(Eastern Orthodox Only) have you ever considered this place to be sinful?

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

This is an open question to all of my Orthodox brethren, have you ever considered these forums to be sinful or in any way harmful to your faith/ spiritual health ?

The reason I ask is that every now and then I come to see the things posted elsewhere on this forum and my jaw often drops to the level where it almost hits the floor.
There is an overwhelming amount of outright grotesque heresy in the other havens aswell as in most of GT and TT among others.

Sometimes i wonder if participation in here equals contributing to the sustaining of heresy etc...?
Any thoughts??

 

[All4Christ]

At times I’ve needed to step out for awhile depending on where I am spiritually. I’ve learned to be careful where I venture and focus primarily on a few select forums.

 

[HTacianas]

This is an open question to all of my Orthodox brethren, have you ever considered these forums to be sinful or in any way harmful to your faith/ spiritual health ?

The reason I ask is that every now and then I come to see the things posted elsewhere on this forum and my jaw often drops to the level where it almost hits the floor.
There is an overwhelming amount of outright grotesque heresy in the other havens aswell as in most of GT and TT among others.

Sometimes i wonder if participation in here equals contributing to the sustaining of heresy etc...?
Any thoughts??

Are you asking if I believe this forum is

Rev 18:2 - ...a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!

Ha! I've always wanted to say that.

We are called on to bear witness to the truth. Sometimes that means taking on the title of Septic Tank Cleaner. Wear your rubber boots!

 

[MariaJLM]

Yes. It brings out my misanthropic tendencies, particularly when I stumble upon the Flat Earthers and other conspiracy theorists.

 

[rusmeister]

One genuine problem is that the forum is controlled by non-Orthodox. (As long as any human controls it you’ll have the problem of the biases of the particular human, that’s given.) But the fact that non-Orthodox control it means that appeals to Orthodox Tradition, even supported by a normal majority, can be effectively overturned by a minority of people who are Orthodox, but buck Tradition in one way or another and when challenged, they can appeal to the non-Orthodox controllers who, frankly, sometimes have little or no sympathy with the specifics of our Tradition that do not align with their own, and the rules are then used to shut down the common opinion of the Orthodox majority that would otherwise assert our norms, and allow the “bucker” to go on bucking.

The fact that anyone can engage in online activity to personal spiritual harm is obvious, by either skipping prayers, or doing other things they ought to be doing in the real world.

 

[Danielwright2311]

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

 

[ArmyMatt]

they certainly can be.

 

[archer75]

Definitely.

 

[RobNJ]

Hey, it's like everywhere else, in this fallen world. There's good, there's bad. What do you expect.. If you're lookin' for a truly Holy place, it AIN'T gonna be on the neenernet!

 

[Not David]

Yeah, that usually happens.

 

[JeremiahsBulldog]

Only when some round-earther calls me a conspiracy-theorist. Just kidding! I'm not a flat-earther.
Actually, I follow mostly this forum (TAW), but I do sometimes watch other forums, and sometimes I do see nutty things there. But I like an intellectual challenge, sometimes.

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

Yes. It brings out my misanthropic tendencies, particularly when I stumble upon the Flat Earthers and other conspiracy theorists.

So true, it happens to me too
Sometimes I just shake my head and say derogatory things about the heterodox.

 

[archer75]

Definitely.

I don't "consider this place sinful," but I do consider it bad for me. Sorry, I was unclear.

 

[~Anastasia~]

My SF pointed things out to me several years ago. He's ok with me being here but cautioned ways such interaction can be spiritually damaging, and told me not to argue outright. For someone who spent too much of my life often sure I was generally right about many things, that's probably good advice to avoid dipping further into temptations to pride and judgement of others.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Any examples, without naming posters, of what has caused your "jaw to hit the floor?"

This is an open question to all of my Orthodox brethren, have you ever considered these forums to be sinful or in any way harmful to your faith/ spiritual health ?

The reason I ask is that every now and then I come to see the things posted elsewhere on this forum and my jaw often drops to the level where it almost hits the floor.
There is an overwhelming amount of outright grotesque heresy in the other havens aswell as in most of GT and TT among others.

Sometimes i wonder if participation in here equals contributing to the sustaining of heresy etc...?
Any thoughts??

