It’s homonausea, not homophobia. Normal people think that homosexuality – like child molestation, bestiality, cannibalism and many other barbarian behaviors – is disgusting, not frightening. They are merely trying to gain an upper hand in the argument by using specific language…just as I did by calling heteroseuxals “normal” and inferring that the thinking, the morals (and likely both) of the homosexual are as disordered as those of the above mentioned groups. The difference is that I’m merely repeating the moral judgement of a God who chose to nuke and pave Sodom and Gomorrah. The homophiliacs are attempting to overthrow that moral judgement. Perhaps what is needed is less humility about the dictates of our God, and more clarity.

Dear Father, I am an Old Calendarist Greek Orthodox bishop, and I applaud you for the very rational and morally clear and right definition. I could not have said it better. To explain about myself, I live in a country where there is a tiny autocephalous OC, but it has fallen a lot deeper a lot longer before OCA. We tried, pleaed, sent letters, wrote canonical accusations. To no avail. One day, it was too much, we jopined the canonical resistance (Old Calendarists in canonical resistance). The Church is holy, it always was and forever will be. SOmetimes, the men who lead her, not so much. We do not disdain, look down on anyone, least of all the Chuch. But, like for St. Maximos the Confessor, one day we just saw keeping the holy canons and doing thisngs the way they are supposed to be done was more important than being in unity with the bishops of this fallen local jurisdiction. Where you are, we once were. We pray fervently that one day be be in unity again. But, until then, we cannot. We do not interfere, we do not accuse or complain any more. We just serve in our parishes, visit the sick in hospitals, hear holy confession, baptize people, in silence. We just want to be left alone, until the time we can rejoin again. I am not luring OCA members to Old Calendar Movement, God knows we have had our fair share of problems, too (though not so many in the Old Continent like in USA and Canada…). I am just explaining that sometime the local level of agreement with homosexual behaviour and living with someone’s wife and daily communing Latins and Uniats and Monophysites on side of priests and bishops is just too far and the current local church is just too far gone. The Holy Spirit will renew her, hopefully soon, but until then… No emotional talk, just rationality and adherence to holy canons, in kindness and without disdain. Most of you folk here have the right mind and know the truth. You fight for it, lest you one day realize you should have fought harder, but it is too late, like we did in the Czech and Slovak OC. May the Most Holy Lady Theotokos bless y’all. In Christ, +Gavrilo, titular archbishop of Moravia, GOC-A

Well first, a big “sigh”.

You use “Scripture” incorrectly – more accurately “the Law of Moses” had certain punishments that were “fulfilled” by Jesus. “Scripture” is simply the story, the record (but not in a legal sense), of the Tradition. Simply because part of the Tradition was misused and abused by certain folks (mostly protestants) does not mean that the Tradition is “wrong” about homosexuality, sodomy, and attempts to make it morally acceptable. These attempts by the way are coming from the children of the same people who misused the Tradition in the past, namely nominal protestants and their secular children. For some reason, you want to listen to them now.

Also, in no particular order: Jesus DID speak to “human sexuality” (though not in the secular way you think of it), “new understandings” to you is the God of SELF – a secular “God” that simply becomes whatever and blesses whatever “sexuality” or behavior you are interested this minute (sure to change in the next minute), “science” is not what you think it is (you think of it in ideological terms and manipulate it so that it seems to support your “choice” of the minute)…I could go on but the real issue is your very secularized, non-Christian understanding of God, the world, and man.

I would say that the Orthodox approach is to recognize truth wherever it exists, in whatever faith or philosophy or science; remove it from the surrounding detritus, polish it up and let it shine forth. We have the fullness of the truth and anything that is of the truth elsewhere can be found in the Church already, but we don’t always have it well articulated at any given moment.

In fact, the mystery of male and female and how we interact and how that mystery allows us to bring fruition to the rest of creation as God commands runs thoughout all of creation and our very beings. While there are cultual things that are transient, there is much more that is enduring and must be recognized and celebrated as such.

That is the point, this issue cannot be approached strictly from a moralistic/legalistic standpoint. Homosexuality is an ontological and spiritual disorder. It is not the only one–all sin is of that nature. While moral standards, like the Mosaic Law are necessary to convict us of sin (exactly why Jesus taught not to abandon the law but allow it to be fulfilled in Him, with Him. Such moral standards are not sufficient to heal sin. Only accessing the grace of God and submitting to His love in the repentance of sins is sufficient to begin the healing.

We don’t need new studies, that is true, but neither should we reject them if they reveal something of the truth. We only need to reject them when the run counter to the truth.

The trouble with many today is that they preach against moralism and nominalism, often rejecting the application of traditional morality in the process without really opening the door for repentance and healing because they also tend to deny the reality of sin. It is a type of reciprocal of Phariseeism and even more hypocritial. Such folk refuse to allow others to enter the kingdom, and don’t even give them the consolation and guide of traditional moral teaching and the Law.

