Wisdom!

Let us attend.

Good news!

As some of you will be aware I was wondering what had happened to the Midwest Conservative Journal, one of those blogs that was on my check everyday list. I am very happy to report that I just got an email from Christopher J who has started blogging again. The new address is http://themcj.blogspot.com/. I will be adding it to the sidebar directly.

Wow! Did you feel that?

I sense something I have not encountered in many years... one of the better blogs on the web, long dormant, may be stirring.

I am probably the last one to get the memo

But yes, Damian Thompson has parted ways with the Telegraph. I was wondering why his blog had not been updated for weeks. If anyone gets word on where he has moved to or any new blog, please drop me a line.

Some food for thought, perhaps for those of us who blog or comment on blogs...

The gift of speech was also given to us that we might understand one another, not through instinct, like the dumb animals, but through intellect. Thus we verbally [or on the internet/blogs?] express our ideas, which are abundantly and clearly opened to us by our God-enlightened mind, the source of thought and word, in order that we might conduct intelligent, mutual, brotherly conversation on the aim of daily life and its regulation, for mutual edification and benefit, in support and consolation of each other, and the like. It was not given to us that we might talk idly; or judge, slander, and condemn our neighbors, pronouncing judgments on them like unmerciful judges and torturers rather than considering ourselves as their brothers, weak and sinful as they, if not still worse. Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, says the Apostle, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? (Rom. 2:1, 3) He that ... judgeth his brother, says another Apostle, ...judgeth the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge (James 4:11). And what great evil results from empty and idle conversations and gossip! Sometimes one heedlessly spoken word causes a whole storm of unpleasantness and fills the heart of the one referred to with indignation and hatred. So even a word that was not ill-intentioned, one we counted as nothing, can strike a mortal sin, just as a small spark often turns into a great fire burning whole villages. How great a matter a little fire kindleth, says the Apostle James. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things (cf. James 3:5); it is a fire, a world of iniquity:... it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell (James 3:6). The tongue is an untamable evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God and therewith curse we men, which are after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing an d cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be! Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? (James 3:8-11) Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge ... let him show this out of his works, through good conduct, and not by condemning others. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth (i.e., don't consider yourself wise). This is not the wisdom that descends from above, but is earthly ... devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work (cf. James 3:13-16). Behold the harm from all our idle talk and gossip! 

-St. John of Kronstadt

Comments are closed.

Round up the usual suspects

Haven't had your daily ration of inter-religious food fighting? Go here to resolve that. For the record, Gabriel Sanchez is right when he calls Patrick Barnes' website polemical, though by no means is it as over the top as some I have run across. In fact, there is a lot of good stuff there. But God knows we do have our share of Ortho-Taliban floating around. Try hitting up some of the blogs run by hard core Old Calendarists if you don't mind crazy conspiracy theories, and often blindly bigoted commentary.

What Gabriel neglects to mention though, is that his own blog is highly polemical in its own right. And it has become a popular watering hole for many of the more virulent anti-Orthodox trolls in the blogosphere (at least one of whom has the extremely rare distinction of being declared persona non grata on this blog).

In any event, I must have missed the memo because it would seem that I am the only one who doesn't have a clue what God's plan for the Orthodox - Catholic divide is. But I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it probably doesn't involve acidic commentary on the internet.

Catching up on news

Last week was a major one for news. For those who weren't paying attention I will be posting some of the more important developments along with more current stuff.

Worth a glance

Exorcism in the Haunt of Demons
The Pope said WHAT?!

OK, maybe it's just me....

Maybe I am being overly sensitive or just visiting the wrong blogs. But am I the only one noticing an uptick in anti-Orthodox snark or outright attacks on the Church in the blogosphere of late? A lot of it seems to be coming from the Catholic corner.

Granted there have always been bomb throwers in both churches. But it just seems like it's spreading to what are, or were, more mainstream blogs lately. What gives?

Comments are now closed. If you have a comment you think adds to the discussion please email me. Thanks to everyone for your input.

Transitions

It is with sadness that I note the retirement of two bloggers long linked in the sidebar of A/O. First Shawn Tribe of the NLM has announced he will soon be passing the baton to new management. His blog has been simply one of the best Roman Catholic blogs on matters liturgical. And secondly I read today that J.Sanidopoulos of Mystagogy is also looking to pursue other interests. I am very grateful for their years of tireless contributions to good blogging and wish them both the best in their future endeavors.

