I listened to the exchange between @PageauJonathan and @gavinortlund I am happy they had a live conversation. THIS IS HOW WE MUST DO IT, FELLAS. My thoughts? I love both of these guys, and I'm just a fallible man with opinions. From my vantage point, Pageau is a former baptist/evangelical who shows no command of the Protestant tradition. He caricatures Protestantism far more than he can fairly represent it. And this is one of the features of Orthodox critics of Protestantism in the last 50 years. To be fair, I see the same thing in Catholics (perhaps even more so). Pageau is a product of the modern Protestant-to-Orthodox school (beginning mid-20th c.) which sees the Christian faith as truly represented only in the "Eastern" representation. Augustine? No, thank you. As a result, he subconsciously splits the Church in two retrospectively, and pretends the "real" 2,000-year Christian tradition is equal to the recent Eastern "phronema". The tree of Church history is cut into two, and only 1 half of the trunk is kept. In fact, however, this 1 half is a distortion of even the real Eastern half they claim. In reality, this "phronema" (best communicated in our day through figures such as Frederica Mathewes-Green and Dr. Jeannie Constantinou) is not ancient or historical. Does this "phronema" have an origin? Not before the 20th century. At least, I don't think. Feel free to correct me. And that's just it. Ortlund has seen this. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. Everyone knows I disagree with Ortlund on a number of important issues, though we've retained a good friendship. Nevertheless, here I must say Ortlund had the upper hand in the discussion. Pageua not only showed a poor understanding of Protestant theology, but he is also enamored with what comes across as an immature aversion to "apologetics." And this has led to his not understanding what his opponents are saying, not to mention the pre-20th century Orthodox tradition. It is not uncommon for Orthodox to eventually reach a point in their spiritual life where they just feel like they have to walk away from defending the faith and just "live it out", and then characterize the apologetics world as a "Western" habit, rooted in that "Western mind" and "Western" way of thinking. Very un-ontological, un-transformative, and un-medical, etc. etc. I've been through it. I know many people who have gone through it. Been in and out of it a few times. This is old. These caricatures are getting very outdated, and they are turning out to be nails on a chalkboard. The reality is this - spiritual maturity goes through a time where you might have an aversion to debates, logical chopping, philosophical reasoning, and intellectual discourse. But when you keep these things as "not for me!", "Western", "not where the honey of Christianity is.", then you fail to mature further. Because maturity can find a balance where these things exist in harmony with the fullness of the spiritual life. They aren't to be trashed and belittled as if they are for the immature Western toddlers of the Christian faith, and not for the spiritual Olympian sitting in the mountain. This is a call for balance and moderation. Let's learn what each other is saying (and meaning!) before attempting to draw conclusions that get shared publicly for innocent souls around the world to consume. At least try hard to do so. And when we are wrong, let's be open to correction. "Ybarra, you've just misrepresented Orthodoxy." That's the beauty of this. I'm open to hearing from you. youtube.com/watch?v=C96clnEm…

Chasing!

I've been getting exposure to this deeply sick ideology this week. Wild stuff. Corrie Ten Boom race traitor 😂

Frog Helmet used at the battle of Pampas, crafted by armorer P.Puck Housed at the Fliffmellington History Museum

I worked for a guy that opened his own personal quarry on-site for the buildings. I feel like quarries used to be common.

“The cup for which Christ prayed is the cup of God's wrath, the cup of curse that falls on sinners. And the innocent voluntarily drinks the cup of the curse, becomes cursed himself, receives punishment as a sinner for the sins of others. Replacing the guilty by innocent is the heart of Christianity. People do not represent a normal picture of forgiveness of sins. The Epistle to the Hebrews says that we have a guarantee - Christ himself died for us, He is the guarantee of forgiveness of our sins. At the sermon, we should focus on this. Many people say that everything is easy for the Orthodox: he sinned, repented, forgave. We answer: yes, it's easy for us, because the Innocent takes our punishments. He redeemed the Jews from the oath of the law, the pagans from what they did against conscience” ~Dogmatic Theology, Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev (Lecture 16: On Redemption)

An Italian friend, faithful Catholic and father of girls, said of migration, and Pope Leo's instructions to Europe to keep the doors open to mass migration: <<I don't want to be Lot and hand over my daughters for the sake of 'hospitality'>> Exactly right.

I just listened to a stream with 2 Eastern Orthodox (Dr. Nathan Jacons and Fr. Joseph Lucas) where they go to great lengths to try and say these concepts are alien to Eastern Orthodox theology. Can someone tag them to see what they think of this?

"The early Church knew nothing of our distinction between glorified or canonized saints and 'ordinary' members of the Church. Holiness pertained to the Church and all those who constituted the Church were holy because they were members of a holy people" -- Alexander Schmemann.

Miss these guys.

Almost all of the pre-construction college programs are fraudulent collusions between the government and higher ed. The only way to get into a trade is be hired by a company who then agrees to send you to real trade school.

crazy that england is likely going to lose trial by jury, a basic english right since the early middle ages, because they wanted a multiracial society. 1000 years of tradition and law, gone in two generations.