Wedding Cakes and Religious Freedom

Do you refuse cakes to Jews, Hindus, and Muslims? Non-religious weddings? Do you only bake cakes for members of your tiny little sect, be it only 5 or almost 500 years old (such old)? Do you ask if your couples will engage in sex during Lent or other fasting times? Do you ask them if they will go to Church and raise their children to be Christian? Do you ask into the sexual practices of every couple that arrives at your door, denying cakes for those who use birth control, who engage in other sex acts beyond the procreative function? Historic Christianity forbids not only sexual activities not allowing for  procreation, but also forbids sex acts prior to marriage or outside of marriage all together. Thomas Aquinas says any sex outside of marriage is intrinsically disordered - the same language used for same-sex sexual activity. He does not allow that male-female sex is "natural" as compared to "unnatural" but rather even the desire to have such action is disordered - because that's not why God gave us sex.

Source

Or do you only deny cakes and flowers for the one or two gay people that might show up at your door having heard good things about you from friends who love them deeply enough to wish them well at their ceremonies?

I've never had any qualms at all about attending the weddings of people who do not practice my faith (or any faith).  If they are people I love, I love them.  Likewise I don't need to wonder about their sex lives, no matter what their sexes.

That is all.

I know the Orthodox Church's teaching regarding sex and marriage. I know her teachings on idolatry, rejection of icons, and heretical sects as well. I can pray that my friends find lives more in conformity with God's will and I can be Orthodox and - remembering the Lenten prayer of St Ephrem - assume their salvation is between them and God; but with my own sinfulness they will get into heaven before I even see the light of judgement day, on which day I will be condemned for my real sins of thought, word, and deed in exactly the same way that I condemn others now for the sins I only imagine them to be committing.

Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.  In the meanwhile, I'll thank you to claim your own religion and leave mine and the name of my Lord out of it.

On the other hand, Do you need a cake baked?  Call this sinner. And pray for him.

St Augustine on the Miracles of Jesus

The miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ were verily divine works, and they stir up the mind of man to rise by a perception of what is seen by the eye unto an apprehension of God himself. For God is of such substance as eye cannot see, and the many miracles which he doth work in his continual rule of the whole universe, and in his providential care of everything which he hath made, are by use become so common that scarce anyone permitteth himself to perceive the same, as for example, what wondrous and amazing works of God there be in every grain of seed. Wherefore his mercy hath constrained him to keep some works to be done only at some convenient time, as it were, out of the common course and order of nature, to the intent that men may see them and wonder, not because they be greater, but because they be rarer, than those which they so lightly esteem by reason of their daily occurrence.

For to govern the whole universe is surely a greater miracle than to satisfy five thousand men with five loaves of bread. At the former works no man doth marvel, yet at the feeding of the five thousand, all men do marvel, not because it is a greater miracle than the other, but because it is a rarer one. For who is he that now feedeth the whole world? Is it not the same who, from a little grain that is sown, maketh the fulness of the harvest? God worketh in both cases in one and the same manner. He that of the sowing maketh to come the harvest, is the same that took in his hands the five barley loaves, and of them made bread to feed five thousand men. For the hands of Christ have power to do both the one and the other. He that multiplieth the grains of corn is the same that multiplied the loaves, save only that in this latter case he committed them not unto the earth whereof he is himself the Maker.

Therefore this miracle is done outwardly before us, that our souls inwardly may thereby be quickened. The same is shewn to our eyes to furnish food for thought. Thus by means of those of his works which are seen, we may come to feel awe toward him that cannot be seen. Perchance we may thereby be roused up to believe, and if we attain unto belief, we shall be purified to such good purpose that we shall begin to long to see him. Wherefore, in such wise, through the things which are seen, we may come to know him that cannot be seen. Yet it sufficeth not if we perceive only this one meaning in Christ’s miracles. Rather let us ask of the miracles themselves what they have to tell us concerning Christ ; for in all truth they speak with a tongue of their own, if only we have good will to understand the same. For Christ is the Word of God, and each and every work of the Word speaketh a word unto us.

Medium: New Longer Essay Site

I have been experimenting with useing the new site, Medium, for longer-form essays. I've just published one (about 4,000 words long) called Orthodoxy and the Celibate Sodomite. I'm still a bit too long-form, because the longer essays I see over there are about half the length of mine. But sometimes you need to write it all out! Blogging has nearly always been the Readers Digest of the internet.  I need something like Medium to be more like a long-form literary journal.

It's a very enjoyable process, with focus on the writing: you can add comments and notes to a specific paragraph, it is set up to be easily shared with social networks, and you have a list of followers, etc. The stats do not (yet) show inbound links, etc.  But I'm sure they will with time.  I know I can get a domain sent over there, so I may.