I fear for these folks. It is not the way of Christ which is “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Orthodoxy does not need to make any new studies on anything. That is the nature of our Church. We stand firm from the beginning with everything covered. The wisdom for every age is there from the beginning. Once you come into Orthodoxy you will understand that. This suggestion of a new study is non-Orthodox thinking.

Michael,

I appreciate your response as well, especially given that you speak from experience. Many of your exhortations hit the mark and are what I needed to hear.

Your words regarding the Church are likewise a good reminder and bring to mind a helpful word I once received from Mother Gabriella at the Holy Dormition Monastery in Michigan: she said that no evil can graft itself onto the living vine that is Christ’s Church–though a false branch may seem to have life for a time, it will ultimately whither and fall away.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Catherine, having been in a similar situation as to what is occuring in the OCA, I say that you should not allow any untruth to be spoken about anyone, if someone makes a derogatory remark concering anyone else, challenge them politely and with grace to give evidence of the remark and ask what the pont of their statement is. Don’t engage in making derogatory remarks about anyone else (even if it seems deserved). If you slip, go to confession. If you hold any in your heart, go to confession.

Demand that the truth be spoken and demand of yourself both actions and words that acord with the truth. Forgive readily and speedily any hurt received from anyone, no matter how slight. Pray for Christ’s mercy to be in every heart.

Too often when facts are sought they are sought not for the sake of the truth, but to use as a weapon against some else. That perpetuates
the scapegoating spirit. It is hard, quite hard. Only through constant vigilence and the cultivation of a merciful heart can it be achieved.

Blame no one, but seek the truth. Do not countenance or acquiese in any statement or behavior you know to be a lie. Don’t defend sin.

BTW, the moderist spirit is not purged from the Church, it is not in the Church. It is in the hearts of each of us. The Church does not need to be purified, only me.

Thank you, Father, for your response.

Lacking the experience and knowledge to grasp the situation at hand, it is helpful for me to hear from someone who is better girded.

Catherine,

I have seen these kinds of conflicts before in the Church and there is always a period of deep confusion about facts, which we are seeing now. It’s correct that the truth will win out, but sometimes it takes a very long time for that to happen.

In the meantime a person has to be willing to take the hits that speaking the truth sometimes (often actually) imposes. In the case of Met. Jonah, it is clear that he speaks the truth with depth and coherence because he understands the dominant culture and how people think. He speaking has what I call a prophetic dimension and this gift (and it is a gift) only comes by conquering sin and temptation in one’s interior life.

He’s a good man but inexperienced in this sense: he only now is learning that speaking in this way will marshal anger against him. He implicitly challenges those who have a basement full of Orthodox bromides but lack the prescience to speak within that prophetic dimension and thus their words, while coherent, systematic, even true in their own way, never rise above the proposition. That’s entirely appropriate in a classroom of course, but it is not preaching. And Met. Jonah preaches.

So what do we do? Recognize that not everything that calls itself Orthodox is Orthodox, and trust that Christ will lead us in all things, which He will. Live your one life in Truth, and then God guides you and protects you.

Fr. Hans,

Have you any recommendation for how an Orthodox Christian might manifest courage in a situation such as that presented in the blog above? Met. Jonah has seemingly demonstrated courage, but in the moment, it appears that his courage as he stands alone is not enough. Should others then courageously stand alongside him? If so, what might this look like for clergy and for laity?

If we should not stand alongside Met. Jonah the person so as to avoid factionalism in our Church or for some other reason, then should we otherwise visibly stand for the foundational moral truths of our Church that Met. Jonah has been articulating at this time when these truths seem to be under assualt even from within the Church? If so, what might this look like for clergy and laity?

Regarding the “this” that will pass soon enough: are you referring to the current discord and unrest surrounding the situation articulated in the blog above, or the modernist spirit that underpins the discord, or some other possibility?

It seems to me that while the upheaval of this present moment will certainly pass (if for no reason other than that our human bodies and souls grow weary and need rest), the modernist spirit which has lead to it might well be here to stay if we do not actively expunge it from our Church.

If you have thoughts to share in this regard, I would be grateful for them.

Bill, there is a “there” there, but that doesn’t mean the garden is always blooming. As for trust, in the end your trust is always in Christ, and sometimes you have to trust that in the end His hand will somehow clean up the mess, usually through the courage of others. That’s what Saints do a lot of times. Sometimes their battles were with people within the Church — St. John Chrysostom for example.

So yes, it is loud, fractious, even kind of ugly sometimes. But here’s what the Orthodox don’t do. We don’t split off and start our own Churches.

So for now you trust in Christ, and people who deserve your trust. They are there. This will pass soon enough.

“Wisdom”! That is one the things that led me to the Orthodox Church, and that is what I hear in your words. Thank you, Father. And, may I add, “Let us attend!”