I’ve often wondered how the persecution of Christians is going to transpire here in the “enlightened” West. Where exactly will be the “arena”? Will it be like in Rome where there was the Circus Maximus? Or like Byzantium during the Iconoclastic heresy when churches were being desecrated? Or maybe Eastern Europe when the Bolsheviks sent believers to the gulags (or worse)? Mind you, all for very good reasons –or so we were told.
After all, the first Christians wouldn’t offer a pinch to Caesar. In Byzantium “idol worshipers” wouldn’t turn in their icons for burning. And as for that pesky Tsar, well, he was “corrupt” and he presided over an antiquated religious system that needed to be destroyed for the “good” of the people. You get the drift. All for the good of the people. Of course, it didn’t stop there. “Reactionary elements”, basically peasants who had a surplus bushel left over after harvest were found to be everywhere and woe to the few who had an icon corner in their little hovel.
No, nothing like that could happen here in America. We’re too enlightened. Why, we allow bickering parents, purportedly Orthodox Christians, to castrate their little boy, because the cognoscenti tell us that there are sixteen –or is it 38?–“genders”. HOW DARE WE STUPID REDNECKS OBJECT! “Go back to Appalachia and swill your moonshine already! Let us beautiful people rule the nation.” It’s progress, don’t you know! – Talk about when up is down.
I’m sorry, but it’s clear to me that despite whatever triumphs and successes President Trump has had, he’s just a bump on the road to our civilizational ruin. This young father we’ve been reading about in Texas —Texas! for Christ’s sake!— just lost the case against his ex-wife, who has apparently bought into all the feminazi, homosexualist nonsense that we’ve been beaten over the head with these last few decades. In her mind, chemically castrating her son makes sense, and sadly, a jury of her peers picked at random, agrees. Read the story for yourself if you don’t believe me and let it sink in:
If this isn’t bad enough, the mother is a pediatrician. Anybody living in the Dallas area with children might want to steer clear of wherever the hell she practices. Perhaps the state medical board might want to look into her medical school and review its accreditation. I dunno, just a thought.
If this isn’t a turning point, I don’t know what is. Way back when, I remember having a headache in school, and I went to the school nurse and asked for aspirin. I was told that it was against the law. You see because I was a minor, even giving me something as innocuous as aspirin could have side-effects that could be injurious to my health and if I suffered any deleterious results, my parents could sue the pants off the school district for harming me. Got that? A chain of causation so tenuous in actuality that the school had to go to ridiculous lengths to protect themselves from any legal action. In loco parentis and all that.
Fast forward another couple of decades when in our government schools, “gay clubs” are created for the sole purpose of “comforting” a student who, like every other pubescent teenager, is “confused” about his or her sexuality. The real reason, of course, is something far more nefarious: to “groom” adolescents for the physical pleasure of adult predators. Don’t believe me? Then do this as a thought experiment: do we really have to ask why adult men shouldn’t “counsel” fourteen-year-old girls about their own budding sexuality? Just curious.
Or how about this: at the same school, a fifteen-year-old girl can waltz into that same nurse’s office and ask for an abortion. She will be immediately whisked away and if need be, taken across state lines, where her baby’s body will be torn from her body, limb by limb. And her family will not even be told about it. Nor will the girl be told about the side-effects to abortion or it’s long-term sequelae: things like an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility, and life-long depression. (You think Big Pharma may play some role in all this? Giving me an aspirin won’t make me dependent but just try getting some poor sap off of SSRIs or benzodiazepines.)
Need I say it? We’ve slid off into the abyss. Don’t like my “intolerant” language? Especially the part about recruiting teenagers into the homosexual lifestyle? OK, then you explain it.
Ten years ago, two prominent Democrat candidates for president (Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) both solemnly intoned that they were against “gay” marriage. These assertions were stated with a wink and a nod to be sure but that’s because the body politic demanded it. Now it’s like “anything goes”.
Now in Texas, a Red state, an Orthodox Christian father is going to have to live with the nightmare that his son is going to be chemically castrated.
This is where all of the “tolerance” and “diversity” has gotten us. And there’s no going back.
