samesex marriage - AOI Observer

Fr. John Whiteford Asks: What is the Mainstream Orthodox View on Homosexuality?

June 19, 2012 12:15 PM

Fr. John Whiteford comments on his blog News, Comments, & Reflections about an assertion made by Rebecca Matovic that professors, hierarchs, priests, and "many, many laypeople" agree with Dunn and his support of homosexual marriage. Matovic couches her views in the usual "I am loving but my opponents are bullies and dangerous" verbiage of the left, but Fr. John takes care of that in short order as well. If Matovic is correct, why are they hiding? Were they born that way? Have a listen: What is the Mainstream Orthodox View on Homosexuality? Source: Fr. John Whiteford's News, Comments, & Reflections | By Fr. John Whiteford In the comments to a post by David J. Dunn on the flak he has been getting about his posts on Gay "Marriage" there was a comment that warrants some consideration: Please hang around with people other than the Jacobse crowd! There are professors at our seminaries and hierarchs who agree with you; there are many, many lay people who are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Fr. John Whiteford, Rebecca Matovic, same-sex marriage

Albert Mohler: Evangelicals and the Gay Moral Revolution

August 10, 2011 6:58 PM

In the essay below, Dr. Mohler is speaking to an Evangelical Christian readership but many of his observations apply to all Christians. The normalization of homosexual behavior is a moral revolution Mohler writes and not one that Christians can join and remain faithful to their Christian faith. He's right about that. There will be pressure to adopt to this new morality as well. We even see it on the edges of the Orthodox Church with the Facebook group Listening: Breaking the Silence on Sexuality within the Orthodox Church for example. Who ever thought that some Orthodox would drag this battle of the culture war into the Church? Mohler takes the Evangelicals to task for their sloppy handing of the homosexual question. I'm not sure we Orthodox have been sloppy, but we have been complacent. The homosexual moral revolution is at bottom a question of anthropology, what it means to be a man or woman and thus a human being. We Orthodox know some things about human anthropology but … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Culture, Dr. Albert Mohler, Homosexual activism, Homosexuality, Homosexuality and the Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church, same-sex marriage

How to Destroy a Culture in 5 Easy Steps

July 5, 2011 12:10 PM

Source: First Things On the Square | Joe Carter In his book The Future of Marriage, David Blankenhorn, a liberal, gay-rights-supporting Democrat and self-professed “marriage nut,” offers this sociological principle: “People who professionally dislike marriage almost always favor gay marriage.” As a corollary, Blankenhorn adds: “Ideas that have long been used to attack marriage are now commonly used to support same-sex marriage.” Blankenhorn provides almost irrefutable proof that this is the expressed agenda of many—if not most—professional advocates of same-sex marriage. Other scholars have noticed the same and have attempted to present the public with the facts about the less-than-hidden agenda to use homosexual rights to deinstitutionalize marriage and to separate sexual exclusivity from the concept of “monogamy.” Since the agenda is an open secret, how has this anti-marriage program been able to advance to the level of public policy? And how did it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Culture, Homosexuality, Joe Carter, same-sex marriage

Papal Environmentalism: Pro-Life and Pro-Marriage

February 20, 2010 3:04 PM

Ethics and Public Policy Center | George Weigel In his January 11 address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI continued to carve out an interesting Catholic position on ecology. The Pope insists that care for creation is a moral obligation that falls on both individuals and governments. His very invocation of "creation," however, challenges the secular shibboleths that underwrite a lot of contemporary environmental activism. Here is the money paragraph in the papal address to the diplomats assembled in the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace: "Twenty years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the materialistic and atheistic regimes which had for several decades dominated a part of this continent, it was easy to assess the great harm which an economic system lacking any reference to the truth about man had done not only to the dignity and freedom of individuals and peoples, but to nature itself, by polluting soil, water, and air. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Culture, Environment, environmentalism, Ethics and Public Policy Center, George Weigel, Marriage, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, religious freedom, same-sex marriage, sanctity of life

Robert P. George: Why I signed the Manhattan Declaration

January 24, 2010 5:02 PM

Peter and Helen Evans are posting interviews with signers of the Manhattan Declaration. The latest is Robert P. George. They have around 20 interviews including some Orthodox signers on their site www.peterandhelenevans.com. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: abortion, Culture, Manhattan Declaration, Marriage, Orthodox Church, Peter and Helen Evans, Politics, religious freedom, Robert P. George, same-sex marriage, sanctity of life

Met. Isaiah speaks out against same-sex marriage

December 25, 2009 10:20 AM

Protocol 09–12 September 24, 2009 The Reverend Clergy, and The Pious Faithful of the Holy Metropolis of Denver Beloved in the Lord, Earlier this year I attended the 25th Anniversary Banquet of one of our parishes, and was invited to offer a few remarks before the final prayer, which I did. As I do at all anniversary celebrations of parishes, I express the hope and the prayer that the parish will continue to exist even to the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In mentioning the glorious return of the Lord, I also allude to the final day events in the world which the Lord states will be like the final days of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:29,30) and that the people of the Church must try to live according to the teachings of Christ for their salvation. At this particular parish I did the same thing, using two examples to stress the fact that we are living in the last days before violent events take place. I mentioned the legality of abortion in this country, which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Culture, greek orthodox church, homosexuality, Marriage, Met. Isaiah of Denver, Orthodox Church, same-sex marriage

Moral Tradition and the Assault of Gay Activists

November 24, 2008 12:47 PM

Over at OrthodoxyToday.org, Fr. Hans Jacobse looks at why gay activists in California are now attacking places of worship: So what explains the aggression of homosexual activists especially toward churches in California and elsewhere? Is it just because they lost the vote or is something else at work? The homosexual lobby argued that marriage is a fundamental right denied to homosexual couples. They overlook the fact that homosexuals already have the "right" to marry. They just can't marry a member of the same sex, just as a man can't marry multiple women, a woman multiple men, a father to a daughter, a brother to a sister, and so forth. Nothing is "denied" to them that is not denied to everyone else. "Unfair" they protested and indeed it is. But fairness to those who seek new definitions of marriage is not a concern of the moral tradition. There are compelling reasons why the convention is what it is (children need both a mother and father being one of them), and tinkering … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Culture, gay marriage, hate crime, Law, Marriage, moral tradition, Mormons, national review, News, Orthodox Church, orthodox churches, OrthodoxyToday.org, Proposition 8, religious freedom, Rev. Johannes L. Jacobse, same-sex marriage

Heritage on Religious Freedom and Same-Sex Marriage

November 7, 2008 2:59 PM

A new policy paper from The Heritage Foundation warns that the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex unions "poses significant threats to the religious liberties of people who continue to believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman." These threats are acknowledged by both those who support and those who oppose redefining marriage, according to to Thomas M. Messner, a Visiting Fellow in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at Heritage. Some "talking points" from Same-Sex Marriage and the Threat to Religious Liberty: -- Judicial decisions redefining marriage to include same-sex unions state that limiting marriage to men and women is a form of unacceptable discrimination against homosexuals. -- The freedom to express the view that marriage involves a man and a woman will come under growing pressure as courts, public officials, and private institutions come to regard the traditional understanding of marriage as a form of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Observer Tagged With: Church of the Latter-Day Saints, Heritage Foundation, Marriage, minority voters, Mormons, News, Proposition 8, religious freedom, same-sex marriage, Thomas M. Messner