I've begun removing blogs from my reading list because, as the political debate heats up, they make me angry and (equally) I can no longer, in peace, send my readers to those blogs. If you find your blog missing from my blog roll then it has also been removed from my reading list for the time being. Feel free to email me to ask me why. We can enter into dialogue and share a bit.
After, maybe, January, when the "ah ha" and "I told you so" and "nyah-nyah" is done, I'll reconstuct a blog roll.
This is why secular politics is evil: it pulls brother from brother, insisting that its own, totally non-Christian agenda is, in fact, more important than the ministry of the Church: reconciling all things to God in Christ.
In my weakness, I admit that I can't do that with partisans. They push all my buttons, and some part of me feels it personally. It's like being trolled on a mailng list. In my own weakness I lash out.
Please forgive me my weaknesses. I ask your prayers.
I'm surprised you left mine on your list. Nevertheless, I think I am going to halt the creeping politicization of my blog. Thanks for the unintentional warning.
Oh, what does "trolled on a mailing list" mean?
Yer Family Matt :-) I'm stuck with ya.
Trolling... A post (on a newsgroup, or other forum) that is solely intended to incite controversy or conflict or cause annoyance or offense. (Many posts may inadvertently cause strife as collateral damage, but they are not trolls.)
I feel the same way. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
I can't wait until this election is over .
Ditto. Every four years I hear a terrible grating noise that always starts dying down in early November.
So you don't mind if I rail against Her Majesty's Government of the day? We aren't having a General Election until sometime next Spring, in all likelihood.
David - in the abstract, I guess I should, but the reality is that it doesn't give me the same emotional roller coster ride that USAmerican presidential politics do. I've also left a few other political commentators on the blog: some speak of Palestinian issues, etc. But neither you nor they seem to call their Orthodox brothers names for disagreeing. I fear I've engaged in it some what here too. So I'm removing the temptation.
I thank you for your posts which I find informative. I've learned I don't want to live there, mind you, from reading your blog. But that's becasue I have a view of the UK formed by reading and watching the BBC. (Perhaps an indentical sort of blog from Ireland would clear me of that second fantasy.)
If I'm really honest, however, reading about the stuff that happens when (eg) the UK makes theft perfectly legal gives me about as much a rise as reading that the Ministry of Magic has put a High Inquisitor at Hogwarts. I fear it is the same for many other countries as well. Some of it is scary... but generally I close the book and it goes away. Very, I fear, American on my part.
as someone who has been quite passionate this election, sometimes vehemently opposed to the bush administration, this post humbled and encouraged me:
"pulls brother from brother, insisting that its own, totally non-Christian agenda is, in fact, more important than the ministry of the Church: reconciling all things to God in Christ."
thx huw.
)( seraphim/seattle
"This is why secular politics is evil: it pulls brother from brother, insisting that its own, totally non-Christian agenda is, in fact, more important than the ministry of the Church: reconciling all things to God in Christ."
Precisely. As someone else (Mother Raphaela, abbess of Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery in Otego NY) put it:
Looking beyond this arena of our daily life, today especially we are confronted with a world seemingly driven by anger. While it is true that many of us would hope our country would always be pure and holy and acting from Orthodox Christian principles, we need to face the fact that this did not happen even under the holy emperors of Byzantium and Moscow.
If we as Orthodox Christians cannot have unity of heart, soul and mind, how can we be surprised at, or judge others who do not have the spiritual riches given to us for our salvation in the Church? The Lord said: "But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire." (Matthew 5:22) I would submit that it is a far greater sin for Orthodox in America to engage in party spirit, whether it be on the level of American Democratic-Republican party politics or ethnic-jurisdictional differences or within jurisdictions, which seminary or monastery is "more truly orthodox" than it is for Jewish Israelis and Moslem Arabs to be killing one another with external weapons of violence. "...he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more." (Luke 12:48)
From "Monasticism & Peace"
Huw,
I'm glad that you aren't being very abstract, then!
I believe there is going to be a Ministry of Magic in the next cabinet reshuffle - has a very Blairite feel to it. It does explain how they have managed to keep up the smoke and mirrors they call a Government... ah, but I digress. I'm very glad that I can provide you with something to read without getting worked up over it, whilst I can get as shrill as I want.
Huw,
I find this bold and respectable.
it pulls brother from brother, insisting that its own, totally non-Christian agenda is, in fact, more important than the ministry of the Church: reconciling all things to God in Christ.
I never saw it like before. But there it is, clear as day. Thank you for the perspective.