***Al's public use of derogatory language to refer to the former
Metropolitan is not something that Orthodox spirituality and
discipline would enjoin upon us. He displays a fundamental lack of
respect in doing so, besides being a gossip. "There's the case of the
OCA Metropolitan known in some circles as 'TwinkleToes'". Oh, is that
so? In what circles? What wholesome and godly circles would anyone
want to be moving in that would so casually dismiss a fine man who
served the OCA so well throughout his life? Al's attitude is not
representative of anything good, or authentically Orthodox. It's
really the very antithesis of what it is to be Orthodox and to live
life in an Orthodox manner. God gave a commandment to the Jews, "Thou
shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people", and there
is no revoking of this commandment either by Christ, the Church, or
any of the Fathers and saints. Gossip is sin in private, and the
Church considers it to be more so when it's done in public.

Al's attitude toward homosexuality is not in accord with Orthodox
teaching. Fr. Thomas Hopko sum it up nicely, "According to Orthodox
Church Tradition, Christians are redeemed sinners. They are human
beings who have been saved from sickness and sin, delivered from the
devil and death by God's grace through faith in Jesus by the Holy
Spirit's power: "and such were some of you." (1 Cor. 6:10) They are
baptized into Christ and sealed with the Spirit in order to live God's
life in the Church. They witness to their faith by regular
participation in liturgical worship and eucharistic communion,
accompanied by continual confession, repentance and the steadfast
struggle against every form of sin, voluntary and involuntary, which
attempts to destroy their lives in this world and in the age to come.
The homosexual Christian is called to a particularly rigorous battle.
His or her struggle is an especially ferocious one. It is not made any
easier by the mindless, truly demonic hatred of those who despise and
ridicule those who carry this painful and burdensome cross; nor by the
mindless, equally demonic affirmation of homosexual activity by its
misguided advocates and enablers."

Why Al displays such a mindless, truly demonic hatred is maybe known
only to God, but experience shows that those who despise and ridicule
others burdened with homosexuality are very often running from it
within themselves. The spectacle of a defrocked deacon who is known
for his slander, lies, and calumny calling a revered member of the
clergy "TwinkleToes" in public is a sad one, made even sadder since
it's so indicative of an obsessive struggle with homosexuality that
has yielded little but bitterness. It's wrong. It's sinful, and it's
not what the Orthodox Church expects of its faithful children. Al's
attitude is condemned by the Orthodox Church, which has a much more
realistic understanding of human frailty and human-divine
potentiality.

Pray for Al, even as he spits such evil venom at good Orthodox
hierarchs.

I am not who you suppose I am.

On Jul 29, 9:34 pm, "AGGreen" spambot.tv> wrote: