Grace Can Straighten That Which Sin Has Twisted

Commentary on the Gospel Reading for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Pentecost Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him (Lk. 13:10-17). The word of God reminds us of the necessity of prayer. As was His custom, Christ entered the synagogue on the Sabbath to pray. Although He prays in the desert, in secluded spots, He goes to the synagogue together with believers—not because He has need of it, but to show us how we should act. Every Sunday and feast day we must necessarily be in church. It’s a commandment, along with the most ancient ones, placing limits on the disintegration of human life—it is the same as “do not kill,” “do not steal,” “do not fornicate.” Today’s Gospel is about this. The Lord heals the woman of a grievous illness. She was possessed by a spirit of infirmity, she was bound by Satan, bent towards the Earth for eighteen years. She had trouble moving, but she came to the church of God all the same. How we had to marvel in the past, when it was mainly grandmothers in church—feeble, infirm, walking with difficulty, but they didn’t miss a single service!—morning and evening, because the soul is drawn to where the Lord is, where true life is revealed. No infirmity is any obstacle for them. All the moreso should it be a shame for us when God has not taken away our health, and yet we blatantly violate one of His core commandments—to miss a feast day or Sunday service. The Lord performs a miracle on this woman for the sake of her fidelity to the commandment of God. Although she no longer has any hope, she is ready to bear the yoke of her infirmity unto death. But for her it was important to go where the word of the Lord is proclaimed, where they provide the most important things for man. In an instant, this woman is healed and straightened, and she sends up praise to God. Her condition truly was terrible. Bent to the Earth, she was nearly walking on all fours. From afar you could think it was some animal moving along. Such is the spiritual condition of man after his falling away from God. He cannot straighten himself, cannot lift his face to Heaven, cannot see the face of another. He is nourished and inspired only by that which is below. All his joy is in what the earth provides. That which is above, eternal life, Heavenly joy—it’s unapproachable for him—like a man who has become an animal, doubled over, although, physically he can sometimes lift his head very high. St. Nikolai (Velimirović), a Serbian saint, glorified by the Church in 2003, says that, looking at this miracle, we can understand the absurdity of the teaching of the materialists who argue that man came from an ape-like creature, walking for thousands of years on all fours, and then gradually straightened. The Lord straightens this woman bent to the Earth in an instant; and in an instant, He makes man as he should be in order to participate in the life created for him by the Lord. Everyone sees how this woman straightens and sends up praise to the Lord. And we see, besides the appearance of light, the appearance of darkness—how the head of the synagogue—the guardian of the law of God!—is darkened. Fearing to rebuke Christ Himself (because he cannot find the internal strength for it), he turns to the people: “There are six days in which it’s possible to heal, but the seventh is a day of rest, the Sabbath day, and no one can violate it.” Look at what’s happening. The light of this miracle blinds this teacher of the faith, and he wants to hide it from others. Who is not clear that it’s God Himself acting here? But the head of the synagogue wants to turn a miracle of God into something ordinary, a completely insignificant event. External observance of the rules is for him more valuable than anything else in the world, and he is ready to forbid God Himself from performing works of mercy on the Sabbath. This woman didn’t hope in anything anymore. But the Lord Himself called her. And even before she turned to Him, He Himself performed the miracle. If the Lord does not come to us, we will die in our sins. “Verily I say unto you,” He says, “if you do not know that it is Me, that My grace, My power, My love is active in these signs and wonders, you will die in your sins.” Piety and love are one and the same thing. The meaning of piety lies in love, in compassion for others. The Lord says, “If any of you has any kind of livestock, a donkey or an ox, will you really not loose it on the Sabbath to take it for a drink?” Everyone does it: It would be savage and cruel to the animal not to give it a drink. Is it really wrong to loose this daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan and already tormented for eighteen years, from her suffering? Is that not what the Sabbath rest exists for? The mystery of God’s mercy, eternal life—that’s what this “rest” is. And only through compassion, through genuine piety can we enter into it. The Lord rebukes the sin of hypocrisy. Of all the sins it is the most disgusting. Recall with what anger the Lord often repeats, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! He doesn’t say these words, “Woe unto you,” to any simple people—only to the Pharisees, because “outer appearances with inner emptiness” is the “mystery of iniquity” in the Church. Hear the word of the Lord, warns the prophet Isaiah, Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow (Is. 1:14-17). And then the mercy of the Lord appears, and a miracle is performed. God is fire, says St. Seraphim, not rites, not fasting, or prayer, not good deeds, but the fire hidden within them—not our outer presence at a feast, but the presence of the feast within us. The mystery of the miracle, says the righteous St. John of Kronstadt, lies in sincere, heartfelt prayer. When they asked him, “Why has the Lord given you such a wonderful gift?” he answered, “It is the mercy of God. I only try to always sincerely pray from my whole heart, and not allow a single drop of hypocrisy in my relationship with God and with people.” Where there is directness in these relationships, there is the light of Christ, there is revealed the miracle of the love of God, there are straightened those souls bent to the earth by sin. The woman, receiving the gift of healing, thanks the Lord, and all the people marvel at what the Lord has done.. Man, having received healing by the mercy of God, cannot but thank God. It is natural for him, and it is a sign of his healing, because no one is able to bring praise to the Lord until his ailing soul has been healed. The grace of Christ can straighten everything that sin has twisted in our lives. Archpriest Alexander Shargunov Translated by Jesse Dominic

A primary mission of the Orthodox Church is to guard the true faith

– A primary mission of the Orthodox Church is to guard the true faith against false prophets, teachings, and practices. To be Orthodox is to be committed to the truth: the truth of the Gospel, the Holy Trinity, the scriptures, and the Holy Tradition The word for today is “false.” In today’s reading of 2 Corinthians 11:5-21, we note how seriously St. Paul takes the false teachers who are misleading the congregation at Corinth. The Apostle is so concerned—and incensed—that he is willing to defend himself on the low level of his adversaries. St. Paul begins his diatribe against those who are pretending to be apostles, “For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles” (vs. 5). Then he writes that he is going to “boast a little” (vs. 16). His boasting will not be “according to the Lord” (vs. 17). In this case, the Apostle admits that, he will not follow the Lord’s direction, but he will speak “foolishly” in the same manner as his opponents. Truth Is a Straight Path: Falsehood Lead to Confusion We learn in this passage that St. Paul’s primary concern was that the Corinthians were being misled by lies and deceptions. Why was that of critical concern? The Apostle writes, “You put up with fools gladly…for you put up with it if one brings you bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face” (vs. 20). In other words, if the truth sets us free, lies take us captive. Deceits catch us and swallow us up in their world of make-believe. Falsehoods honor dishonesty and despise honesty. In short, the truth is a straight path: those who forsake it get lost in a thicket of confusion. The New Testament constantly urges vigilance against false prophets who “will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (vs. 24). From the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ to the visions of St. John in Revelation (e.g., vs. 10:13), the warnings are urgent and consistent. The case of the apostasy at Corinth reveals the havoc that these false “disguises of Satan” can wreck (vs. 13). The flock of the Church must be on guard for the wolves of deception in their midst. For Reflection A primary mission of the Orthodox Church is to guard the true faith against false prophets, teachings, and practices. To be Orthodox is to be committed to the truth: the truth of the Gospel, the Holy Trinity, the scriptures, and the Holy Tradition, etc. The witness of the saints and martyrs, the confession of the Creed, and the testimony of the church fathers all serve to protect the faithful from error. Yet, in so far as we are committed to the truth in matters of faith, our dedication should extend to all our speech and conduct (Ephesians 4:23 and 6:14). The commandments charge that we should not “bear false witness” (Exodus 20: 16). Moreover, the Lord Jesus taught that the prohibition against “swearing falsely” covers all oaths. He says, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’ for whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). With this lesson in mind how can we who are committed to the truth live and represent the truth in these times of wholesale deceitfulness?

HOW DID ANCIENT PAGANS SEE THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIANITY ?