You know, if I EVER hear a liberal or a progressive EVER tell me that the Middle Ages were horrible because of *reasons* I swear to God that I will lose it. And that will go double for any RINO-cuck who intones something about “principles”. I can assure you, it won’t be pretty.
Maran atha. And pray for this boy, that his life won’t be ruined.
God Almighty. I fear that you may be right George, that Trump was just a bump in the road to the end, although, I pray to God we’re wrong.
I’m from Dallas, the wife’s name sounds Greek. Are they member of the Greek parish in Dallas? If so, why was she not reprimanded by her priest? If it is indeed the Greek parish, I know the priest and would think he would do more
An article that I read on this story yesterday reported that both parents originally were Orthodox but that she has left the faith. No surprise with her radical leftist views. God help us!
From the savejames.com site:
When did Anne Georgulas begin abusing James?
“James’ father, Jeff, first learned of this when James was three-years-old. He took a video of his son telling him, “Mommy says I’m a girl.” Anne Georgulas became increasingly insistent that James be a girl.
On James’ fifth birthday, Anne Georgulas chose the event as his “coming out” party to bring him in a dress. Many women from James’ church were in attendance. Reportedly, James hid under a table and cried.
James goes to St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Euless, Tx. Not a single church woman in attendance has offered to help. All refused to testify.”
Here is the parish: https://stjohndfw.info/
Interestingly, from the priest’s bio: “Due to his dual background, Fr. Vasile has a strong interest in Christian Bioethics and writes articles on contemporary moral issues.”
I hope that Father is working on it.
Sad but as George says where we have got to. It’s like the witch hunting mentality of middle ages.
I saw this in my professional career
The boy’s name is James, after James, the brother of our Lord. His twin’s name is Jude. Tomorrow, October 23, the final ruling from the judge gets handed down. October 23 is one of the feast days of St. James. Satan’s game is to discourage us beyond what we think we can bear, but God is our refuge and strength, our hope in Him does not disappoint. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, we can’t lie down defeated.
Amen to that! But remember the decision being handed down is of a far leftist feminist judge in liberal Dallas. It will go up on appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. Texas Supreme Court justices are very different that liberal Dallas County judges. I believe this decision will be overturned before long. Keep the father and these children in your prayers.
Re Ukraine. I have just read the Public Orthodoxy article by the Bishop of Volos of greek church. I am not going to refute his superficial anti Russian phobia, fear of Phanar and skating over question of valid Ordination and Sacraments as if of no concern. And rest. His fear of Phanar palpable.What are they holding over them? And their hidden globalist agenda But it bodes badly for Greek church.
I will give the web reference
//publicorthodoxy.org/2019/10/23/Ukrainian – autocephaly – and-responsibility
Rod Dreher wrote a post today about this poor little boy who’s suffering as collateral damage in drama that he didn’t create:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/transgender-james-younger-a-woke-edgardo-mortara/
Rod notes that the ex-wife and family attend the Greek Orthodox Church in Euless, Texas, near DFW. Per Rod, the nutso ex-wife has “turned the parish” against the dad and apparently supports turning this boy into a girl? Insanity. Maybe they are a wealthy Greek family, and the parish excuses all behavior because of the funding they bring. Who knows. These can’t be Orthodox Christians.
The parish priest is a Romanian, and the website is full of the hoo-ray-GOA and C’ple and Ukraine stuff, as one might imagine.
Interestingly, and with hope, there is a link on the parish website to a letter written by their diocesan bishop, Met. Isaiah of Denver, on transgenderism:
https://www.bulletinbuilder.org//system/pdfs/2019_01_02_13_09_09-0.pdf?1547966145
Lots of emotional roller coasters here. We should pray for this young 7 year old boy that he is protected from being used as collateral damage by his insane mother. In a healthy community, Met. Isaiah, the parish priest, and the parish would be doing everything they can to protect this boy.
Maybe we should start a phone call or email campaign to this parish to find out what they’re doing to protect him. If we Orthodox Christians in America don’t protect him, no one will.
