Posted in Opinions, tagged Cambodian Orphanage, charity, Christian Charity, compassion, direct giving, Giving Directly to the Poor, justice, the least of these, The Poor on April 30, 2008 | No Comments »
What is direct giving. How is it a means of salvation for the Orthodox Christian?
Posted in Journal, tagged abortion, code blue, culture of Death, euthanasia, murder on April 28, 2008 | 3 Comments »
It astonishes me - the casualness, the callousness, the stupid matter-of-factness with which people can discuss euthanasia. People discuss putting their family members to sleep with only slightly more gravity than putting a pet to sleep. Why is abortion given a greater level of discretion in conversation than “pulling the plug”? Because starving someone to [...]
Posted in Journal, tagged christian, orthodox, theology, Trinity on April 26, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Orthodox thinking doesn’t pair adjectives with the word “God”.
As I watch a spokesman for a group of fundamentalists talk about how “God is not a condemning god”, I realize that a simple way to express our apophaticism is to respond: Orthodox thinking doesn’t pair adjectives with the word “God”.
God is incomparable, indescribable, beyond understanding, not [...]
Posted in Journal, tagged cultural resistance, environment, ethical eating, ethics, farming industry, flexitarian, holy orthodox church, macrobiotic diet, pescetarian, vegitarian on April 23, 2008 | No Comments »
I was on the verge of coining a neologism: ethikotroge (or ethikotrogonist) when I discovered that I’m a flexitarian. I still might keep the overall neologism, since there is more than one reason for being a flexitarian. Someone looking at this in a public journal is likely to ask “What’s a flexitarian?”, so I’d better [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged apophasis, apophatic theology, desert fathers, entertainment, fantasy, fiction, literature, orthodoxy, prose, sci-fi on April 22, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I know people deeply immersed in one or the other, and just a few immersed in both. The thing is, non-fiction gives us a direct dosing of ideas, seemingly without setting or apparatus. Fiction often doesn’t pay off what it promises, in terms of meaning. And our reading, really, is either a search for entertainment [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ASVAB, citizenship, fundamentalists, patriotism, public schools, sex, sexuality on April 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
You know, the fundamentalists are deluded about the public schools. They constantly complain about anything sexual, but they let the schools decide to do mandatory ASVAB testing, and otherwise turn these kids into good little patriots and citizens, without batting an eyelash. You can’t sell part of a soul.
Posted in Opinions, tagged charitable giving, charity, christianity, globalgiving.org, kiva.org, orphanages, orthodoxy, oxfam.org, pride on April 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
A friend and I were recently discussing what’s important in charity or, more specifically, charitable giving. And we came up with some key elements:
consistency: it’s better to give consistently than to splurge once in a way you can’t sustain, and in fact give less, and nothing over time. The same is true of prayer rules. [...]
Posted in Journal, tagged gluttony, imperialism, patriotism, starvation on April 20, 2008 | No Comments »
The TV news programs are drumming up the seige mentality again, for the nation of gluttony, over the growing starvation with which it has afflicted the world.
It blames high fuel costs, and blames those costs on China’s industrial growth rather than on America’s wars, before which fuel was reasonaby priced. It omits the fact that [...]
Posted in Petitions, tagged homeland security, mormons on April 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
What they’re doing to the Mormons is a national crime. It’s wrong. It’s done in all our names, and we’re all guilty. Texas may be violating human rights, but the nation is supposed to protect against such things, under the Constitution. And it is the “homeland security” mentality that has brought this to be.
They’ve rounded [...]
Posted in Quotations on April 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“My parents taught me to believe that through the creative act, we’re able to transcend and give a response to desecration.” - Atom Egoyan
Posted in Quotations on April 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A Rampart art thou for virgins and all that have recourse to thee, O Theotokos and Virgin, for the Maker of heaven and earth prepared thee, O Immaculate One, and dwelt in thy womb, and taught all to cry out to thee: Rejoice, Pillar of virginity. Rejoice, gate of salvation. Rejoice, Leader of spiritual restoration. [...]
 | V & E on Finding Important Things in… |
| V & E on Adjectives as Idols |
| V & E on Transvaluation of Ethics |
| V & E on Transvaluation of Ethics |
 | [] on Adjectives as Idols |