Let’s face the task of putting ourselves in the place of a pagan of the East and West of the Eastern and western Empire. Let’s “try on his dress”. How would he react to the preaching of the Jewish fishermen? Let’s listen with his ears and think with his mind. Perhaps then it will be possible to understand more clearly how Christianity entered the Roman world, how it penetrated into homes and into hearts. Ancient culture was focused on searching for meaning: philosophy with its inexhaustible existential questions, sculpture with its proportions and search for the perfect beauty, work on the political structure as a search for a form to embody the ideals of society. All this inspired people to look for a standard and an idyll. The Birth of Christ on the outskirts of civilization A magnificent emperor ruled in the majestic Palatine Palace, which opened when the King of Kings and the Lord of all Living Things came into the world in a squalid cave in little known Bethlehem on the outskirts of a huge empire. Delving into the religious history of Rome during the time of Christ and the Apostles, we can find amazing meanings, with which the heads of the Romans were “seasoned”. It is impossible to disregard them, and we also cannot help but marvel at the greatness of Divine Providence, which was preparing people’s hearts to accept the Good Tidings of the Salvation of the world and man. Christ was born in the multinational Roman Empire, which included both the East and the West, absorbed the great cultures of antiquity, their customs and religions. Christ was recorded on the census as a citizen of such an empire in order to attract from the east and from the west… to the Kingdom of God (cf. Lk. 13:29). Caesar and the God-Man Christ The Roman Empire was founded almost on the eve of the Birth of the Lord under Emperor Octavian Augustus (the 30s BC—14 AD). Studying the life and activity of the emperor, in whose days the Savior was born, we admire the greatness of Divine Providence. By the earthly order of things, the minds and the hearts of the citizens of the Roman world were being prepared to accept the Heavenly Fatherland. We will single out several facts from the life of the pagan emperor, which can be considered symbolic and even to some extent “prototypal”. They prepared the pagan hearts to receive the message of the Savior and salvation. 1. We know about St. Isaiah’s prophecy that Christ would bring peace: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks (Is. 2:4). The prophets themselves, centuries before Christ, said of the Messiah, This man shall be the peace (Mic. 5:5). In Rome just before Christ’s Birth and in the early years of Jesus’ life, the idea of ending wars and establishing peace (pax Augusta) were widespread. Thus, in 13 BC, the “Altar of Peace” was set up in Rome. In “The Acts of the Divine Augustus” the Emperor emphasized that during his reign the gates of the temple of the god Janus were closed three times, which meant the end of all wars and was a symbol of peace. Christ, Who brought true peace, deigned to come to earth in the days of the cessation of wars. 2. Christ is the Son of God, God Who came into the world, clothed in our nature and making us His kin. All nations and kingdoms must offer their glory to Him. He brought everyone together before Him: At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth (Phil. 2:10). He, the true Son of God, was born under the emperor who called himself the “son of god.” This is what Octavian, Julius Caesar’s adopted son, called himself. In the time of Octavian, the cult of imperial liturgies appeared (“liturgy” means “work of the people” in Greek, because they were performed at the expense of the empire’s population). January 1, 42 BC, the senators proclaimed Caesar god, and Octavian became known as the “son of god”. 3. In the days when Christ God, Who revealed to us the Name of God the “Father”, was an Infant and made His first steps, Octavian received from the Senate the honorary title of “father of the fatherland” (pater patriae—2 BC). Octavian did not choose Mars, the god of war, as his patron deity, but Apollo, who brings order and arranges human affairs. Christ, Who was born at this time, truly arranged all our affairs for good. He is the only One Whom the Prophet Isaiah called the everlasting Father during the foundation of Rome (Is. 9:6). 4. Pagan emperors and kings of Rome bore the title “Pontifex Maximus”, literally “the great bridge builder”—the one who united the earthly with the Heavenly. In fulfillment of the great Pontifex, the cult charged to avoid not only touching, but even looking at the dead, including one’s relatives, which Octavian observed carefully. Let us recall that in the Old Testament, given 1400 years before the Birth of Christ, the high priest of the true God was forbidden to touch the dead, even his own parents. In the paganism of Rome and in the Jewish religion there was a foretaste that death had nothing to do with the true High Priest. It was fulfilled in Jesus. Christ is the Conqueror of death: He came to destroy its power and make the way, the bridge from death unto life (Jn. 5:24). Not only did He raise others from the dead, but He even entered death Himself, and death, trampled down, could not bear His burial that lasted three days. 5. Octavian’s adoptive father Julius Caesar became the first “god” proclaimed in Rome. After that he was killed by supporters of the republic. He wore the purple robe of Jupiter of the Capitoline Hill and went down in history. Let’s recall how the soldiers at Pilate’s trial put a purple robe on Christ—the clothes of Caesar and Jupiter. Christ always called Himself the Son of Man, being God from Heaven. He was put to death. But He rose again, having conquered death and hell. After another victory a statue was erected to Caesar as to the “invincible god” (“pantocrator” in Greek), where he was depicted leaning on a sphere that symbolized peace. Christ, the true “Pantocrator”—the Almighty—enlightened the whole universe, wins all the battles that those who believe in Him wage in His name, and contains the world with His Love. 6. There were oak leaf wreaths in the military halo of glory of Rome—the symbol of Jupiter. A valiant soldier was crowned with it as a reward for saving a fellow soldier on the battlefield. The saved one wove a wreath for him for the great good deed of saving his life. The saved one was supposed to honor his savior as his father. When Emperor Octavian saved the country from civil war, he was regarded as a benefactor. An inscription has survived in Ephesus that calls Octavian “the common savior of all human lives.” Christ is the Savior from the power of death. He alone is the true Savior of all people’s lives. When the Apostles spoke of salvation, all the Gentiles understood the true meaning of this word: salvation from the power of death, the gift of life. From the earthly to the Heavenly—from the emperor to Christ At the turn of the age, Rome was engulfed by a surge of lively religious feeling, and the center of that feeling was the emperor—a living god who brought peace, a good and just winner. It seemed that the whole world was being renewed. At that time, the poet Ovid revived the concept of a Golden Age where people would be faithful to justice without coercion. The emperors who succeeded Octavian Augustus did not come up to the people’s expectations; among them were both worthy men and outright monsters. Both in Judaism and in the Roman State at the time of the preaching of the Apostles there was a “Great longing” for an earthly kingdom with an earthly living and good god. This idea brought both Jews and Gentiles to Christianity. Let’s recall the great Paul and the great former pagan witnesses—the elite of the Roman State: Great-Martyrs George the Victorious, Demetrius of Thessalonica and Barbara. Researchers note that the New Testament authors were already using terms from the imperial cult, explaining the relations between man and Christ the Savior. Pagan religious honors rendered to the emperor, and all the hopes pinned on him, became a reflection of the glory of Christ. Through the Roman State on the earthly level the minds were prepared for the Heavenly message. Earthly values carried a deeper meaning and Heavenly hopes. The desire for purification was the religious motivating force of Rome at the turn of the old and the new eras of mankind, in the years when the Deliverer came, and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be (Gen. 49:10). Christ was killed by the Sadducees because He proclaimed Himself God, but He truly resurrected, and streams of preaching about the great King of Kings flowed into all corners of the empire. These were fervent words supported by deeds, life and miracles. This confirmed the belief that He was indeed the true Son of God, God and the Savior, the Ruler and the Peacemaker. Researchers call the ancient religion the “Old Testament of European Christianity”, and Augustus the “Roman David”—the king and a prototype of the true Messiah. What the prophets had said was fulfilled. The Almighty came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (Jn. 10:10). Pagans, disappointed in the subsequent decline of Rome, could not but believe this.