Fr. Al Kimel is blogging again

Fr. Al Kimel is blogging again over at Eclectic Orthodoxy. For those who weren't around back in the day, he used to run one of the more famous sites in the religious blogosphere called Pontifications. He stopped blogging a few years back for personal reasons. Fr. Al, who is now a priest in the Orthodox Western Rite, has had a tough couple of years including a recent family tragedy. Please keep him in your prayers.

Bureaucrats declare war on free advice

North Carolina is giving Steve Cooksey some choices. He can stop speaking. Or he can get a PhD in nutrition, or a medical degree, or a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and then pass an examination after completing a 900-hour clinical internship. Or he can skip this onerous credentialing, keep speaking and risk prosecution.

He has chosen instead to get a lawyer. His case, argued by the libertarians at the Institute for Justice (IJ), will clarify the First Amendment’s relevance to an ancient human behavior and a modern technology.

Four years ago, Cooksey was a walking — actually, barely walking — collection of health risks. He was obese, lethargic, asthmatic, chronically ill and pre-diabetic. The diet advice he was getting from medical and other sources was, he decided, radically wrong. Rather than eat a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet, he adopted what he and other enthusiasts call a Paleolithic diet, eating as primitive humans did — e.g., beef, pork, chicken, leafy green vegetables. Cooksey lost 75 pounds and the need for drugs and insulin. And, being a modern Paleo, he became a blogger, communicating his dietary opinions.

Read the rest here.

Comments

First a quick apology. I usually check the spam filter for comments more frequently but I let it slip over the last week and found several that had been mistakenly shelved pending my approval. So if you posted a comment and it didn't appear for some reason that's probably why. I have cleared the comments and they should all be up now.

Secondly I draw your attention to a very thoughtful piece on the subject of commenting on blogs. I encourage everyone to peruse it and I think I am going to link it in my guidelines for comments.

Thanks to blog reader John S. for the tip.

More anti-Orthodox Posts

A couple more love notes from our Roman Catholic friends (here and here).  I would respond but seriously, I really just don't care.  If he doesn't like us I'm sorry.  I guess that's one vote against the ecumenical happy club.  Well, actually make that two.  Moving on...

HT: The Young Fogey

Fr. John Whiteford vs She who must not be named

Orthoblogdom's resident wingnut is at it again. This time she/he has picked a fight with Fr. John Whiteford. This person has very serious issues. Please pray for her/him. For those unfamiliar with the back story, it has been addressed in a couple of earlier posts (see here and here). I will confine myself to strongly urging people to stay well clear of the blog in question. It is neither Orthodox nor Christian, any contrary representations notwithstanding.

Keyboards at twenty paces

Owen White, our favorite Ochlophobist, has thrown down the glove (electronically speaking) and called out she (he?) who must not be named. Names could be tricky here for a number of reasons which dignity (and Christian decency) forbids me from addressing in detail. Owen refers to her (we will go with that pronoun as it appears to be accurate in the present tense) as "The Voice." But lets be honest here. That's a bit like the euphemism "Old Scratch." I mean really. We all know who we are talking about.

Being a political and social reactionary who despises most of what the last century has produced in both of those fields, I really don't have a major problem with resolving serious differences in the manner once customary between gentlemen. Were the phrase "pistols for two and coffee for one" still in vogue I suspect we would live in a much more polite society. OK OK I am not altogether certain if that be can reconciled with my Orthodox faith. I'm still working on that one.

In any event though, we live in an age where for all of our incredible technological advancements we have devolved into a state of near social barbarism where the most breathtaking abuses of truth, honor and common decency are routinely flaunted. Case in point, the blog of she who must not be named.

This is a blog that may perhaps be charitably described as Orthoblogdom's equivalent to page six of the NY Post. Setting aside all of the magnificent imagery; it is a blog that seems to be grounded on three pillars, Russo-Slavic phyletism, a ferocious hostility to converts who are not prepared to embrace her brand of slavophilia, and malicious gossip (true in some cases and not in others) directed at all those who she has concluded are a threat to her version of Orthodoxy.

Long time readers of this blog will know that it is rare for me to post anything more than the most reserved criticisms or disagreements with other Orthodox bloggers. In no small measure this is due to the fact that in most cases they know a great deal more about whatever is being discussed than I do, and being a normal human being I don't enjoy making a fool out of myself. And of course common courtesy, good manners and all those things now lost in the modern world come into play as well.

