Comments Posted By tmatt
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Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
And as any journalist knows, passive voice is to be avoided like the plague.
Print the best evidence of a report. Quote it. Then print the reaction.
» Posted By tmatt On February 19, 2013 @ 6:54 pm
Sounds like cautious, solid stewardship to me.
» Posted By tmatt On February 12, 2013 @ 6:33 pm
And continues to draw silence. Is this the heart of the matter?
» Posted By Tmatt On February 11, 2013 @ 6:08 am
My question is sincere.
» Posted By tmatt On February 10, 2013 @ 9:02 pm
OK, here’s another practical tmatt question, for voices on both sides in this fight.
Please name three reasons why Russian Orthodox Church officials have not been more specific in their statements and actions.
I mean, other than the fact that Byzantine politics can be rather byzantine.
» Posted By tmatt On February 10, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
+Jonah’s Release Requested More Than a Month Ago
Has anyone heard the announcement of which bishops will represent the OCA in the Right To Life march this year?
What happens if Met JONAH, as would be his desire, elected to attend? I assume some ROCOR faithful will march with the Orthodox For Life flock.
» Posted By tmatt On January 23, 2013 @ 2:52 pm
I requested responses from those loyal to the OCA administration, however they might describe their theological stances.
I described the other side as conservatives because I have not met any OCA liberals, moderates or whatever who support Met JONAH.
» Posted By tmatt On January 21, 2013 @ 6:52 pm
In simple English, will someone on both sides here — the OCA establishment and the conservatives who back JONAH — please offer three reasons, from their perspectives on both sides, that JONAH is not being released to ROCOR?
Three points from each side please. On the record.
» Posted By tmatt On January 21, 2013 @ 1:32 pm
As is so often the case, this varies from zip code to zip code, from bishop to bishop. However, the key is to look for genuine pan-Orthodox efforts — primarily IN WORSHIP — that are backed by bishops.
For example, please consider the music project in the Antiochian Diocese called The Byzantine Project, which has helped parishes use excellent music from a wide variety of Orthodox sanctuaries, not just single-line chant.
» Posted By tmatt On January 15, 2013 @ 1:28 pm
Jonah the Prophet: Muzzling Military Chaplains
The key document. The key quote.
The Associated Press also took the key info nationwide.
Then the dominoes started falling.
http://www.tmatt.net/2010/10/25/dont-ask-dont-tell-the-chaplains/
Monday, October 25th, 2010
Don’t ask, don’t tell the chaplains
The setting: The office of a priest who serves as a military chaplain.
The time: This hypothetical encounter occurs soon after the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that forbids gays, lesbians and bisexuals to openly serve in America’s armed forces.
The scene: An officer requests counseling about tensions with her same-sex partner as they prepare for marriage. The priest says this would be inappropriate, since his church teaches that sex outside of marriage is sin and that the sacrament of marriage is reserved for unions of a man and a woman.
The priest offers to refer her to a chaplain at another base who represents a church that performs same-sex rites. The officer accepts, but is less than pleased at the inconvenience.
What happens next? That question is driving the tense church-state debates that continue behind the scenes of the political drama that surrounds “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“If the government normalizes homosexual behavior in the armed forces, many (if not most) chaplains will confront a profoundly difficult moral choice: whether they are to obey God or to obey men,” stated a September letter from 60-plus retired chaplains to President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” they argued, will cripple the ability of many chaplains to provide counseling. “Service members seeking guidance regarding homosexual relationships will place chaplains in an untenable position. If chaplains answer such questions according to the tenets of their faith, stating that homosexual relationships are sinful and harmful, then they run the risk of career-ending accusations of insubordination and discrimination. And if chaplains simply decline to provide counseling at all on that issue, they may still face discipline for discrimination.”
These complaints are “somewhat disingenuous,” according to the Rev. John F. Gundlach, a retired Navy chaplain from the United Church of Christ, the progressive Protestant denomination into which Obama was baptized.
“These chaplains … will continue to have the same rights they’ve always had to preach, teach, counsel, marry and conduct religious matters according to the tenets of their faith. They will also continue to have the responsibility to refer servicemembers to other chaplains when their own theology or conscience will not allow them to perform the services to which a servicemember is entitled,” stressed Gundlach, writing in Stars and Stripes. “Any chaplain who can’t fulfill this expectation should find somewhere else to do ministry.”
The urgency of these debates will only increase after this week’s Pentagon statement instructing its recruiters to accept openly gay applicants, a shift driven by a federal court decision barring the military from expelling openly gay soldiers.
Military chaplains are already being asked to serve as doctrinal Swiss Army knifes, performing rites and prayers for personnel from a variety of flocks when the need arises. This kind of pluralism is easy for chaplains from some traditions, but not others.
Meanwhile, it’s hard for chaplains to refer troubled soldiers to clergy in foxholes 30 miles away. It’s impossible to have a variety of chaplains — Southern Baptists and Wiccans, Catholic priests and rabbis — serving on every base, let alone in submarines.
There is no easy way out of this church-state maze.
If “don’t ask, don’t tell” is repealed, “no restrictions or limitations on the teaching of Catholic morality can be accepted,” noted Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for Military Services. While Catholic chaplains must always show compassion, they “can never condone — even silently — homosexual behavior.”
