______________________________
Editor:
Righties such as Dreher and Whiteford would have you believe that the Church refuses communion to homosexuals. That’s a lie. They’re spouting their unbalanced personal political idiosyncrasies… not the Church’s teaching. The Church takes ALL of us as individuals, not as members of this-or-that group… it considers ALL of us sinners. Do have a care with much posted on the internet, as most isn’t “kosher”, it’s by ungrounded people with no real Church education or experience. We do live in dicey times, kids, so, please, do show caution…
BMD
*****
If there’s a “Gay Agenda”, then, we must refute it. We must uphold the Doctrine of the Orthodox Church at all cost. However, upholding it shouldn’t entail language of hate, malice, pejorative, or lies. We can state Church doctrine clearly, unequivocally, and directly without ever using terms, words, and expressions that are clearly sinful in themselves. The Ecumenical Councils established Orthodox doctrine; they spoke in the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Some people asked me if I actually thought that there was a “Gay agenda”. No, of course, I don’t believe that. Nor is there any such thing as a “Gay Lifestyle”. That’s just part of the usual rightwing detritus, and few forces in our world today are as fraudulent and evil as rightwingers… i.e., ISIS is a rightwing movement. One of the most dangerous things in our world today is the Rightwing Agenda, especially, its war against the knowledge of and action against global warming and climate change. What do people think that a “lifestyle” consists of, anyway? It encompasses one’s economic status, whether one has an urban or rural lifestyle, whether one has the “lifestyle of the rich and famous” or of the homeless. A lifestyle involves whether one eats out often, what kind of car one drives, if one pays a mortgage or rents an apartment, what kind of job one has, what kind of friends one has, if one is vegetarian, religious, or atheist, if one helps to feed street people, etc. So, to say that there’s a “Gay Lifestyle” is just ideological propaganda, generally laced with hate, fear, malice, and (often enough) a “cover-up” for one’s own shameless “behind the scenes” activities.
We don’t accept same-sex marriages in the Orthodox Church, but many Orthodox communities embrace gay Orthodox Christians with openhearted love and recognition of their humanity. One can’t defend truth with lies nor can one defend the faith with slanders, wilful falsehoods, hate, malice, and anger. I’ve carefully studied more than a hundred careful, well carried out, provable, and repeatable medical/scientific studies that clearly demonstrate that being gay is not a “choice”… only an angry ideologue would add “a lifestyle choice”. Like [transsexuality], this is something that develops in the womb, its present in every studied species of mammal, as well as birds. This doesn’t compel us to alter our Church Doctrine… what it should compel us to do is to stop being just plain old liars. The only thing that I can see that gay people desire is to have full equality under the law… full total equality, not be deprived of their full rights as citizens of a nation, as full complete human beings, who are just as loving, just as compassionate, just as charitable, who give their lives in wars because they are just as patriotic, just as heroic, have just as much valour, humanity and, yes, just as much decency as any other human being in any society, in any nation under the sun.
Whilst I’ll defend Orthodox doctrine to the last breath, I deeply and sincerely believe that hateful homophobia is expressed only and solely by deeply self-hating homosexuals who project their self-loathing out toward others. Let none of these rightwing fanatics accuse me of not upholding Orthodox Christian Doctrine, though being natural liars, I’m sure that some will.
Archbishop Lazar Puhalo
Aleksei Ilyich Osipov
Voices from Russia 
2 July 2016. Is There a Gay Agenda? I Think NOT…
Tags: Canada, Christian, Christian ethics, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, ethical orientation, ethics, false piety, homosexual marriage, homosexuality, Hypocrisy, Lazar Puhalo, moral, moral stance, moral theology, morality, morals, OCA, Orthodox, Orthodox Church in America, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russian Orthodox Church
______________________________
Editor:
Righties such as Dreher and Whiteford would have you believe that the Church refuses communion to homosexuals. That’s a lie. They’re spouting their unbalanced personal political idiosyncrasies… not the Church’s teaching. The Church takes ALL of us as individuals, not as members of this-or-that group… it considers ALL of us sinners. Do have a care with much posted on the internet, as most isn’t “kosher”, it’s by ungrounded people with no real Church education or experience. We do live in dicey times, kids, so, please, do show caution…
BMD
*****
If there’s a “Gay Agenda”, then, we must refute it. We must uphold the Doctrine of the Orthodox Church at all cost. However, upholding it shouldn’t entail language of hate, malice, pejorative, or lies. We can state Church doctrine clearly, unequivocally, and directly without ever using terms, words, and expressions that are clearly sinful in themselves. The Ecumenical Councils established Orthodox doctrine; they spoke in the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Some people asked me if I actually thought that there was a “Gay agenda”. No, of course, I don’t believe that. Nor is there any such thing as a “Gay Lifestyle”. That’s just part of the usual rightwing detritus, and few forces in our world today are as fraudulent and evil as rightwingers… i.e., ISIS is a rightwing movement. One of the most dangerous things in our world today is the Rightwing Agenda, especially, its war against the knowledge of and action against global warming and climate change. What do people think that a “lifestyle” consists of, anyway? It encompasses one’s economic status, whether one has an urban or rural lifestyle, whether one has the “lifestyle of the rich and famous” or of the homeless. A lifestyle involves whether one eats out often, what kind of car one drives, if one pays a mortgage or rents an apartment, what kind of job one has, what kind of friends one has, if one is vegetarian, religious, or atheist, if one helps to feed street people, etc. So, to say that there’s a “Gay Lifestyle” is just ideological propaganda, generally laced with hate, fear, malice, and (often enough) a “cover-up” for one’s own shameless “behind the scenes” activities.
We don’t accept same-sex marriages in the Orthodox Church, but many Orthodox communities embrace gay Orthodox Christians with openhearted love and recognition of their humanity. One can’t defend truth with lies nor can one defend the faith with slanders, wilful falsehoods, hate, malice, and anger. I’ve carefully studied more than a hundred careful, well carried out, provable, and repeatable medical/scientific studies that clearly demonstrate that being gay is not a “choice”… only an angry ideologue would add “a lifestyle choice”. Like [transsexuality], this is something that develops in the womb, its present in every studied species of mammal, as well as birds. This doesn’t compel us to alter our Church Doctrine… what it should compel us to do is to stop being just plain old liars. The only thing that I can see that gay people desire is to have full equality under the law… full total equality, not be deprived of their full rights as citizens of a nation, as full complete human beings, who are just as loving, just as compassionate, just as charitable, who give their lives in wars because they are just as patriotic, just as heroic, have just as much valour, humanity and, yes, just as much decency as any other human being in any society, in any nation under the sun.
Whilst I’ll defend Orthodox doctrine to the last breath, I deeply and sincerely believe that hateful homophobia is expressed only and solely by deeply self-hating homosexuals who project their self-loathing out toward others. Let none of these rightwing fanatics accuse me of not upholding Orthodox Christian Doctrine, though being natural liars, I’m sure that some will.
Archbishop Lazar Puhalo