by cyranorox » July 10th, 2009, 5:34 pm
Orthodoxy not being, as Protestantism is, merely or even principally a matter of intellectual assent, we cannot be excluded from the Church over such a matter. The whole tenor of 'if you... then you are not Orthodox' is outrageous; you may say, 'if you are not .. then you are not orthodox', small o.
Hating the sin is a difficult matter; we are not called to spend time on it. The reason is that almost no one can do it without slipping into the [far worse] sins of pride, selfconceit, and censoriousness. Besides, we all have favorite sins to hate, a wedge for temptation; for example, I hate pride, censoriousness, anger and envy [the envy of the rich for the poor is a dreadful threat to Christian culture] and the cold sins generally. Others fancy the warm sins of the pleasures for their pet targets: sex, food, dress.
I suppose this can be resolved by determining to hate sin, but focus on the sins that do not appeal to our supposedly righeous anger. Rus, I assign you usury, vanity, and cheating; I can take on lust, sloth and profanity for my chief hating.
;=>
Apocatastasis Now!