Preach it, brother!
Submitted by Dirk Gently on October 16 1999 at 12:32:42
In reply to I could itemize them for you... Submitted by Triple Q on October 15 1999 at 14:44:12
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Hey, Triple Q. Your post is exactly the kind of thing Christians need to be hearing. Thank you for your thoughtful dialogue. In my opinion, in Christ's heart that meant to...duh, love one another, unconditionally...and not just one another but all humanity as well. I agree that many Christians, and many denominations, have lost sight of this. One of the exceptions to this failure is the Orthodox monk, Silouan of Athos. He died in 1938 and has since been recognized as a saint throughout the Orthodox world. One of St. Silouan's famous sayings is, "Lord, all peoples are the work of Your hands; turn them away from hate and wickedness to repentance so that they all may know Your love." This saying of his applies to "Christians" who have forgotten the command to love as much as, if not more than, it does to those who make no profession of faith. There are several essays about his teaching on love posted on the Orthodox Peace Fellowship website. It is no longer concerned with rehabilitating those that it thinks are unworthy of God's love (as Christ did when he went among the moneychangers and harlots), but has begun a program of seeking out and destroying whatever chance the person might have had of being rehabilitated because the Christians of today think that they will become tainted with "sin" if they associate too closely with the "sinner"...ie, too involved in Self to worry about All. Again, that's a very fair critique, but not one which is universally applicable. I'm not trying to build up my own tradition at the expense of other expressions of Christianity, but Orthodox monastics are the least judgemental people I've met. This may seem rather odd, since they've "renounced the world" and entered a monastery to seek God, but part of their renunciation is precisely a turning from the worldly attitude that you've identified in your post. Of course, this is something that all Christians everywhere should be engaged in, and in general we have failed miserably at it. Thanks again for your reply! Dirk |