St Nicholas Prevents the Falsely-Accused from Being Executed
Ilya Repin
1889
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You see all sorts of Anglo toddler konvertsy crawling all over cyberspace, telling all and sundry about how great Orthodox Christians they are and telling the world “what the Church teaches”. This is rubbish of the highest order.
For instance, Rod Dreher boasted in a public post (on a major secular website) that he “prayed the Jesus Prayer hundreds of times a day”. NO REAL CHRISTIAN DOES THAT. That’s spiritual boasting of the most shallow and juvenile sort. Any real Christian will tell you that prayer is very difficult… very difficult, indeed. Furthermore, one NEVER boasts in public about one’s prayer life. It’s just beyond the pale and no real Christian does such a revolting thing. Real Christians keep their prayer lives private, confidential before Almighty God.
We’re Christians… that’s what we do.
In another case, a group of loud konvertsy brats attacked Bp Benjamin Peterson in public for showing mercy on a transsexual person. Firstly, a bishop can extend pastoral oikonomia to anyone that he pleases. In fact, one of the bishop’s roles is to protect individuals from ignoramus lynch mobs. In this case, the Church has no set doctrine on the matter… yes, there are many loudmouth rightwingers saying otherwise, but the Church has issued no synodical and binding ukase in a recognised Local or Ecumenical Sobor. Bp Benjamin carried out his duty as a bishop to protect an innocent from the mob.
We’re Christians… that’s what we do.
A Far Right political activist, James Jatras, stated on the website Russian Faith that the West is promoting degeneracy and implied that Russia is promoting morality. One of the obligations of a Christian is to tell the truth. Is Mr Jatras telling the truth? The truth is far more nuanced than this Far Right windbag puts it. For instance, in Russia, a person can change the designation of gender on their internal passport if they present the proper medical documentation to the OVIR (the office responsible for vital statistics and civil registry). In fact, the Russian rules are almost identical to the rules in New York State (and many other states in the USA). Therefore, the USA and Russia follow similar policies.
In Russia, homosexuality is no longer criminal. As the leading journo D K Kiselyov stated:
Everybody knows where the gay clubs are and everybody knows who’s gay. It’s no secret.
That’s the same as it is in the USA. Both countries have similar laws on child protection and child abuse. Mr Jatras is a liar by omission. He creates a straw-man in order to push his Far Right scheme. Christians should tell the truth. Mr Jatras doesn’t. That’s evil. Christians shouldn’t be silent in the face of such chicanery.
We’re Christians… that’s what we do.
One could go on. However, it’s truly simple. Christians don’t gang on up on others. Christians don’t boast about their prayer life. Christians don’t tell blatant lies to push a political agenda. Christians DO focus on their own sinfulness and work to root it out. I don’t harass the bishops to “punish” those that I deem “immoral”. I have plenty of sin on my own plate. Reflect on the fact that those making public accusations and pestering the bishops have just as much sin on their plates. I call that corruption and pretence. However, pray for these people and for their conversion to the real Faith.
We’re Christians… that’s what we do.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
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