KILLING CHILDREN VIA PLANNED PARENHOOD

According to a press release, The Center for Medical Progress has confirmed that the University of Pittsburgh investigated by federal law enforcement regarding a tissue harvesting program using the bodies of aborted children. CMP uncovered documents through the Freedom of Information Act which support the claim it has long made: University of Pittsburgh has been working with Planned Parenthood to criminally harvest the body parts of babies aborted late in gestation. Those documents include email exchanges from late 2021 through early 2022 between leaders of the National Institutes of Health, University of Pittsburgh's senior vice chancellor for research, and the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIS). The OIS conducts criminal, civil, and administrative investigations of fraud and misconduct related to HHS programs. It has the authority to make arrests. In an email dated November 5, 2021, University of Pittsburgh’s Dr. Rutenbar stated, we received a subpoena from requesting similar documentation on October 28, 2021.” The emails uncovered through the FOIA reference this subpoena to investigate fetal organ harvesting at University of Pittsburgh’s funding program. The Genito-Urinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project — studies how the genito-urinary tract develops in utero in order to develop therapies for diseases of the kidneys, bladder, ureter, and urethra. According to an NIH funding award notice from 2016, the GUDMAP research uses the body parts of children aborted between six and 24 weeks gestation. In one year alone, Pitt “disbursed over 300 fresh samples collected from 77 cases.” Pitt promised, “The collections can be significantly ramped up as material could have been accrued from as many as 725 cases last year.” The government gave $600,000 to Pitt for the program. In Pitt’s application to become the fetal tissue “distribution hub” for the GUDMAP program, it advertised to NIH that it would use labor induction abortions to harvest fetal kidneys, record the time the kidneys were removed from the baby’s blood supply, and “minimize” this “warm ischemic time.” “Ischemic time” refers to the time frame in which there is an inadequate blood supply to an. To “minimize” and to “record” this time as University of Pittsburgh advertised that it does, it would be harvesting kidney samples from babies who are still alive, said CMP, rather than from kidneys that had already been cut out from the baby’s body or kidneys that had already been cut off from a blood supply. Babies can and do survive induction abortions in the second and third trimesters. “University of Pittsburgh’s own statements indicating its Planned Parenthood partners use criminal partial-birth abortions to harvest fetal organs to sell for grant money are serious enough that a federal law enforcement agency opened a formal investigation following reporting,”- “If this investigation has been conducted honestly, the facts uncovered may be more horrifying than we ever imagined. Planned Parenthood has cloaked its human atrocities committed against vulnerable mothers and infants under its ‘research’ program for decades — it is time for justice under the law for every level of the taxpayer-funded enterprise of selling aborted baby body parts.” University of Pittsburgh has been involved in human tissue procurement for more than two decades and boasts that it has a “long standing history of collecting, maintaining and disbursing quality samples to research scientists, both in house and outside the University of Pittsburgh.”

SOME PEOPLE WAIT TO KIDNAP YOUR CHILD

In 2020, Aaron Stevenson, then a federal employee of the Department for Homeland Security, started to realize the lies dictating our lives, in February 2021, he blew the whistle on government-sponsored child trafficking, and in June 2022, he was baptized into Christ in the Orthodox Church. “This is what’s basically saved me,” Stevenson said about his path over the past three years. And although he was fired from his very comfortable job with the DHS for coming forward, he says he would absolutely do it again. Aaron Stevenson recently joined his fellow whistleblower Tara Rodas on the Kyle Seraphin Show to talk about the horrifying government program that has resulted in thousands of children becoming victims of sex and labor trafficking. Stevenson recounts how after serving in the marines, he became a federal employee, working for the DHS from 2012 until he was fired in 2023, helping with various programs and various forms of analysis. One program was the International Crime Watchlist, which he worked on from its inception, identifying and tracking transnational organized criminals (cartels, mafias, etc.). Stevenson recalls how in February 2021, he came across a case where a watchlisted person was trying to sponsor a child who had arrived at the U.S. border illegally and unaccompanied. From there, he noticed a pattern beginning to emerge, with criminals (including many sex traffickers) from countries all across the globe also applying to sponsor children. When Stevenson tried to track down whose job it was to address this shocking fact, he couldn’t find anyone, so he took it to the media, first anonymously and later openly. Tara Rodas, a federal employee for decades, explained how she became aware of the child trafficking through first-hand experience. In 2021, the Biden administration knew it had a border crisis on its hands and called on all federal employees to leave their home agencies and go on detail to Health and Human Services (HHS) to help with the mission of taking unaccompanied children into the care of the HSS to be placed with sponsors in the U.S. Fluent in Spanish, Rodas went to an HHS site near the border to spend time with the children, but she learned that the HSS had been handing children over to unvetted sponsors—traffickers, members of transnational criminal organizations—for more than a decade. After seeing Aaron Stevenson’s initial testimony, Rodas also began to report on the cases she was personally seeing at the HHS site, which eventually got her kicked off the site. The official purpose of the sponsor program, Rodas explains, is for children to have a place to live and someone to help them through the court process of claiming asylum. However, since many of the sponsors themselves are criminals, of course they have no intention of helping the children become legal. According to Stevenson, in fact, 90% or more of the sponsors are illegal aliens. What happens, Stevenson and Rodas explain, is that the children are being forced into labor and/or sex trafficking. Some have died and some have been badly injured working in unsafe conditions. The HHS itself admits that it has lost contact with 85,000 of the children placed in this program. Essentially, Rodas explains, the criminal sponsors offer to pay for a child’s trip to the U.S. and give them a well-paying job. But after being smuggled into the country, they find themselves in debt bondage/slave labor, working in horrendous conditions. Often, the children agree to come because the criminal organizations sponsoring them threaten their families back home. Moreover, the children undergo “unspeakable horrors” on the way to the U.S.—some, being so young, are even raped to death, Rodas says. Asked whether his faith inspired him to blow the whistle on the program, Stevenson explains that, in fact, uncovering the truth of the government program helped lead him to faith: I was an atheist from 2010 till about 2020. I was full-on don’t believe it, I would argue with people, yadda yadda yadda. I started seeing all the lies in 2020, and I started thinking about things differently, going forward. Come February 2021, I’m still not going to church, I don’t understand things yet. Doing all these things has brought me back. You can see it [points to icons], I’m baptized now, Divine Liturgy every Sunday, I pray every day. This is what’s basically saved me. There’s no way I could be doing this without the grace and protection of Christ. It’s all thanks to God. And that’s been my take on it. Without that, there’s no way I’d be where I’m at today, either doing this or being able to mentally or spiritually take it. I’d be depressed, I’d be an alcoholic, who knows? But this right here [points to icons] is the way. Stevenson told OrthoChristian that he began to question why he was an atheist in 2020 and realized he had no solid reasons. “So I accepted I was wrong and began to search,” he said. Realizing that God is real, he began to look for an explanation of this truth. “That’s when I learned about Orthodoxy and it’s like it just clicked,” he said. Speaking with Kyle Seraphin, Stevenson further explained that, rather than cracking down on criminal sponsors of unaccompanied minors, the Biden administration is attempting to deregulate the process even further, doing away with sponsor background checks and home visits, and much more. In fact, as the Washington Examiner reported on Monday, December 4, a group of 39 Republican Senators “have called on the Biden administration to cancel a Department of Health and Human Services proposal that would allow the government to stop vetting certain adults who apply to take custody of an unaccompanied migrant child.” “In effect, ORR [the Office of Refuge Resettlement] accepts a sponsor’s representations almost entirely on face value. ORR then delivers the child at taxpayer expense and free-of-cost to the un-vetted sponsor, opening up the possibility that a vulnerable child could fall into the hands of a potentially criminal or drug-addicted sponsor. At this point, ORR considers its work largely done,” the Senators write. To learn more about the problem of child trafficking and about Aaron Stevenson and Tara Rodas’ efforts against it, visit https://truthtrench.org/defendthechildren/

Conservative mom's and dad's win again.

Conservative and very conservative parents are more likely to raise mentally healthy teens compared to liberal parents, according to a new study from the Institute for Family Studies and Gallup. The results drop amid a nationwide mental youth crisis among youth, stemming partly from the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report released in February by the NC Child Fatality Task Force found that the youth suicide rate has nearly tripled in two decades. North Carolina lawmakers included additional funding for mental health services in the new state budget. The IFS/Gallup report found that “the most important factor in the mental health of adolescent children is the quality of the relationship with their caregivers.” The key driver is parents who have an “authoritative” style that combines “affection and attentiveness to children’s needs with structure and requirements for pro-social, responsible behavior.” In contrast, liberal parents are more likely to have a permissive parenting style and “are the least likely to successfully discipline their children.” “[C]onservative parents enjoy higher quality relationships with their children, characterized by fewer arguments, more warmth, and a stronger bond, according to both parent and child reporting,” the report concluded. “There is no meaningful public effort to educate parents on the best-practice parenting styles that have long been associated with teen mental health,” said the report’s author Jonathan Rothwell, principal economist at Gallup and nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a statement. “The results of our report should be seen as empowering parents to play the lead role in guiding their children to healthy psychological development. Their actions, judgments, and relationships are key to their teen’s mental health.” Importantly, household income, parental education, and race and ethnicity are largely unrelated to the quality of parenting and mental health outcomes for teens, the report found. Data for the analysis were collected from 2,995 parents of adolescents in June and July of 2023. The survey included measures of adolescent mental health, social media use, parental demographics, political views, and attitudes toward marriage, parenting practices, and parent-child relationships.

