The Sermon on the Mount

I’ve been an Orthodox Christian my whole life. In spite of that, one of the problems I’ve had with religion is that it can—and sometimes does—lead to black and white ways of thinking which ignore the obvious moral complexities of the world, whether because one is unable or unwilling to deal with them. I’ve heard several theologians and philosophers talking about how it would have been sinful to lie to the Gestapo to protect a Jewish neighbor: because lying is wrong or a sin in certain circumstances, so it must be in every circumstance.

One cannot say that lying is wrong, and expect this to be true in every situation— regardless of one’s circumstances, state of mind, or motive—any more than one could say that because you might be justified in punishing your children when they misbehave, it would be fine to punish them when they do nothing. That kind of view of the world should be seen by any rational person as far too simplistic, and obviously wrong.

This, I believe, stems from a literalistic reading of Scripture and Tradition, one which sees these as some kind of universal rule book, rather than divine revelation inspired by the God who transcends time, but interpreted by fallible humans who view what they were given through their own cultural lens. Read More

In response to Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s LGBTQI Listening Tour: An Open Letter to Our Bishops in the USA and Canada of July 1, the following comments were sent to us as a private email from a bishop in one of the jurisdictions represented by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America.

At our request and upon prayerful consideration, he has given his blessing for us to publish it anonymously.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s work is dedicated to the memory of gay Orthodox suicide victim Eric J. Iliff. May his memory be eternal.

What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.

Genesis 4:10

You need to take into account how frightened the bishops are of each other. Even if one of them agreed with Orthodoxy in Dialogue much of the time, they would still have to live in fear of what the other bishops might say.

What is really horrifying to me are those who know that you are right—and I have confronted a few of them directly, every time a young Orthodox Christian commits suicide, especially when they go almost directly from confession to suicide, and I mention how their blood will be on our hands for persecuting them because of an ideology, an ideology we know very well is wrong. Read More

Dear Mr. Lanier:

Please convey to Metropolitan Tikhon, as well as the other members of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, our astonishment that they would have you contact us about the harmless use of a church camp photo, late on a Saturday night from your personal email account, when our repeated requests for a pastoral response to white supremacy and racism in the American Church, the plight of the LGBTQ children, youths, women, and men of their flock, and even a priest to accompany a man on his path to repentance from adultery, continue to go completely unheeded.

It’s hard to imagine that the Synod’s collective conscience found it so offensive that we used the photo to illustrate a letter of love and support from Orthodox grandparents to their gay grandson, who might very well be subjected to emotional and spiritual harm at an Orthodox church camp.  Read More

We received the following letter to the editors at 9:44 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, 2019 from the general counsel’s personal email address. We publish it here because it’s too long for our Letters page.

Apparently, using a photo from the website of the Orthodox Church in America to illustrate the love and concern of Orthodox grandparents for their young gay grandson is too much for the members of the Holy Synod to bear. In order not to cause the bishops any more emotional hardship, we have removed the offending image.

In the meantime, we await their pastoral response—beyond one OCA bishop’s request for us not to bother him anymore—to our LGBTQI Listening Tour: An Open Letter to Our Bishops in the USA and Canada and our unanswered appeal to another OCA bishop on behalf of a man needing the care of a priest.

Your Recent Publication of OCA Photographic Images

Dear Editors:

I am E. R. Lanier, a licensed attorney at law and the appointed General Counsel of the Orthodox Church in America. My duties to the Church include the legal protection and enforcement of the OCA’s intellectual property rights as these exist under federal and state law within the United States of America.

Concerned persons have within the past few hours brought it to my attention that your website, “Orthodoxy in Dialogue,” at https://orthodoxyindialogue.com, has engaged in the blatant and intentional copying of a photographic image belonging to the Orthodox Church in America and its ecclesiastical subdivisions, this without the knowledge, consent, or permission of the Orthodox Church in America or its subdivisions. That photograph may now be viewed, as you well know, in the July 20, 2019, post on that website entitled “LETTER TO A YOUNG GAY ORTHODOX CAMPER.” Read More