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Hmm, gosh this sounds just like Father Orthoduck at times. We have this tendency to misuse Scripture to our benefit whenever we can. “Proof-texting” is not simply a favorite tactic of those who are trying to convince you of their viewpoint. Sadly, it is a tactic that all of us use whenever we sin, in order to deflect at least some of the punishment from us. Sometimes this is nowhere more evident than in a church setting. A person is caught in a sin, and promptly tries to convince the pastor that he should not discipline him under any circumstance because then the pastor would be guilty of judging others in a way that he, himself, would not wish to be judged. And, should the pastor proceed with discipline, the person will then go around telling people how “he’s obviously not a religious man” otherwise he would have known that the member should not have been disciplined.

But, that is not what we find in Scripture, in either the Old Testament of the New Testament. The reality is that in both covenants there was a plenitude of mercy. Though it appears as though punishment was harsher in the Old Testament, that is because we often overlook the parts of the New Testament that speak of judgment, either by Jesus or by the Apostles and disciples. It was Jesus who foretold the destruction of the Temple due to the refusal of all too many of the people to not follow God. In fact, the Temple was destroyed twice, once in 70 AD and once in 130 AD. Jesus also used an acted parable in telling a fig tree to wither as a way of pointing out the judgment that was coming. Let’s not even speak about his cousin, John the Forerunner (the Baptist) who spoke about the axe being laid to the root of the trees.

Saint Peter speaks words of death to Ananias and Sapphira. Saint Paul speaks of throwing someone out of the church and turning them over to Satan. A “magician” is blinded by Saint Paul’s word as a result of his opposition. Saint John speaks in his third epistle about coming to judge an elder. Saint James speaks of the coming judgment to those who are rich and not open to the Lord.

Father Orthoduck does not dispute that at first reading the New Testament appears to be about love and little judgment. But, one has to read Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans to see that the Law was a schoolteacher designed to lead to to Christ. But, it is also clear in the New Testament that the coming of Jesus did not invalidate the handing out of discipline when necessary. It is true that there is a significantly larger emphasis on mercy in the New Testament. But, that emphasis is built on the foundation of the Law, which was a schoolteacher to prepare us to understand and receive that mercy. Sadly, there are people who do not either understand nor know how to truly receive that mercy. Those are some of the people who receive some old-fashioned judgment and discipline in some of the Epistles.

So, let us be a people who do not excuse our sin, but who bring it to the throne of grace for forgiveness. And, let us not forget that either God or our spiritual leaders may decide to assign “two weeks’ detention” should they consider that to be an appropriate response to our failure to understand mercy. In some ways, the Law is still a bit of a schoolteacher, would you not say?

Father Orthoduck and his wife are still unpacking and busy, so this will be a very short post to let you know that we arrived safely. Now, we arrived in Alabama, not in Texas. However, Father Orthoduck has driven across Texas and can verify that the above comic has some truth to it, particularly if you go across central Texas. It is a never ending state. As a result, some Texas speed limit laws are slightly different than in the rest of the nation. The below is from Wikipedia.

Texas is the only state that does not prescribe a speed limit for each road type. Any rural road—two lane, four lane, freeway, or otherwise—that is numbered by the state or federal government (United States Numbered Highways and Interstate Highways) has a 70 mph (113 km/h) statutory limit. The law allows reducing the 70 mph limit only if a study recommends a different limit.

Texas law generally has 60 mph statutory limits for all county roads.

Toll road authorities may post speed limits up to 70 mph. While the Harris County Toll Road Authority would normally fall under the 60 mph county rule, an exception allows it to post up to 70 mph limits on its tollway system.

Although very few farm to market roads carry a speed limit above the statutory 70 mph, FM 1788 (Andrews County), FM 1776 (Pecos-Ward County), and FM 1053 (Pecos and Crane counties) all have daytime passenger vehicle speed limits of 75 mph.

Father Orthoduck will note that his experience is that many rural Texans see the speed limit signs as being the minimum speed that should be kept on those roads. As a result, it appears that Texas has decided to save money on troopers by simply acceding to rural demands.