Woman laughs before her ninth abortion – then she sees her aborted baby

Abby Johnson’s book The Walls Are Talking: Former Abortion Clinic Workers Tell Their Stories collects firsthand accounts from former abortion facility workers. The stories vary in theme, each one an abortion worker’s memory of an event that stuck with her after she left. One story here, called “Frequent Flyers,” is about a young woman who had nine abortions. The chapter’s author, who is unnamed, explains how women who came in for repeat abortions at her facility were called “frequent flyers” by the staff. Even though abortion facility workers were committed to promoting and providing abortions, some of them had judgmental feelings toward these “frequent flyers.” An abortion facility worker says: When Angie walks through our doors for her ninth procedure, even those of us whose paychecks were funded by abortion shook our heads and said “Really? Seriously?”… Although it went against my own ideology, I wanted Angie to show some indication of remorse. I didn’t want to feel that way about the numerous women who presented for abortions two, three, or even four times. But nine? That, I felt, deserved at least a slight show of regret or even a bit of good old-fashioned shame. Angie showed no trace of guilt or any kind of distress when she came to the abortion facility. She had laughed through her first abortion, and every abortion since. It was not at all different when she came in for her ninth. The abortion facility worker described Angie’s demeanor: [S]he seemed to regard her visits to our clinic as an opportunity to perform her improv comedy act. “Could y’all just xerox my chart and I’ll fill in the dates?” She would jest. Once the paperwork was in order, Angie would attempt to banter with the girls in the waiting room. “It’s no big thing,” she assured them. “I’ve done it 8 times before, and I have no regrets.” Although I couldn’t help but like Angie, her flippancy appalled me, and she showed no guilt or remorse: Over the years, I had consoled and held the hands of scores of women who approached that same table with much trepidation. Some would weep, their knuckles white as they gripped my hand until it ached. Others would clutch Bibles to their chests and mouth prayers begging for forgiveness, even before the abortionist had begun his work and when their babies were still safe in their wombs. Many times women would climb onto the table and remain limp and unresponsive during the procedure. Mentally, they were a million miles away. And then there was Angie… Angie never even attempted to explain herself. When we would talk to her about birth control and try to set her up with an appointment to explore the matter further, she would just smile and politely refuse with a wave of her hand. Angie was using abortion for birth control, not bothering to learn any other method. She may have gone on to have nine more abortions – but something happened. Angie had no doubt heard pro-abortion rhetoric. She had certainly been told that abortion is only removing a ball of cells, a piece of tissue, or an undeveloped mass. But after her ninth abortion, she was curious and wanted to see the “tissue” for herself. She asked the abortion worker to show her the remains of the abortion, and the abortion worker complied. At 13 weeks, her child was fully formed. I debated about how to arrange the pieces. Would it be best to throw them all together in a clump so that none of the parts would be recognizable, or should I piece it back together as we normally did to ensure that none of the parts were missing. There was no protocol on such things, so in the end I opted to piece the parts back together. Angie’s reaction was not what the abortion worker anticipated: “Thanks,” she said, her trademark smile still fixed on her face. When her eyes traveled to the container, she gasped sharply, and for the first time since she had arrived, Angie was utterly silent. A few moments later her entire body shuddered and gooseflesh was raised on her smooth brown arms. When she reached out her to touch the baby, I tried to pull the dish away. She grabbed my wrist and stopped me. We were both silent for a few moments as she continued to stare at the contents of the dish. I stepped back and Angie fell forward to her knees, her fingers still wrapped around my wrist. The other girls in the recovery run began to take notice, and my discomfort level rose exponentially. Realizing her mistake, the abortion worker tried repeatedly to take the dish containing the bloody body parts away. But Angie held tight to the remains of her child, and wouldn’t let the abortion worker pry it from her hands. The abortion worker said: [Angie] remained frozen on the clinic floor. “That’s a baby,” she said, barely audible at first. “That was my baby,” she said. Her volume steadily increased as a torrent of words poured from her mouth, words that made everyone extremely uncomfortable. “What did I do? What did I do?” she said over and over and began to sob. Some of the girls in the recovery run began to weep along with her. Some covered their faces with their arms or buried their heads in the arms of the recliners. Finally, the abortion facility "workers" were able to tear away the dish. Angie became hysterical. Other abortion workers tried to calm her. Fellow workers rushed to my side to calm Angie down. After a few minutes, it became obvious that she wasn’t going to calm down. We couldn’t even get her off the floor. After discussing it hastily, we decided to drag her to the bathroom. At least the heavy door would stifle her sobs to until we figured out what to do. Angie flailed her arms and legs and her screams reached a fever pitch as we dragged her down the hall. We must have been quite a spectacle for the other girls in the recovery room. Finally we managed to place a still panicked Angie in the bathroom and closed the door. I suggested that she splash some cold water on her face and “pull herself together.” Her cries, although muffled, were easily distinguished through the door. Angie began begging the abortion workers to take her mutilated baby home with her. She did not want to part with her child, even though her child was dead. She pleaded with the workers to give in and let her have the baby. They refused. She continued to sob and wail in the bathroom, disrupting the entire facility. The abortion workers finally went to her paperwork and found her emergency contact – the number the facility was supposed to call in the event of a life-threatening complication. They dialed the number and got her current boyfriend. He arrived at the clinic. It took him 45 minutes to coax Angie out of the bathroom. They both left the abortion facility in tears. Angie never came to the facility again. The writer of the story does not know what happened to her. The road ahead of her, once she realized her responsibility for the deaths of nine of her children, would be agonizing to travel. We can only hope she found healing. From then on, the abortion facility had a strict rule never to show the aborted babies to women. Ultimately, another scene like Angie’s would slow down abortion facility operations and affect the facility’s profits. More women would learn about fetal development, and there would be a decrease in the number of abortions. In order to keep everything running smoothly, quickly, and profitably, the facility banned all women from seeing their aborted babies. Sometime later, the abortion facility worker who showed Angie her aborted baby left the abortion business. She does not give her reasons why, but the story of Angie and her emotional agony no doubt influenced her. How many women go into abortion facilities not knowing how developed their children are? How many repeat abortion patients have no idea their babies were pulled limb from limb and then thrown out with the trash or sold for parts? All of the abortion facility workers that day discovered that the truth is the ultimate enemy of abortion. They were reminded how vital it is to keep the facts away from vulnerable women if abortion is to be sold to them. It was the only way to continue making money off them. Source: Abby Johnson The Walls Are Talking: Former Abortion Clinic Workers Tell Their Stories (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2016) 71-77

LGBT IS NOW ILLEGAL IN RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The Supreme Court of Russia declared the international LGBT movement to be extremist yesterday, banning its activities within the country. The Court thus granted the request of the Ministry of Justice, reports RIA-Novosti. According to the Ministry, the movement contains “signs and manifestations of an extremist orientation, including the incitement of social and religious hatred.” The decision came into force immediately. According to Interfax, yesterday’s decision “does not affect citizens’ right to privacy and will not entail any negative legal consequences.” Restrictions are related to the need to comply with the prohibition on LGBT propaganda, advertising, interest formation, attracting people to the LGBT movement. The ban is “a form of societal moral self-defense,” said Vakhtang Kipshidze, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department for Relations Between the Church, Society, and the Media. “We know from the testimony of many Western Christians who adhere to traditional beliefs regarding marriage and family that the activities of LGBT movements are aimed at displacing the Christian idea of ​​marriage and family from both the public and legal space,” the Church rep added

