66% of Orthodox Christians are not really Orthodox and should be excommunicated?

[Theophanius]

According to https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-eastern-orthodox-church

"Despite official stance, a survey released in 2018 by the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRI) finds a majority, 66 percent, of U.S. Eastern Orthodox Christians supporting marriage equality."

Does this mean that 66% of Orthodox Christians are not really Orthodox and should be excommunicated?

 

[Arachne]

No.

 

[Saxon]

It means they're being led astray by an aggressively secular, progressive culture, and in some cases may feel pressured to affirm same-sex marriage so as to fit in with their peers and not face social ostracization or job loss.

 

[biro]

Yes, we should all be excommunicated.

I will send you some information about my archbishop, and you can get right on that.

 

[Theophanius]

If 66% of Orthodox Christians say that men should be able to marry other men if they want to, and those 66% still take communion with the other 34%, and this is allowed to continue, how are we as Orthodox Christians of One Accord, of the same Mind as Christ, knowing that we commune together but do not believe the same thing, about basic moral choices.

 

[Nathanael]

According to https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-eastern-orthodox-church

"Despite official stance, a survey released in 2018 by the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRI) finds a majority, 66 percent, of U.S. Eastern Orthodox Christians supporting marriage equality."

Does this mean that 66% of Orthodox Christians are not really Orthodox and should be excommunicated?

Many orthodox are "just" baptised and traditional orthodox people, who go to church just on Eastern and Christmas day...

 

[hecma925]

I hope His Most Divine All Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch will use his papal powers to make them Latinists.

 

[Ainnir]

If 66% of Orthodox Christians say that men should be able to marry other men if they want to, and those 66% still take communion with the other 34%, and this is allowed to continue, how are we as Orthodox Christians of One Accord, of the same Mind as Christ, knowing that we commune together but do not believe the same thing, about basic moral choices.

Not your call.

 

[xariskai]

...a survey released in 2018 by the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRI)

PRRI, run by CEO Robert Jones is not the first Washington DC based social engineering think tank managed by Jones. Jones' organizations (take your pick) are in my opinion about as useful for purposes of neutral and/or mathematically objective research as a glass of spit.

Robert P. Jones, Ph.D. - PRRI

Robert P. Jones (he/him) is the president and founder of PRRI and a leading scholar and commentator on religion, culture, and politics. Robert P. Jones is

www.prri.org

 

[Sethrak]

Don't know where that 66% was taken from, they didn't ask me and maybe not you ether ~ what ever the number they wiggle themselves and others like them into places where they can control and censor Orthodox faithful, at and in the Church and online Orthodox speech and speak for us ~ some of them may even believe The God,,,but many I suspect are like those in our Government who don't believe in our forum of government and like virus that cannot reproduce, trick the cells in the body they attack so that they are reproduced by that cell so that the Orthodox Voice seems to say: Homosexuality is more than OK, why it may be preferable ~ interesting but not acceptable ```

Orthodoxy is not broken and and the virus who seek to change the Church, fix what we think and say concerning Church and Government are the attacking enemy ```

And it's snowing, outside of course, I installed a friction drive wheel in the snowblower last evening knowing it would be needed today ```

 

[Thetruthisgod]

We in the church should know that sodomy is a symptom of idolatry. In the church, it would certainly be blasphemous to marry a man and his horse.

What the world outside the church does, those are the ways of the world. There is only a problem when the world exercises violence against the church, demanding that we conform to their ways. We only marry those in the church, right? Well, the ways of those outside the church are none of our business. That said, we can live and let live, or more accurately, live and let die while at the same time not calling what is evil "good".

We can be honest witnesses to The Truth without demanding the world conform to it. We can also be charitable about our witness. Someone who is deceived by definition does not know they are deceived.

At least that is how I, a humble layman understand these things.

 

[hecma925]

Horses aren't Christian.

 

[Thetruthisgod]

Horses aren't Christian.

Neither are unrepentant sodomites.

 

[Michael Seraphim]

If one is a baptized member of the Orthodox Church and holds to the Creed and the Ecumenical Synods, one is an Orthodox Christian

Now if such a person were to support same-sex marriage, he/she would still be an Orthodox Christian, but not a good one

Criteria of being an Orthodox Christian: baptized member, professing the Creed and the Ecumenical Synods

 

[Theophanius]

If one is a baptized member of the Orthodox Church and holds to the Creed and the Ecumenical Synods, one is an Orthodox Christian

Now if such a person were to support same-sex marriage, he/she would still be an Orthodox Christian, but not a good one

Criteria of being an Orthodox Christian: baptized member, professing the Creed and the Ecumenical Synods

Only in the same sense as I would be a sinful Orthodox Christian who approves of pre-marital sex, fornication, adultery or any other sin and teach that it is O.K. I do suspect that if one were to teach that, despite the Church's official teaching, that person would be excommunicated.