From the comments on Dreher’s article, the first time that this came up in the news, the priest did a three-week sermon series about the errors of transgenderism. Furthermore, the bishop wrote a letter on the topic, and while he didn’t mention this case or this mother specifically, he also wrote that transgenderism is mental illness or from demons, and that pediatricians who participate in this (the mom’s a pediatrician) participate in evil. (paraphrasing here)
Being a pediatrician, I think the mother is an expert at being “sweet” and putting people at ease when she wants to. I think the father is probably a lot more rough around the edges. I don’t think that he’s an angel either, but in this case, he’s fighting for the life of his son. Furthermore, it seems like whatever his faults, he’s sticking with the Church, and he wants to raise his sons in it – and if the mother gets her way, this would also be prohibited.
Rhipsime, while I agree that in divorce cases both sides are to blame (all things being equal) and that the father is not innocent, in the case at hand, the parent who protects the boy from castration is the hero. He is like the real mother of the baby who pleaded with King Solomon to give the child to the false mother because she could not bear to see her baby be cut in half.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness” 2 Cor 6:14.
The idea that marriage in and of itself is holy is naïve, especially in this day and age. Clearly this man was unequally yoked. My reading of the Scripture leads me to believe he had a responsibility to both divorce his wife and fight for the well being of his children.
We had a couple in our parish (no longer) who were of the same mindset. My wife interacted with them on Facebook. The wife was constantly praising the courage of transgender people and how wonderful they were. My wife, at one point, asked her if she thought that perhaps her own children might want to go that route simply to get the praise from their mother? The woman was perplexed, but not long after that, one of her children expressed that desire.
Let’s face it. The divorce laws in this country have by and large ignored and denigrated the role of the father in raising the children. “No fault” laws have simply accelerated the tendency.
God forgive us.
I absolutely agree with you! The thing is that even in happy families, the parents aren’t perfect. One of the reasons that there are supposed to be two parents involved in childrearing in the same home is because of this; for the most part, things that are flaws or stumbling blocks with one aren’t usually with the other.
I’ve just been on a number of comment boards about this case where eventually somebody starts whining that did this or that or the other thing. As far as his past, a lot of that stuff may be true, BUT the important thing here is that he’s standing up, in love, for the future of both of his sons, and they desperately need that.
When you have divorce, and you have parents that don’t get along, neither is going to be perfect, and most of the time, either alone is going to have his or her flaws exacerbated by the fact that the other biological parent is not there to balance them out. It is what it is. However, to put up a crude political analogy here, these kids are probably caught between parents, who resemble a lot of what voters felt in 2016. On one hand, you have one who does seem to have a lot of flaws and maybe you’re not thrilled about voting for, but at least seems to love his country, and on the other, you have the smooth-talking “professional”, who you know is just going to make things a lot worse.
To echo Brené Brown, being kind let’s assume that both parents are doing the best they can with the tools that they have, as most of us do every day.
The dad obviously isn’t perfect but his “best he can” is fighting to provide his son with the foundation to grow into the boy and man whom God designed him to be.
The mom’s “best she can” is dangerous and aims to hurt her son, physically and permanently. Similar to an abusive person or a criminal, who may be doing the best that person can do, but when the “best you can do” hurts people, society must step in and keep that person from harming others.
So if this mom is doing the best she can do, and this is her best, then we have a moral responsibility to step in and prevent her from permanently harming this innocent bystander of a young 7-year-old boy.
The sheer lunacy of all of this is that in the postmodern West, the adults in the room no longer believe that they bear the responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. We’ve abdicated our responsibility to protect the defenseless. That’s shameful and embarrassing, and we will have to answer for it.
How many lives must be destroyed before we man up and do our job as responsible adults?
This is an ideal opportunity for the Orthodox clergy association of Dallas-Fort Worth (does that even exist? – if not, obviously it should) to issue a statement on gender reassignment in general – and in this case specifically on young people, since this case involves a 7-year-old minor who’s an Orthodox Christian!
Yet what have we heard? Crickets. Why do we cower in the face of insanity and tyranny of the stupid? What are we afraid of?
There has been such an organization, however apparently less united in belief and definitely much less united in public statements and action than the Houston Area Clergy Association. I do not know whether the ROCOR church now attends given the present jurisdictional situation. I am not on Facebook so hope they are acting and posting there. Would love to be corrected!
This is a reflection of the spiritual rot of the GOA and the wider Amero-Greek community. IVF itself should be refrained from but that’s nothing compared to this.
