abuse

Orthodox doesn't always mean Christian

George (from Seinfeld) converts to Latvian OrthodoxI have found that it is possible for a person to be Orthodox, in the sense that they are baptized, chrismated, do penance, and receive communion, and yet not be Christian. Likewise, it seems possible for an organization to be an Orthodox Church, but not be a Christian community. This will seem controversial, but I think it’s so.

I have witnessed one atmosphere of hyper-correctness and emotional and physical abuse, with strong sociological characteristics of a cult. I have witnessed another atmosphere that was anti-clerical, anti-ethnic, vaguely neoconservative, and spent a lot of time plotting to manipulate their image to the bishop, and affect the reputations of various clergy based on what ‘camp’ they were in. I have witnessed another atmosphere working to integrate Orthodoxy with things that can never be integrated, collaborating with emissaries from gnostic groups and roving hyper-ecumenists. I have listened to clergy explain how they are working with people to oust monks and priests who have the ‘wrong’ attitudes, and are barriers to the union of a world-christianity, and the evolution of Orthodoxy into a cultural instrument. I have witnessed a community that is working quite consciously to de-asceticize Orthodoxy and build a kind of system of religious affiliation that is devoid of personal devotion but maintains control through a kind of corporate power structure. Some people are likely not to believe I’ve seen these things, or will question my interpretation of them; there’s little I can do about that. …

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Three Forms of Child Abuse

Our Lord warned that if I cause a child to stumble, it would be better that a millstone were hung around my neck and I were cast into the sea. Better when? In the judgement, it would seem. Translated into the kind of punishment this might mean in the Great Judgement, it is a grave thing indeed to abuse a child. It is a sad product of our age that children are so often viewed as sexual objects, with an accelerated maturity so often associated with sexual maturity, and sexualized children regarded as “cute”. So often, a boy or girl is tantalized and teased by adults as to whether he or she has a boyfriend or girlfriend. The are encouraged to play together in such a way that this is the subtext of their interactions. A friend of my pointed out that it starts with young girls being dressed in “spankers” for “Easter”, evolves into painting their lips and shading their eyes like any harlot of Egypt, and moves through this kind of teasing, under which is always a suggestion if not the expectation or eager desire that they quickly find their sexual place. Inflicted more on girls than on boys, sometimes, our culture portrays the prime time girl of eight or ten or twelve as at once petulant, pouting, and precocious. This type of sexual abuse amounts to the fondling of the soul and the denigration of the body.

At the same time, children are frequently treated as “pre-people” in the name of physical discipline. …

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