The previous post was the story of the fighting monks of Jerusalem. If you go on YouTube, you can, unfortunately, find a recording of the actual fight. Needless to say, this certainly gives a black eye to the reputation of the Eastern Orthodox. However, this also gives a very graphic demonstration of a fact that […]
Fighting monks
Monks brawl at Christian holy site in Jerusalem By MATTI FRIEDMAN Associated Press Writer Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity’s holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus’ tomb. The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in […]
Sarah Palin redux
There are times when I have to fight certain smug feelings that come over me. This is one of those times, and it has to do with Gov. Sarah Palin. During the campaign, there were criticisms of Gov. Sarah Palin that were truly sexist. Does her hairdo really matter? Does her pregnant daughter mean that […]
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 2008
The Scriptures for today were Galatians 1:1-20 and Luke 16:19-31. I, for one, am glad that the Church put those two Scriptures together. The first one is St. Paul’s brief recounting about how he received the Gospel which he preaches. The second one is our Lord Jesus’ story of the poor man who died and […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 04
So, what is the religious component to this prison policy change? Any theology can be misused and misrepresented. Anything that is true when said in a balanced way, can become untrue when only part of it is misused or when it is misunderstood. And, this has been true of Evangelical/Fundamentalist theology with relation to the […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 03
Well, as you can imagine, the last couple of days have been all too busy. Nor did I think that it would take a couple of days to come back to this subject. However, I am finally back to it. USA attitudes towards incarceration were not always as they are nowadays. Several events began to […]
What is a monk?
“Fr. Ernesto suggested above that we should look to the monastics of the early church. But is that Biblical? Where in the Bible does it say we should withdraw from society and exclude the rest of the world, and live lives of poverty?” The first example of monasticism (Eastern style, not Western) is John the […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 02
So, how did we get into the prison mess in which we find ourselves? To recap part 01, we have the highest prison population in the world, both in numbers, and in the percentage of our residents who are in jail. But, the situation that the Pew report lays out is even sadder than what […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 01
In a report on the failure of California’s prison policies, the New York Times reports that California now spends 10% of its budget on prison costs, and that this cost is expected to go higher. What are the causes? A study done by the Federal government shows that it is a mixture of policies that […]
Russian Patriarch feeling good about Roman Pope
Below is a very promising quote from an article. To see the rest of the article, please go to: Permalink: http://zenit.org/article-24026?l=english MOSCOW, OCT. 22, 2008.- Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II responded to a letter from Benedict XVI, expressing satisfaction with growing collaboration between the two Churches. Alexy II’s note responded to the Pope’s message of […]
