10 February 2018. Some Thoughts from Vladyki Lazar

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Frankly, I’m not so certain why the existence of evil should be an enigma. Evil is primarily “the absence of empathy”, which is why the two prime commands of Christ are to love God will all your being and to have empathy for your neighbour (which is the only way that you could love your neighbour as yourself). Loss of empathy is evident in the “Fall” story because it chronicles the birth of ego, egoism, and self-love. Those characteristics are at the very essence of Satan and the root of the demonic. Perhaps, this is why Romanides insisted that the way to defeat Satan was through growth in unselfish love.

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Please, please, people of faith, don’t assert what “Jesus would do” or what “Jesus wouldn’t do”. Nobody knows the answer to that, and it’s such a tired formula. Moreover, it really is important to remember that we follow the Christ, and it isn’t painful to refer to Him as Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus (I realise that’s primarily the Orthodox Christian practice, but I’d like to encourage our fellow Christians to practise it also). Salvation really does consists in the restoration of the human nature to unity with God in the person of Christ Jesus, who has saved us, not by being a human sacrifice to God, but by ransoming us from the power of death, thus redeeming us from the bondage to “him who held the power of death”. He’s the recapitulation (as Apostle Paul says) of the human nature. He accomplished this because He is the Christ, Who is fully God become also, at the same time, without dilution or admixture, fully wholly human… ending, in Himself, the alienation of the human nature from the Divine, and making our Theosis possible. Jesus is never “just Jesus”… He’s always and inseparably the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Remember… we follow Him… He doesn’t follow us.

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23 February 2014. A Friendly Warning From Your Editor on the Ukrainian Mess

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I’d say that the next 48 hours are critical for what’s really going to happen in the Ukraine. In fact, the only conclusion that I could come to was that no one knows anything… all “news” stories that I’ve read contradict one another. The only people who have any real sense of what’s going on are the commies. They’re the only ones with any genuine intel, and the story that they tell isn’t good. The fascists are on the rampage… led by the Svoboda pigs. Make no mistake on it, they’re ready to unleash a new pogrom on all non-Ukrainians, especially, on the few Jews that are left. Like all stupid and envious people, they blame all their ills on the Jews.  Ergo, I’d warn you to mistrust all media reporting, especially, that from Western sources.

We won’t have a clearer picture for another few days… I’d say that the West is cheering prematurely. Stay tuned… the worst is yet to come. The Uniates and schismatic Orthodox are attacking loyal canonical clergy and churches of the UOC/MP again. Yet again, the only true friend of the real Church in the Ukraine is the KPU. Pray for the real Church… Satan’s minions are on the march… with American approval. God do bloody help us…

BMD

11 October 2013. Insist on the “Seamless Garment”… Otherwise, It Ain’t of Christ

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Don’t criticise abortion, nor homosexuality, nor the usurious economy, nor those who lash out at the Church; especially, when the critics pose as victims of “the system”.

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin

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There’s much muck on the internet masquerading as “Orthodoxy”. All too often, it’s just Republican or sectarian claptrap adorned with a Patristic quote or two, a misunderstood canonical citation, and (probably) some rubbishy aphorism from a controversialist such as Seraphim Rose or Aleksandr Schmemann. Look carefully at the above quote (click here for the full article; I haven’t time to translate it all). Note well that most of the “Orthodox” poseurs on the ‘net are silent on the economy… yet, Fr Vsevolod thinks it important (do remember WHO Vsevolod Anatolyevich is… the closest confidant to HH). That is, rapacious Neoliberal capitalism is evil. Yet, all of the konvertsy gush over it and praise it.

Let’s keep this simple and focused… if you claim that you’re “Pro-Life”, but you support Free Market Capitalism, you’re NO PRO-LIFER. You’re a supporter of Satan’s own ideology. The Republicans want to dismantle government regulation because they’re criminals at heart who want to steal more than their fair share of this world’s goods (their forebears wern’t called “robber barons” for nought, kids). Ergo, if you claim to be “Orthodox”, yet support the fanatics who just shut down the government… I’d rather associate with an honest atheist… they, at least, aren’t mocking God.

We DO have a choice. Which side are YOU on?

BMD

10 October 2013. You Can’t Make Up Shit Like This… Ex-Teacher Sent for Psychiatric Treatment for Treaty With Satan

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On Wednesday, a Russian court sentenced a former teacher to compulsory psychiatric treatment, as she drafted a contract with the devil in her own blood, asking him to destroy a beloved pupil’s relationship. Earlier, experts concluded that the ex-teacher, Lyudmila Osipova, was unaware of what she was doing and required psychiatric treatment. The court ruled that she should “undergo forceful medical treatment in a specialised psychiatric ward”. Osipova, a 41-year-old from Volgograd, developed an infatuation with a man in his 20s while working at a computer literacy class several years ago. On Thursday, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that she tried to reconnect with the judo enthusiast after quitting her job in 2009 by joining a social networking website and posing as a model half her real age. When the man met Osipova in person, immediately, he turned down her overtures, saying that he already had a girlfriend that he intended to marry. The woman tried to break up the relationship by signing a contract with the devil that stipulated exchanging Osipova’s soul for a younger body, 100 million roubles (3.1 million USD. 3.22 million CAD. 3.3 million AUD. 2.3 million Euros. 1.95 million UK Pounds), a Jaguar and a Volkswagen, a helicopter, and some bodyguards. After that scheme failed, Osipova turned to the underworld for help and hired a contractor to help end her prey’s relationship. In a recorded conversation with a police officer posing as a contractor, she told him, “Put her on drugs for a couple of weeks in order to develop an addiction, gang-rape her too, and film it for him to see”. Osipova’s plan was for her target to be beaten so severely as to induce amnesia and then for her to nurse him back to health.

10 October 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131010/184039695/Ex-Teacher-Sent-for-Psychiatric-Treatment-Over-Treaty-With-Satan.html

Editor’s Note:

It takes all kinds to make a world, schemers like Lyonyo and Gan, soulless guns-for-hire like John Boehner and James Carville, single-issue monomaniacs like Ted Cruz and Al Gore, and barmy nutters like this one. Such sorts make us forget that the majority of people are rather decent and sane… but we don’t “get into the paper”, do we? Sigh…

By the way, KP is the equivalent of the New York Post or The Sun. It’s “all the shit that’s fit to print”. It’s a rollicking read, and most of it’s true… there are all kinds of red-top tabs, and KP is one of the better of the lot. Besides, don’t you want to know who’s doing what to whom, you dirty-minded sinner, you?

BMD