Eliot, I get it, I was just being snarky. To me liberals aren’t stupid, in fact they’re often bright, witty, and clevery, but whatever else they are, they’re definately not wise.

Fr. Peter,

I’ve often wondered how the passage regarding ‘if someone strikes you on the cheek turn so he can strike the other as well’ would properly be written if there were three people involved, one able to prevent the strike if only he chose to raise his own arm.

Chrys; Sorry … what I said was not meant to be a correction. What you say is correct and true. I wanted to say “one good word ” about Muslims: their discipline. Then I jumped to something else: even Muslims were healed by Christ who works through His holy ones. This shows that Christ really is a Lover of mankind. In the Lives of the Saints there are presented so many miraculous events: healings, all sort of “impossibilities”, relics, etc. One really has to be either ignorant or blind or a Liar to deny Christ God or to continue being an atheist.

Eliot, I love that story. I must admit, though, I’m not sure how to understand what appears to be phrased as a correction or qualification: “However, this does not mean that the Truth lies everywhere.” Nothing I said should be construed to mean that Truth is equivocal or relative. Christ is the Truth. And since Truth is One, any experience of the truth leads – if followed faithfully – to Christ. The love of God desires to bring all men to Him, but that same love will never permit falsehood or delusion.

My point is that Christ is the real answer to the enmity that lies at the heart of our enemies. To be faithful vessels, we must “convey” Christ in a Christlike manner. If we walk faithfully with Him in what we do and say, the power of His Spirit will be present. If, on the other hand, our manner betrays our message, it is we who will be judged. The “millstone” around our necks is whatever we deem more important than the Gospel; this is what contaminates and corrupts our service. God rightly insists, as you note, on Truth – which is why corrupting or misusing the things of God invited judgment.

Of course, whether we are “successful” in conveying that message, however, is never important. Christ only asks that we convey it faithfully – in deed and demeanor, and – when necessary – with words.

George – exactly right! Of course, it’s amazing how concerned people become about offending a group known for indiscriminate violence and destruction. Shockingly, most of the elite only “speak truth to power” when that “power” adheres to the rule of law or the beatitudes. Speaking truth to “brutal power” . . . not so much.

Michael, I agree with you. I remember once Frank Schaeffer told me in a private conversation (this was before he went over to the [ahem] Huffington Compost). “There is no more demonic religion than Hinduism, yet even within its worldview, it has a place for peaceful coexistence with Christianity.” In other words, it did not, nor would not, seek to exterminate those people whom Muslims called “infidels.” (Boy, Frank was so lucid then and could get right to the bottom of a complex issue. I miss that guy.)

Eliot, if by “stupidity” you mean “liberalism/theological laxity” then you are right.

One evil word makes even the good evil, while one good word makes even the evil good.

We have to admit that we lack the discipline displayed by Muslims.

Christ has compassion and love for all people. However, this does not mean that the Truth lies everywhere.

Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian

St. Arsenios pastored his Greek Orthodox flock amidst extremely difficult conditions. He lived with his people in the village of Farasa in Cappadocia, which after 1453 had fallen into the hands of the Muslim Turks. Under the harsh yoke of the Turks, the Greek people of Farasa formed an oasis of Orthodox Christianity. They sought refuge in the holy St. Arsenios, who was their teacher, their spiritual father, and the healer of their souls and bodies.

His reputation as a healer was so great that not only Greek Christians but also Turkish Muslims came to him for healing. Many times his village was threatened with violence from marauding Turks, but each time it was preserved in a miraculous way by St. Arsenios.

The accounts in this book, which were taken down by Elder Paisios from eyewitnesses, testify to how powerfully God works through His holy ones, and to how lovingly He cares for and protects His children amidst adversity. —Elder Paisios

I suspect most of us have wrestled with the meaning of the anger expressed by Jesus, since He is at the incarnation of the long-suffering and self-emptying love of God. It seems to me that His anger was directed at those who corrupt and pervert the things of God. For this reason, they were also called vipers by His cousin. For the same reason, St. James both warns of a stricter judgment applied to those who lead and represent those “things of God.”

While I agree fully with the political concerns expressed by the 5.1 thread above, there is also a spiritual challenge: to embody the love of God in a manner that might be redemptive of our enemies.

They said of Abba Macarius the Egyptian…

…that one day he went up from Scetis to the mountain of Nitria. As he approached the place he told his disciple to go on ahead. When the latter had gone on ahead, he met a priest of the pagans. The brother shouted after him saying, “Oh, oh, devil, where are you off to?” The priest turned back and beat him and left him half dead. Then picking up his stick, he fled. When he had gone a little further, Abba Macarius met the pagan priest running and said to him, “Greetings! Greetings, you weary man!” Quite astonished, the other came up to him and said, “What good do you see in me, that you greet me in this way?” The old man said to him, “I have seen you wearing yourself out without knowing that you are wearing yourself out in vain.” The other said to him, “I have been touched by your greeting, and I realize that you are on God’s side. But another wicked monk who met me insulted me and I have given him blows enough for him to die of them.” The old man realized that he was referring to his disciple.

Then the pagan priest fell at the feet of Macarius and said, “I will not let you go till you have made me a monk.” When they came to the place where the brother was, they put him onto their shoulders and carried him to the church in the mountain. When the people saw the priest with Macarius, they were astonished and made him a monk. Through him many pagans became Christians. So Abba Macarius said, “One evil word makes even the good evil, while one good word makes even the evil good.”

With His very last breath He asked God to forgive those who had crucified Him. He prayed for and asked forgiveness for the very people who killed Him. Sounds like love to me.

I was wondering a while ago about the “incident” at the temple. It appears to me that this was the only one time when Christ was angry about something.

John 2:15S He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” Matthew 21:13 “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.

I believe it was Fr. Thomas Hopko who said that “the biggest threat to Christianity is the stupidity of the Christians”.