False Ecumensim

I do not have an "official" definition of "The Culture War".  I know it when I see it.  It's all utter bullpucky of course.  Christians have no purpose or point in any so-called "Cultural War".  We are a minority. Our Culture is the Kingdom of God. We save babies and widows, we feed the hungry even when it is illegal and we venerate icons even though Muslims try to kill us for it.  But those are not cultural propositions in the way that "democracy" or "fascism" are.  It makes no nevermind to us under what sort of gov't or laws we are called to live and worship.  We will live and worship.

However, there are some who would use our own struggles for salvation and our own lust for power for their own ends.  "I will make you like gods" is the constant whisper.  "I will give you all these kingdoms."  To this end, "Culture Wars".

In the 1970s and 1980s various parties on the American political right decided that they could court Christian votes by pretending a political goal that was "Christian".  Many folks in my social circle are too young to remember that there was a time when "Christian" and "Politics" had nothing to do with each other.  The first time I ever heard a sermon about a presidential election was during Ronald Reagan's first run for the White House.  To conservative sorts at that time it seemed like if we didn't vote for Ronald Reagan we were ignoring a gift from God.  It mattered not that he and his political handlers had many many goals that were not Christian.  It mattered not that he was (shock!) divorced.  Christians needed to support him.  We needed to ignore all our differences and vote for Republicans.  We tried it in Prohibition and it flopped there.  We've not yet learned.

This, to me, is cultural warfare: the idea that we can ignore all the things we usually think important, in order to band together and force the world around us to wear a Christian veneer.  We don't want to preach the Gospel to them: we just want them to be constrained by law to act as if they were Christian. At the end we want to close our doors at night and now that no one out outside them is acting in any way that will challenge our moral hegemony. Prohibition was a huge progressive action.  "Saving Christmas" or "Saving Marriage" are  conservative ones.

The world is going to hell in a hand basket.  What else can we do?

In short: evangelize them.  It's hard work but it is what we are actually sent to do. Not to pass laws to change the world, but rather to change ourselves.

So when I hear heretics whine about how they support the Church's morality - just treat them as normal Christians for this purpose - I know I'm reading Cultural Warfare rather than any other sort of writing: even when it is disguised as theology.  Personally, I don't care if you agree with the Orthodox Church on abortion, marriage, sex and the rest.  If you don't accept the 7 Ecumenical Councils and the last 2000 years of Orthodox Teaching, we're not on the same side.  We are, perhaps, struggling for the same salvation (only God knows that), and we may even vote the same way, but that's not the same thing.

I've got one thing to say to you: Come to Church with me on Sunday.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Biophilia and Lent

After applying the use of "necrophilia" to theologies (see my previous post), the Feminist writers of the last century co-opted the word "biophilia" from science and applied it, as well, to religion.  A "Biophilic" spirituality (naturally, it would be "spiritual but not religious") was one that was life affirming, not life denying, one that affirmed life in all its divinely awesome splendor and worked with the ecological ballance of the planet to do no harm, and, of course, let us have all the sex we wanted, in life-affirming and fun ways, even having children if we wanted, but not so many as to overrun the planet or keep women busy with motherhood.

I thought of this right after I converted to Orthodoxy, sitting in the parish hall of Holy Trinity Cathedral, one Lenten Wednesday.  Father Victor (may his memory be eternal!) was talking to a member about an interview he had given to some journalist: the annual "Orthodox Easter is at a different time, let's do a story" interview.  I'm not sure what preceded the comment. But suddenly Father slammed his hand on the table and said, loudly, "No! I love my wife. I drink vodka! I eat meat!"

Biophilic Orthodoxy in a nutshell.

The entire purpose of Orthodoxy is to connect man to Life as it is offered to us by the very Source of Life: Jesus says, "I cam that you might have Life and that more abundantly."  In fact, Life is such an important thing in the New Testament that there are two words for it, which might be translated from the Greek as "Breathing" and "Living".

Everything breathes.  My cat is breathing next to the keyboard just now. We're watching breathing birds outside the window together as I write: you never know, they might fly in here and we'd have something tasty to eat.  The Biblical writers even projected this "breathing" into things like rocks (which will cry out in God's praise) and stars and plants.  "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord" is not just shorthand for "things that use oxygen to live".  When people try to differentiate the Jewish and Christian tradition from one of "pagan animism" they have to ignore this part.  "Let everything that has breath" means, basically, everything.

This is Bio.  Breathing. Breathing stops. We try to restart it and sometimes that even works. Breathing.

