A Greek Orthodox Priest says there are no Gay or Straight people.

 

Bond Note: It has taken him long enough, and his pro-LGBT Greek Bishop won't be pleased, and neither will his DHS instructors.

Barnabas Powell
A Greek Orthodox Priest:

I think I'm beginning to see an ideological and theological flaw in this notion that we Orthodox aren't quite sure how to minister to "gay" families, or "gay" persons.

This is not true.

 

 

First, the Church has always known how to minister to everyone because the Church is timeless and She alone possesses the "medicine of immortality." The Church has always had the path of repentance for all people who are willing to struggle with their passions. 

 

Second, there is no such thing as a "gay" person. Nor is there such thing as a "straight" person. There are only people and the Church has always invited persons to our common lifestyle of repentance. 

 

Third, the modern notion that the Church has insufficient ways or "language" to minister to people who struggle with same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria, or any other of the myriad "new tribes" invented by a so-called "modern" ideology, is a capitulation to that ideology. And in capitulating to this narcissistic addiction of modern ideology the Church actually abandoned the very effective message to help every person regardless of their struggles.

 

It seems that when we worry that there is somehow a "new" situation that the Church needs to address in a "new" way, we are dangerously close to actually missing the timeless wisdom of the Church to treat everyone as free, unique, and unrepeatable persons created in God's image to be made into His likeness through repentance and participation in the life of the Church.

 

Perhaps it's time to stop agreeing with an ideology ontologically opposed to the timeless wisdom of the Church and to actively embrace the wisdom of the Church that says to all people "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more."

 

It's time to stop apologizing for the Church because She is old, and start proclaiming the Church as the eschatological reality of eternity. We aren't "old-fashioned. We are timeless. The only difference is this age wants to indulge the passions and the Church demands to struggle to tame the passions.


Bond Note: "Third, the modern notion that the Church has insufficient ways or "language" to minister to people who struggle with same-sex attraction, gender dysphoria, or any other of the myriad "new tribes" invented by a so-called "modern" ideology, is a capitulation to that ideology." Sadly, many of the people in these "ideological categories" are not showing up to Church to struggle with their sin but to promote it, and to reform the church according to their sexual proclivities.