OCCASIONALLY WE HEAR THE TRUTH

More than 100 years ago, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed that popular catchwords can stunt critical thinking for 50 years or more. In his latest book, Social Justice Fallacies, revered economist and scholar Thomas Sowell confirms Holmes’ observation by examining the buzzwords that self-described “social justice” proponents commonly use today. He shows that, despite many years — and in some cases even centuries or more — of evidence revealing these words to be nonsense, our media and cultural elites continue touting them in utter defiance of facts. Social Justice’s False Premise Consider, for example, the very term “social justice.” It is predicated on the assumption that institutional discrimination is the primary reason for differences among groups of people, whether among races, economic classes, or even between the sexes. It assumes that were it not for such discrimination, all races, groups, and classes would be equally represented in all human endeavors. In other words, human beings are equal not only in their nature and capacities but in their ability to develop those capacities. As Sowell documents, however, this assumption is rarely tested empirically. In fact, both the historical record and everyday experience regularly contradict it. For example, not only have homogenous societies had unequal representation among groups of people in various endeavors, but even twin siblings who are raised under the same roof and by the same set of parents show vast differences in aptitude, performance, and cognitive ability. This is because factors beyond both our knowledge and our control — including factors that begin long before birth — heavily influence the development of human capabilities, including intelligence. Culture and Competence Some cultural traditions, for example, go back centuries or even millennia and thus continue to orient the developmental capacities of the people living in these cultures today. For instance, Sowell notes that the Germans have been brewing beer for thousands of years, far longer than most other cultures. It is, therefore, no surprise that they tend to be superior at making beer nowadays. Likewise, for reasons that need not concern us here, Jewish people have historically been significantly involved in matters of finance, where they continue to excel to this day. It is simply folly, however, to believe that government decree could circumvent these longstanding cultural traditions without major catastrophe. Moreover, these “reciprocal inequalities,” as Sowell calls them, rarely amount to one group dominating all fields of human achievement. “Even highly successful groups,” he writes, “have seldom been highly successful in all endeavors. Asian Americans and Jewish Americans are seldom found among the leading athletic stars or German Americans among charismatic politicians.” Cultural Inequalities Aren’t Fair Of course, Sowell quickly adds that this does not mean that life is fair for all groups of people, much less to all individuals, or that there is nothing that can be done about injustices in the world. It does mean, however, that we ought to be humble about the limits of both our knowledge and our power to improve things rather than make them worse. As he points out, “We might agree that ‘equal chances for all’ would be desirable. But that in no way guarantees that we have either the knowledge or the power required to make that goal attainable, without ruinous sacrifices of other desirable goals, ranging from freedom to survival.” Sowell spends several chapters documenting the negative consequences that have followed from decades of government policymakers ignoring the limits of their knowledge. He describes the unintended consequences of minimum wage policies, tax legislation, rent control laws, and policies related to race and sex as well as to welfare, housing, and education. Affirmative Action and Welfare Backfire Take, for instance, the issue of affirmative action in education. Sowell exposes the harm these policies have done first and foremost to the recipients themselves. Minority students who gain acceptance to elite schools for which they are not academically prepared often struggle to keep up with the rigorous pace and demanding workload. As a result, they end up either failing or dropping out. On the other hand, Sowell highlights the positive results that followed from the abolition of affirmative-action policies in California (as decided by voters). “The number of black and Hispanic students graduating from the University of California system as a whole rose by more than a thousand students over a four-year span,” he observes. “There was also an increase of 63 percent in the number graduating in four years with a grade point average of 3.5 or higher.” A similar trend followed the growth of the welfare state in the 1960s when both crime rates and out-of-wedlock birth rates exploded in minority communities. The two decades prior to the ’60s, however, saw declining crimes. Out-of-wedlock birth rates were lower among minority groups than among the majority white population. Nevertheless, laments Sowell, “intellectual elites, politicians, activists and ‘leaders’ — who took credit for the black progress that supposedly all began in the early 1960s — took no responsibility for the painful retrogressions that demonstrably did begin in the 1960s.” Beware Man’s Ignorance All this history and much more is packed into this short but critical book, whose single most important insight may be how little we know about the lives of others. We must, therefore, be careful when making policy decisions that have the potential to affect many people — and possibly even whole societies. As Sowell warns, “Stupid people can create problems, but it often takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe. They have already done that enough times — and in enough different ways — for us to reconsider, before joining their latest stampedes, led by self-congratulatory elites, deaf to argument and immune to evidence. by David Weinberge

DANGEROUS PEOPLE STRIKE AGAIN AT AMERICAN FREDOM !

At publishing time, the FBI refused to comment on horrifying reports that framed passages of religious texts were found hanging on the walls of the home

BENTON, LA — The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced today that it had discovered terrifying extremist reading material in a raid of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's Louisiana home. "We were very troubled by what we found during our totally legal raid," said FBI Special Agent Curt Schampers. "When our tactical team breached the door of the home, one of our lead agents called our attention to a piece of reading material on the living room coffee table. The reading material appeared to be a thick, leather-bound book that had pages with gold-gilded edges. Clearly some type of radical, religious text. This type of book is normally only found in the homes of truly dangerous individuals." Eyewitnesses reported seeing FBI agents removing the book from the home in a sealed plastic bag for further investigation. "You could see the fear in their eyes," said Johnson's neighbor Darius Anderson. "I heard them talking to each other and saying they knew people who read that book were radical, unhinged fanatics who believe crazy things and want to take over the world. To think Mike Johnson is a part of something like that…it's pretty scary." When asked to comment on what impact this discovery may have on Johnson's ability to serve effectively as Speaker of the House, Special Agent Schampers had only this to say: "This country would look a lot different if the kind of people who read that book were in charge of things."

RUSSIAN AND HELP FOR NEW INFANTS

What benefits do families with kids receive in Russia? Lifestyle Oct 20 2023 sankai/Getty Images Apart from federal monetary payments, many regions have their own presents for having a new Russian citizen. The most unusual ones are on the Yamal Peninsula: there, you get an entire ‘chum’ tent home. Russia has quite a large amount of support programs for families that have newborn children. Regardless of the place of birth, Russians receive federal benefits, as well as each region providing its own additional bonuses. Maternity capital & federal benefits

The main federal payment is the maternity capital, which you can spend on purchasing an apartment, building a house or your child’s education. In 2023, it amounts to 586,946 rubles (approx. $6,000) for the first child and 775,628 rubles (approx. $7,970) for the second child, if the mother didn’t receive maternity capital for the first child; if she did, the second payment is 188,681 rubles (approx. $1,940). Aside from that, there’s also a one-time payment of 22,909 rubles (approx. $235) in 2023. However, you must apply for it within six months of the child’s birth. From the moment the child is born until they reach the age of 18 months, their mother (or father) is eligible to receive a monthly child care allowance – 40% of the average income, but no more than 33,281 rubles (approx. $340). There are additional payments for both low income families and families with multiple children. But, the sum will be different depending on the region. Gift packages In approximately 30 regions of Russia, young parents receive packages with necessary baby items when they have a child. Moscow became the first among such regions, with others following soon after. The packages are different everywhere, but, usually, all the items provided have neutral colors that would fit a baby of either gender. In Moscow and Moscow Region, the packages are large boxes with clothes, diapers, thermometers, bed sheets, bathing sets, etc. You can opt not to take the package and receive a 20,000 ruble payment instead (approx. $205). However, some Moscow parents have noted that the package contents cost approximately the same (if bought separately in a store) and the items provided are of good quality. A gift box in Yamal. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Governor's Press Service Young parents from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug receive a large package with the symbol of the region – a polar bear – on it. Inside, apart from diapers, bottles and bed sheets, you can find winter overalls, warm winter hats and a thick blanket. And everything is decorated with similar cute bears that you wish you were born in Yamal! You can also opt out and choose a certificate for purchasing baby items with a value of 32,000 rubles (approx. $330). There’s also something called ‘chum capital’ on the Yamal Peninsula, where the families of indigenous people of the North live (the Nenets, the Khanty and the Selkups). This is how the 'chum capital' looks like. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Governor's Press Service Nomad families that have three children or more receive a chum assembly kit. It includes a stove, poles, floor boards, hides, tarp and sleds. The total value is equal to roughly 500,000 rubles (approx. $5,140) and it’s given only once. The Tver Region package, apart from clothing and hygiene products, has many useful little things: a bottle heater, scissors, combs, a bottle cleaning brush and pacifiers. Government of the Tver Region In Samara Region, such packages are given only for the first child; and in Tatarstan and Yakutia – only to low income families. In some regions of Russia, when the mother is released from the maternity hospital, the families are given certificates instead of packages, which they can spend on baby items. For example, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, you are given a gift card with a little mammoth depicted on it, worth 20,000 rubles (approx. $205). Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug In St. Petersburg, regional payments are sent to a ‘Detskaya’ (‘Child’) card, with which you can pay for purchases both in specialized stores and at hypermarkets that have children’s sections. In 2023, the payment amounts range from 39,000 rubles (approx. $400) to 65,000 rubles (approx. $670), depending on the amount of children. Bonuses for being young & for twins If you live in Perm Territory and you had twins (or more than two kids at once), then, apart from a gift package, regional authorities will give you 122,000 rubles (approx. $1,250) per child. In Volgograd, women who have given birth to their first child before the age of 24, apart from federal payments, receive 50,000 rubles (approx. $514) from the region. The same sum is due for all women, regardless of age, who have had their second child and the first is still younger than three years. If the family has had a third child and they’re older than three years, the family is eligible for a ‘parental capital’ worth 70,000 rubles (approx. $720). A plot of land for a third child Families with a lot of kids (three or more) in Russia can even receive a plot of land in the region where they live. But, the conditions of receiving one always differ. For example, in Moscow Region, only a family that doesn’t own a plot of land yet can receive one. In Rostov Region, only low income families can receive a plot of land. In Krasnoyarsk Territory, families receive it in queued order, however, the plots are not given in the city of Krasnoyarsk itself, but further out. In some regions, instead of a plot, a money certificate is offered.