The New Testament, however, introduces another concept: Zoe.  Life, but not just simply breathing: Life connected to the Source of Life, really, letting life live you.  At this point it can almost start to sound like an Oprah Sermon.  And I'm going to stop until another post, letting your wonder about that.

But there it is. Properly done, Orthodoxy is Biophilic: in fact, it is the ultimate biophilic path.   Letting life live you: I love my wife! I drink vodka! I eat meat!

Necrophilia and Lent

That ought to do wonders to my search results.

The late Mary Daly's Webster's First Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language contained a number of interesting articles redefining words in common usage and inventing a few of her own.  She was known for this since words with the definitions were all creations of the Patriarchy and designed to enslave women.  Necrophilia, she thought, was any religion that focused on death - the death of a man, the death of a god, the death of sex, the death of life in general.  Thus, Christianity with its God-Man dying and sex-denying women-defying views was Necrophilia in the extreme. Although her views were extreme, they echo a good many folks in the world today talking about the Church and her faith, her teachings on sex and the sexes.  These thoughts come back to be as we get near Lent, and so I thought I might say, forgive me, but: theological subtly aside I understand what she's saying.

The world is a beautiful place and it is filled with beautiful things. Food, wine, conversation, intellectual intercourse, sexual intercourse, political debate, fine clothing, electronic gadgetry, Starbucks, cannabis, LSD, and whatever else you might name: are fun.  Laughter and tears, arguing and cuddling, arts and crafts, dancing and even drunken carousing are all rather awesome things.  I freaking love science.  I enjoy dressing up for a party.  And the affirmation of my friends and even strangers is all valuable to me.  Even things that some folks find horrible are, themselves, terribly beauties: war, patriotism, demolition derbies, mobs. The Works of Man amaze me: skyscrapers, the computer on which I write, the internet over which I post and you read, the cellphone on which I can do all of the above and more, the interstate highway system, the Panama Canal, the State of Israel, the Fall of Communism, the Defeat of Axis Powers, and the Moon Landing (if you believe in such things), these are glorious achievements worthy of praise and honor forever.

Except they will end sooner or later.

And winter comes for all things.

And death.

Christianity does insist on right use of all those things and, like drugs and wine, so also with sex and food and technology and people: there are right uses and wrong ones and there is overuse and abuse and even addiction.  You may, if you wish, disagree with me and the Church on the location of those boundaries, but, I think, perhaps: we can all agree that there is are boundaries somewhere and they are needed for the sake of health and growth.

And so, Lent.

In Lent we fast from all this and more.  Meat, sexual intercourse, alcohol - these are all blessings from God from which we abstain for a time.  Not because to partake would be a sin, per se, or an impurity, but rather to see them for what they are. Turning away from those things, refocusing for a time, for a season, on what those things are, what their uses are, what their purpose is in the grand scheme of things, is the purpose of Lent.  It's not life-denying anymore than a good nap on a warm and beautiful afternoon, after  fun cookout with family and friends is "Awake-denying".  But it might be needed before the drive home.


In the Byzantine Rite we begin Lent not in the middle of the week but in the very middle of Vespers on Sunday Night. The priest steps into the Altar and changes into Purple robes, the hangings in the church are changed and the very key of the chanting changes from major to minor.  Suddenly it is Lent.

There are prostrations as we ask God to bless us.  And we say for the first time the Prayer of St Ephraim the Syrian.

O Lord and Master of My Life

A spirit of sloth, despair, and lust for power

do not give me.

But give rather 

a Spirit of chastity, humility patience and love

to Your servant.

O my Lord and King

Grant me to see my own faults

and not condemn my brothers and sisters.

You are blessed unto ages of ages.

Amen.

And then we will begin the Rite of Forgiveness: walking around the church we will each prostrate before everyone, one at a time, face to face, and ask forgiveness and forgiving each other and embracing. It is the entire reason we go to confess, the whole purpose of communion, the very reason for the Church's existence: this mutual forgiveness and love. Far from "necrophilia" it is, to use Mary Daly's own neologism, "Biophilia."  Christ is the life: in loving each other we are loving him. In serving each other we are serving him. We are making life manifest.

My brothers and sisters, Lent is upon us. 

Forgive me my sins.  As God forgives I forgive.

Pray for this sinner, your servant, Raphael.

Civilization and its Discontents

Blaming the Victims

Christians in ancient Rome went to their deaths to avoid burning a pinch of incense before a statue of Caesar or the other deities worshiped in the Roman State.  A friend of mine, who is ordained in a "mainline" protestant body, said he didn't think that would be an issue now: it's only a pinch of incense, after all, and we know - St Paul taught - the Roman deities were not deities at all. It was a worthless exercise that would have been as meaningless to us as to them: they knew that Caesar was not a divine immortal! I called bullshit on my friend: burning a pinch of incense to Caesar was saying the Roman lie was true: the state could tell us what was religion.  Christians believed that "God is the Lord and has revealed himself to us." Truth himself is our spouse. Why would we even pretend to play with Roman lies?

