The 'Woke' Jesus of the Left
"Humour was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation. It is well known that humour, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds ...
"The attempt to develop a sense of
humour and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned
while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of
living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent".
(Viktor Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning)
It's good to know that I'm streets ahead on the road to salvation - minimal whiteness and a small carbon footprint. I think they could make a good (proper) dramatised gospel with that actor and setting, though.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America thinks that the Church needs to 'modernise' and describes the Metropolitans who opposed the Marriage Equality Bill in Greece as 'facist'. The language is depressingly familiar. David Bentley-Hart was right: America really is where religions go to die.
https://www.goarch.org/-/lifo-interview-2024-pantazopoulos
I read that article. The 'culture wars' seem to be infiltrating all the churches. Holding firm to Christian morality without being accused of hated is getting more difficult. Is this just a debate within the American Orthodox Church or is it wider?
DeleteYes, it's the same playbook everywhere. He starts by saying that it's 'not Orthodox' to hate people (because of the sins they're committing), and that the Church needs to be equipped to deal with the challenges of the modern age, both of which are true. Then comes the sleight of hand: facing the challenges of modernity becomes 'modernising' - i.e., adopting worldly views - and the sin and the sinner are conflated so that loving the sinner means no longer condemning the sin (when biblical love for sinners is calling them to repentance, particularly if it's a brother or sister in the Church). The nonsense about fascism sounds like it's come straight from Twitter, and given Greece's history I would have expected him to be a bit more discerning in chucking around words like fascist and Nazi.
DeleteAs far as I'm aware, it's mostly an American/Anglophone (sadly almost one and the same) thing at the moment. One of the benefits of not having a centralised authority, and of such a small part of the Orthodox world being English speaking, is that it tends to isolate the other churches from the excesses of American ones. But I don't think that one can understate how much online culture is driven by American culture, and that's what younger generations all over the world are growing up with. I can see the 'culture wars' spreading, just as things like the BLM protests jumped the Atlantic to start riots here, and racism across the world seems to now be viewed through the lens of the American slave trade and the 'Jim Crow' laws.
I can understand why the Desert Fathers and Mothers fled to the wilderness.
I note Abp. Elpidophoros has been the subject of controversy in the field of abortion 'politics' too in 2022.
Delete“We affirm the gift and sanctity of life – all life, born and unborn. As Christians we confess that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Every life is worthy of our prayer and our protection, whether in the womb, or in the world. We are all responsible for the well-being of children. We are their “keepers,” and cannot shirk from our accountability for their welfare.
At the same time, we also affirm our respect for the autonomy of women. It is they who bring forth life into the world. By His incarnation, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ assumed human nature, through His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. She freely chose to bring Him into the world, and God respected her freedom. We can and must make the case for life, both born and unborn, by our own example of unconditional love.
We march not for coercion.
We march with compassion,
With empathy,
With love.
And with our arms extended to embrace all.
Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
This is how the world interpreted his comments:
The Washington Post: “Comments like Elpidophoros’ argue for the theological right of women to bodily autonomy and health and say it’s theologically wrong to uniformly choose a fetus over a woman.”
The Greek Archdiocese’s Press Office then retweeted explicitly pro-abortion responses to Abp. Elpidophoros’ words.
https://orthochristian.com/144115.html
https://orthochristian.com/145381.html
As you say, it's the same playbook the world over with the American 'culture wars' dominating the narrative.
I went to a medieval fair today to photograph the reenactments. There were many trade stalls set up in and around the CofE church which included, among the food and historical reproductions, at least three dedicated to paganism, 'witchy stuff' and having one's tarot readings done. This on consecrated ground. The CofE really is directionless.
ReplyDeleteIt was created for the purpose of strengthening the English state as it began its expansionist phase. Although there were always many good and worshipful clergy in its ranks, as an institution, it was really there for the purpose of beatifying empire. No empire, no purpose, so you end up wit the kind of thing you describe as it casts about seeking a justification. Of course, the whole Paca-demon thing in the Vatican gardens a few years ago didn't do the Catholic Church any favours either, but I would argue that that was the Jesuit Church casting around in the same manner as the C of E. Neither body has a purpose for its existence any longer.
DeleteQuite so. Part of the reason that I left the CofE was realising that it came into being to lend divine approval to the State, and that was so deeply encoded in its DNA that it cannot be changed, even when that approval has become largely irrelevant.
DeleteAs for the Jesuits, it seems to me that the Church desperately needs a pope who will remind the various orders that they are part of the Catholic Church, and not the other way around. But I fear that the pendulum has some way left to travel before it swings back.