Friday, April 2, 2021

Thou shalt have no other gods before me...

... or, if in a photograph, behind thee either.

18 comments:

  1. What is this? Is this real or photo manipulation ?

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    2. I 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 ;)

      https://www.nashvilleparthenon.com/

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  2. 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...

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  3. All GREEK gods count as God. Stands to reason. :-(

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  4. Why would any Orthodox Bishop want a photo op with an idol?

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  5. Is 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.

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  6. In 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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    3. "should Orthodox Christian clergy not visit tourist sites associated with other religions?"

      I 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...

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  7. 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

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  8. Visiting such a site is one thing, posing for a picture in front of a statue of a pagan goddess shows bad judgment.

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  9. Since we cant' pray to the true God in Greek Churches because some are closed, I guess Athena is the only option.

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    1. That’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.

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  10. This is our culture. Shut up, plebes.

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