The fact this St. John’s GOA community is circling the wagon and sding with their fellow Greek is disgusting. And there is no reason I should doubt this. Even the people in the parish who testified on his behalf seem lukewarm and aloof. They seem to think because of some past indiscretions by this father castrated this child is alright. I emailed this parish to see if they excommunicated this demonic women but I doubt they will respond.
major piece by Rod Dreher on this
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/transgender-james-younger-a-woke-edgardo-mortara/
Petition
https://lifepetitions.com/petition/i-support-the-father-of-6-year-old-boy-being-forced-to-live-as-a-girl
Please sign! It’s addressed to the local judge, Kim Cook, who’s presided over this travesty so that’s unlikely to help. Efforts are underway to get to TX Gov Abbott, AG Paxton, and Solicitor General Hawkins.
The mother of the twins is clearly deluded in a most horrifying way by our secular culture and likely by early issues herself which is playing out unconsciously and destructively. Yes she must be stopped in a legal and/or Christ-honoring way.
Besides the father’s attempt to save his child and those who support him, another redeeming part of this heartrending story is the faithfulness of the GOA priest and his Metropolitan, both of whom teach from and honor the Holy Fathers and the Holy Canons and frequent and support the Elder Ephraim monasteries, in stark and beautiful contrast to the Phanar, the GOA hierarchy and its Archons. IF all of the GOA would follow their lead, there is a Godly path ahead in the US for the GOA.
Not surprisingly Met. Isaiah was one of the wonderful trio of Vladika Dmitri of blessed memory and Antiochian Bishop Basil. They formed and were the backbone of true PanOrthodox worship in the midwest when on the planet together and now invisibly in spirit. What a joyous union with beautiful Orthodox-building results.
May others come to unite with Met. Isaiah and this very fine Patristic Orthodox priest, his lovely presbytera and family. Their services are most reverent. His Church and his class after Divine Liturgy are actually what I will miss most attending each week until certain things change in the GOA.
Please be aware that at least some of the parishioners DO fervently support Orthodox teaching and are praying mightily for the deluded mother and judge as well James and the father and signing petitions for James. How beautiful that James the brother of the Lord prayed like his Lord and St. Stephen “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” as he was being killed, indicating what our attitude toward Young James’ persecutors should be. May God rescue this innocent child from that fate and rescue the minds and souls who seek to damage him terribly, deluded and unaware.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000x: Metropolitan Isaiah is the standout bishop in the GOA. Probably that last one.
I signed the petition Jim. Thanks for sharing.
By the way, the mom has a very liberal/lefty face. Yes, those facial traits exist.
” the mom has a very liberal/lefty face. Yes, those facial traits exist. ”
I would have laughed at this comment until I did a quick Google search and realized that you might be onto something…
Whenever I watch a youtube video where the typical behaviour of (extreme) leftists is displayed, very often I ask myself: “How come they all look alike?” Then I proceed to read some comments, and I usually find a comment saying: “How come they all look alike?” Certainly, there is something to it.
As owners begin to resemble their pets, maybe liberals begin to resemble the demons that possess them.
Certainly. Maybe not very visible to non baptized people, but very much so to baptized ones.
John Hopkin’s Hospital has stopped doing Gender Reassignment Surgery. I think that if Gender Dysphoria is real it’s very rare and an irreversible operation shouldn’t be done on a child.This is very sad.
Please support the Kelsey Coalition at kelseycoalition.org. This is the nation-wide, non-partisan, grassroots coalition of parents, trying to change the systems that failed our kids because of the ongoing medical malpractice driven by gender identity ideology. These are parents from across the religious and political spectrum, united against the horror that is happening to our kids. We walked the halls of the House and Senate and spoke outside the Supreme Court a couple weeks ago, while trans activists tried to shout us down the entire time. A number of Kelsey Coalition parents have spoken to reporters at the NYT and the WaPo, but the story always gets spiked at the editorial level. There is a complete mainstream media blackout on this, but the National Review has provided great coverage of the united concerns across the right and left when it comes to the legal and medical harms of gender ideology.