Texas statutorily allows the Texas Department of Transportation to post 75 mph (121 km/h) speed limits in counties with average populations of fewer than 15 people per square mile. The same statute also allows 80 mph (129 km/h) speed limits on I-10 and I-20 in certain counties named in the statute, all of which happen to be rural, in west Texas, and have a low population density. Daytime truck limits are capped at 70 mph, and nighttime speed limits remain 65 mph for all vehicles. (Nothing prohibits nighttime speed limits from being raised to 70 mph, but the Department has not elected to do so.) . . .

Because Texas law allows 75 mph speed limits on any road numbered by the state or federal government, it is the only state with 75 mph limits on two-lane roads. Several west Texas two-lane roads carry 75 mph limits, including portions of US 90. No other state has a limit higher than 70 mph on any two-lane road.

Father Orthoduck salutes the Texans and their HUGE state. (He wonders whether anyone from Alaska will reply.)

A couple of days ago Father Orthoduck posted on the whole controversy about the building of a mosque near Ground Zero. Mind you, the news media tries to make it sound as though it is on Ground Zero, but it is not, it is near it. An unintended side effect of those who are objecting so virulently and unconstitutionally is that a fellow parish, a Greek Orthodox parish, right at Ground Zero is not being allowed to be rebuilt. Check Father Ernesto’s blog post on that story. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese owned the land and the church. Father Orthoduck says owned because the land was forcibly taken from the Orthodox by the government, thanks to all those who insisted that the area must be “sacred” ground on which only appropriate memorials may be built. It is only too sad that rebuilding a historic Greek Orthodox parish on the same land which it had held since before the World Trade Center was ever built is not considered an appropriate memorial.

However, let’s keep going. The video above is of a town meeting in Mayfield, Kentucky in which the renting of a building by a mosque is disapproved by the town council. Please notice that during the video it is pointed out that not one Muslim managed to be allowed into the town meeting to speak in favor of the mosque. You see, those who disapprove of building a mosque near Ground Zero are not telling the truth. They actually disapprove of building mosques anywhere in the USA regardless of what the Constitution says. Above is evidence towards that conclusion. And herein is the problem that Father Orthoduck sees with the (Ir)Religious Right. When they speak about preserving our heritage as a Judeo-Christian nation, they really mean keeping out anyone who does not fit their mold of an appropriate citizen of the USA.

So, a mosque is not an acceptable part of that heritage. This is true even if the majority of the Muslims here came here to have the freedom to express their version of Islam, a version which does not include jihad and does not include perpetual war against everyone else. Father Orthoduck suggests that you take a drive through places such as Dearborn, Michigan and see how many Muslims are there who live within our society. The only problem is that you will have severe difficulty in spotting the majority of the Muslims, that is unless you decide to judge who is Muslim by the color of their skin. However, people of that skin color might be Latin American Roman Catholic or Indian Hindu (or Orthodox) or Greek Orthodox, but from the eastern part of Greece. You get the idea.

Some people wonder why Father Orthoduck is in favor of judicial involvement. The case above from Kentucky is a clear example. (Birmingham [Bombingham] in the mid-1950′s is another example.) Father Orthoduck suspects that should the local Muslims take the town to court, it will be a short wait until a Federal judge overturns the town’s decision and grants the right to have a mosque because that is our Constitution. Our Constitution was written both to structure a democracy, but also to prevent mob rule and to protect minority rights. Sadly, all too many in the right-wing have forgotten the second part, in order to prevent mob rule and to protect minority rights.

As an Orthodox priest in a denomination whose headquarters is in the Middle East and as a Latino, Father Orthoduck belongs to more than one of the minorities being targeted by both the Irreligious Right and the secular right wing. Thus Father Orthoduck is very much in favor of judicial protection against the Irreligious Right and the unconstitutional right wing. May our courts remain strong in the enforcement of the rights of all those who are not in the public favor at this time.

For those who claim to be Christian and who wish to honor our Founding Fathers, may you remember what Peter and John had to face in front of a hostile government. May you remember what people such as John Bunyan (the Baptist writer of Pilgrim’s Progress) had to face in front of a hostile government. May you remember the Puritans who stood for freedom and fled to this country in the face of a hostile government. May you remember to apply those hard-won human rights to all those who truly come here for freedom. But, if you will not, then Father Orthoduck’s prayer is simple. May God allow you to be treated as you are treating others right now.

