I am quoting mostly from the New International Version, sometimes from the new King James

Your article is for folks like me who feel as if the struggle is engaged in alone.

Thank you.

Mr. Bauman, I appreciate your comments and I agree. This paper started out as a personal, cathartic process, which turned into a treatise! In writing it I also realized that we are entering a time when it will cost us dearly, possibly everything, to stand for our faith. I do think we need the voice of a Prophet more than the voice of the sympathetic counselor. We are a nation that deeply needs to repent! Along with that, I do not want my anger and frustration to carry over into my relationships with those that need to return or come to the Lord. We need to uphold and proclaim THE TRUTH without hesitation or apology, and be willing to die for it, while not retaliating in return.

That being said, I have also become vexed at the constant mantra of being called to “understand the struggle” of those dealing with same-sex attraction, as if that is the only, or even the most important struggle we as human beings have! People are not victims because they have struggles over sexual desires! Welcome to the fallen world! In OID’s commentary about calling us to sympathy, I find it contradictory. What is the struggle if your chosen, sinful lifestyle becomes acceptable and sanctioned as holy! You have just removed yourself from the battle!! Your struggle is now over! It is the mentality that is weakening the fiber of the Body of Christ. If you want to talk about a struggle, how about a husband and wife I met years ago, who were deeply in love, and after a few years of marriage, the wife became a quadriplegic due to an accident! Should the husband go get a girlfriend so that he wouldn’t have to struggle? It is tragic, but is not true love now put to the test? Do we only couch love in terms of pleasure and passion and not sacrifice?

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find the words: “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:3-4) In light of this, I have close friends and some of their family members who have “come out of the closet,” and they are conflicted on how to deal with it. How do I love my friend/family member who has embraced a gay lifestyle while disapproving of the behavior? Though each instance needs to be addressed within it’s own context, there is a reality to be faced as proclaimed by the Lord in the gospel of Matthew: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword… Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39) The point here is that if we take a stand (however we choose to do so), it may cause a division, and the test will reflect ‘where our treasure and heart really are.’

My concern is that we do not do enough of what you suggest, immerse ourselves and our youth into the heart of the faith, putting our focus and efforts on our growth in grace, becoming more and more like our Lord (Theosis). The Church, in our present day, seems to be more interested in pushing for success and financial security, and praising those pursuits above spiritual growth and character. These temporal pursuits are the very ambitions that St. Ignatius of Antioch stated were the result of the fear of death! As well, in the paraphrased words of Fr. Seraphim Rose, we are looking for our reward and place in this life, because at the foundation of our pursuits is really unbelief… Do we really believe in the Kingdom of Heaven, or is all our focus on our security and significance in this life because we really don’t buy all that stuff about a final judgment and an afterlife! But the Apostle Peter reminds us: “Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” (I Peter 2:11)

As we truly pray without ceasing for our Holy Orthodox Church and our world, we need to be reminded of the nature of our battle, as expressed by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then…” (Ephesians 6:10-14) Paul then ends his letter with, “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying Love.” (6:23-24) Amen brother Paul, and may God have mercy on us all.

I used to think that applied to the inward journey and it does, but the world has become the abyss and we are forced to stare into it all the time. Our young people have been conditioned to regard the abyss as “The Good Place” a reference to a current TV show in which hell is disguised as heaven.

Mr. Porter, you do an excellent and needful job describing the abyss but that description by it’s nature also partakes of the abyss. But where is our cup of tea, that we can partake of with our youth? I think it has to be basic, personal spiritual practice. Attending the Divine Liturgy but even more important the practice of the Jesus Prayer. Simply taught without reference to it’s being a counter to the abyss (which is not seen as the abyss anyway). Leading them besides still water.

Especially with the American Psychological Association naming traditional masculinity a psychological disorder even teaching that directly will become more difficult.

I have no clue how to do such a thing. We are already over programmed as parish life is just another egalitarian activity to be fit into one’s schedule. I think a contra-evidence approach is just giving more fuel to the fire. Maybe a more simple approach is necessary. No, that (whatever that is) is wrong, sinful and destructive. Repentance is necessary. That may be naive but anything else tends to be mistakenly construed as “dialog” and evaluated within the egalitarian constructs of such “dialog” and easily dismissed.

I bring it up because it has been dawning in me lately that simply saying no is required and that the Jesus Prayer is one of the few points of surcease and sanity in my life — my cup of tea as it were.

May the Providence and mercy of our Lord be with us.

The quotes make a big difference.

These hierarchs have a duty to warn the flock of the heretical and dangerous homosexualist and LGBT ideological garbage OID, Public Orthodoxy, The Wheel, and many other sites that masquerade as “Orthodox” venues spread constantly. They confound and lead the faithful astray. They shove the confused and innocent into the abyss of depravity and disorder. They celebrate sin as “essential” to human nature and defame priests who proclaim the right moral teaching of the Church as “homophobes.”

Many of the individuals who proudly praise and push the LGBT and homosexualist agenda are members in good standing in Orthodox parishes, teach university courses, attend Orthodox conferences, publish “Orthodox” academic articles, teach the Orthodox youth, etc.. There are several sympathetic priests, I hear, who embrace and support these homosexualist radicals. Yet the bishops say or do nothing publicly to admonish the corruptors and protect the innocent. One wonders if it’s cowardice or apathy that’s responsible for their deafening silence or, God forbid, they actually believe the LGBT propaganda or sympathize with the homosexualist agenda. Don’t they remember the warning, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).

There is a diabolical tidal wave rising within the Orthodox Churches “where self-professed teachers presume to challenge the moral teachings of the faith. I have mentioned and named but two of many notorious sources of this diabolical — in the technical sense, divisive — teaching” as Fr. John Parker, Dean of Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, warned last year. This is the dangerous reality the Church faces. Yet the bishops remain silent publicly about this darkness and corruption engulfing the faithful and destroying the souls of the innocent. Why?

Those who are darkened by spiritual corruption or sexual depravity cannot be trusted to lecture others about what’s normal or demand that the normal embrace abnormality. Those who are confused about their own sexuality or reject traditional Christian moral principles are incapable of giving advice on normal human relationships or family life inside or outside the Orthodox Church. Those who believe or teach that sodomy is either “normal” or not sinful have separated themselves from the true teaching of the Orthodox Church and go against the laws of nature.

If any cleric or teacher in the Orthodox Christian Church advocates for these corrupt ideas, they have betrayed the Orthodox Faith. In their confusion they lead the faithful astray. They are fighting against the laws of God and nature. They are supporting rebellion inside the Church and society. They are not to be trusted. Their revolt against nature is ultimately a revolt against God.

– Fr. Ioannes Apiarius

My comment about OID “demands” to a closed clergy group on Facebook: Men who think the anal canal is a sex organ have no business giving advice to Bishops.

I added the quotes back in since they were in the original. Fr. Hans

Hello Michael, Fr. Jacobse is right – I originally had the phrases in quotes to highlight their irony. I don’t even consider phrases like “sexual orientation” and “alternative (sexual) lifestyles” to be valid concepts at all! by the way, loved the “partially boiled frog” comment!

That might be my mistake, Michael. I took out a lot of single quotes that indicated the irony of those terms. Those two you mentioned should probably have remained. I will edit and put them back in.

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand should be the only public response.

The demands of the OID are blasphemous and barbaric.