 

[biro]

Excommunications via worked-up people on the Internet! I love it.

 

[hecma925]

Excommunications via worked-up people on the Internet! I love it.

I think you are the only one actually getting worked up.

 

[Thetruthisgod]

If one is a baptized member of the Orthodox Church and holds to the Creed and the Ecumenical Synods, one is an Orthodox Christian

Now if such a person were to support same-sex marriage, he/she would still be an Orthodox Christian, but not a good one

Criteria of being an Orthodox Christian: baptized member, professing the Creed and the Ecumenical Synods

Some fish get chucked out of the net at the end.

I am a sinner. A hypocrite who hardly deserves the dignity of being called a Christian. I make concessions, justifying them in my head as being ok. What do I know to be the truth though? I am weak. It is wrong for me to justify my weakness. I know better, and out of rebellion and concession to the idols in my own heart, I choose to sin. I ought not make excuses, rather to accept being humiliated before God, and to ask for mercy.

It isn't right to tell people something is ok when it is not. Especially if it can potentially be soul destroying. It is just as unacceptable for an Orthodox Christian to condone same sex marriage as it is to condone theft or idolatry.

As far as how this subject relates to politics and such, I stay out of that and government.

 

[Michael Seraphim]

Only in the same sense as I would be a sinful Orthodox Christian who approves of pre-marital sex, fornication, adultery or any other sin and teach that it is O.K. I do suspect that if one were to teach that, despite the Church's official teaching, that person would be excommunicated.

When he/she is excommunicated by his/her Bishop, then for the duration of that excommunication he/she would cease to be an Orthodox Christian, or to be member of the Body of Christ

 

[recent convert]

This is probably a result of negligence & then ignorance. People probably need to be taught basic things like the 10 commandments again. Rather than consciously excommunicating an individual, perhaps people need to be really informed of the implications of receiving the Eucharist & work it out themselves.

 

[Theophanius]

God, who is love, calls all people to holiness. Christians are to bend their will to God's will, deny themselves and carry their cross, including those Christians who suffer from same-sex attraction, not affirm our fallen natures, and not to encourage others to do so, but to struggle to holiness with God's grace.

As a "Christian" who suffers from same sex attraction, the right "choice" is to carry your cross, deny yourself, and bend your will to God's will. The wrong "choice" is to wallow in our fallen nature and indulge in what the Bible calls an abomination and what the new testament and old testament and all the church fathers clearly condemned.

If your right hand, having no choice in being born with it, causes us to sin, what does Jesus tell us to do with it? He tells us to cut it off. Likewise with same sex attraction: struggle against it even if it hurts like cutting off your hand.

The cause of homosexual attraction, whether a psychological, social, hormonal, or spiritual, or even genetic is irrelevant to the fact that God says we are sinful and that homosexual activity is wrong. The cause does not justify indulging in the lifestyle or approving of it for the true Christian.

"You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin" (Hebrews 12:4)

“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” (John 5:14).

“Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

We are all infected with sin- physical, emotional, and spiritual- diseases because of our fallen natures. But in Christ, in our our baptism in Him, we are on our way to get rid of all of that because He took our nature and perfected it in Himself.

Orthodox Christianity teaches that homosexual sexual activity- indeed any such activity outside the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony between one man and one woman- is immoral.

But those afflicted with the psycho-social illness of same sex attraction who also wish to live a holy Christian life should be loved and told the truth about this lifestyle.

Those who do not want to live a holy Christian life should be loved nonetheless but a Christian who disagrees with their lifestyle need not be called a bigot or homophobic.

 

[Stinky]

Are you a " Christian" who suffers from same sex attraction?
Am I reading this correctly?

 

[Ainnir]

Are you a " Christian" who suffers from same sex attraction?
Am I reading this correctly?

No, he's addressing those who have same-sex attractions. Not sure why the quotes.

 

[Stinky]

No, he's addressing those who have same-sex attractions. Not sure why the quotes.

I am reading that he is stating that he suffers from same sex attraction. Maybe he will answer my question.

 

[Stinky]

I am not making fun of people who suffer from same sex attraction. I am one of those who suffer from this yet repentant and am committed to celibacy by the Grace of God.

I also suffer from a lot of other sins but do not label myself by my sins nor advertise them. But it is what it is. And His grace keeps me. I guess I am a " christian" or maybe just an ordinary christian sinner.

I didn't want my post to be accusatory or ugly. I should have private messaged. Sorry.

 

[Ainnir]

You are a Christian.

 

[RaphaCam]

People have different reasons for supporting homosexual civil marriages, they don't necessarily think those "marriages" have the same dignity as an Orthodox wedlock or even what canon law refers to as a "natural marriage".

 

[Stephen Philips]

Lots of people identify with orthodoxy without actually following it, without seeking Christ. They are not practicing, and thus have views opposed to the faith we have received.