But how does he define the term “pro-life” at this point?

I followed the link to the post on your blog, and I enjoyed reading it. The post mirrors many of my own thoughts.

It is not sure how much of what Karl Marx wrote is his own experience. Perhaps not much…maybe just an intellectual understanding. Certain is that he later borrowed Christian ideas and tried to make things work without Christ. The result was a disaster.

The way a heart turns to God is a great mystery. How one turns his back to God is well known: its satan’s example, is pride.

There is a tiny string of unbelief in the heart of the most faithful and a trace of faith in the heart of the most convinced atheist. God works with these parts per million concentrations.

I choose to say like the Canaanite Woman: I am unworthy
but “even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s
table”. By now we know very well how much suffering brought about the atheist/materialist/communist ideas. Now it is pretty easy to make up your mind. Sadly, there are still so many who, out of ignorance, ‘choose’ the serve the one who hates them.

Do we seek healing in Christ for ourselves and others, or do we seek to be ‘right’ at the expense of ourselves and others?

One becomes a Christian not because somebody has driven one into a corner by pure arguments. Simply one’s soul at a point comes in touch with the Divine… Or, as one Orthodox theologian put it, “nobody would ever become a monk unless he once saw the shining of eternal life in the face of another person”. A believer differs from a non-believer simply in that the range of his experience is greater, just as a person with an ear for music differs from those who do not hear the harmony of music accords. If a person has the experience of an encounter with God, so much changes in this world for him! But if he loses it, so much gets darkened! One young man wrote at the dawn of the 19th century: “If a person has been given this virtue of union with Christ, he meets the blows of fate with calmness and inner tranquility, opposing courageously the storms of passions and withstanding fearlessly the rage of evil. How can you fail to endure suffering if you know that by persisting in Christ and working zealously you glorify God Himself?!” Later, after rejecting Christ, the author of these remarkable words about a life-time union would write only about alienation. The name of this young man was Karl Marx.

Aglaios, the parish in question was my home parish, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Tulsa, OK. My, how times change. My greater concern is why his “archpastor” doesn’t call him on the carpet. Since he hasn’t, I am forced to conclude that “silence equals complicity,” that is, that the archpastor in question is a liberal himself.

The Church prescribes repentance, which is the fruit of confession and fasting for this type of anger.

That’s a good one, Andrew.

Michael : Thanks for the correction. We have to learn to cry out to the Lord, His Holy Mother and the Saints for help. … day and night until these troublesome spirits are driven away.

Eliot, it is not that our defense has disappeared, it is just that we don’t use what we have been given. I have found the following prayer quite beneficial:

Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered and let those who hate Him flee from His presence. As smoke vanishes, let them vanish and as wax melts from the presence of fire, so let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God and who sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and say in gladness: Hail most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, for Thou drivest away the demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified on Thee. Who went down to Hades and trampled on the power of the devil and gave us thee, His venerable Cross, for driving away all enemies. O most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, help us with our holy Lady, the Virgin Mother of God and with all the Saints (esp. your favorite) throughout the ages. Amen.

The modern mind tells us that demons are a figment of our imagination or, at best, psychological disorders that can be cured or excused. We revel in our passions without shame. “Success” is simply about dominating others either through force or manipulation. Humility, modesty and obedience are vices not virtues. How many of us rejoice in the Cross? Is it any wonder the demons rejoice and trouble us?

“Seriously folks, put him on your parish sick list and pray for him.”
This is the best thing to do. He seems to be troubled by unclean spirits. Be sure that he is not the only one … In today’s world our defense against these spirits has almost totally disappeared.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”