2 August 2015. It is Therefore a Holy and Wholesome Thought to Pray for the Dead

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2 August 2015. Translated Russian Demot… No One Wants War!

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2 August 2015. I’m NOT Clergy… Nor Am I an “Elder”

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I wrote this to a senior archpriest:

You’re a priest… I’m a journalist. These are radically different callings. However, we both see the same thing. We describe it differently (after all, what person would accept a priest who writes like a journalist or vice versa?), but we have the same reality in view.

I can’t and won’t attempt to “write like clergy”… I lack the training and charismata to do so. I won’t write like an “elder”… I’m not such, and there’s been damnably few such here in the diaspora (the only one that I ever met was the late Fr Vladimir Sukhobok… the only one). Sadly, there are many who try to pass themselves off as “experts” and “elders” when they’re no such things. I’d say… “Look at who they praise. If they praise questionable people, chances are good that they’re questionable, too”. For instance, if someone praises Paffhausen in any way, you’re certainly talking to a phony. To this day, Paffhausen denies his intimate ties with the known perv Podmoshensky; he hides his close relationship with the convicted abuser Storheim and the convicted kiddie porn king Brittain. That’s not to mention his relationship with Ray Velencia… the guy wasn’t suspended by the OCA Synod for nought.

DO have a care… there are many rightwing phonies pretending to be Orthodox “experts” out there. One correspondent asked me, “What do we do with an incorrigible liar like Paffhausen?” I think that the Church should send him to the Mountain to work out his salvation… he’s a monk, after all. In his case, the ancient canon applies, “If you find someone calling themselves a monk in the midst of the City, you should take him by force to a monastery”. There it is. That’s my journalist’s opinion.

Mistrust all who dress up their unfounded opinion as the “Teaching of the Church”. I don’t… you’d do well to do likewise. After all, I’m a journalist, not a priest…

BMD

2 August 2015. “For Where Two or Three are Gathered Together in My Name, There Am I in the Midst of Them”… Don’t Go Online Looking for Answers

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There’s much rubbish online… most of it dressed in “holy” and “reverent” vesture. If you want answers… go to the Liturgy… ask your priest… he has the training to handle things like that (I’m speaking of real Orthodox Seminary-trained priests, not former heterodox Shake n’ Bakes with no real Orthodox formation). For God’s sake, don’t read Rod Dreher, go to church, and light a candle. Don’t read Elijah Borek, go to the Liturgy, and let the common prayer wash over you. Don’t read Patrick Reardon, kiss the Cross, and bow before the Holy of Holies. Don’t read Freddie M-G, go and chat with a real flesh n’ blood Orthodox person. Virtually all of what dresses itself up as “Orthodoxy” online is worthless rightwing claptrap, and I’ve found too much godless Republican dross mixed in with Christian Truth. Therefore, save yourself the trouble. Don’t go looking for “answers” online… go to the Liturgy! Associate with real Orthodox Christians. Our Faith isn’t discarnate, as Protestantism is. Our Faith isn’t a law court, as the Papists are. Our Faith isn’t anarchic and nihilistic as Sectarianism (e.g. “Evangelicalism”, Pentecostalism, JWs, and Mormonism) is.

We’re Orthodox believers… we’re Christians… our Faith is LIVE, NOT online. Seek and ye shall find… but ya gotta start by looking in the right place…

BMD