 

[MariaJLM]

I don't "consider this place sinful," but I do consider it bad for me. Sorry, I was unclear.

Definitely bad for me. It brings out some very unchristian thoughts that I'm better off not entertaining. Even some of the people posting in this thread have been guilty of it so it's not just the Non-Orthodox grinding my gears.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Just a random thought ... I can recall when I was pro-choice, pro-LGBT (before it was called that lol), and fully embraced evolution. And probably a half-dozen other ideaologies, because it's what I was taught and what we "enlightened people" were supposed to believe. (Feminism and the fact that male/female differences were purely sociological comes to mind as well.)

Religion may have changed some of these things for me. But TBH, it was more a matter of getting older (and hopefully wiser!) but at least doing my own research and being exposed to more realistic ways of thinking, learning better how the world really works (not just how I was taught it works), even thinking about HOW we are taught to think, and so on.

Orthodoxy if anything may have moderated me back to the center.

I have always had a degree of compassion for same-sex attracted folks, but much of my Protestant history told me I had to reject them as persons, or simply embrace them and even celebrate their differentness. Now I understand that we ALL have passions, and while mine might be different from yours, we all struggle and what we are prone to shouldn't define us.

And I swung from being raised by a somewhat feminist mother (God bless her, she had to be to raise three kids on her own when she got married at 14 years old and soon ended up twice-divorced with no education!) ... and having that idea further pounded into me almost forcefully in academic circles, to being told in Evangelical ones that women were just to "submit" in all things, except they often meant we were no better than pet dogs licking our master's boots. Orthodoxy has given a beautiful perspective of the wisdom of God in creating us male and female ... with actual purpose! And diverse talents that can complement and work to the benefit of both (not always divided along male/female lines) ... not to mention to understanding of fathers and mothers I never had (I'm slowly getting it!) and a vision of how this does NOT make women second-class citizens but fully endowed by God for all sorts of things. I have no envy of the priesthood .... but I still kind of wish it would be possible to visit Mt. Athos



Anyway. Life is a growing process. I try to think that people who are unable to learn or who don't act in love have simply not matured in whatever areas yet. It's funny to me how often I observe changes in people over their lives - not always, but often ... we tend as humans to drift in better directions. By the grace of God.

Sorry. Random thoughts.

I agree. And the fact that anyone can come on here with beliefs that are WILDLY un-Orthodox, spout them with impunity, and still be classified as Orthodox. If you question the person's beliefs or challenge the validity of that person, you're toast. So I can theoretically come in here say I believe in abortion, evolution, worshiping Chef Boyardee as a living God, and yet I was chrismated and baptized and call myself Orthodox, therefore I am....and I can report you at every turn when you question my devotion to Chef Boyardee and his sacred spaghetti....

A few people have an antifa style message board approach. That sucks. And yes, not having Orthodox policing Orthodox isn't ideal by a mile.

I have found the discussions about evolution to be the most troubling sign of something very amiss here. Your arguments, those of Father Matt, myself, etc. I found to be consistent with the Fathers, the Church, history, and Scripture. Yet, when confronted with such obvious, blatant truths, the rebuttal always seems hyperbolic or provocative. And no one on the other side of the issue seems open to growth and change. I myself was pro-evolution prior to evolution, and yet my openness to listening and spiritual growth allowed me to go down a different road. Before I was Catholic, I was pro-choice in high school. That changed for me. I was also pro-LGBT in high school. That changed. Christianity should change us. I find in TAW and CF in general too many people's heels are too dug-in and stubborn most of the time to grow. For me, OP, evolution was the most unfortunate area of your thread question.

I've also been troubled by some posters openly supporting political groups that are actually very vocally opposed to basic Orthodox morality.

 

[archer75]

To be fair...if CF is such a source of anguish for some, it probably is not that difficult not to participate and / or to start a small Orthodox forum run by EO people? Or simply a google group or mailing list that one can moderate as one pleases?

 

[archer75]

Also...it would help me if we had another ecumenical council and got a new canon that said you have to spend less time on CF in a given week than you spend praying / attending services...

 

[KernelPanic]

Sometimes even Orthodox message boards can get messy. I remember stumbling into one thread (not here) about fasting and it devolved into the "correct" method of fasting. Don't remember where I saw it and it certainly wasn't good for anyone's spiritual growth.