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Father Orthoduck urges you to watch to at least the three minute mark in this video. But, please really do watch the entire video. You see, Fox News has been trying to demonize the iman who is trying to build a mosque near Ground Zero. The main technique of demonization has been to connect the iman in any way possible to people who purportedly fund terrorists. But, Fox News has conveniently stopped mentioning the name of one of the largest funders of the possible mosque. Why? Well, because he is the second largest shareholder of the holding company behind Fox News. This shareholder is Saudi Arabian, a prince of the royal family, and supposedly part of the group who are responsible for financing some of the jihadists. By the way, who is the largest shareholder? Why Rupert Murdoch himself, of course.

Thus, using the type of argumentation that Fox News was using–until they were partly silenced that is–Fox News itself is a seriously questionable organization because of its link to a “person of interest.” In fact, following the same argumentative pattern that Fox News has used, Fox News itself is probably a terrorist supporting organization.

[Edit: Father Orthoduck received a request that he be a little more specific on the funder. In June of 2010, earlier this year, Glenn Beck blamed Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al-Saud for the attacks on September 11th. However, that same prince is the second largest shareholder in News Corp which is the holding organization that Murdoch uses to manage several of his outlets including Fox News. His relative Crown Prince Sultan Al-Faisal is the owner of Aljazeera Publishing, which is headquartered in Dubai, UAB.

Therefore, using the reasoning of Fox News and much of the ultra-right-wing in the USA, there is a very clear guilt by association. Father Orthoduck might even opine that Fox News must be being used by terrorists to destabilize the USA by feeding us unfair and unbalanced news reports in order to keep reliable leaders from being elected or re-elected. In this way the economy of the USA can be undermined and the resistance of the people can be weakened, leading to a possible weakening of our basic civil rights, such as being immune from being searched or stopped without a reasonable cause, or from having our citizenship denied even if we were born here. Yes, yes, to follow in Glen Beck's footsteps, it all fits. Father Orthoduck can now see the pattern of conspiracy and evil manipulation by the Saudis in order to turn us into what they will! Father Orthoduck hopes you realize that Father Orthoduck is being quite sarcastic here?]

Look at the photograph on the right. It is from New York City in May of 2000. Do you notice a certain building in the background? That building no longer exists. It is one of the towers of the World Trade Center, destroyed on 11 September 2001. But, what about the building in the foreground? What an insignificant little building! Look how incredibly narrow it is. You can see how narrow it is by looking at the vehicles pictured next to it. As you can see, it was four stories tall at the time, but the stories were none too tall, as one can tell by looking at the photograph.

That building no longer exists. It is the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11. That was St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, on some of the most expensive ground in the United States of America. The church’s website says:

Located in what is today New York City’s financial district, Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church traces its roots back to 1916, when it was founded by Greek immigrants. Serving the spiritual needs of the early immigrant community, the church also achieved prominence as a religious and cultural center for Greek shipping magnates passing through New York. Services began at the current site in 1922, though the building was constructed in the early nineteenth century. Measuring 22ft. wide, 56ft. long and 35ft. tall, the church was bound on three sides by a parking lot.

A couple of days ago, Father Orthoduck blogged about a cartoon that asked the question of whether the reaction to the building of a Christian Church near the Oklahoma City bombing site would be the same as the reaction to the building of a mosque near Ground Zero. But, now, Father Orthoduck wishes to point out that the many complaints about Muslim worship sites near Ground Zero have also impacted your fellow Christian. You see, St. Nicholas is having trouble with rebuilding the church. Oops, all you good Christian and anti-Muslim people have raised such a fuss that the “hallowed” ground of Ground Zero may be off limits even to preexisting houses of worship. Yes, it is always shocking when one sees one’s religious biases rebounding upon your fellow Christian. Here is part of a release from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese:

As is well known, on September 11, 2001 our city and nation suffered a terrorist attack of unparalleled proportions. In addition to the tragic and horrific loss of almost 3,000 innocent victims, a number of whom were members of our own community, the world witnessed the unimaginable collapse of the Twin Towers. When the second Tower fell, it landed on and erased all traces of the Greek Orthodox Christian Church of St. Nicholas, the only house of worship destroyed that day. Opened in 1916 by a group of Greek immigrants, the church not only served the spiritual needs of its parishioners but was also a sacred space in which people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds working in the surrounding area would often stop, light a candle and spend a few moments in prayer and reflection.