Homosexuality — Worse than Murder

Homosexuality is Worse than Murder What makes homosexuality so destructive to society? How is it worse than fornication, worse than theft, even worse than murder? Why are the Scriptures and the Saints so vehemently opposed to this particular sin? MORE:Explaining Orthodoxy Family Values Originally appeared at: Global Orthodox Even though good Christians understand that homosexuality is a sin, many of them don't realize just how serious it is. They know it is wrong, and they wouldn't want to do it themselves, but they put it in a similar category as cheating on your taxes, reading dirty novels, or getting drunk at home. They say things like, "It's none of my business", "That's his personal choice", or "Some of my friends are like that, and they are perfectly nice people . . ." They may figure the proper response is just to keep quiet, ignore it, and "try not to judge". But this is not how they treat rape. This is not how they treat murder. If they thought their nextdoor neighbor had kidnapped a child and was guilty of both rape and murder, they would not say, "It's none of my business" or "That's his personal choice." They would be horrified that such a heinous crime had been committed, and they would want to see the criminal brought to justice. Some sins are worse than others. Every sin may be equally forgivable, but not every sin is equally destructive. Stealing a dollar from your employer is bad, but kidnapping a child is worse. Vandalizing a car is bad, but killing a family of five is worse. And according to St. John Chrysostom, abortionists and homosexuals belong in a class unto themselves, even worse than murder. There are a couple ways in which murder and homosexual activity are equally sinful. In both cases: God commands us not to do it. Those who rebel against God in this way will also justify rebellion against God in many other areas of morality. There are many more examples where homosexuality is uniquely sinful and destructive, in ways that murder is not: When God destroys entire cities and civilizations because of the proliferation of this sin, it is not only the homosexuals that get drowned or incinerated. Everyone else gets destroyed too. Consider these Three Ancient Cultures God Destroyed Because of Homosexual Activity, and also Three More Cities God Destroyed for Sinning Like Sodom. The homosexual lifestyle (especially sodomy) damages the human body, and frequently leads to deadly diseases, such as AIDS. Pedophilia is much more prevalent among homosexuals, than among normal people. The more promotion and proliferation that we have of homosexuality, the more widespread problems than we have with the sexual abuse of children. Homosexuals are not satisfied with tolerance. They demand everyone else to glorify them, and ultimately to participate with them. Homosexual behavior leads to acceptance of the transgender delusion, which leads people to sexually mutilate themselves and also to mutilate their children. Homosexuals are intentionally sterile and such unions cannot produce children. Such a lifestyle is fundamentally self-centered. Since homosexual "unions" cannot produce offspring, they recruit from the children of normal children. Thus the movement as a whole is parasitic. Homosexuality (and specifically "gay marriage") is a Christological heresy and ecclesiological heresy. God created marriage as a picture of Christ and the Church. But two lustful men in a bed, unable to produce any offspring, bear no resemblance whatsoever to the relationship between Christ and the Church. Thus the entire "legalized marriage" is an ongoing lie, constantly telling a lie about who Christ is and what His relationship to the Church is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created Adam and Eve, and presided over the first wedding. God created man and woman to live together as husband and wife, creating multigenerational families who would love God and each other. Society itself rests upon the foundation of marriage and the family. If America destroys the family, and you destroy the very foundation of society. When men and women turn their backs on one another, burning in their desire for same-sex activity, imagining that marriage is a sterile playground where adults can indulge their lusts, they take one of God's most precious gifts to mankind, and they throw it back at Him, spitting on His whole vision of how things should function. (By the way, this helps explain why many Saints compared the use of contraception with homosexual activity. Marriage is intended to be fruitful, bringing many children into the world, not merely using marriage as an outlet for the satisfaction of sexual desires.) Murder — Less Destructive than Homosexuality We see the widespread destruction of society that is caused by all these corrosive aspects of homosexual behavior. Meanwhile, murder does not cause the same widespread effects: God might pring often brings individual murderers to justice, but when He destroys entire cities or civilizations, He doesn't normally suggest that murder is the reason for it. Murderers do not propagate disease. Murderers do not tend to become pedophiles. (Pedophiles, however, often do become murderers.) Murderers don't push the rest of society to praise murder or to participate in murder. Murderers do not generally promote transgenderism or the mutilation of children. Murderers are usually not sterile, and can have children. Murderers rarely recruit others to become murderers. (Inner city gangs exhibit one of the rare exceptions to this.) Murder is an attack on God, because man was created in God's image. But murder is not a Christological heresy, teaching falsehood about who Christ is. (The statements above are in reference to the murder of adults and youth, not including murder of the unborn. Of course, abortion is a specific type of murder, but St. John Chrysostom sets it apart and also calls it "worse than murder". In regard to societal consequences, abortion shares more in common with homosexuality than other forms of murder. Abortion often causes disease, sterility, and various health problems. Abortion supporters recruit others to promote and perform abortions, and they mutilate children. Abortion is popular among pedophiles, to stop children from being born of these illicit unions. Abortion supporters also blaspheme both Christ and His Church — When Christ told the Church, "This is my body", he was referring to the Eucharist, which is for healing and forgiveness. But when abortion supporters scream, "This is my body", they do it for the purpose of murdering the innocent.) Murders are very, very bad. But in general, they are not nearly as destructive to society as homosexual sin is. Homosexuality According to Scripture and the Saints This helps explain why according to the Saints, and also according to Holy Scripture, homosexual sin is worthy of capital punishment, or worse. The Old Testament (Leviticus 20:13), and the New Testament (Romans 1:32) both indicate that people practicing this sin are worthy of death. And this commandment was observed by the greatest Christian rulers. For example, in the life of the holy emperor St. Justinian, who was considered to be an exemplary ruler, we read the following: “Having discovered a number of homosexuals, conducting an investigation and identifying them, St. Justinian had some of them castrated with spears. And for others, he ordered that sharp sticks be shoved into their shameful orifices, forcing them to walk in a public procession through the agora. There were also many officials and senators, as well as many bishops, who had their property confiscated, and who were driven along the agora until they died a miserable death. The remaining people began to fear, and thus they became chaste." — St. Symeon Metaphrastes Logothete, Chronicle, Justinian, 9 Religious writer, St. Maximus the Greek, wrote that Christians are obliged not only to disdain this “godless filth” but also to “anathematize” those who do it and to "burn them with fire". In America mental illness was the label for homosecuals until 1977. These decrees do not contradict the Christian commandments of love and forgiveness. If we were to believe that homosexuals do not need to be punished, then it would also be necessary to advocate the abolition of punishments for other sins, such as murder, theft, etc. From the point of view of secular humanism, there is an essential difference between sodomy and murder: The murderer sins against another person, while sodomy does not formally go against someone's will, since he is engaged in sodomy by mutual consent. However, from a Christian point of view, his sin is even worse, since it defiles the image of God by which he was created. That is why St. John Chrysostom said: "I affirm that these [homosexuals] are even worse than murderers: since to die even is better than to live under such insolency. For the murderer separates the soul from the body, but this man ruins the soul along with the body." — St. John Chrysostom, 4th homily on the book of Romans Harsh words? For some of the Church's greatest Saints there are no words too harsh for this particular sin against God. In the Orthodox Church, St. John Chrysostom one of the best known and most well respected names. He lived more than 1600 years ago, during the 4th century after the birth of Christ. He preached hundreds of phenominal messages, many of which we still have with us today. Though his name was simply "John", his teaching was so highly esteemed that people started calling him "Chrysostom", which is Greek for "Golden Mouth". He preached in favor of many virtues, and he preached in opposition to many vices. To my knowledge, there are only two sins which St. John Chrysostom ever called "worse than murder" — These are abortion and homosexual activity. In his 4th sermon on the book of Romans, St. John says that life as a homosexual is worse than death. While a murderer only destroys a body, releasing the soul, a homosexual destroys both body and soul. He says that homosexual sex is far worse than fornication. Those who practice it lose their very manhood, and make themselves into animals more disgraceful than dogs. Here is a longer excerpt directly from this sermon by St. John: I affirm that these [homosexuals] are even worse than murderers: since to die even is better than to live under such insolency. For the murderer separates the soul from the body, but this man ruins the soul along with the body. And name what sin you will, none will you mention equal to this lawlessness. And if they that suffer such things perceived them, they would accept ten thousand deaths so they might not suffer this evil. For there is not, there surely is not, a more grievous evil than this insolent dealing. For if when discoursing about fornication Paul said, that Every sin which a man does is without the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What shall we say of this madness, which is so much worse than fornication as cannot even be expressed? For I should not only say that you have become a woman, but that you have lost your manhood, and hast neither changed into that nature nor kept that which you had, but you have been a traitor to both of them at once, and deserving both of men and women to be driven out and stoned, as having wronged either sex. And that you may learn what the real force of this is, if any one were to come and assure you that he would make you a dog instead of being a man, would you not flee from him as a plague? But, lo! You have not made yourself a dog out of a man, but an animal more disgraceful than this. When a person repents, God can forgive any sin. And when God forgives, we must forgive. We cannot hold a person's past against him. But when a person does not repent, and demands the "right" to live such a blatantly godless lifestyle, a Christian society has no legitimate reason to tolerate it. The unrepentant wicked must be driven out, lest society itself be infected and ultimately destroyed.