This father has a God given obligation to protect his children. When men demonstrate the courage to lay down their lives to protect their families, then you will know the real fight had begun. This man should consider taking his children out of the country
The idea that Texas is some bastion of Americana is a meme that hasn’t been true for at least a couple of decades now. (They don’t even have open carry.)
There are still good areas of course, but when professional skateboarder Robert Francis O’Rourke can get 48.3% of the vote for US Senate, it’s on the verge of being over. Honestly the Rust Belt has better chances for recovery of normalcy than Texas.
I love seeing Republicans like Sean Hannity giving their upvotes to states like Texas and Florida that are “open for business”. You want to irreversibly ruin a state and turn it to globohomo? Open it for business and invite the merchants and financiers in. That’s how it goes.
California was set on the road to its current state of ruin thanks in part to Governor Ronald Reagan, so both parties are totally complicit, and neither party really wants to stop it. (We can thank Ronaldus Magnus for giving America no-fault divorce.)
A degree of isolationism is the best way to maintain what you have. But you have to decide your home and culture are more valuable than money.
AS, agreed about Texas. However because I go there frequently, I still get a “red” vibe if you can say that. Yes, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio are trending blue, while Austin is hopelessly insane, the continued trending towards blue has crested it seems to me.
Bozo O’Rourke was a lagging indicator, yes he got 48% of the vote but that was against a deeply unpopular Ted Cruz plus $80 million thrown in for good measure. Plus he campaigned as a moderate Democrat. Now he’s gone completely off the rails. Had he run then as he is running now, he would have been wiped out with maybe 40% of the vote.
Nor can we forget that he ran during a mid-term when a president’s party always loses seats in the Congress.
I’d say the same for Florida: the high point for tipping blue was 2018 when both Texas and Florida ran excellent campaigns with popular Democrats who pretended to be moderate. This btw is a reverse of the 2000 election when Bush 43 won by one (1) electoral vote. That was the high point for the GOP on the presidential level. Trump was an anomaly in that he “picked the electoral lock” by holding the Bush states and going for the Rust Belt.
Clinton in 1992 did the same thing by picking the electoral lock when he chose a fellow Southerner to pick off Arkansas and Tennessee, thus breaking the GOP’s electoral back in the South. (And he had Ross Perot to split the GOP vote.)
So where are we? At a major tipping point. If Trump succeeds then the electoral landscape changes in favor of a newer, populist GOP. If however he fails, then America becomes California on a presidential level. A permanent one-party state.
Of course if that happens then we become a banana republic and have maybe a generation before we completely collapse.
The question is: will the Deep State allow such a scenario. There is no other superpower which can exercise a global reach and the Deep State still adheres to a globalist narrative. Neither Russia nor China have the hard power or the soft power necessary to step up to the plate.
Trump realizes this and thus, there may be a Mexican Stand-off between them, so to speak.
American parents have been mutilating their boys’ genitals for decades. It was a bad precedent to set, as we now see.
AS, while I am against male circumcision on principle, I accept it as a cultural artifact. In no ways and in no certain terms is it comparable in any way with castration, chemical or otherwise.
What this mother (a pediatrician no less) is planning to do will damage this child permanently not just psychologically but emotionally.
Consider: the reason to chemically castrate this boy before puberty is to make sure that he never acquires enough testosterone to “be” a man, that is to feel as a man feels. Unfortunately, it shrinks his penis to almost nothingness. Why is that a problem, especially if he’s going to become a female? This reason: there will not be enough skin on his penis to make a functioning vagina.
It’s a horrible Catch-22.
Oh, come on, now! While I’m not a big supporter of circumcision, that is nothing compared to what is about to be done to this boy. If the law really allows this abuse to go forward, then, in the words of Charles Dickens, the law is an ass.
Totally agreed Fr.
(If I may ask for a little latitude in what follows, I would appreciate it. I do not write what follows for salacious reasons.)
If I may, while male circumcision may decrease a man’s sexual pleasure slightly, it in no way impairs the act or causes physical pain. In fact, because of the slight decrease in sensitivity, it does cause a man to last longer during coition (which can increase a woman’s pleasure all things being equal).
Female circumcision on the other hand not only decreases and sometimes eliminates the possibility of orgasm for a female, it makes the actual sexual act extremely painful for the female.
