Thou shalt have no other gods before me...
... or, if in a photograph, behind thee either.
Sr. Vassa: There's no ontological impediment to priestesses
Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentious topic by climbing up the ladder to the highest platform and then jumping into the deep end head first) dives right in and says there is no reason beyond personal preference to not have female clergy. You know, when people ask me about women in priesthood, they say, 'Sister, why can't women be priests?' And I say, 'Women CAN be priests. We don't WANT them to be priests.' Because you see, God can do anything, and the Church, by divine authority, uh, can do anything, but, the Church doesn't want to - and that's a legitimate reason. What I don't like is when we TRY to pretend that there are other reasons for this, because it's legitimate not to want something, and there are reasons not to want this - right? - but, we shouldn't pretent that there's some... reason, that, for example, the maleness...
What is this? Is this real or photo manipulation ?
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DeleteI think you could say it is nostalgic americans with Greek heritage and bishops visiting/honoring a place protestant americans built (one could say in their cultureal heyday) who were honoring what they took to be their ideological forbearers...or something ;)
Deletehttps://www.nashvilleparthenon.com/
His calling this legitimately tacky faux-idol a "magnificent effigy of Athena Parthenos" kinda does muddy the waters a bit about which God he's a priest of...
ReplyDeleteWhy would any Orthodox Bishop want a photo op with an idol?
ReplyDeleteIs it an idol? Does anyone actually worship Athena? It is. Tourist prop, but I think it needs to be more to be a real idol.
ReplyDeleteIn your opinion should Orthodox Christian clergy not visit tourist sites associated with other religions? Or is it more of the irony? Trying to clarify.
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Delete"should Orthodox Christian clergy not visit tourist sites associated with other religions?"
DeleteI suppose the answer is "it depends". What's the context? St. Paul visited Mars Hill of course, this when worshiping Athena was an actual practice. If a priest takes a holiday to Egypt with his family and they visit the Pyramids, is he scandalizing the Faith by associating in some way with idols?
This particular "idol" is a recreation by American protestants at the end of they 19th century. The real "idol" here is perhaps that particular cultures liberal protestant fusionism, which since then has vary rapidly decayed/transformed intself into secular progressivism, though the almighty $ has about an equal place in both. If there is an "idol worship" on display by these American-Greeks, it's their easy fusionism and compromise with secularism and "the American way". Athena is just a tourist prop amongst these other real idols...
So if you are so concerned about bozos behaving badly,, then stop giving them money,,,,money talks,, if there is no money to support the idiocracy,,then the message will be sent,,,,,talk does nothing,,,action to correct does
ReplyDeleteVisiting such a site is one thing, posing for a picture in front of a statue of a pagan goddess shows bad judgment.
ReplyDeleteyay, Hellenism!
DeleteExactly
DeleteSince we cant' pray to the true God in Greek Churches because some are closed, I guess Athena is the only option.
ReplyDeleteThat’s such a grotesque overstatement for polemics’ sake, it’s just plain disingenuous. A year ago when we didn’t know how to deal with the pandemic we closed churches until we figured out we could worship safely in numbers outdoors. Later we went back indoors and things are fairly normal now. No need to score points against bishops who are responsible for thousands of lives.
DeleteThis is our culture. Shut up, plebes.
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