2 July 2015. Asshat Claims that Homophobe E-Mail Wasn’t For Real… I’m No Proctologist, But I Know an Asshole When I See One!

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To keep matters straight, Maria McDowell isn’t the asshat in the title. The asshat is the goofball who sent the original hate e-mail. To refresh your memories, click here. I got this from a correspondent:

It now appears that the person who perpetrated the foul deed (with emails and threats) claims to have only been conducting a sort of “experiment” to see how the recipients would react. It all sounds mighty fishy, thoroughly bogus and cowardly, to boot. The party in question has continued to be anonymous, of course.

I also got:

There is something very strange about this. I saw something else on this that there was some kind of “apology” and that it was actually written to see what the reaction would be? I’m very confused I know, and haven’t dug into it… but it seems like this might have been friendly fire. There’s a lot of talk about “Side A” and “Side B”, which I admit to not understanding completely.

I replied:

If so, the person doing it was goofy. Nevertheless, my points stand. We gotta chase out the asshats before they chase us out.

I got an enthusiastic “amen” to that…

Let’s keep it short n’ sweet. There’s no call to be playing games like this. It could provoke someone to take their life (literally). If I caught the asshat who sent this, I’d give ’em a good Cossack horse-whipping. This is just juvenile bullshit… serious matters aren’t to be trifled with. This is too much of a muchness.

BMD

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2 July 2015. A Plea for Sanity in re Homosexuals in the Church

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I saw this on Facebook… it’s a Read n’ Heed.

BMD

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Someone sent an e-mail to at least three Orthodox persons. The author threatens to out “Orthodox-in-name-only homos”, and given the recipients, doesn’t actually care if the persons they identify are sexually active or not. The author declares “There will be no homosexuals allowed in Christ’s Church” and “The time has come for the homosexuals to be removed from the Church”. If you’ve received this e-mail, or know of someone who has received it, please inform your priest AND your bishop. If you’re afraid of being outed, please, contact me. I’d be happy to inform priests and bishops anonymously. More importantly, please, be sure you have a safe and loving place to worship, whether your own Orthodox parish or another ecclesial home. I don’t casually recommend leaving one’s ecclesial home, but God is, after all, “everywhere and in all things”. For those clergy and people in positions of authority within Orthodoxy reading this, please, publicly disavow such rhetoric in every space you can: Facebook, homilies, parish newsletters, e-mails to your congregants. Please, do so regardless of how you feel about same-sex unions/marriage/relationships. You’re caregivers not only to those who object to homosexuality, but to gays and lesbians, their families and their friends. All your people need your comfort and protection.

29 June 2015

Maria McDowell

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AMEN.

We’re paying dearly now for having coddled people such as Reardon, Jacobses, Whiteford, Paffhausen, Dreher, Eliel, Brum, Moriak, Maymon, Trenham, and all the rest of that sorry crew. They came to us not because they loved Orthodoxy for what it was… they came to us because of what they perceived us as being opponents of (not what we actually oppose, mind you, but what they thought that we opposed). They brought all kinds of rubbishy baggage with them, and some bishops unwisely ordained some of them.

This isn’t behaviour that builds up Christ’s Church… if you think so, you’re my enemy, and I’ll fight with all that I’ve got. That’s the long n’ the short of it. You don’t reason with a rabid dog, you shoot it. Ponder that…

BMD

Vox Pop from Facebook on “Conservative” Outing of Gays in the Church

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I saw this on Facebook… good stuff…

BMD

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Within my faith community there are some who’ve decided that “outing” other individuals is a Christian way of dealing with differences in sexual orientation. These messages are a response to that disturbing development, however, these quotes show Orthodox Christianity at its best and most authentic:

Enemies have driven me into Thine embrace more than friends have.

Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Thy tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.

They’ve punished me, whenever I’ve hesitated to punish myself.

They’ve tormented me, whenever I’ve tried to flee torments.

They’ve scolded me, whenever I’ve flattered myself.

They’ve spat upon me, whenever I’ve filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord, Even I bless them and don’t curse them.

Whenever I’ve made myself wise, they’ve called me foolish.

Whenever I’ve made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.

Whenever I’ve wanted to lead people, they’ve shoved me into the background.

Whenever I’ve rushed to enrich myself, they’ve prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I’d sleep peacefully, they’ve wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I’ve tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they’ve demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Thine garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and don’t curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

so that my fleeing to Thee may have no return;

so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;

so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;

so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins, arrogance and anger;

so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;

ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.

One hates his enemies only when he fails to realise that they aren’t enemies, but cruel friends.

It’s truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world… friends or enemies.

Therefore, bless, O Lord, both my friends and enemies.

A slave curses enemies, for he doesn’t understand, but a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies can’t touch his life.

Therefore, he freely steps amongst them and prays to God for them.

St Nikolaj Velimirović of Ohrid and Žiča

Prayers By the Lake (A Treasury of Serbian Orthodox Spirituality, Volume 5)

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I posted this as a comment to the above:

Alex… are you ready to rumble? They want to take over the Church. Paffso, Whiteford, and Reardon… the Unholy Trinity… there’s more, but they’re the “Godfathers”. Shall we swallow a kopeck’s worth? I fear that we’ll down a rouble’s worth before it’s over.

