Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Please Read and Act
David has brought to my attention two U.S. Senators who are both pro-abortion. Upon further scrutiny it appears one of these fellows in particular has met personally with Arch Bp. Demetrios and is in laudable standing with him and the Ecumenical Patriarch. Go and read it here and further down here. Please consider personally experessing concern for real action to your priests and deacons.
A blessed Nativity to all.
Aaron of The Munkee
PS> Part I of Ten Things that Drew Me to Orthodoxy coming Monday.
(0) comments
David has brought to my attention two U.S. Senators who are both pro-abortion. Upon further scrutiny it appears one of these fellows in particular has met personally with Arch Bp. Demetrios and is in laudable standing with him and the Ecumenical Patriarch. Go and read it here and further down here. Please consider personally experessing concern for real action to your priests and deacons.
A blessed Nativity to all.
Aaron of The Munkee
PS> Part I of Ten Things that Drew Me to Orthodoxy coming Monday.
(0) comments
Monday, December 15, 2003
Please Excuse Me
I know I promised the first installment of "Ten Things that Drew Me to Orthodoxy", but I was having so much fun getting a root canal this morning that I never got around to it! Give me a minute while the inspiration of this root canal wears off and then I'll put something up.
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I know I promised the first installment of "Ten Things that Drew Me to Orthodoxy", but I was having so much fun getting a root canal this morning that I never got around to it! Give me a minute while the inspiration of this root canal wears off and then I'll put something up.
(0) comments
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
A New Series
Inspired by Cliff and the desire to remember more of the journey, I’ve decided to do a series of posts entitled: Ten Things that Drew me to Orthodoxy.
However, right now being finals time, I’m not really up to a big post at the moment. I hope all will understand. Instead I’ll list some of the things that didn’t quite make the final cut. Look for the first post next week.
10) Fasting before Eucharist. I’m not a breakfast person anyway.
9) Talk about seeker friendly, there’s enough smoke from the incense that I can smoke and pray.
8) Beards are coming back in, I just know it!
7) Instead of ONE Lenten fasting period, we fast for 2/3’s of the year.
6) I love Greek and middle-eastern food!
5) Chairs? We don’t need no stinking chairs!
4) Nobody ever commented on my PoMo blog.
3) Very counter cultural…instead worrying about eating too much during the holidays, I ponder anything I can possibly shove in mouth and still be “fasting”.
2) I have always longed for a faith that recommends the constant remembrance of death.
1) Drinking from the same cup is fun!
(0) comments
Inspired by Cliff and the desire to remember more of the journey, I’ve decided to do a series of posts entitled: Ten Things that Drew me to Orthodoxy.
However, right now being finals time, I’m not really up to a big post at the moment. I hope all will understand. Instead I’ll list some of the things that didn’t quite make the final cut. Look for the first post next week.
10) Fasting before Eucharist. I’m not a breakfast person anyway.
9) Talk about seeker friendly, there’s enough smoke from the incense that I can smoke and pray.
8) Beards are coming back in, I just know it!
7) Instead of ONE Lenten fasting period, we fast for 2/3’s of the year.
6) I love Greek and middle-eastern food!
5) Chairs? We don’t need no stinking chairs!
4) Nobody ever commented on my PoMo blog.
3) Very counter cultural…instead worrying about eating too much during the holidays, I ponder anything I can possibly shove in mouth and still be “fasting”.
2) I have always longed for a faith that recommends the constant remembrance of death.
1) Drinking from the same cup is fun!
(0) comments
Monday, December 08, 2003
We interrupt this broadcast to bring you...
Beautiful...green coffee just waiting to be roasted (in my kitchen). You ever get an idea in your head and just dream about it all day?
We now return you to our regularly scheduled broadcasting.
(0) comments
Beautiful...green coffee just waiting to be roasted (in my kitchen). You ever get an idea in your head and just dream about it all day?
We now return you to our regularly scheduled broadcasting.
(0) comments
Thursday, December 04, 2003
A response to Fr. Patrick from Dn. George (Mailed 11/28/03)
Dear Fr. Patrick:
Thank you for the (Nov., 2003 Touchstone)article on our church’s division over the 2nd Iraqi War. I appreciate your overview of the church’s history of coping with war. But I’ve got some issues.
On the first page you said you wouldn’t be arguing the merits of the war, one way or the other. The content and tone of the article did not live up to your disclaimers. On page 25 you forcefully/ably argue the selfless, decent, practical use of American force against Iraq, then you contend that the accuracy, the truth, of this analysis is “irrelevant here.” Come on Fr. Patrick. You made the point; you defended our attack. We had to attack Iraq to keep the oil flowing to the Third World subsistence farmers’ irrigation pumps. Armed with the threat of the worldwide starvation and hypothermia deaths you predict, the USA would have license to invade any nation—and, of course, distribute its resources to the most needy. I haven’t read or heard anything that self-serving from the Bush administration or its neo-con imperialist cheerleaders. You should get and Extreme Advocacy Award from the Heritage Foundation.
