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Acutely accurate, absolutely necessary. As someone baptized Roman Catholic, an atheist for over fifty years starting my senior year in high school m and a convert to Greek Orthodoxy at age 70, I support the clearest separation of church and state, as does the Greek Orthodox Church in America, our priests do not preach politics from the p…
Acutely accurate, absolutely necessary. As someone baptized Roman Catholic, an atheist for over fifty years starting my senior year in high school m and a convert to Greek Orthodoxy at age 70, I support the clearest separation of church and state, as does the Greek Orthodox Church in America, our priests do not preach politics from the pulpit and can’t even vote. Our church fully supports science; indeed, our current national Archbishop’s first encyclical was one warning of the threat of human-induced climate change. Our emphasis is on free will; to us, enforced religion is an oxymoron, and we acknowledge there may be other paths to God than our own. Our parish pastor recently told a group of Sunday School students during a Divine Liturgy service that our faith could be summed up in five words: “Love God and love people”.
Part of my conversion was the realization that I had lived a very Christian life without the label. That makes me even more dismayed and disgusted at the so-called Christian nationalists, whose beliefs are a veritable cornucopia of oxymorons measured against what Christ taught and who he was as set forth in the Gospel. Like the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages and even today, these people would prefer that people not read the Bible for themselves, especially the four gospels. Rather, they would have them believe the characterization of the Bible,e spewing forth from their huckster “evangelical” fundamentalist carnie barkers. They are greater enemies of Christianity than any atheist I know.
As a Christian myself now, in the oldest of Christian churches, I find these people deep,y offensive. They would take away my rights as an American and a Greek Orthodox Christian if they had the power. I must oppose them with all that I can. To quote Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, “Hier stehe Ich; Ich kann nicht anders.”
To vote blue is to be both truly American and truly Christian. To vote red is to be neither.
Interesting! My mother was raised Southern Baptist and had the mindset that accompanies this. She also converted to Greek Orthodoxy later in life and it completely changed her for the better.
Well if they won't let us use the magic mushrooms on the cult, we need to persuade the cult to change to Greek orthodoxy then!