Rather than enter into the same tired agreement/disagreement on some points above, I will go in the other direction, and say that you had it right in the early days.
I agree with the tone and statements from your March 9 post - particularly where you say:
"We lay people have to do better. This isn't a "globo homo" war. This is about power and restoration of a dead empire. It's about one man's ego. It's about asserting one's will over others. It's about revenge. It's about control. It's about Hitler-style "breathing space." It's appalling."
full post below. other good points contained therein.
gurneyhalleck1 post from March 9, 2022 -
I have to say, I have a VERY heavy heart about this. I think most reasonable people know that Ukraine may be corrupt (aren't all countries these days!?), may want to join the EU and be reaching out to the West, but do they deserve to be bombed mercilessly day and night? Do they deserve no humanitarian safety zones, civilian areas being racked with bombing, all because supposedly there are Nazis and Ukraine wants to join the EU and NATO?
I get a bit fatigued from Russia crying out about gay parades. You guys are very familiar with my views on LGBT. I'm one of the loudest against it....that being said.....poisoning enemies, jailing opposition guys like Nevalyny, endless false flag operations, massive abortion numbers, pilfering $$$$ from your economy so that the people receive very little of it (imagine Russia, as mighty, as huge, as expansive as it is, only has the GDP of Florida!!!! And all the oil, gas, palladium, silver, and other ag money goes directly to the oligarchs. People have an average income of $17,000 in Russia), paying mercenaries to kill Americans in Afghanistan, bombing Chechnya into oblivion, stealing territories in the name of history, etc. is pretty much as bad as sodomy. I'm tired of us over-simplifying sin down to outward sexual acts like being gay. Orthodoxy has always been a sane religion that points out sin being far more nuanced. It's why we do Forgiveness Vespers. We ask forgiveness of people we scarcely know because we know that our indifference toward them, our own innate selfishness, and our inward ego are so great that we need to acknowledge between us all the need to forgive. How a patriarch could take a day this sublime and important and squander it breaks my heart. And listening to people in my parish, they loved his sermon and 9 out of 10 of them have a "Go Putin!" stance. I'm sick hearing this. Total indifference toward people who have lost family, are living in subways and train stations, destroyed homes, dead pets, murdered neighbors, broke and without water/food, husbands left behind to fight possibly to the death....that all means nothing because, heck, Putin is fighting the gays!
We lay people have to do better. This isn't a "globo homo" war. This is about power and restoration of a dead empire. It's about one man's ego. It's about asserting one's will over others. It's about revenge. It's about control. It's about Hitler-style "breathing space." It's appalling. It's not appropriate for Forgiveness Sunday. The patriarch should have taken the time to ask the people to forgive HIM for his indifference and his quiescence in a catastrophe.
Russia will come out of this devastated. So sad.
Bosco!