The utopian Orthodox peaceniks come off poorly next to their practical, decent, pro-war brothers, who have done the fighting for these slacker pansies over the centuries. You got in a well-deserved jab against the Orthodox Peace Fellowship’s use of the word “murder” to describe our war. And in the other corner we have Frank Schaeffer, who gets your sympathy, and deserves the readers’. You exaggerate the position of Orthodox opponents of the war to pacifism and beat up this straw man. You contend that Orthodox opposition to the war is the result of historical hangovers (Islam and the Crusades)—presumably, there’s no contemporary reason for someone not so haunted to oppose our latest pretext war of aggression. You leave out the more realistic arguments against the war; Met. PHILIP, for example on 10/09/02 cogently compared Iraq’s violations of UN resolutions to Israel’s.
Fr. Patrick, some of us do not see the gift of “very limited peace, and international stability” from American foreign policy that you mention in your last paragraph. We see our nation’s support of tyranny—from the Shah to Pinochet to Mobuto, from occupied Palestine to East Timor to Guatemala.
The division of the Orthodox Church on the 2nd Iraqi War isn’t an affliction. When the war started, another convert priest reminded us that there is no political standard for membership in the Orthodox Church. Our membership in Christ’s Body transcends all this. I must love the Zionists in our church; the Republicans must love me. And we do, with our eyes open! I’ve prayed for the safe return of Cpl. John Schaeffer, and for victory. I will not be attending his victory parade. I will continue to protest the war—and American belligerence against Syria, where my (and your) Church is headquartered.
Sincerely,
Dn.George (Charlie) Lehman
(0) comments
Dear Fr. Patrick:
Thank you for the (Nov., 2003 Touchstone)article on our church’s division over the 2nd Iraqi War. I appreciate your overview of the church’s history of coping with war. But I’ve got some issues.
On the first page you said you wouldn’t be arguing the merits of the war, one way or the other. The content and tone of the article did not live up to your disclaimers. On page 25 you forcefully/ably argue the selfless, decent, practical use of American force against Iraq, then you contend that the accuracy, the truth, of this analysis is “irrelevant here.” Come on Fr. Patrick. You made the point; you defended our attack. We had to attack Iraq to keep the oil flowing to the Third World subsistence farmers’ irrigation pumps. Armed with the threat of the worldwide starvation and hypothermia deaths you predict, the USA would have license to invade any nation—and, of course, distribute its resources to the most needy. I haven’t read or heard anything that self-serving from the Bush administration or its neo-con imperialist cheerleaders. You should get and Extreme Advocacy Award from the Heritage Foundation.
The utopian Orthodox peaceniks come off poorly next to their practical, decent, pro-war brothers, who have done the fighting for these slacker pansies over the centuries. You got in a well-deserved jab against the Orthodox Peace Fellowship’s use of the word “murder” to describe our war. And in the other corner we have Frank Schaeffer, who gets your sympathy, and deserves the readers’. You exaggerate the position of Orthodox opponents of the war to pacifism and beat up this straw man. You contend that Orthodox opposition to the war is the result of historical hangovers (Islam and the Crusades)—presumably, there’s no contemporary reason for someone not so haunted to oppose our latest pretext war of aggression. You leave out the more realistic arguments against the war; Met. PHILIP, for example on 10/09/02 cogently compared Iraq’s violations of UN resolutions to Israel’s.
Fr. Patrick, some of us do not see the gift of “very limited peace, and international stability” from American foreign policy that you mention in your last paragraph. We see our nation’s support of tyranny—from the Shah to Pinochet to Mobuto, from occupied Palestine to East Timor to Guatemala.
The division of the Orthodox Church on the 2nd Iraqi War isn’t an affliction. When the war started, another convert priest reminded us that there is no political standard for membership in the Orthodox Church. Our membership in Christ’s Body transcends all this. I must love the Zionists in our church; the Republicans must love me. And we do, with our eyes open! I’ve prayed for the safe return of Cpl. John Schaeffer, and for victory. I will not be attending his victory parade. I will continue to protest the war—and American belligerence against Syria, where my (and your) Church is headquartered.
Sincerely,
Dn.George (Charlie) Lehman
(0) comments
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
War, what is it good for!?!
I don't want to get caught up here in too much debate, but Fr. Patrick H. Reardons' recent article in Touchstone was quite frustrating. In the article he laments that Orthodoxy may be kept at the fringes of American society and culture if it maintains a position of pacifism in the face of American "Patriotism". "In either case, a religion committed to a pacifist ethic could not be a central feature of American political and social life." Although I have not put my finger on what it is specifically that irritates me about this statement, something seems to be very skewed in this concern.
Something seems to be wrong with this picture. Read the article and let me know if something is wrong with my picture.
(0) comments
I don't want to get caught up here in too much debate, but Fr. Patrick H. Reardons' recent article in Touchstone was quite frustrating. In the article he laments that Orthodoxy may be kept at the fringes of American society and culture if it maintains a position of pacifism in the face of American "Patriotism". "In either case, a religion committed to a pacifist ethic could not be a central feature of American political and social life." Although I have not put my finger on what it is specifically that irritates me about this statement, something seems to be very skewed in this concern.
Something seems to be wrong with this picture. Read the article and let me know if something is wrong with my picture.
(0) comments
