Extreme Disappointment

[GregConstantine]

anyone can look up FOCUS's website and you'll see what they do. Do I have to explain everything to you people and do all your research for you? No I'm not going to do that.

 

[jckstraw72]

Greg, please just stop for a minute and think about how this looks to other people. we can't read your mind. you started a thread about how disappointing the Orthodox response has been, and yet you're obstinate about telling us what a pleasing response would be? don't you think that strikes your readers as very odd?

 

[gzt]

Response #3 was a very helpful clarification when I asked previously (see below for a quote of the response), and I agree that local churches and Orthodox organizations should certainly do that and that a failure to do so is disappointing. I was less certain about FOCUS as they do not, to my knowledge, have people local to Baltimore, which is why I asked what one could expect or hope for and gave a couple examples of what I thought he might be looking for (eg volunteers? supplies? money?). FOCUS was able to help in Ferguson because they have people in St Louis. I don't mean to be belligerent, since I generally agree: Orthodox need to do more for their communities. They need to do acts of mercy and justice.

what everyone else is doing, helping to clean up, rebuild, opening their churches for prayer, distributing food and water, walking through the streets offering prayer,offering counseling.

 

[Dalibor]

I don't see what the problem is here. You people are living in the richest country in the world. Country which spends 600 billions on military every year and many more on wars. If your government is unable to feed every hungry person in USA and repair all the riots damage than something is very wrong with you society. You need to put pressure on your government to prioritize budget spending and there will be plenty of money for all the hungry.
Church isn't Red Cross that's not its primary mission especially considering the wealth of your nation.

 

[dzheremi]

I don't see what the problem is here. [Immediately lists a bunch of problems.]

If fixing these glaring structural social and economic problems were as easy as waving our magical America-money in front of legislators, none of this would've happened in the first place. These are the same idiots who voted for $600 billion-a-year wars in the first place. Of course there's something very wrong with society, and that very callousness as reflected in our spending priorities can be argued to be the root of it, but I don't see any solution in saying "America has a lot of money; fix it" (actually, we don't; we have a lot of debt).

Church isn't Red Cross that's not its primary mission especially considering the wealth of your nation.

What is behind a comment like this, really? I don't see anyone suggesting that the Church is the Red Cross, and again, pointing to the wealth of the nation doesn't help. The income disparity is also larger now than it has been in living memory. Maybe it's not so crazy to suggest that the Church should have some kind of response when all of these negative factors and tensions boil over...?

Even though it is not the Red Cross, the Church is still part of the societies within which it is located, right?

 

[~Anastasia~]

I don't see what the problem is here. You people are living in the richest country in the world. Country which spends 600 billions on military every year and many more on wars. If your government is unable to feed every hungry person in USA and repair all the riots damage than something is very wrong with you society. You need to put pressure on your government to prioritize budget spending and there will be plenty of money for all the hungry.
Church isn't Red Cross that's not its primary mission especially considering the wealth of your nation.

One could argue that such a sentiment is the CAUSE for riots at times ... though I'm less sure about what's been going on in recent years.

 

[SeventhValley]

I don't see what the problem is here. You people are living in the richest country in the world. Country which spends 600 billions on military every year and many more on wars. If your government is unable to feed every hungry person in USA and repair all the riots damage than something is very wrong with you society. You need to put pressure on your government to prioritize budget spending and there will be plenty of money for all the hungry.
Church isn't Red Cross that's not its primary mission especially considering the wealth of your nation.

That is like saying why are there orphanages in Russia when they have the money to build 5th generation fighter jets.The answer is that countries never will spend on the poor before national defense.

Also the church's mission to help the poor and feed the hungry started when they were apart of the Roman Empire the richest empire to date at the time.

The governments job(in the USA) is not to feed or shelter people. It is to build roads and a military. Feeding the poor(aside from emergency assistance example:hurricane,earthquake etc) is left up to private organizations.

Dose the church do nothing in Orthodox countries but ritual while ignoring the sermon on the mount?(I would like to hear from people who have lived in Orthodox countries)

 

[Lukaris]

From 7V Post # 67

quote: Dose the church do nothing in Orthodox countries but ritual while ignoring the sermon on the mount?(I would like to hear from people who have lived in Orthodox countries)

Although I am American, here are examples of organizations in Russia:

Please note that the links below do work. I copied them as translated fro Cyrillic but these did not paste back to English. They will link back to Cyrillic but an English translation prompt should also appear.


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????????-??????? - ???????????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ????? ? ??????????????: ???????

 

[Cappadocious]

#allstoresmatter
#allwindowsmatter

 

[SeventhValley]

From 7V Post # 67

quote: Dose the church do nothing in Orthodox countries but ritual while ignoring the sermon on the mount?(I would like to hear from people who have lived in Orthodox countries)

Although I am American, here are examples of organizations in Russia:

Please note that the links below do work. I copied them as translated fro Cyrillic but these did not paste back to English. They will link back to Cyrillic but an English translation prompt should also appear.


? ??? ? ????? ????????? | ?????????? ??????

? ?????

????????-??????? - ???????????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ????? ? ??????????????: ???????

About the website website in Russian translated to English (according to google translate):

Our organization was registered in 2000, but its "veterans" and the founders started their activities c beginning of the 90s of the twentieth century as part of the St. Petersburg Orthodox charitable fraternity of St.. Anastasia. Then the Christians in our country were able, without hiding his faith, attend the poor and lonely people in hospitals. We see this as fulfillment of the Gospel commandments to love God and our neighbor, for the Savior Himself said, "I was sick and you visited me" (Matt. 25:36).

"The organization aims to work brothers and sisters of charity and other possible ways to help the sick and the poor, to provide help and comfort to those who suffer and are in grief and sorrow" (Charter of the Intercession of the community). This phrase is copied from the Charter of the Martha and Mary Convent in 1909. We believe that the ideas and mission Convent of Mercy, founded by Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna Romanova, are very popular after 100 years.

From the Orthodox clergy permanent advisors in our affairs is dean of the Central District of St. Petersburg Diocese, Archpriest Vladimir Sorokin, and Rev. James Ambartsumov, Archpriest Evgeny Goryachev, Fr Dionysius cold.

Today, the organization brings together more than 60 people. The extent of their involvement in the community is different and depends on their talents, education, life circumstances. Among us there are not only professional doctors and nurses, but people far from medicine in their professional activities: economists, engineers, architects, lawyers, directors, designers, teachers, students. There are staff and volunteers.

 

[xenia]

Greg, it may well be that individual Orthodox Christians have joined groups that are helping with the clean up. I know my own parish has no special type of charity program but most of the individual members volunteer with other organizations such as hospital visitation and Meals on Wheels. So it might not be as bad as you think.

 

[Kristos]

Live and let live - I always say...