Let Your Yea Be Yea and Your Nay Be Nay
There are questions which we cannot avoid and from which we cannot hide in a fog of rhetorical questions and vague allusions. Basically, there is the question of whether single-sex cohabitation is a...
View ArticleThe Terms of Forgiveness
We want to be forgiving and merciful, and we want to belong to a Church that shows forgiveness and mercy to the world. This is understandable; this is as it should be. The problem is that they do not...
View ArticleThe Inconvenient Testimony of the Myrrhbearing Women
Having women as witnesses of the Resurrection was such a monstrously losing PR movethat there can be only one explanation: they indeed saw the Risen Lord first. If the Apostles had begun to come up...
View ArticleThe Trouble with Tolstoy
Tolstoy sees ritual, hierarchy, books by the Holy Fathers, catechisms, and theology; yet, all the while, he is completely blind to Christ. Without Christ, everything he sees in the Church falls apart,...
View ArticleOn Atheistic Fanaticism
A Typical Attack There are different ways to talk about religion and atheism. A deep, thorough discussion is possible, and I have had occasion to encounter serious, thoughtful atheists who are...
View ArticleAvoiding the Two Minutes Hate
Since the court’s decision to extend the detention of you-know-who for another six months, the emotionality of debate has reached ultrasonic excitement. The rage with which bloggers have been pouncing...
View ArticleThe Hopelessness of Denial
A lurid, nauseating news item ran through the news outlets. Interfax reported: “Barrels with 248 human embryos have been found in a forest in the Sverdlovsk region. Law enforcement is trying to...
View ArticleThe Flight From Truth
Everyone has likely heard the popular phrase “this is true for you, but not true for me.” It is used almost exclusively with regard to questions of faith: “Orthodoxy is true for you, but not true for...
View ArticleOn Bad Religious People
A translation of American journalist William Lobdell’s book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America – and Found Unexpected Peace, has recently been published in...
View ArticleThe Mystery of Evil: On the Boston Marathon Bombings
Two young people read up on the Internet, fancied themselves jihad warriors, and killed a nine-year-old boy, a Chinese student, and a suburban girl in Boston. They had never seen these people, had not...
View ArticleVictory and Salvation
As Orthodox Christians, we believe that history has meaning — that God's providence acts upon it — and that in it there are lessons that we are called to take away.
View ArticleWhy Abortion is Comparable with Hitler’s Actions
The recent words of Fr. Dimitry Smirnov, in which he compared the Bolsheviks’ granting of permission for abortion with Hitler’s actions, provoked considerable outrage. This is understandable and was...
View ArticleSometimes You Have to Say “No”
The tragic schism in world Orthodoxy, which we are witnessing now, causes a completely natural and understandable feeling of bitterness and protest. It should not be this way, the abhorrent strife of...
View ArticleMyth: It Is Not Important How to Believe, It Is Important to Be a Good Person
A myth and Demystification The post Myth: It Is Not Important How to Believe, It Is Important to Be a Good Person appeared first on A Russian Orthodox Church Website.
View ArticleChristians Killed in Sri Lanka. We are in the Same Foxhole with Them
It is not yet clear who committed this atrocity: the suicide bombers’ tactic itself was actively practiced by “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” during the protracted civil war in Sri Lanka which...
View ArticleCan God Answer Prayers of Non-Christians?
Recently I have come across a question, “Why do people, who pray to other gods, get what they want? Does it mean that our Orthodox God satisfies their requests, thereby strengthening their faith in...
View ArticleHow Do We Know the Bible Is Telling the Truth?
We can feel the truth of our faith, but we cannot always explain or prove it to a non-believer, especially to someone who gets irritated by our worldview for some reason. Reasonable questions of an...
View ArticleIs It True that Christ Taught to be Just Good and Not Some Religion? – Myth...
Myth: Christ only taught to be good: it is important to be merciful and compassionate, but faith in certain dogmas and observation of some rites were invented by people after Him. As Lyudmila...
View ArticleYou Shall Receive Power
Sergey Khudiev speaks on the grace sent to people on the day of Pentecost The post You Shall Receive Power appeared first on A Russian Orthodox Church Website.
View ArticleMyth: Christian Faith In One God Leads To Intolerance
Myth: Christianity, which recognizes only one God, engenders intolerance, conflicts and fanaticism, while paganism, easily recognizing many gods, leads to tolerance and peace. As Schopenhauer said, “As...
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