Yet Another Link to Someone Else's Orthodox Related Blog

"Ideology is always first and foremost a retreat from reality, a form of egophanic revolt (to borrow from Eric Voegelin) that often takes a collective form — it is really a subrational, instinctive kind of condoned erasure of persons who resist officially endorse lies, all under cover of humanitarian rhetoric." - brian the commenter Pontifications, Bible Reading, and Stanley Hauerwas

Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.

"In this sense, to be an active part of the world is to employ violence. We do not sit lightly on the surface of our planet. Most human societies across history, have made a moderate peace with the world in which they live, using forms of violence whose consequences have been well-enough tolerated and accounted for so as to be bearable. The rate of change in such societies was modest, and within the limits that a culture could easily accommodate. Large and rapid change is another thing entirely. “Changing the world,” under a variety of slogans, is the essence of the modern project. Modernity is not about how to live rightly in the world, but about how to make the world itself live rightly. The difference could hardly be greater. "

If You're Inquiring Into Orthodoxy

Reasons Why You Should Not Convert To Orthodox Christianity

"For me, the one and only valid, core reason is because a person desires to be part of the one, true Body of Christ. Because we confess and believe in the “one holy, catholic and apostolic Church,” this means we are not looking for a Church that fits our own preferences and ideals, but rather one that teaches us what our preferences should be. We are not seeking to reform or to teach the Church how it should do things, but are rather seeking to be formed by the Church and to learn how we should be doing things as faithful Christians."

Why Orthodox Christianity?

When I was inquiring into the Eastern Orthodox Church I wrote a dairy about my journey titled "Into The Abyss".   It was very much a stream of consciousness depending on what was on my mind and heart at the time, although it was edited a bit from time to time.

This article is an interview of another American convert to Orthodoxy who was also introduced to Christianity very young as a Southern Baptist.

He shares and expresses his similar experience with mine much better than I have been able to when asked "Why did you become Orthodox?".

"
I’d like to say I could give you two reasons, but I can really only give you one. The only reason a person should convert to Orthodoxy is because they believe it to be the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church” (as confessed in the Creed). Because they believe it to be the fullness of God (Eph. 1:23), the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), and the temple of the living God (2 Cor. 6:16). Because they believe that there, in a unique and complete way, they can encounter and learn to become like Jesus Christ. Until or unless someone has that singular conviction, all other reasons—beautiful worship, a good grasp on Church history, the Church fathers, the chanting and hymnography, even (with a nod to Seinfeld and George Costanza) “the hats”—are merely icing on the cake. In fact, I have seen a lot of unfortunate and even spiritually tragic stories unfold, in which a person or family converts to Orthodoxy for all the wrong reasons."

Gabe Martini. From Baptist to Orthodox: My Journey of Faith

The Culture War Is Over

Keeping this blog alive as a link to others I find illuminating, entertaining, or informative is the best I can do for now.

The Culture War Is Over

Saving A Democratic Man

Once more I am crushed and destroyed by the truth.

Saving A Democratic Man

TED Finds Religion

TED Talks on the local NPR station was discussing relative happiness when our minds wander.

The conclusion was people are happier when focused a some task at hand rather than when their minds were wandering.  Most of the time when our minds wander it is to unpleasant thoughts, like worry or anger about something.

This prompted some rather joyful giggling on my part.  Most religious monastic traditions have discovered this a very long time ago.  Mindfulness, living in the moment, capturing our thoughts with good things are common threads and themes.

The TED Talker also claimed that it didn't matter how significant or complicated the task in focus was, just focusing seemed to bring about more happiness.  He specifically used commuting as an example.

People expressed unhappiness with commuting, not because of the mindlessness or dreariness of the task, but rather with the tendency of the their minds to wander to even more unpleasant things.  People were happier when they focused on the task of driving and were able to control their wandering minds.

Our Orthodox tradition of The Jesus Prayer serves a similar purpose.  It focuses our minds and hearts on a simple, repetitive task, and constrains us from wandering our attention to other unpleasantness.  We also apply significance to the content of the prayer as a simple yet complete expression of repentance and salvation in Christ Jesus.