All in all, I think the genitals should be left alone.
George, the last 60 years has been a cultural frog boiling that all of us have participated in to one degree or another. It should not be shocking.
The eruption in the Church, the eruption socially and politically are all part of the same phenomenon that, as I have stated before, began in earnest in A.D. 1848 although it has its genesis in our expulsion from the Garden.
Trump is, unfortunately, as much a part of it as the rest of the politicians, just plays a different role. There is no hope from that direction.
Although there have been similar cultural, social, political upheavals in the past, I am not certain there have been anything that really approaches what we are going through. It as if the boil of evil has burst and is spewing all sorts of lusts forth into the atmosphere and into our hearts. To name just a few:
Lust of power; lust for control; simple old fashion lust; etc. All of it is underpinned by a hatred of and revolt against God because He does not satisfy immediately every longing of our hearts.
So it becomes easy in that environment to turn our backs on what is good; what is beautiful; what is holy and what is life giving; forgetting to give thanks for all God gives us in a suffocating evil world. All of the attributes of God require repentance to fully enter into. For the most part, we refuse to repent. It is so much easier to blame others and scapegoat them. At least that is the observation of my own heart and in what I see in the actions of others.
If we just get rid of “X” all will be well. That is the damnedest lie of all. It is the source of prelest–perhaps the sin against the Holy Spirit that is unforgivable.
Over the years, I have seen the spirit of scapegoating quite rampant here on this blog from most parties involved including me. Only the twin discipline of repentance/forgiveness, taking full responsibility for whatever it is that I rail against (while not denying the existential evil infects others as well), then no change will happen. “I am the chief of sinners”, am I not?
The Church as She continues by the grace of God, will be built on those who know that statement is true and not spiritual hyperbole and rhetorical device. All hatred, lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth and desire to be God is in my heart.
I have to take the log out of my own eye first. Still, even though I am a man with unclean lips and heart who comes from a people of unclean lips and heart, I must speak if God gives me utterance. That is the tricky part. The discernment to know when to speak. who to speak to and what to speak about. That discernment is impossible though without through and ongoing repentance/forgiveness. A true Catch 22 for the worldly mind–indeed even foolishness.
God forgive me a sinner. I also ask for forgiveness from my brothers and sisters here for my arrogance and judgment.
Michael. You say it all. Thank you.
Amen.
Amen.
Male circumcision also almost completely eliminates the risk of developing penile cancer, which, if not caught early, must be treated with a penectomy. Just sayin’. Male circumcision is also far cleaner and healthier for many parts of the world that don’t have access to regular bathing, good personal hygiene, or sanitation.
Male circumcision is in no way even remotely similar to what this “mother” wants to try to do to her son. Not even comparable.
Anon2, cleanliness is indeed a big consideration as far as male circumcision is concerned, at least in the Third World.
Soap exists. The rest of the civilized world think Americans are bizarre for the practice, promoted in earnest by John Kellogg and his weird religion.
Sorry for bringing up the subject. I’ve been something of a zealot against male genital mutilation since my nephew had one botched and seeing the pain and agony it has caused him over the years over a dubious cosmetic procedure. Certain religions which practice this ritual have thwarted attempts at scientific study (as well as banning it), but a partial Canadian investigation found that infant boys subjected to it suffer permanent changes to their brains afterwards. Take it for what you will.
I’m opposed to all elective bodily modification of minors, whether gentital mutilation, chemical castration, hormone modification, as well as tattoos and piercings. It’s easier to stand on principle than on degrees.
And I shall leave it here. Again, sorry for bringing it up.
No need to apologize, at least not to me. The human body is a temple of God, thus sacred. Why mutilate it or cover it with ugly graffiti? And like all sacred things, to be properly veiled, i.e. clothed, not exposed and shown off. The sacredness of the body is completely lost in our culture, to our peril.
Anon 2 “Male circumcision also almost completely eliminates the risk of developing penile cancer”
Hmm, what about other parts of the body that can be amputated? They also could develop cancer 😉
George. Left alone!! I’ll second that.!!!! ?
But seriously female mutilation is a big problem.and in Uk banned but follow up by police because of all the liberal racist stuff, very limited.