There be dragons abroad… they mean what they say. I know this from personal experience. No one who doesn’t fit their idiosyncratic and Pretendodox criteria is fit for communion or even attendance at the Liturgy. Beware ALL who say, “I speak the truth in love”. Such people NEVER speak the truth nor do they EVER show any love (beyond their family circles and friends, that is, as our Lord Christ said, “Even the Pharisees do as much”). We live in perilous times. Have a care… I’m handing out the AKs, RPGs, axe handles, and dynamite at the back door…

BMD

Patriarch Irinej Slams Proposed Gay Pride March in Belgrade

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On Tuesday, Patriarch Irinej Gavrilović, the head of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), denounced a gay pride march planned for the weekend, adding to tensions over the event, which faced threats from extremists. He issued a statement that the “shameless” event casts a moral shadow on Serbia… a conservative Balkan country whose gay population faces harassment. Officials suggested that they could allow Sunday’s event despite fears of a repeat of the violence in 2010 when rightwing groups attacked a gay march in Belgrade, triggering clashes with police that left more than 100 people injured. Authorities banned gay marches planned for the following three years, citing security reasons. Some see that holding the march is a test of Serbia’s pledge to respect human rights as it seeks EU membership. Irinej said that the gay organisers “and their mentors from Europe” haven’t learned the lesson from past marches, adding that “a great majority” of Serbs are against holding the event, saying, “Thousands of policemen will have to be brought to Belgrade”, adding that they face the threat of injury and death. Several far-right groups, which include soccer hooligans, announced anti-gay marches in the capital a day before the gay event. On Tuesday, police said that they have filed charges against eight people who made threats against gays on social media. Milorad Todorović, a police officer in charge of cybercrime, said, “Police are here to secure the safety of all citizens. I hope that the gay event will be held on Sunday”.

Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/head-serb-church-denounces-gay-pride-march-105151087.html

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An official SPC statement, signed by Patriarch Irinej condemned an announced gay parade, “You have the right to make a parade, but only at your own cost and expense of your principals, no matter how they’re called; that is, both the cost for the organisation of the parade, and for security, but not at the expense of Serbia… bombed, destroyed, morally and economically crippled, impoverished, flooded, nailed to the pillory. It’s absurd grandstanding that the state should spend millions in its current poverty to secure a handful of citizens and their guests for a parade of several hundred metres in the centre of Belgrade. These days, we’re seeing an unbelievable gay parade again imposed on Belgrade and Serbia. The organisers of this grandstanding and their mentors from Europe don’t want to learn from the events of the last parade”. Patriarch Irinej warned of the dangers that a parade could cause to both sides. The statement also pointed up that previous parades provoked resistance from the majority of citizens, unleashing rioting and aggression, awakening chaos and destructiveness in some sections of society, especially amongst younger people. The SPC asked the organisers and participants of the parade if they can and must exercise their rights to privacy by causing “humiliation and oppression of the moral sentiments of the majority of mankind. If the gay sexual orientation is justified and we should propagate it, then, why isn’t it true for paedophilia too, widespread in the Western world, as well as incest? Why are their rights less important than the so-called right of your sexual (dis)orientation? Are you so blinded by your lust and selfishness that you don’t mind putting the whole state apparatus in your service and imposing it to high and unjustifiable costs for organising your parade?”

23 September 2014

B92

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society.php?yyyy=2014&mm=09&dd=23&nav_id=91690

Editor:

HH put it clearly… “We respect all human choices, including those of sexual orientation, but we reserve the right to call sin ‘sin’”. HH, Patriarch Ilie of Georgia, and now Patriarch Irinej of Serbia have spoken of the inadmissibility of gay rights initiatives on the Western model in their countries. The societies involved won’t have it. One of the reasons for their strong stance is that such gay actions would be counterproductive. They don’t want to empower schmidiots like K Yu Dushenov, who’d use the turmoil around such events to twist them to the ends of far-right creeps. Yes, we still have some of the Old School anti-Semite haters amongst us, I’m afraid… Dushenov did three years in an IK for anti-Semitic agitation… he’s just as anti-gay as he’s anti-Semitic.

That is, the motive isn’t hatred of gays, as one sees amongst American konvertsy… the motive is two-fold… firstly, to forestall gnarly elements within the Church that’d cause untoward kafuffle, not only in gay matters, but in other things as well (as one can see with the American konvertsy obsession with the questionable notion of the toll houses). Secondly, it’s to protect the majority of gay people who do NOT march in such parades… who do NOT push themselves into people’s faces… who do NOT wish to upset the larger society about them. The Church DOES stand for those hated by the “respectable”… it does its best to further their interests. Gay parades are counterproductive in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. The Church understands this, so, it opposes them forcefully.

The Church, most of all, is a bastion of Good Sense… it knows that a small fraction of people are homosexual, and it wishes to see that they don’t suffer. It does NOT bless homosexuality (just as it doesn’t bless abortion)… but just as it tolerates abortion in some limited cases (the Church has a prayer for a woman who’s aborted a child), it doesn’t persecute the homosexual people in its midst. The Church does NOT bless abortion or homosexuality… but it has mercy on those enmeshed in them. That’s a subtle point, which most loudmouthed konvertsy miss. I know that some loudmouthed Anglo konverts are going to accuse me of saying that the Church blesses abortion and homosexuality… it does NOT. However, I believe that the Church follows the lead of its Founder… who was a solid good-sense workingman who “judged not”… we’d do well to follow His lead (that’s a lifelong pursuit, I’ve found)…

BMD