Olympia Snowe – AOI - The American Orthodox Institute

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line 388

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line 394

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line 400

Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Democratic nominee for US Senator, supports homosexual marriage. Here’s the introduction from the Greek Star (a Chicago newspaper with Greek readership):

Alexi Giannoulias, Democratic nominee for US Senator, shares why he supports the freedom to marry for all, including people of the same sex. This is something that many of his supporters, and especially Greek-Americans may be opposed to. The Greek-American politician chose to be honest and he should be given credit for being brave to state his opinion on a difficult subject. He stated, “There may be many individuals that may not be happy with my particular stance”. The Greek Orthodox church does not allow, or support, same sex marriage. Giannoulias in the video continues “To me faith has always been less about how you treat God and more about how you treat people.”

Alexi Giannoulias

Moral relativism afflicts the Greek Star as much as it does Giannoulias. Since when is a stand against the moral tradition an act of bravery? Why the accolade for a position that flies in the face of Church teaching?

What you see in Giannoulias is the same syndrome that affects former Senator Paul Sarbanes and Senator Olympia Snowe who had no qualms ignoring Church teaching on the sanctity of life in their public lives. Both Sarbanes and Snowe never met an abortion provision they did not defend. Both voted against the repeal of partial birth abortion, and both supported the funding that promoted abortions in the Third World (a particularly noxious form of cultural imperialism). Giannoulias takes the accommodation of the moral deconstruction of Western culture to the next level: redefine marriage to cultural insignificance.

And no, Alexi, the Christian faith is not about “how you treat God.” The Christian faith is about how God has treated you. Then, and only then, will you properly understand how to treat people.

Yet the real failure, or at least the primary failure, does not rest with Giannoulias, or Sabanes or Snowe. The real failure is the accommodation the Church makes with the culture by lauding these politicians without public correction. Giannoulias simply reflects the generation that follows Sarbanes and Snowe. The generation that follows Giannoulias will justify even more egregious sin. The culture is morally confused, and because the Church refuses to draw clear moral distinctions our parishioners are too. That’s why Giannoulias supports homosexual marriage and why the Greek Star praises his stand as virtuous.

Here’s the video:

Occasional commentator David Holford writes on his blog Solomon Hezekiah about the voting record of Orthodox Christians on abortion-related legislation and is rightfully appalled. The only elected official at the federal level who has not sided with the culture of death is Rep. Gus Bilirakis, a Republican from the 9th District of Florida. (See his video and statement here opposing the government takeover of health care.)

In a post titled, “The Greatest Scandal in American Orthodoxy,” Holford says he is not so “naïve to imagine that either the Congresspersons or the hierarchs will actually listen” to what he’s saying. But the laity need to speak up on this issue, even if the bishops won’t.

After seeing an article about the clash over abortion between US Rep. Patrick Kennedy and his diocesan bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, RI, I decided to look into the voting records of the one senator and five representatives who are members of the Orthodox Church. The results are not surprising, but equally as shameful. I almost don’t know where to start.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church concerning abortion is just as clear and just the same as the teaching of the Catholic Church. It doesn’t matter that it is an issue the Ecumenical Patriarch skirts around, perhaps because it takes away from his main job of opening evironmentalist conferences and exhibitions. And just like the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church has members who have been elected to public office and act in direct opposition to the Orthodox Christian faith. It is not a matter of what they do in their private lives, for which they should go to confession and after which their priest should happily partake with them of the most precious body and blood.

Rather, it is a matter of what they lead their country to do. They have chosen to take a public stand against the teaching of the Church. They have appropriated the public purse for the killing of unborn children. They have otherwise refused to protect the unborn and directly facilitated those who would kill them.

It is the duty of the diocesan bishops of those members of the Orthodox Church who openly and knowingly pay for, or otherwise facilitate, the killing of the unborn to excommunicate those persons. Any bishop who knows what a Congressperson who claims to be under their spiritual authority is doing in this regard is failing in their responsibilities if they to otherwise.

Any Orthodox bishop, including the Ecumenical Patriarch, who praises or elevates such a person in the Church should be causing a scandal far worse than the misappropriation of funds in the OCA, or a drunk Antiochian touching up girl in a casino. Every clergy and every lay person of such a diocese who cares about the integrity of the Orthodox Church should be writing to their bishop.

Read the entire post on the Solomon Hezekiah blog.