I am against male circumscision except for medical reasons but it is as u say George. Christ was circumscisioned, but He was a Jew humanly speaking. And early Church said not needed. Baptism much better.
George, I have to admit that this whole situation with Ukraine has caused me much spiritual grief, and I have been trying to find a positive spin on it:
As a positive spin for the Church of Greece, my though is that through God’s mercy, maybe He is showing us what bishops are faithful to Orthodoxy so that when a council is called (God willing), we know those faithful bishops and the Church as a whole can denounce those bishops who are not faithful?
What are your thoughts?
As a side question, what number of bishops/metropolitans in the Church of Greece do you think ARE faithful to Orthodoxy?
I can’t answer your last question, perhaps 10, 20%? Dunno, honestly. However the MP is executing a brilliant strategy to try and bring the CoG to its senses and perhaps call a council.
Menast Re Greece. I guess we can only count them as they stand up. What shocks me are the likes of Kallistos Ware. Bureaucratic language doing nothing. We give the bishops a leisured life, fawned over, cosseted. The quid pro pro is that when it hits the fan, they are expected to stand and be counted. Not drown us in bland words.
Reading the news report, it appears the boy is a twin of another boy, gotten by IVF at the request of the parents, who only wanted boys, not girls. Makes me wonder if girls were aborted in the womb, common in IFV to abort the unwanted ones. Perhaps the little boy is spiritually sensitive to the presence of a sister, and confused by her absence.I also wonder if the father’s sperm was used, or donor sperm. If donor, than adultery is involved, too, another spiritual damage.
I don’t know if the Orthodox Church has any teaching on IVF, but it has become common among all Christian denominations to get children that way. But I do not think it is right. We treat children like commodities we can get if we like, and get rid of if we like, with no reference to God. And now we can even “change their gender” if we like. What a sick, Frankenstein world this is becoming.
At its heart, a terrible spiritual disorder even in the consciousness of Christians as to what it really means to be created in the image and likeness of God. Thus a disorder in the meaning of sexual reproduction and gender, too. And this little boy is paying a very heavy price.
Not even to mention his brother, imagine the effect on him if his brother “transitions,” i.e. is mutilated and drugged to appear something he’s not, and the inevitable spiritual and psychological damage that will result. Lord have mercy on us all.
Finally found a response from someone who had noticed that the boys are not even related to the “mother” in this case. Yes, there is sober-minded Orthodox Christian writing available that points out the adultery inherent in all “donor IVF”. I have been speculating that the “mother” does not care one micro-speck for either boy, because they are not truly hers, and that she merely has chosen this demonic method to demonstrate her deep hatred for her ex-husband.
Perhaps some good news:
BREAKING: Texas gov. investigating case involving mom who wants gender ‘transition’ for 7-yr-old
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-texas-gov-investigating-case-involving-mom-who-wants-gender-transition-for-7-yr-old
Let’s keep praying!
Indeed.
Perhaps there is a silver lining to this incipient atrocity? And that would be that the GOA would get involved in upholding the truth about the demonic nature of this procedure on any human being (regardless of age) and if possible, get directly involved with the Supreme Court and file an amicus brief based on the Church’s teaching?
Such moves would calm the nerves of many non-GOA Orthodox Christians in America who feel that that particular jurisdiction is pretty much on board with the secularist agenda (as is Dumenko’s sect in the Ukraine).
I’m not holding my breath – and I am one who thinks the GOA has sold out, good members and priests notwithstanding. Frankly makes me glad for multiple jurisdictions in the US, might be a Godsend, and something I’m in no hurry to change.
Indeed, things are heating up!
‘Ted Cruz demands Texas act to protect 7-year-old in ‘horrifying’ gender transition battle…’
and
‘Hundreds of thousands demand Texas leaders step in to prevent gender ‘transition’ of 7-yr-old boy’
See: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/hundreds-of-thousands-demand-texas-leaders-step-in-to-prevent-transition-of-7-year-old-boy
See: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cruz-demands-texas-act-protect-7-year-old-in-horrifying-gender-transition-battle
George, what are you thinking about the meeting between Elpi and Met. Hilarion being mediated by Met. Joseph?
Are they trying to talk sense into him or feel him out?
