spend the time to watch the whole video.
On Marriage…
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.
Read the whole article here.
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Indeed…
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She Gave Elvis…
People…
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.
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This is What I Look Like…
in my clerical garb at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church.
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This is What I Look Like…
in my music related garb this morning at the Cajun Potluck Restaurant in Shoreview, Minnesota. Just thought you’d like to know.
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On Modesty…
On Holiness…
The thing about holiness, though, is that the point of it is not to steer clear of all that is unholy; it’s not about retreating from “the world” and existing in some perfect space untainted by temptations and immoral sights and sounds. This only leads to legalism and a neutered, irrelevant witness.
Rather, the point of holiness is positive: to live in the world, reflecting Christ and his holiness outward in the way that we live our lives. Holiness is more complicated than just abstaining from a checklist of vices. Does holiness require us to avoid certain activities? Certainly. But fleeing from potential hazards is only part of the story.
Written from an Evangelical Christian perspective this article asks questions worth the consideration of Orthodox Christians as well. Read more here.
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On Weddings and the “Me” Culture…
Today, to most Western couples the concept of merging two families sounds like a tribal ritual rather than a marriage blueprint. “In-laws, ugh,” this generation might say. By focusing on our personal preferences we get more wrapped up in what our future mother-in-law is going to wear or say at the wedding than in the bigger picture of what a wedding symbolizes: how you will coexist and interact with your new family for the rest of your life…
It’s no accident that the culture of catering to the bride has fueled the burgeoning wedding industry, and vice versa. Peggy Olson or Don Draper couldn’t have conceived a better marketing slogan than “This is your day”—the kind of tagline that so deeply, and reliably, influences consumer behavior. That simple phrase alone drives the billion-dollar wedding industry, pushing the cost of the average wedding in the U.S. in 2012 to $28,427, according to TheKnot.com…
Written from a Jewish perspective this article, and its take on the current marriage as a celebration of “me” and “us” is worth reading.