Following the events of 9/11, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the St. Nicholas parish fully cooperated and worked closely with the relevant authorities. Former Governor George Pataki pledged without reservation his support for rebuilding in the belief that it was a necessary part of the healing of New York City and of our nation. Early on, as plans were being formulated for the reconstruction of the area, the Church agreed to relocate and rebuild its house of worship at a new locale to facilitate the envisioned design for the overall site. In 2004, the authorities proposed that the new edifice be built at 130 Liberty Street, a parcel on the same block as the original site, and an agreement was reached between the Archdiocese and the Port Authority. Four successive LMDC/Port Authority administrations honored this mutual agreement which entailed extensive on-going work and planning on the part of all parties. All site plans for the area which the LMDC/Port Authority released to the public show St. Nicholas at this new locale. Regrettably, the latest Port Authority administration in 2009 unexpectedly and arbitrarily reneged on this agreement and as a result, the Archdiocese and St. Nicholas parish are suddenly offered no viable option. LMDC/Port Authority has refused to meet with us. In the meantime the LMDC/Port Authority has excavated the original site without our consent, rendering it unusable, in flagrant violation of our legal rights.

Yes, those of us who are Orthodox are paying the price of those of you good “Christian” (NOT) people who are demanding that Ground Zero be maintained as hollowed ground. First we are denied the right to rebuild our church on the same spot because that ground must be “preserved” for posterity. Then, even the ground that we were given has been denied as you good people have spoken up against proselytism near Ground Zero. Now, even our ground has been dug up without asking our permission, because, after all this is hallowed ground. Yes, and that congregation has always ministered to immigrants and foreigners. Father Orthoduck guesses that this means that we can safely be ignored.

Father Orthoduck sounds a little bitter. But, that is because your complaints have resulted in our rights being trampled. Father Orthoduck is trying to remember to forgive, but it is difficult while he sees his fellow Christian being completely unaware of what their advocacy of the violation of the Bill of Rights has meant for us. You see, you meant it to apply only to Muslims. But, in this country the law is applied without regard to race, color, creed. And that means that your pressures against the Muslims are rebounding upon us, who where there long before the World Trade Center.

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Father Orthoduck found the interesting cartoon posted above. It is an interesting thought experiment. As you know there has been much argument about building a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. Few newspapers will report that there have been objections to building a mosque in any of several states. Even fewer will even bother to report that the opposition to mosques is based on the idea that Islam is automatically a religion that insists on conquest, regardless of any other statements that are made. And, Father Orthoduck has found none that bother to report that similar statements were made prior to the election of President John F. Kennedy and the danger of putting a Papist in the USA presidency. Father Orthoduck was alive back then, but for younger readers, encourages them to Google™ the history of that era to find that there were accusations that the Pope would be in control and that our freedoms would be damaged should a Roman Catholic be elected President. One finds an echo of that today in the arguments that the Supreme Court is not truly representative because there are too many Roman Catholics on it.

But, if you do the thought experiment above, you will see how silly many of the arguments are. Timothy McVeigh was an avowed Christian. Immediately many will deny that and claim that he misrepresented Christianity. But, when the same thing is said by many Muslims in the USA about the bombers, many people stand up to call them liars. The fact that many Muslims are here precisely to escape the more radical regimes is conveniently overlooked. They came here for the same reasons many of our early colonists came here. They did not wish to change religion, but they did wish to change the interpretation of how that religion should be carried out. The same is true of many of today’s immigrants.

But, let’s continue the thought experiment. Father Orthoduck would suggest that you again Google™, but this time do the argument between science and Young Earth Creationists. Now throw in the term atheist and see what comes up. You will read how either atheists or YEC’ers are planning to take over and impose thought control on the people of the USA. Atheists accuse YEC people of being involved in a new Inquisition and of attempting to place science under religious restrictions. The more radical atheists say that for the defense of truth in this country, religionists of that type must be prevented from spouting their “hate-filled” rhetoric.