A letter from Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America to the chaplains board was even more blunt: “If our chaplains were in any way … prohibited from denouncing such behavior as sinful and self-destructive, it would create an impediment to their service in the military. If such an attitude were regarded as ‘prejudice’ or the denunciation of homosexuality as ‘hate language,’ or the like, we would be forced to pull out our chaplains from military service.”
So be it, said Gundlach. While these chaplains “worry about being discriminated against, they openly discriminate against some of the very people they are pledged to serve and serve with. If the hate speech currently uttered by some conservative chaplains and their denominations is any indication of how they will respond in the future, we can expect this discrimination to continue.”
These chaplains need to resign, he said. The armed services “will be the better for it.”
» Posted By tmatt On January 24, 2013 @ 8:31 pm
Curious. Why did this site ignore the death of Patriarch Ignatius IV? This is a terrible blow to the Orthodox in the Middle East.
I see comments. No obvious post.
» Posted By Tmatt On December 7, 2012 @ 6:22 pm
Laurie Paffhausen, May Her Memory Be Eternal
I will ask again.
I am almost afraid to ask this question. I assume that Metropolitan JONAH will be allowed to attend the service? Will he be able to play any role in the Divine Liturgy?
» Posted By Tmatt On November 19, 2012 @ 9:15 pm
I am almost afraid to ask this question. I assume that Metropolitan JONAH will be allowed to attend the service? Will he be able to play any role in the Divine Liturgy?
» Posted By tmatt On November 19, 2012 @ 7:42 pm
No sign of a YouTube on this subject.
Looks fake, at this point.
» Posted By tmatt On November 14, 2012 @ 2:48 pm
People who support centuries of Church Tradition on sacraments and moral theology. You don’t have to be a convert.
» Posted By Tmatt On November 17, 2012 @ 7:58 am
In other words, not pro-Soviet, so to speak, but anti-anti-Soviet.
» Posted By Tmatt On August 25, 2012 @ 4:38 pm
The Keystone Kops Swing into Action
I do not speak fluent OCA, but is the key in this that Syosset gets to go back to the future? The headquarters gains power and personnel, while the idea of breaking with the past and moving to Washington, D.C., (perhaps even being a voice for Orthodoxy on the national issues of the day) is dead, dead, dead?
» Posted By tmatt On July 24, 2012 @ 4:59 pm
Another Hole in the Official Story: ‘Alleged Rape’ Timeline Reporting is Wrong
Can someone send a copy of the letter to the Philly Inquirer? That might, just might, lead to more investigation and new info.
» Posted By tmatt On July 19, 2012 @ 8:15 pm
Great statement of a crucial question.
» Posted By Tmatt On July 19, 2012 @ 5:58 am
The pic in front of the World Council of Churches graphic is a nice touch. That’s a winner with the OCA laity, as well.
» Posted By tmatt On July 11, 2012 @ 4:16 pm
This Is Far from Over: Get Religion Weighs In
BTW, it’s GetReligion, not Get_Religion.
Thanks!
» Posted By tmatt On July 11, 2012 @ 10:32 am
Please help alert the GetReligionistas of any additional mainstream coverage, domestic or foreign.
We don’t want to miss the next round.
» Posted By tmatt On July 11, 2012 @ 8:26 am
This Is Far from Over: Catholic Online Weighs In
Here’s an early GetReligion look at the mainstream news coverage of this affair:
http://www.getreligion.org/2012/07/covering-warfare-in-a-byzantine-maze-literally/
» Posted By tmatt On July 10, 2012 @ 6:08 pm
This Is Far from Over: The Chicago Tribune Weighs in
For those who are interested, here is an early GetReligion take on the mainstream news coverage of this whole matter:
http://www.getreligion.org/2012/07/covering-warfare-in-a-byzantine-maze-literally/
» Posted By tmatt On July 10, 2012 @ 6:10 pm
Growth Numbers by Diocese: A Report to the Metropolitan Council (Spring 2012)
Does the plug-in work with Macs? I cannot access the info.
» Posted By tmatt On April 30, 2012 @ 2:19 pm
More Good News? Metropolitan Jonah on Orthodox Unity
Simple observation.
OCA metropolitan there. No GOA clergy at a service that a few have attended in past.
» Posted By tmatt On March 12, 2012 @ 4:22 pm
It was the vespers of the Triumph of Orthodoxy — not Divine Liturgy.
Also, I believe that this panorthodox service drew zero GOA clergy this year.
» Posted By Tmatt On March 11, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
More on the Russian Church and its Revitalization
This info may be somewhere in the comments. If so, I apologize.
Who did this exhibit?
How might one or more parts of it come to the USA?
I am not asking this as a theoretical question.
» Posted By tmatt On January 13, 2012 @ 2:51 pm
One final question: Does the All-American produce any actual DOCUMENTS that report results?
Is there a common site that contains texts of speeches, etc.?
One thing that would help the discussions of Orthodox life is a common site, a clearing house for actual documents, letters, speech texts, verbatim comments of significance from blogs (left and right). A place to put key information ON THE RECORD.
Then again, I am an actual working journalist. I like that kind of thing. I also like it as a churchman, as opposed to, well, readers here can imagine.
» Posted By tmatt On November 10, 2011 @ 4:43 pm
«« Back To Stats PageStill no new wrap up?
» Posted By Tmatt On November 9, 2011 @ 8:27 pm
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