Recent content by Maksim

This is the most common claim against homeschooling, but I have never found any evidence to support it.  Most evidence I have seen suggests that homeschooled children are (if anything) more involved in their communities and have equal or better social skills than their peers.

This is not accurate, at least in terms of Orthodoxy.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard Catholics and Protestants say things like the above, undoubtedly in all sincerity.  And to some extent, this is our own fault for not being more clear. The Orthodox Church does not recognize...

I have always done what stashko describes (not touching the spoon), in my case at OCA and ROCOR parishes.  The OCA website seems to describe this method: "If one receives Communion in the proper manner, one would tilt one's head back and open one's mouth as wide as possible, thereby allowing...

I think this will change with time.  "Confirmation bias" seems to have ruled the day since the 1960s or so. Personally, I have been eating high-fat and low-carb for a number of years now.  Not anything formal like the Atkins Diet, but just a recalibration of my views on what I ought to eat.  By...

I must admit to being troubled by this.  We don't know all of the details, so hopefully there has been some misunderstanding as to what happened.  But it genuinely concerns me that there is such a reflexive defense of what appears to have happened.  The problem is that the pattern has become...

This whole issue is very sad and puzzling to me.  I just hope there is some more reasonable explanation that we haven't yet heard. Speaking as a convert, I can understand mandating adherence to tradition.  I can understand allowing a relaxation in a practice for pastoral reasons.  But mandating...

I don't know how serious Ruslana intended that to be, but in terms of people who might be serious.... Honestly, I don't think speed limits or higher penalties for speeding will help.  Most people know to drive a reasonable speed (even without a limit), and those who don't won't care about a...

It seems as if we have reached a point where almost everything said by the EP will be interpreted based on preconceptions.  And I mean to apply that to both "sides".  There are those who see practically anything the EP says as evidence of ecumenism and enviro-lunacy, but there are also those who...

Many people in America would use the same criticisms and apply them to voting for a third party candidate.  What message does it send to be one of the 1-2% who vote for the Libertarian candidate?  The thing is, we were never supposed to view voting in this sort of "tactical" sense.  You go out...

Who mentioned democracy?  :) Even still, I don't think it can be said that there is an obligation to vote when voting is voluntary.  If there is no candidate who you can vote for in good conscience, then I think it's perfectly acceptable to abstain.

Not to be pedantic, but the United States is not (or is not supposed to be) a democracy. I should add though, that the Founding Fathers in the United States very specifically did not make voting a "duty".  There are many different motivations for not voting, and laziness is very different from...

These are words attributed to one priest, not to the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Church. As it has been explained to me, the prayers for the "secular authorities" have nothing to do with supporting their policies.  One can certainly oppose the current president politically, but still pray for him.

Please don't take this the wrong way, since there are many political issues that I have strong feelings on as well.  But in my view, "strong patriotic feelings" have no place in a discussion of the canonical order of the Church.  Whatever the merits of Ukrainian (or any) nationalism, it is not a...

I suspect that this issue will become more controversial if recent questions regarding personality changes after major organ transplants continue.  I have always been skeptical, but it seems that more and more scientists have become concerned about the issue of "transplanted personality".  In...

St. John Chrysostom refers to a woman covering her head in church as a matter of "the very laws of nature".  I think the idea that it is "cultural" (and thus can be discarded) is more or less a 20th-century rationalization.  St. John certainly seems to view it as a universal spiritual issue and...