THERE ARE ACTUALLY CHRISTIANS IN THE AREAS NEAR ...

As we spoke to our contacts in Gaza Sunday afternoon (10/15/2023), we could hear the squealing of rockets and the percussive impacts of bombs going off all around them, every few seconds. The bombardment started in the middle of the night, at 10:00 PM local time in Gaza, while innocent civilians were sleeping. It has not let up at all. We can hear the sounds of children crying, as adults, who are terrified themselves, try to give them comfort. Our first contact, who wishes to remain anonymous as he fears for his safety, had to quickly end the call to seek a safer shelter, though, he tells us, there is no such thing as a safe shelter in Gaza tonight. No one there is sure if a bomb will land on them within their shelter. The bombing is relentless and is focused on residential areas, stores, and health facilities. Whether this is intentional or not, no one is certain, but the bombardment is ongoing and extreme. Our anonymous contact reports that “the [Israeli Defense Forces] are indiscriminately dropping bombs.” His Eminence, Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, who is in Gaza, told the Order on Sunday during a phone call that “[the IDF] are bombing the streets to weaken the foundations of housing developments so that the buildings will collapse.” People in desperate need of food and water are afraid to go out in search of what limited provisions still exist in Gaza for fear of bombs and collapsing buildings. Nowhere is safe, not even their homes and churches amidst what His Eminence calls “absolute, widespread devastation.” Many of those seeking refuge within Gaza have turned to St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church in the heart of the war zone in Gaza. St. Porphyrios is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world and the third-oldest church, built in the 3rd Century by St. Porphyrios of Gaza. The church is currently providing shelter, food, and activities for 500 people. Archbishop Alexios says that around 95% are Orthodox Christians – just over 40% of the Christian population of Gaza. The other 5% are comprised of other citizens of Gaza. His Eminence has opened the doors of the church to anyone in need of shelter in Gaza. He will not turn anyone away, as, he says, “We are all Children of Lord, and the church is a refuge for anyone in need.”

The church has a generator, but they are quickly running out of fuel to keep it running. They are running out of everything: Food, water, medical supplies, and fuel. People are sleeping on chairs, pews, and the ground because there are no mattresses available. The local mattress store and factory were destroyed by bombs. Children need toys. Many of the elderly have medical conditions and need treatment and medication. Yet, they are blockaded into the city that is being destroyed around them. Food, water, electricity, medicine, fuel, and even money are not being allowed in. His Eminence does not know how long their limited provisions will last. “It could be ten days. It could be more. It could be much less, depending on how many more people come.” At least 10% of the Christian population of Gaza have lost their homes so far. We have no reports on the roughly 60% of the community that is not currently seeking shelter at St. Porphyrios. We may not know the extent of the loss of life and property until this war ends. As we cannot get supplies or money to our suffering brothers and sisters yet, Archbishop Alexios tells us that the real need will be after the war, the worst he has ever seen in his quarter-century in Gaza, as his flock will need help rebuilding their homes. “This is our homeland,” he tells us. “We will not abandon it. Our fate is with Christ, and we accept whatever outcome He allows, whether we live or die.” St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza. Photo: alarabiya.net St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza. Photo: alarabiya.net Translating for the Order and His Eminence, a Palestinian clergyman said to Archbishop Alexios, “You are like Christ in the wilderness, with your people coming to you for sustenance, literally dividing the loaves to feed your people.” His Eminence replied, “I am not Christ. I am not a miracle worker. It is Christ who sustains us!” This is the hope that they have, and it is all they have. There are no NGOs, nonprofits, or even government officials left in Gaza, except the Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George the Great Martyr, who was finally able to connect with His Eminence just Sunday. None of the NGOs that were there were concerned with the Christians of Gaza. No news media has addressed the plight of the Christians of Gaza. His Eminence was feeling “alone and abandoned” by everyone but Christ. He told the Order that we are “the Light of Christ in Gaza.” In a very real way, we are all they have. His Eminence told the Order, “We are suffering. We need help, and there is no one coming to help us.” The Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George is with them and is preparing to help them. We are the voice for the voiceless, as they are cut off from the world by the war and the blockades. The Holy Orthodox Order of Saint George was established primarily to give aid to Christians in the Holy Land and the Greater Middle East. At no time has this been a more pressing and urgent mission. As of October 14, we have established a monetary campaign to allow us to give as much aid to these suffering servants of God as we can. Our preliminary goal, which we hope to meet by the end of November, is $1Millon. This is just a preliminary goal. It will barely make a dent in what these families need. We are urging all of our members to contribute, and we are asking the public to help as well. We would like to reach out to every Orthodox parish in the United States at a minimum, and welcome assistance from other churches, businesses, and organizations as well. The Grand Knight, Konstantine Pandolfi, head of the Order of Saint George, had the following message on Monday: No time has been so great or important than now to stand shoulder to shoulder in support of our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza. If you are truly a member of the Order of Saint George the Great Martyr please donate. Let your monetary donation speak to our cause and to what we stand for as an Orthodox Christian Order of knighthood. We are a “lifeline to the Christians in Gaza.” Even if you are not a member of the Order, please consider giving a monetary donation to support the oldest Christian community in the word, for these are our people! The Orthodox Christians in Gaza and throughout the Holy Land are keeping the light of Christ alive even until today in these darkest of times. His Eminence asks that we all keep the suffering Christians of Gaza in our prayers, “that the Lord is with us, has mercy on us, and gets us faithfully through this. Then, when this is over, we will all pray together, either here in St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church or in the eternal liturgy

Russian Author's Chilling Warning to the West (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

