21 March 2014. Here’s a Good Definition of “Christian Culture”… You Won’t Get it from Dreher, Freddie, or Paffso… You Gotta Get It from the Real Deal Mother Church

Contemplation (1)

Mariya Goltsova

2011

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Creating Christian culture doesn’t mean to effect legalistic abstract dogmata or to impel oneself towards philosophising of objects hidden from man’s sight; it doesn’t mean that we deny free deliberation or that we create “correct” church structures using earthly methods. However, it does mean that one reveals the depth of one’s heart to Christ’s Spirit. That brings forth a contemplative perception of the Lord and of the Lord’s world.

A I Ilyin

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Dreher’s claiming to be an expert on religion again. What a maroon! He doesn’t have a clue about Orthodoxy, and his dalliances prove that he shouldn’t be criticising RC paedophiles. Pat Buchanan should make Dreher put a sock in it, as Dreher’s sophomoric utterances make Pat look senile and ineffectual. Look at the quote above… THAT’S CHRISTIAN CULTURE. Dreher should shut up… he knows nothing; he has nothing to say, which makes the Faith look like nothing special, just another typical self-satisfied American suburban spiritual mind-fuck. He’s a typical arrogant neocon Amerikanets… cultureless, rootless, and mindless.

Our Faith is an ENCOUNTER… ergo, our Liturgy is an ENCOUNTER. It isn’t a compendium of rules or insider-only esoteric mantras, magical incantations, and ritual actions (like the konvertsy obsessing over the Lents)… it’s an ENCOUNTER with the Living God… in the context of His Incarnated Church, within the all-too-real and all-too-human Body of Christ. It’s so different from the spiritual pabulum dispensed in the heterodox confessions, that those who come to us from them must spend about a decade in silence and learning (especially, the former clergy… as they have to overcome an alien clerical formation)… or they’re deformed (as you can see readily in Dreher, Freddie M-G, Paffso, Chad Hatfield, the late Peter Gillquist, and Jon Braun, amongst others).

I make no claim to being an exemplar and oh-so-religious, as the konvertsy do… I’m an ordinary sinful-ginful sort who’s going to do her level best to grasp the onion at the end of her days. I’m not holy… I’m not “special”… I’m not “called by God”… I do realise who and what I am… “God have mercy on me, the sinner…”

Take my hand; the days are dark, and reliable guides are few…

BMD

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12 December 2013. It’s Time to Spank the Toddlers Again… A Lawrence Farley Bloviates on the Faith

A Kick at the Broad-Bottoms! i.e. Emancipation of “All the Talents”. Vide, the Fate of the Catholic Bill.

James Gillray

1807

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This is what we should do to Farley et al... but would it shut them up?

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The toddlers are trying to tell real people how intelligent and “committed” they are (by implication, how stupid and bovine we are). Of course, it’s a hubristical arrogant former Episkie telling us how we should “live” our religion. Click here for the whole megillah. Read it… and understand that the writer hasn’t the slightest notion of what Christ and His Church truly mean (it’s one of those things that’s superficially “correct”, but devoid of real lived experience).

Firstly, my Canadian Cabineteers tell me that there’s not many konvertsy in Canada, thank God. The Good Lord must be smiling upon them! Farley is an aberration. The Church in the Great White North isn’t as overrun with half-baked semi-converted Episkie and Evangelical “spokesmen” as we are here in the States. Secondly, Farley had an Anglican formation before he went to Orthodox seminary. That is, one can see where his “Orthodoxy” is a merely bolted-on exterior shell (he’s still an Anglican at heart, and it shows). Mr Farley should’ve stayed a layman, but no doubt he fancied himself a “professional clergyman”, and there were SVSniki who “enabled” him. It’s better if a prospective clergyman has no baggage… for example, Fr Andrew Phillips is more legit than Farley will ever be (I didn’t consult Fr Andrew on this, I merely read several of his posts on his life), but that’s because Fr Andrew came from NOTHING. I know of other converts who’ll make good priests… they’ve spent years amongst us… they’ve gained insight into the Faith that Farley will never have (Farley’s twisted and ruined by being jumped up too early and too fast).

Thirdly, and most importantly, Farley doesn’t understand the essence and ontos of Orthodoxy at all. Orthodoxy is the most Zen-like part of Christendom… Farley’s very emphatic use of the Via Positiva is at variance with all Holy Tradition (but quintessentially papist and Proddie). As an acquaintance told me about thirty years ago, “Orthodoxy’s the freest form of Christianity out there”. That’s why the RCs “read” us wrong all the time.

