New podcast: Finding the Freedom to Live

"Idolatry, then, is when do not see through the veils of created things. Idolatry is when we see the created thing only in itself, and instead of seeing the power and glory of God in what is created, we invest the creation itself with power. This is what we see in much pagan religion. And in pornography we specifically see the flesh and we don’t see through the veil of the flesh to the deeper reality behind. So we do not see an image-bearer of God, but rather flesh for our own satisfaction.

"And we can go further. We can see that this “Wrong way of seeing” is actually theft. We steal from God when we take his image and separate it from its physical manifestation: we steal the image of God. We also steal from the other person when we close our eyes to the person’s true ultimate significance and regard just the flesh, which we manipulate for our own purposes. And finally, this is also theft from ourselves as we steal from ourselves the relationship we are supposed to find with God through his creation."

With lines like that, I can see this will be an enjoyable series to dig into. Give the below episode a try. Bonus points for a decidedly posh accent.

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(AFR) - Exploring how Orthodoxy illumines relationships, intimacy and sexuality in ways that revitalize our freedom and integrity

Finding the Freedom to Live (FtFtL) grew out of a desire to help Eastern Orthodox Christians integrate our lives and relationships through a deeper understanding of our Tradition and theology. We focus particularly on intimacy, relationships and sexuality, but our concern is with the whole person. One priest described the FtFtL pastoral program as “a second and deeper catechesis, focusing on an Orthodox concept of the human person.”

We hope these podcasts will encourage us to bring our Orthodox theology into conversation with our daily experience in contemporary society and help us find a path that enables us to overcome barriers to our freedom to live with integrity in ways that are faithful to the image of God we all bear.

Transcripts are available at ftftl.org.

Below is one interesting episode from the podcast series.

Pornography, Iconography, and Idolatry

Pornography has become a social, spiritual, and physical epidemic in the world. Andrew's first podcast is part one of a series of conversations which will identify the real issues we must face in dealing with pornography from an Orthodox Christian perspective. This first episode in that series talks about pornography, iconography, and idolatry. A transcript of this episode is available here.