Hexapsalms wrote:Brendan--
Your last post seems to be a better presentation of your case. Raising awareness no thinking person can object to--but your handling of the information and your proposed solutions in other posts left most of us feeling that we were being dragged into philetistic heresy. You must remember that Christians come in all races and nationalities and right now, it is mostly the non-white Christians who are suffering very real persecution in places like Africa, Egypt, Pakistan, etc. The white Europeans and very many white Americans have gone agnostic or atheist. Europe is rightly called "POST-Christian". Try handing out Christians tracts to white people anywhere and see how many of them throw them back in your face with a hateful comment. The non-white people, on the other hand, will politely accept them, even thank you. The white people will often say that they're so well educated and so smart that they don't need some primitive myth called God. So non-white Christians suffering persecution should be HONORED not dismissed because they are non-white. Come at these issues more thoughtfully and maybe you can have that discussion you want.
There's certainly truth in what you say about whites vs. non-whites, but by accepting that as a premise for proselytization efforts, does that mean we abandon whites becausethe non-whites may seem more receptive?
Five years ago, my own heart was pretty hardened against any religious message. While I never really considered myself anti-Christian, I basically thought it was a lot of foolishness and completely anti-intellectual. But given my experiences in various fundamentalist churches, this wasn't a totally unreasonable opinion. So to reach alienated whites who have fallen away from the churches, I think we maybe have to use a different approach. We have to think about the reasons WHY so many people have reacted against established Christian churches. I happen to think Orthodoxy has that unique ability to reach people with a message that is both authentic and intellectual. When I say intellectual, I mean as opposed to some of the Protestants who take, what seems to me, a rather simple-minded attitude towards the Scriptures and theology. Orthodoxy takes notice that things are not always as simple as we humans might like and Christianity cannot really be put into a simple and decorative package ready for mass consumption.
That aside, passivity is not what we've been advocating. Certainly I don't advocate it. Resistance is evil is necessary. We are to be salt and light to the world. The question is how can we do this in the best way. Passivity, too, has been used to great political success by Gandhi and ML King, so don't discount its power.
Regardless of my personal opinion of these two men, I will point out that in both cases, they did actually put themselves on the line. This is completely different than someone who advocates passivity with full confidence that he or she will most likely never actually have to suffer the consequences of that passivity.
I do care what happens to future generations. I would not like to see my pretty little niece forced to wear a burqa and made to be ashamed to be female or my happy-go-lucky little nephew made into a zombie suicide bomber. I would not like either of them to be prevented from reading the Bible by overzealous secularists, or kept from going to church by anyone. I don't think anyone on this forum wants to see their young loved ones grow up in a land that even remotely resembles Afghanistan under the Taliban. So be careful about assuming that we are indifferent to the future.
I think God has given us plenty of examples as warnings. Constantinople hasn't been restored. Christians have almost completely been driven from the Holy Land. Of course, we're all aware of the situation in Kosovo.
Let me make it perfectly clear. I accept that we should always pray, repent, and do what God teaches. But deliberately allowing the Church to be driven to the point of annihilation or operating under great restrictions at the hands of non-Christians hardly serves any positive purpose. I think there is certainly a necessity for paying attention to what happens in this world. After all, how many of us sleep with our doors unlocked? How many of us take night walks in the dangerous areas of a city? How many of us deliberately engage in foolish and dangerous activity? How many of us do such things based on the assumption that God will keep us from harm no matter what stupid or irresponsible thing we might choose to do? You know, its one thing to trust God to keep us safe in normal circumstances, but isn't deliberately allowing a dangerous situation to come about essentially the same as daring or testing God?
I will continue to speak out and sound the alarm against those hostile to Christianity and the Orthodox Church in particular. And I am perfectly willing to answer for that on the Day of Judgement. The fact is I'd rather take the chance that I'll be be judged as acting in error as opposed to being judged for rationalizing passivity which allowed God's enemies to harm the Church. And I want to reiterate the point that it won't be us who suffer, but future generations who will have martyrdom forced on them if God's enemies gain the upperhand. BTW, I know of no one who became a Saint by making someone else his martyr by proxy.
If nothing else, we should at least know who our enemies are. We are commanded by God to be wise, aren't we? Resist evil, but if martyrdom becomes inevitable, then we will see who is up to it. In any case, I simply can't, in good conscious, knowingly facilitate the martyrdom of future generations.
Love will always win because God is Love.