If you are following the thought experiment, you will begin to see why the arguments about preventing a mosque being built in various places of this country, and, yes, even near Ground Zero (where there is an already existing mosque, by the way) are simply the same argument that has been used against Jews, Roman Catholics, and various other groups for many decades in this country. The only thing that has changed is that every few decades the group that we are allowed to publicly pick on changes. Were one to try to make the same arguments today that were made against President John F. Kennedy, one would quickly be thrown out of either the Democratic or Republican parties. The Supreme Court is one of the last places where people are still commenting about there being “too many” Roman Catholics on it, which is to say “not enough good white Protestants.” And yet, Father Orthoduck would think that those who believe in “strict interpretation” (meaning conservative of a certain type) would prefer that type of judge, regardless of their religion, than a judge who did not follow that particular conservative approach to jurisprudence. In fact, given Roman Catholic history, would not a Roman Catholic “strict interpretation” judge be more likely to be favorable towards allowing some intermingling of Church and State than, say, a Baptist judge? But, again, that is only a thought experiment.

Thought experiments are sometimes valuable to help us keep our thinking straight. Father Orthoduck hopes you have found this thought experiment helpful.

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Just a little light humor for you all.

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Recently Orthocath, a fellow blogger, published a very nice article on the Eastern Orthodox usage for Prosphora bread versus the Eastern Catholic usage that has developed as a result of latinizing tendencies. It is an excellent article on various details of the Proskomedia, the theology behind it, and the usages that have developed. One of the details that Orthocath points out is that when the Lamb is cut out of the Prosphora loaf by the Eastern Orthodox, all communions come from only that one Lamb, regardless of the size of the congregation.

This could create a problem with very large celebrations, except that the obvious answer is to simply cut out a bigger Lamb when the congregation is larger. One can even bake larger Prosphora breads in order to increase the size of the Lamb that can be cut from it. In support of this, Orthocath makes the following commentary to which he attaches a photograph in proof of his commentary:

In Orthodox churches this use is unchangeable even in situations where an abbreviated method might speed up the Liturgy or make things more convenient. The same procedure is followed for every Liturgy though the size of the Lamb might be adjusted. For example, notice the size of the Lamb at a recent Liturgy in Ukraine which was attended by thousands of worshipers. A few of the tiny commemorative particles can also be seen next to the Lamb.

Father Orthoduck must admit that he gasped when he saw the size of the Lamb and of the chalice next to the diskos. His impious mind immediately wondered WHO would be the poor deacon that would be expected to hold that chalice during the communion of the faithful. And then, his even more impious mind wondered whether those were actually a normal size diskos and chalice, and he was looking at a photograph of Ukrainian Orthodox hobbits!

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All priests have had holy moments interrupted by people who are either utterly clueless or are so self-absorbed that they cannot conceive of the idea that there are limits on their behavior. Almost always the priest controls the situation, speaks politely to the person and tries to guide them back to a more appropriate behavior.

But, Father Orthoduck must shamefully admit that he has sometimes wished he could do what the priest in this video does. You see, Father Orthoduck is a sinful duck whose thought life makes him grateful that Our Lord has chosen to love us, forgive us, and ask Our Father in heaven to send us the Holy Spirit to change us and sanctify us. He only asks that we receive Him and cooperate with Him in our growing into the likeness of our God.

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Thanks to a friend, Father Orthoduck is going to give you a link rather than trying to continue the subject of Christianity and science. Why so? Because the link is to a series of podcasts on Darwin and Christianity by Father Thomas Hopko. Now Fr. Hopko is one of the leading Orthodox theologians in the world. Besides, he is up to 15 podcasts on this subject alone, and he has many many more on various subjects.

So, if you have never heard a non-Young Earth Creationists, non-liberal view of the relationship of science and religion, this is the place to go to hear a sound presentation that will let you be a conservative Christian as well as an aggressive research scientist. Where do you find this wonderful set of podcasts? Well, at Ancient Faith Radio.

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