"The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness.... the tide of secularism that, from the late Middle Ages onward, has progressively inundated the West. This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without." This article from our archives was first published on RI in September 2022 Chris Banescu(The Voice Crying in the Wilderness) Sep 4, 2022 | 3000 words 10,008 Comments MORE:Culture People Trends History Originally appeared at: The Voice Crying in the Wilderness As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America, my adopted country, is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation. Under the decades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called “liberal” and “progressive” elites, God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions, to be replaced with all manner of delusion, perversion, corruption, violence, decadence, and insanity. It is no coincidence that as Marxist ideologies and secularist principles engulf the culture and pervert mainstream thinking, individual freedoms and liberties are rapidly disappearing. As a consequence, Americans feel increasingly more powerless and subjugated by some of the most radical and hypocritical, least democratic, and characterless individuals our society has ever produced. Those of us who have experienced and witnesses first-hand the atrocities and terror of communism understand fully why such evil takes root, how it grows and deceives, and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash on the innocent and the faithful. Godlessness is always the first step towards tyranny and oppression! Nobel laureate, Orthodox Christian author, and Russian dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag” address, given when he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May of 1983, explained how the Russian revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality an a long process of secularization which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs. He rightly concluded: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” The text of his Templeton Address is provided below. The parallels with the current crisis and moral decay in American society are striking and frightening. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear! * * * “Men Have Forgotten God” – The Templeton Address by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened. What is more, the events of the Russian Revolution can only be understood now, at the end of the century, against the background of what has since occurred in the rest of the world. What emerges here is a process of universal significance. And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God. The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The first of these was World War I, and much of our present predicament can be traced back to it. It was a war (the memory of which seems to be fading) when Europe, bursting with health and abundance, fell into a rage of self-mutilation which could not but sap its strength for a century or more, and perhaps forever. The only possible explanation for this war is a mental eclipse among the leaders of Europe due to their lost awareness of a Supreme Power above them. Only a godless embitterment could have moved ostensibly Christian states to employ poison gas, a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity. The same kind of defect, the flaw of a consciousness lacking all divine dimension, was manifested after World War II when the West yielded to the satanic temptation of the “nuclear umbrella.” It was equivalent to saying: Let’s cast off worries, let’s free the younger generation from their duties and obligations, let’s make no effort to defend ourselves, to say nothing of defending others-let’s stop our ears to the groans emanating from the East, and let us live instead in the pursuit of happiness. If danger should threaten us, we shall be protected by the nuclear bomb; if not, then let the world burn in Hell for all we care. The pitifully helpless state to which the contemporary West has sunk is in large measure due to this fatal error: the belief that the defense of peace depends not on stout hearts and steadfast men, but solely on the nuclear bomb… Today’ s world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: “This is the Apocalypse!” Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it. Dostoevsky warned that “great events could come upon us and catch us intellectually unprepared.” This is precisely what has happened. And he predicted that “the world will be saved only after it has been possessed by the demon of evil.” Whether it really will be saved we shall have to wait and see: this will depend on our conscience, on our spiritual lucidity, on our individual and combined efforts in the face of catastrophic circumstances. But it has already come to pass that the demon of evil, like a whirlwind, triumphantly circles all five continents of the earth… By the time of the Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened. In its past, Russia did know a time when the social ideal was not fame, or riches, or material success, but a pious way of life. Russia was then steeped in an Orthodox Christianity which remained true to the Church of the first centuries. The Orthodoxy of that time knew how to safeguard its people under the yoke of a foreign occupation that lasted more than two centuries, while at the same time fending off iniquitous blows from the swords of Western crusaders. During those centuries the Orthodox faith in our country became part of the very pattern of thought and the personality of our people, the forms of daily life, the work calendar, the priorities in every undertaking, the organization of the week and of the year. Faith was the shaping and unifying force of the nation. But in the 17th century Russian Orthodoxy was gravely weakened by an internal schism. In the 18th, the country was shaken by Peter’s forcibly imposed transformations, which favored the economy, the state, and the military at the expense of the religious spirit and national life. And along with this lopsided Petrine enlightenment, Russia felt the first whiff of secularism; its subtle poisons permeated the educated classes in the course of the 19th century and opened the path to Marxism. By the time of the Revolution, faith had virtually disappeared in Russian educated circles; and amongst the uneducated, its health was threatened. It was Dostoevsky, once again, who drew from the French Revolution and its seeming hatred of the Church the lesson that “revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.” That is absolutely true. But the world had never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized, and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot. The 1920’s in the USSR witnessed an uninterrupted procession of victims and martyrs amongst the Orthodox clergy. Two metropolitans were shot, one of whom, Veniamin of Petrograd, had been elected by the popular vote of his diocese. Patriarch Tikhon himself passed through the hands of the Cheka-GPU and then died under suspicious circumstances. Scores of archbishops and bishops perished. Tens of thousands of priests, monks, and nuns, pressured by the Chekists to renounce the Word of God, were tortured, shot in cellars, sent to camps, exiled to the desolate tundra of the far North, or turned out into the streets in their old age without food or shelter. All these Christian martyrs went unswervingly to their deaths for the faith; instances of apostasy were few and far between. For tens of millions of laymen access to the Church was blocked, and they were forbidden to bring up their children in the Faith: religious parents were wrenched from their children and thrown into prison, while the children were turned from the faith by threats and lies… For a short period of time, when he needed to gather strength for the struggle against Hitler, Stalin cynically adopted a friendly posture toward the Church. This deceptive game, continued in later years by Brezhnev with the help of showcase publications and other window dressing, has unfortunately tended to be taken at its face value in the West. Yet the tenacity with which hatred of religion is rooted in Communism may be judged by the example of their most liberal leader, Krushchev: for though he undertook a number of significant steps to extend freedom, Krushchev simultaneously rekindled the frenzied Leninist obsession with destroying religion. But there is something they did not expect: that in a land where churches have been leveled, where a triumphant atheism has rampaged uncontrolled for two-thirds of a century, where the clergy is utterly humiliated and deprived of all independence, where what remains of the Church as an institution is tolerated only for the sake of propaganda directed at the West, where even today people are sent to the labor camps for their faith, and where, within the camps themselves, those who gather to pray at Easter are clapped in punishment cells–they could not suppose that beneath this Communist steamroller the Christian tradition would survive in Russia. It is true that millions of our countrymen have been corrupted and spiritually devastated by an officially imposed atheism, yet there remain many millions of believers: it is only external pressures that keep them from speaking out, but, as is always the case in times of persecution and suffering, the awareness of God in my country has attained great acuteness and profundity. It is here that we see the dawn of hope: for no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity. The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness. It too has witnessed racking schisms, bloody religious wars, and rancor, to say nothing of the tide of secularism that, from the late Middle Ages onward, has progressively inundated the West. This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without. Imperceptibly, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “pursuit of happiness, “a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use, they have been replaced by political or class considerations of short lived value. It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system. Yet it is not considered shameful to make dally concessions to an integral evil. Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism. If a blasphemous film about Jesus is shown throughout the United States, reputedly one of the most religious countries in the world, or a major newspaper publishes a shameless caricature of the Virgin Mary, what further evidence of godlessness does one need? When external rights are completely unrestricted, why should one make an inner effort to restrain oneself from ignoble acts? Or why should one refrain from burning hatred, whatever its basis–race, class, or ideology? Such hatred is in fact corroding many hearts today. Atheist teachers in the West are bringing up a younger generation in a spirit of hatred of their own society. Amid all the vituperation we forget that the defects of capitalism represent the basic flaws of human nature, allowed unlimited freedom together with the various human rights; we forget that under Communism (and Communism is breathing down the neck of all moderate forms of socialism, which are unstable) the identical flaws run riot in any person with the least degree of authority; while everyone else under that system does indeed attain “equality”–the equality of destitute slaves. This eager fanning of the flames of hatred is becoming the mark of today’s free world. Indeed, the broader the personal freedoms are, the higher the level of prosperity or even of abundance–the more vehement, paradoxically, does this blind hatred become. The contemporary developed West thus demonstrates by its own example that human salvation can be found neither in the profusion of material goods nor in merely making money. This deliberately nurtured hatred then spreads to all that is alive, to life itself, to the world with its colors, sounds, and shapes, to the human body. The embittered art of the twentieth century is perishing as a result of this ugly hate, for art is fruitless without love. In the East art has collapsed because it has been knocked down and trampled upon, but in the West the fall has been voluntary, a decline into a contrived and pretentious quest where the artist, instead of attempting to reveal the divine plan, tries to put himself in the place of God. Here again we witness the single outcome of a worldwide process, with East and West yielding the same results, and once again for the same reason: Men have forgotten God. With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the heart’s preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset · by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods, and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily. All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today’s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain. The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task. We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society. This is especially true of a free and highly developed society, for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves, of our own free will. We ourselves, in our daily unthinking selfishness, are pulling tight that noose… Our life consists not in the pursuit of material success but in the quest for worthy spiritual growth. Our entire earthly existence is but a transitional stage in the movement toward something higher, and we must not stumble and fall, nor must we linger fruitlessly on one rung of the ladder. Material laws alone do not explain our life or give it direction. The laws of physics and physiology will never reveal the indisputable manner in which the Creator constantly, day in and day out, participates in the life of each of us, unfailingly granting us the energy of existence; when this assistance leaves us, we die. And in the life of our entire planet, the Divine Spirit surely moves with no less force: this we must grasp in our dark and terrible hour. To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God, which we have so rashly and self-confidently spurned. Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our bands be directed to setting them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing. Our five continents are caught in a whirlwind. But it is during trials such as these that the highest gifts of the human spirit are manifested. If we perish and lose this world, the fault will be ours alone. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”.