Generally if I have serious disagreements with the content or editorial slant of a blog I simply ignore it and decline to link it or give any attention to it. With one rather notable exception, such has been the policy of Ad Orientem towards she who must not be named. And it is worth noting that, again with a few exceptions, most of what we call Orthoblogdom seems to have adopted a similar stance.

However, as I observed in the comment thread for the above cited "exception," there are circumstances where silence is not a moral option. There is a danger of scandal in permitting someone who, in one of those truly delicious ironies in life, has been suspended from the Holy Mysteries by the Russian Church to pass herself off on the web as a reputable source for anything relating to Orthodoxy. I can not imagine what any non-Orthodox inquirer would think if they stumbled on that site. Had I seen it in the early stages of my journey to Orthodoxy, I am fairly sure it would have stopped me cold in my tracks.

That a blogger, claiming to be Orthodox and an admirer of all things Russian nonetheless cannot make reference to the First Hierarch and many clergy of a canonical Orthodox jurisdiction, recognized (rightly or wrongly) by the Moscow Patriarchate as THE autocephalous Orthodox church in N. America, other than as laymen can only admit to one of three possible explanations. They being appalling ignorance, Donatism, or simple old fashioned malice. A blog which purports to be Orthodox but which in reality is nothing more than a malicious gossip column dedicated to the promotion of a twisted version of slavophile phyletism (with nice pictures) should not be permitted to go unchallenged.

With this in mind, I tip my hat to Owen for grabbing the bull (no pun intended) by the horns. It is time and indeed past time, that she who must not be named be called out for her ethno-centric heresy, slander and spiteful gossip. In a more civilized era were she a man and someone who could in any manner be accounted a gentleman, can there be any doubt but that her conduct would end with an early morning appointment in some remote field? Sadly however all of the above (mostly) do not apply. We do not live in a civilized age and the law courts take a dim view of the code of honor. And in any case she(?) would under no circumstances be accepted as a gentleman (a necessary prerequisite for a meeting). So our alternatives appear limited.

I suppose one might consider the lost art of the "social cut." But I simply can't think of an effective way to employ it on this medium. As unsatisfactory as it is, I fear our only recourse... is keyboards at twenty paces.

I wonder if Owen has a second?

Eastern Christian Blog Awards

Posted at the request of the awards manager... Nominations are now open.

Please note, I am not looking for any nominations for A/O. I think this blog is too eclectic to qualify. But I will give a hearty endorsement to all of last years winners.

The Passing of a Blog

The blogger known as Eirenikon (see the link in the sidebar) has announced that he is closing up shop. This is not terribly surprising as the blog has been inactive for sometime, but it is still sad. It was an excellent blog with some very thoughtful discussions there on issues relating to the relationship (or lack thereof) between Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic Church. I will be leaving the link in the side bar for those interested in perusing the archives.

Non Habemus Pontificator

Fr. Al Kimel better known to most of us simply as the Pontificator has announced the end of his blog Pontifications. His departure will leave a large void in the religious corner of the blogosphere. While most of us will undoubtedly feel a sense of loss at his departure, it sounds like his decision at least for now is the right one. Fr. Kimel wrote movingly of the personal and spiritual struggles in his life. Being torn from the Episcopal Church by its apostasy left him scarred. And as he wrote in his emotional farewell, some wounds do not fully heal. We all suffer at times from what Catholics used to call the dark night of the soul or what we Orthodox refer to more generally as spiritual warfare. And we must all do what we think is right under spiritual direction to deal with these crisis.

Thus it is with sadness that I bid farewell to the Pontificator whose website was one of the best on the web, and will likely remain the gold standard against which most other Catholic blogs are judged. Fr. Kimel was a great intellectual (and occasional critic of yours truly). Reading the lively and generally civil debates on Pontifications helped give me clarity at a time in my life when I really needed it. And for that I am deeply grateful. I ask the reader to keep Fr. Kimel in your prayers as he carries on in whatever calling God has in mind for him.

I respectfully dissent...

Although I have been making a determined effort not to get too wrapped up in the current controversies within the Anglican Communion, I still find myself checking up on current events now and then. I fear it is rather akin to the morbid fascination that causes drivers to slow down and rubberneck at the scene of a fatal car crash. Last week I was intrigued by the statement issued by the Global South Bishops. After reading the reaction from my usual sources for information on all things Anglican I decided to take a peek at the reaction of the loyal opposition.