It is a commonplace to say that terrorists are attacking Western Civilization. A List of Rights has been paraded about, sometimes as an answer to "Why do they hate us?" Some Honorable Personage has said "We will stand through this and freedom will spread further and further!" And there has been many cheers and tears. It will be followed, with all due speed - indeed has already been followed - by propaganda insisting that an attack on Western Civilization is an attack on Christianity.  This will be spread by Christians, as well as by politicians, and in some cases, by the terrorists as well!

It shouldn't take much digging to realize that, short of a bomb in a Church (and sometimes not even then) no attack in any major Western City is an attack on Christianity at all.  This is because nearly no one in the West lives in what would have been called in ages past, Christendom.  Even those nations like in the British Commonwealth (with state churches or former state churches) or "Wholly Catholic Ireland", Austria or Spain which even today enjoy the reputation of "Catholic" cultures are not. The Scandinavian cultures are not Lutheran. Even the city of Rome outside of the Vatican state, is not Roman Catholic.  In all these places it is the religion of the Enlightenment, the credo of Charlie Hebdo, of the New York Times, the Fox network, MGM, the credo of the entire modern Western world that has taken over: secularism.

Dante, I think we can agree, was an Artist.  Certainly there was some humor in his work and not a few moments of literary revenge, but, on the whole, his Divine Comedy is a very artistic rendering of Mediæval Roman Catholic teaching.  I'd go so far as to say it is a masterpiece, in the classic sense of a greatest work of his career as well as one of the greatest of all time.  In that masterpiece Dante depicts Mohammed in hell, his front splayed open like a spatchcocked chicken, because of how his false teachings had divided the world.  It is, perhaps, fair to say that no secular College Professor today would let Dante graduate with a term paper like that:  It might offend someone.  But to Dante, Mohammed wasn't teaching a new religion: since he made false statements about Jesus and the Blessed Virgin (among other things), Mohammed was teaching heresy, pure and simple.  He's the original Protestant, a thousand years before Luther.

I am unaware of any Muslim attempt to stop the teaching of Dante.

In our society, we don't critique Mohammed's religion (or any other religion) because it's wrong.  Religion is denied this honor. We make fun of religion because it is religion. In this culture we are forbidden to engage with religion at all on its own terms. We cannot publicly acknowledge the truth claims of any religion or the conflicting truth claims of competing religions. As a French editor said on the BBC, "We cannot criticize religious believers, only religions." That is what we all do.  Our gov'ts tell us that we cannot use our religion to make choices in public space. Our coworkers tell us we cannot be religious at our desks. Our neighbors complain when our religious observances are injected into the public space.  A religious minority is protected as a minority until it becomes religious. Ask the Mormons how they managed to get statehood for Utah.

This is what comes of a radical, secularist agenda running amok.  Fundamentalism and Fascism are the results of Secularism.  They are not two ends of the spectrum: they are in effect the same thing.  They are both the result of the fear generated by the lack of norms, morality, and God in a secular world.  This is what happens in a secular society.  We are forbidden to engage Mohammed  his own terms, so we have to treat it with a feigned polite seriousness or else make fun of it.  The same is true of Christianity which enjoys no media attention except to make fun of it, or to misstate its historic tenants based on an American invention crafted whole cloth less than 200 years ago - or some combination of the two.

Terror attacks are attacks on Western Civilization.  But Muslim attacks in Europe are not attacks on Christianity.  They are attacks on a secular fascism running all the religions out of town and trying to name its own gods. 

When France bans the wearing of of veils in public, or English workers cannot wear crosses to work; when the Native American religion is forbidden its Sacraments or American workers cannot say "Merry Christmas" in business transactions, we are crossing a line together.  It's not the war of Muslims against Christians we're fighting.  All religions are the victims of this state-sponsored Secularism.  Read up on Mexico's Cristero war.  France has been fighting religions since their revolution.  Orthodox and orthodox Christians in the USA have much more in common with the oppressed Muslim minority in France than we are willing to admit.  The application of law to force of service providers against their conscience is exactly the same issue: it is the state saying "play by our rules or else".  Or else you must suffer a two-bit band of cartoonists making fun of your religion, or else you must bake cakes for weddings you abominate, or else you must take pictures you would classify as sinful: it is only a pinch of incense after all.