Menas, I am presently getting ready to publish something about this. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that that is what they were trying to do. Let’s just say that if the EP’s new man here in America continues drinking the Turkish Kool-Aid, he may go back to Istanbul empty-handed.
Bartholomew’s papalist fantasies are not going to work out in the long run. I imagine that based on the recent meeting at Englewood, they won’t work out in the short run either.
Prayers desperately needed.
It’s looking bad in the Supreme Court as well:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-lgbt/us-supreme-court-divided-on-lgbt-employment-protection-gorsuch-could-be-key-idUSKBN1WN0D7
Please allow me to elaborate. Gorsuch is the deciding vote in this case. “Gorsuch is the new Scalia.” Scalia set the precedent to widen the interpretation of Title VII by arguing that *men* can be discriminated against on the basis of sex. Gorsuch made comments during the recent hearings that discrimination of LGBT individuals cannot be anything other than discrimination on the basis of sex. Intellectually, Gorsuch has conceded the point. He admits that he does not want to rule as the law would require him to do (in his mind) as this would result in “massive social upheaval.” However, Gorsuch built his career on defending textualism, which interprets the law to the letter of the law regardless of the original authors’ intent or the social consequences involved.
I know that there are many little James out there. Joint custody means that whenever there is a disagreement between parents regarding things such as education, healthcare, religion (!), pronouns, etc., a court-appointed attorney for the child (e.g., some stranger who may have a young transgender child herself, not that this has ever happened, wink) steps in and makes these decisions, stripping both parents of their parental rights. The little James of the world… probably most of their parents have gag orders, so they cannot really ask for help.
Prayers desperately needed. Petitions need to be sent straight to Gorsuch. The Church needs to brace itself for the possibility (veering toward the probability) that participation in transgender identities will soon be enforceable by law.
Good news about the little boy, the judge ruled the father will have a say in the “gender transition” of his son, with joint conservatorship over him. Guess those hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions – mine included – woke him up. But the story gets weirder and sadder: turns out the mom isn’t even his biological mom. She used donor eggs.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/judge-rules-dad-will-have-say-in-gender-transition-of-7-year-old?utm_content=buffer21b04&fbclid=IwAR1YG-snNqP_-WYtfaYa47gAh3xuhf8_ZJPd7jdwSDBR5Twmf-vbB1ZA2vQ
Theo, the James Younger case has become a cause c’elebre within 36 hrs. Last night I was watching Laura Ingraham and besides the graphic of the boy wearing the Orthodox-cross tee shirt, we were told that the entire Texas government and Senatorial delegation has come down like a ton of bricks on the side of the father.
All is not lost.
Please check out this 15 minute audio homily on James Younger and his parents: “Transgenderism comes to a Texas suburb” (of Dallas) by ROCOR Archpriest Father John Whiteford (from own his Texas suburb outside Houston):
https://saintjonah.org/sermons/transgenderism/
Personally chilling to hear that GOA hierarchs have reportedly praised Archon George Demacopoulos & his Public Orthodoxy site for agendas opposing Church teaching. As a Texas Orthodox, reassuring to compare that to the statements and actions of Met. Isaiah of Denver and Fr Tudora of Euless. Also appreciate Fr John’s clear distinction between our need as faithful Orthodox to vote according to Church teaching along with our freedom to vote however we think best when there is no Church teaching on a topic.
This story is absolutely infuriating, and it shows the level of systemic problems that exist in our country. A jury backed this 11-1. Even the institution of trial by jury is not reliable when the population of this clown world is brainwashed.
Where is the governor? Where is the president? You know that if the situation were reversed and Elizabeth Warren were president, she would have ordered the national guard to rescue this child from his parent. Has Trump even talked about this case?
And why haven’t a million people descended upon the Texas Capitol? There are far more people who are against this stuff than for it. This is beyond something that blithely attending to our biannual elections can fix, frankly.
AS, I too, am shocked by the jury’s mentality. The purpose of a trial by jury is to spread decision making by a type of sortition, to increase randomness and thus decrease mendacity. However the cultural rot is so bad that this fail-safe can be rendered inoperative in certain areas. (Dallas is a Blue city in a reddish state.)