Thus I wandered over to Fr. Jake’s web site and read pretty much what I expected to. It was a highly indignant post which characterized the GSBs as attempting to impose their views on everyone else in the Anglican Communion. There were a number of colorful descriptive terms notable among them being “hubris.” The post had only just appeared (there were no comments yet) when I read it. I then did something I don’t do often on liberal / heterodox blogs. I posted a comment.

What I wrote was something very close to the following.

I think the word “hubris” might be more accurately applied to the unilateral overthrow of 2000 yrs of carved in stone Christian doctrine and telling the rest of the AC in effect that they will just have to lump it. I also find it mildly amusing that the left wing now running ECUSA takes such extreme exception to coercion in matters of the faith when they are actively and harshly attempting to coerce the few remaining orthodox (small “o”) Christians still wandering around the ruins.

I regret I am unable to provide the exact words I used. Which brings me to the point of this post. Within at most three minutes of posting my comment it vanished. Apparently Fr. Jake who once styled himself as an “eclectic and sometimes heretical priest,” only has tolerance for certain forms of heresy.

Now there are a lot of different kinds of blogs out there. Some are little more than diaries. Others deal with specific subjects and still others can be more eclectic. Mine is probably a cross between the last two types. It has a focus but I will post on anything that strikes me as interesting. Also many blogs deal with controversial subjects. And of course some blogs allow comments and some do not.

There is absolutely nothing unethical or wrong with not allowing comments, even if you’re posting on a controversial subject. And if you do choose to allow comments your not under any obligation to allow posts that are obviously abusive or off topic. As an example when I first started Ad Orientem I had open comments. After I got some unwelcome spam posts I eventually changed that to require my approving posted comments. Prior to making this change I only deleted comments from a single poster for reasons other than spam. The comments (repeated despite several warnings) were very personal Ad Hominum attacks on another poster by a radical Old Calendarist. It eventually reached the point where I had to ask the offending party not to post on AO in the future. Since I began reviewing posts before allowing them to appear I have only rejected one post. It was a response to one of my recent posts about Pope +Benedict’s speech and Islamic reaction. The post was little more than a rant against organized religion and contained links to two websites which were pagan and intensely hostile to monotheistic religion in general and Christianity in particular. They were full of the sorts of weird theories and historical distortions that would have made Dan Brown blush. Even then I was reluctant to reject the post, although I ultimately did so.

The reason is that (and this is only my opinion), I feel that if you are going to post opinions on controversial subjects, and you choose to allow comments, then its frankly a bit cheesy to only allow concurring opinions. The reader is invited to peruse AO and note that there are contrary opinions here and there. My posts have not gone unchallenged and sometimes the dissenting posts have made good points. While my post on Fr. Jake’s blog was certainly critical, even sharply so, it was no sharper than his own editorial against the communiqué of the GSBs. Of course it’s his blog and he can do with it what he likes. But to allow comments on controversial posts and then delete critical submissions invites ridicule. I would suggest you’re better off just posting your articles and turning off the comments if you don’t want to deal with contrary opinions or debates. To allow only concurring opinions seems to suggest a sort of society for sycophants.

Some of the best blogs on the internet have a lively give and take on hot topics. Just look at Al Kimel’s excellent blog over at Pontifications. The subjects are frequently controversial and the discussion can get pretty spirited. But I don’t ever recall any real lack of civility. Al might choke on this a little bit, but it was some of the posts on his blog from champions of Orthodoxy in debate that helped resolve any lingering doubts I had about my relationship to the Roman Catholic Church which I still hold in high regard, my very profound theological differences notwithstanding.

In closing I would like to note that I have never met Fr. Jake and have no reason to believe he is anything other than a fine and descent man. It’s entirely possible I may have just caught him on a bad night or in the wrong mood. We all have bad moments when we are not well disposed to criticism. I can say with a fair degree of safety that I don’t agree with him on religious matters, but he is as entitled to his opinions as I am to mine. My singling out his blog is not intended as a personal attack. There are unfortunately a lot of blogs and forums out there that seem to do the same thing.

Free Republic (which I have linked in the sidebar) is an excellent source of news and commentary from a conservative view point. But ONLY a conservative view point. And you had better be the right kind of conservative if you plan to jump in over there. I think that weakens Free Republic to its detriment. Just as I think that a lack of critical discussion anywhere on hot topics is injurious to dialogue and comprehension of opposing views. How can you dialogue with someone you won’t let talk? And if you’re unwilling to meet the challenge of dissenting opinions what does that say about the strength of your own position? Just some food for thought.