Author: Fr. John Chagnon

Worth Considering…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

More than forty years ago, that remarkable historian Christopher Dawson, in his book Religion and Culture, expressed this hard truth strongly. “The events of the last few years,” Dawson wrote, “portend either the end of human history or a turning point in it. They have warned us in letters of fire that our civilization has been tried in the balance and found wanting-that there is an absolute limit to the progress than can be achieved by the perfectionment of scientific techniques detached from spiritual aims and moral values…. The recovery of moral control and the return to spiritual order have become the indispensable conditions of human survival. But they can be achieved only by a profound change in the spirit of modern civilization. This does not mean a new religion or a new culture but a movement of spiritual reintegration which would restore that vital relation between religion and culture which has existed at every age and on every level of human development.”

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On Marriage…

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Both the Bible and the tradition of the church teach that same-sex sexual activity is sinful. It’s not an unforgivable sin or the worst sin, but it is a sin. Therefore, the church asks those who are tempted to such sin to refrain from it and be chaste. In a similar way the church asks those with no same-sex struggles to refrain from heterosexual sexual activity outside of marriage. Chastity is asked from both and it is believed that God can help a person remain chaste.

So in closing, the Orthodox Church is happy to minister to those struggling with homosexuality. Such ministering goes on pretty much everywhere and in most parishes –our people have the same struggles as everyone else does. We certainly have no hatred against people with this struggle and no interest in “gay bashing.”

We will not turn someone away because of a particular sin they struggle with. They are sinners like the rest of us who need God’s forgiveness and help.

But performing or approving of same-sex marriages? No, we can’t do that. That would be saying that what is a sin isn’t a sin. That would be a lie, so we can’t participate or approve.

May God have mercy on all of us sinners and bring us to repent of our sins and bring us all into his heavenly kingdom.

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People…

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may wonder why I talk, write, sing, blog, and post so much related to Jesus. You need to know it’s not about you, as if I live on some higher plane, it’s about me.

I need a teacher, we all need a teacher but I do in particular. Life is hard, challenging, sometimes a complete mystery, and more often than not it pins the needle on the perplexing meter. I’m not the smartest person in the world on all of it. There are many who are wiser and better at this whole life thing than I am. Yet I think I’m smart enough to realize that I can’t do it all on my own.

I need not just smarts but real wisdom. I need not just knowledge but truth. I need to see not just the moment but the larger picture. Therefore I need a teacher, someone to stand outside of me and yet be intimately within my life. I need a teacher to keep my vision beyond the moment and to lovingly help me out when I get stuck, which is often. I need a teacher to correct me when I’m wrong, not for the sake of punishment but for my longer term good.

There’s a lot of false in this world, a lot of distractions, deep holes along the way, and blind alleys. I’d like to miss most of them if I could. So I need someone else’s eyes along the path and some kind of light when the darkness comes. What matters and what doesn’t? I don’t always know, so I’ll take as much outside help as I can. Life is precious, and short, so why not get all the stuff you need to live it well?

Among the other things that Jesus is to me, He is my teacher. This doesn’t mean I’m always the best pupil or that I remember all the lessons. Yet since we all have to have a teacher of some sort I believe I’ve got the best there is. So His words, His thoughts, His life, all of them are part of me and everything I do and try to be. Because of that whatever of Him that is in me also flows out of me and you’ll see it here and hopefully in my life as well.

And when the whole thing is done I’d like people to remember, first of all, that I tried to be a Christian. After that everything else, even the best of it, will find its own level.