55 Maxims for Orthodox Christians

[Maria]

Lately whenever I head Fr. Thomas Hopko preaching on Ancient Faith Radio, he sounds more and more like a Protestant minister.

[Maria]

Forgive me all, but I remember listening to this guy years ago on Antichrist Radio and he is not an Orthodox priest. He is just a super protestant, don't listen to him. He does not teach the Patristic way, and he doesn't want his listeners to learn it either. That's his job.

The idea that you should pretend to be happy when you are not is one of the deepest social/psychological problems in our culture. Of course, at the same time we must always be honest with ourselves and others. Pure doublethink, America's finest export. Poor people can't even detect it anymore, it's already their religion. Now it's wearing vestments and that's about the depth of the conversion. In fact, these false shepherds are even worse than the worst of the worst pagans and satanists but how many even get it? Lets be honest, this is the antichrist as far as we can know him today.

I don't care how offensive this post might sound to some readers, I spent over a decade listening to this 'improved' form of 'orthodox spirituality' and it is as far from the Holy Fathers as you are going to get. Spit it out. Certainly there are sincere people within world orthodoxy, but they only stay because of these wolves, teaching the correct and approved methods of whitening the sepulchure of the west and it's endless fall. If we want to help people escape this insane cult that bears only an external resemblance to Orthodoxy while preaching a kind of hyper heterodoxy, we must denounce these wolves at every opportunity, not excuse them!

This is the whore.

If you want some maxims read the desert fathers.

If any one would like to defend the Ancient Fraud Freakshow and it's ringmaster Mr Hopko, I'd be happy to discuss it.

Holy Guardian Angel, pass the ammunition

Yes, what irritates me about Ancient Faith Radio are some of the females (who also sound like Protestant preachers).
It is a bit much.

By the way, I am so glad that you have come back to E Cafe. Frankly, I was worried about you.
Oh, and when I saw the username "SolarFlare," at first I thought it was you.
However, I quickly realized it was not.

[arcmode]

Hi Maria. I've just been quiet.

[jgress]

Many saints say that we should be joyful. But I think Christian joy is more profound than the superficial cheer enforced in American public life (where you have to smile and wish everyone a "nice day" even if your mother just died). That's just pretending to feel something. St John of the Ladder talks about joy-making mourning: we weep for our sins at the same time as we rejoice in our salvation. In that situation, you genuinely feel joy and sadness at the same time.

Abp Theophan of Poltava says that we often feel sadness when we have defiled ourselves with sin and have not yet repented or sought forgiveness through confession. But once we have confessed and repented we should feel joy, and joy is the mark of the Christian with a clear conscience.

I don't think that kind of emotion comes without long practice at prayer and struggle.

[jgress]

I think another way of thinking about cheerfulness is that it makes life better for others when they see you in good cheer. Even if they feel sad, they will feel happier when you smile at them, for instance.

I agree there is a lot of superficiality in American Christianity, but I think there's also a kernel of wisdom in the exhortation to be cheerful as a matter of course. It's also about being grateful to God for all things, even when you are suffering.