all aspects of life. "
DeleteSuch statements do not withstand a cursory look at actual policy positions (i.e. abortion, homosexualism, marriage, medicine, and the general reach and $cost$ of governance)...
If we wish to live the Gospel in our public (ie political) lives we really do have to reject the politics of reaction. We have to reject a politics of avarice and fear. Instead we must embrace a Christian politics of love that sees all people fed, and clothed, and housed, and cured, and comforted for no other reason than they are created in the Image and Likeness.
ReplyDeleteThe 40yr experiment of anti-Christian politics has exasperated our alienation from one other. That’s why kids don’t see their parents, that’s why pornography has exploded, that’s why people go into schools and kill people.
Yes, everyone needs Christ, but that’s easy to say when you don’t have to worry about where you’re next meal is coming from, or where you’re sleeping tonight, or if every single day isn’t an existential crisis.
Christian "politics", if there can be such I thing, is not a politics of absurdity. To link the anti-Christian politics of "the last 40 years" to poverty is absurd. The objective truth of the matter is that western civilization of the last 40 years is the richest, best housed and fed civilization in human history. Fixing poverty is not even what Christianity is about! It is not even a prerequisite for Holiness - on the contrary it is wealth that is the enemy of Holiness!! This is Scripture and Christianity 101 - did you even go to Sunday School? Where in Heavens name do you get your ideas?!?!
Delete