Ted Talk: Stay In The Moment

Religion

How often do religious expressions of calm acceptance of evil mask internal anguish, anger or disappointment?   Is it a passive aggressive way of directing blame at God for pain we are afraid to live with?

 "I believe that the Divine, force and free will are all intertwined. I have to bite my tongue when I hear of someone speaking of one who left us by other than natural causes, "it's so bad the Lord took him early" when all I can think is "you know, if he hadn't intentionally busted several laws of the State and physics he'd still be here, the Lord notwithstanding". " - more from Brigid the blogger..

  TodaysMausersAndMuffins

Apparently my desire and passion for writing, this blog or otherwise, ebb and flow, mostly ebb......  quoting and linking to other blogs is lame, but it's all I got right now.....

Christ Revealed

"Let us testify to the Savior in our attitudes, words, and deeds. Our world does not need theories concerning Christ, but rather the testimony of lives that reveal the Lord. There is hunger for the God whom Saint John describes: “This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me’”"

 From Dynamis Publications Daily Readings, Jan. 7th, 2014

Faith History and Science

There are many reasons to be skeptical of religion and faith.  Some are better than others.  I profess to be an Orthodox Christian.

The present difficulties and struggles of my life strongly challenge my resolve to remain faithful and participate in the life of The Church and live out my faith in any visible, meaningful manner.  Almost every day I try to talk myself into quiting, leaving, and walking away from it.  Orthodox Christianity is difficult and painful to pursue in any brave, honest and diligent fashion.

Over the years there have been many people who have questioned, ridiculed or insulted my faith.  None of them have presented anything to cause me more than a few seconds of consideration or doubt.  Most of the time they have a very shallow, cursory understanding of my or any form of Christianity, and seem very ignorant of the rich historical record of debates or discussions between the faithful and scoffers over the many centuries of Christian presence in the world.

The recent rage of juvenile references to "jebuz" or "the flying spaghetti monster" case in point.  Then there is the inexhaustible online presence or blogs and comments where the new generation of Internet geniuses present the latest "gotcha" to disprove or critique all or some of what is embraced as Christianity, oblivious to any previous, much more substantial discussion by many people, on both sides of the arguments, much wiser and smarter than them.  Its as if they really think they are some special prophet of doom who has discovered something new and powerful no one else has ever thought of that will finally put the final nail in the coffin.  Good luck with that.

So, I've added Amarium Magnum to the list of dragons. The author, Tim O'Neill describes himself as "Wry, dry, rather sarcastic, eccentric, occasionally arrogant Irish-Australian atheist bastard."  I find his interest in and treatment of these subjects much more substantial and mature than most.  He is more than fair, very thoughtful and informative.

Red Green's a funny guy.

The Red Green Show is one of my all time favorites.   Is that because it celebrates dishonest, lazy cowards?   Gives us a way to laugh at ourselves?  It's almost like another post-modern religion.

Confess and Vent here

I am a dishonest lazy coward.

Maybe not as much as I was yesterday, and hopefully less so tomorrow.

After turning 50 the awareness of my general dissatisfaction and disappointment with my life was very uncomfortable.  Everything seemed to be falling apart, and I had achieved nothing of note or value, and prospects for changing that looked dim.  This drove me to dive deep, painfully deep into a path of discovering and identifying why and how I got to this point.

In A Nutshell:  Dishonesty, cowardice, and laziness.  Those three things are at the core of my sin and the consequences reaped.

So, fighting against them, and changing to defeat them has become the only meaningful purpose in my life..... for now...that is what becoming a better person, a "real" man means to me,  being honest, brave, and diligent.  It is tough, and I fail constantly.

How about you?  Want to confess or vent your own struggle here?

I'm not sure what I expect, if anything, to come of this blog.  Maybe nothing.  I don't have a clue about how to monitor or maintain it.  Just taking a running start, jumping off the cliff, and embracing the impact......