An unknown number of Catholics (lay people?) appear to have had enough with the officially sanctioned paganism associated with the Amazonian Synod ... and expropriated some of the idols and threw them into the Tiber!
Whatever you think of the Amazon Synod (and I don't know if I've seen more nonsense and hysteria over any comparable incident), surely an Orthodox Christian has little reason to encourage the theft and destruction of images one considers "idols." Surely we've seen enough iconoclasm from ISIS to last us a century, and thank God our fundamentalists are (at least for now) law-abiding enough to keep their mitts off the "idols being worshiped" at local Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Those aren't icons and I'd throw them in the river too. They are not at all iconic of the Theotokos.
There is a specific theology and praxis behind iconography, so perverted artists don't create things like "Piss Christ" and try to pass them off as iconic.
Orthodox Christians have a long history of dealing harshly with this kind of religious indifferentism. There was a time when our people would have reacted similarly, with the only likely difference being that the priests and bishops who bowed before these idols would have also been sent for a swim.
I would never enter a pagan temple or "Christian" church and steal or destroy their things. But if anyone tried to put such things in an Orthodox church, I would gladly join in throwing them in the nearest river or on the nearest bonfire. It was made plain to Catholics who found these carvings offensive and idolatrous that nobody "in authority" cared about their concerns. Thus, they were right to take matters into their own hands and publicize that not everyone will tolerate such abominations on the part of the hierarchy.
Our God is a jealous God, and gives his glory to none other; he made it abundantly clear in the Old Testament that he had no patience with idols being set up in his territory or Holy Place. Such symbols of ambiguity (if, they are in fact ambiguous, which I doubt) have no place in a Church. In the face of that, being nice is nonsense.
"Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings!"
Whatever you think of the Amazon Synod (and I don't know if I've seen more nonsense and hysteria over any comparable incident), surely an Orthodox Christian has little reason to encourage the theft and destruction of images one considers "idols." Surely we've seen enough iconoclasm from ISIS to last us a century, and thank God our fundamentalists are (at least for now) law-abiding enough to keep their mitts off the "idols being worshiped" at local Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
ReplyDeleteThose aren't icons and I'd throw them in the river too. They are not at all iconic of the Theotokos.
ReplyDeleteThere is a specific theology and praxis behind iconography, so perverted artists don't create things like "Piss Christ" and try to pass them off as iconic.
Orthodox Christians have a long history of dealing harshly with this kind of religious indifferentism. There was a time when our people would have reacted similarly, with the only likely difference being that the priests and bishops who bowed before these idols would have also been sent for a swim.
ReplyDeleteI would never enter a pagan temple or "Christian" church and steal or destroy their things. But if anyone tried to put such things in an Orthodox church, I would gladly join in throwing them in the nearest river or on the nearest bonfire. It was made plain to Catholics who found these carvings offensive and idolatrous that nobody "in authority" cared about their concerns. Thus, they were right to take matters into their own hands and publicize that not everyone will tolerate such abominations on the part of the hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteOur God is a jealous God, and gives his glory to none other; he made it abundantly clear in the Old Testament that he had no patience with idols being set up in his territory or Holy Place. Such symbols of ambiguity (if, they are in fact ambiguous, which I doubt) have no place in a Church. In the face of that, being nice is nonsense.
"Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings!"