Catholics:

But Alfeyev agrees with us completely!

Us:

Yes, he certainly does, but the Church hasn’t defined that, so, good Christian people are free to disagree on that.

Catholics:

He says that the Pope and Patriarch are close to meeting and agreeing!

Us:

Huh? You’ve been smokin’ good kick-ass weed… hook me up with some! He and his pals have been sayin’ that for years. Fr Vsevolod says that His Holiness is going to meet the Pope of Rome in Antarctica… so, there!

Catholics:

@#%&*@!

The konvertsy and Catholics don’t “get it”. They truly don’t know that the Church’s ethos isn’t that of Rome or Canterbury, not at all. As Vladimir Romanovich pointed up recently, the Church doesn’t cudgel sinners… it loves them into the Truth. It doesn’t preach the way Proddies do… it doesn’t have an Inquisition the way Rome does… in fact, it doesn’t thunder forth anathemas unless it must. Then, it usually condemns the idea, not the person, as it did in the case of the heretical notions of Florensky and Bulgakov. The REAL Church is reluctant to withdraw people from the Chalice… the only visible exception is that the Church shows no mercy to those who set up opposition candy stores such as Denisenko and Rusantsov. Odd… the Farleys, Freddie M-Gs, and the konvertsy gang are the exact opposite! They rush to associate with oddbod schismatics and Uniates (and condemn real Orthodox who don’t), yet, they don’t hesitate to cudgel people and bar them from the Chalice (Schmemann brought that lunacy amongst us and the konvertsy lap up all of his unhinged pabulum).

In short, Farley lacks an “Orthodox heart”… and the unformed konvertsy at oca.org can’t see that. I hope that God offers Mr Farley the onion (also see this, from Japan). He’s going to need it… as will all of us (especially, me). He’s got nothing “special” of his own to impart… but then again, that’s true of all of us. Farley’s screed was unformed and immature… it shows you what happens when we propel those with alien formation into the priesthood without proper discernment. It does take all kinds…

BMD

8 September 2012. Heaven Is NOT For the Terminally-Pious…

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What a difference between father and son! Billy Graham has won friends all over Christendom for his sincerity and authentic belief. Franklin Graham… the less said, the better. The father refused to involve himself in politics… the son immerses himself in them. Reverend Billy and HH agree… men of God should stay out of the political fray… that should tell you something. If a “clergyman” spends too much time on politics, they’re probably not spending enough time on God… it IS logical…

BMD

4 September 2012. From My Mailbag…

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I wrote the following to a new acquaintance:

If you think that you have trouble reading the tealeaves… trust me, all the information in the world can’t help you when you throw human beings and their contradictory natures into the pot. Dear… the OCA is going down. Nobody knows the “how” or the “when”… none of us do. However, we all know that it “is” going down.

You see… Russia is the Centre of the Orthosphere… the Orthodox “civilisational bloc”, to use Sergei Solovyov‘s term (he was the father of the famous Vladimir Solovyov). Samuel P Huntington filched Solovyov’s thesis and published it in English as The Clash of Civilisations. The Orthosphere not only has a different faith from the West, it has a different ethos and cultural imperative. Most converts don’t understand this and think that they can “excise” the religion and graft it onto the Western tree. Unfortunately, that’s not possible. If you join Orthodoxy, then, a “new world” must grow in your mind. You must become “a citizen of the Orthosphere resident in the West”. All too many Westerners can’t make the leap. For instance, Orthodoxy is highly existential and experiential… it focuses on individuals rather than laws (the papists are the exact opposite). This is foreign to the Western mind. Besides that, it thrives on contradiction… we are the most Zen-like set in all Christendom.

I could go on for hours, but I don’t have the time, dear. Nevertheless, I’ve opened the door for you… but I’m not perfect, nor am I important. I’m not a guru or mistress… I’m a companion on the way. God willing, you can accept that.

It’s not an easy road… it’s not short… but no one who hasn’t made it to the New Shore can speak for us. THAT’S why I oppose Freddie, Dreher, Mattingly, and Reardon… they’ve refused to convert in their heart-of-hearts, “in their soul”, as we Russians say. That’s not only sad… it was all avoidable. However, what’s done is done, and I fear that those named are warped permanently. We must oppose them speaking for us… they’re not of us. Nasty world we live in, isn’t it? Pass me the jug…

BMD