What I Believe

[Not David]

Unsurprisingly we disagree on pretty much everything and perhaps are even polar opposites politically. However, I do agree that encouraging abortion is wrong. I think by helping expectant parents and simply educating people about the realities of abortion would help prevent it. I don't think banning it alone will solve anything. We have to act and get the message across that it's wrong, otherwise even if it's banned women will continue to seek it illegally. That is especially true here in Canada where it is seen as an essential human right(and anybody who even remotely opposes it is labeled as a religious fundie who just wants to control women).

In short, the best way to save the lives of both mother and child would be by somehow re-educating society. Sure, some may see it as brainwashing, but lives are at stake otherwise.

True, that's what my College organization does, they provide scholarships for college moms and babysitting, besides dialogue and discussion.

 

[YJM]

I'm beyond caring. I'm sick of trying to be something I'm not. I'll probably just end up dead from depression anyway,.

Hi MariaJLM - hope you don't mind me saying that this post made me laugh - it's something I feel so many times but you managed to put it so straight down the line that I just nodded and said "yip - that pretty much sums it up".

I know you didn't post it that way, and I'm sorry you feel like that, but it hit my sad and funny bone all at the same time.

Blessings

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

You are correct, to some degree, that I wouldn't be for that. The thing I hate about socialism and liberalism in general is this idea of "pragmatism" over morality. Any sane person would look at heroin addiction, lament it, pity the addicts, and try to fund rehabs while discouraging shooting up this heinous drug. But in places like San Francisco, my state's liberal utopia, they give them fresh needles. Pragmatism. Well, these dopers are going to keep shooting up drugs anyway, might as well give them clean needles to shoot up without passing HIV around! Pragmatism is the sanctioning and surrender of sin, accepting sin as inevitable and unstoppable. I see the arguments with abortion. Supposedly if we dumped heaps of money into the projects and gang-banger-infested neighborhoods, give these folks everything for free, they'll miraculously stop aborting their babies. Not buying it.

A good example of this theory of "dump more money into poor communities, less abortions, Voila!" is the 8 years of the Obama Administration. People were saying, well, Obama's administration had WAY less abortions than during the Reagan, Bush, and second Bush administrations! Obama gave crazy amounts of dough to Planned Parenthood, had contraception everywhere, dolled out the welfare, pumped up the food stamps, gave folks free phones, and Obamacare affordable insurance flowed! As a result, mamas didn't have to abort their babies as much!

There is a problem with that whole line of thinking. It starts with statistics. The CDC reports the abortion figures for the United States. Under 60% of the abortion clinics in the United States actually report their stats to the CDC. California, for example, my state, reports ZERO abortion data to the CDC. And California, due to its off-the-charts awful amount of abortion clinics and easy access to infanticide coupled with its liberal encouragement to women to slaughter their children, California is likely a MONSTER baby-killing mill of a state. California doesn't report the data to the CDC. Maryland and New Hampshire also do not report to the CDC.

So this really prompts the question---how do we know when abortion rates are down? Can we truly draw a link between more welfare, freebies, free or cheap health care, and other things with relation to abortion? I would argue we just can't since the biggest state in the Union refuses to report along with two others. California hasn't reported abortion stats since 1997. That's been a while.

If a robust economy deters women from aborting their children, then under Trump we should see a steep decline since this is the greatest economy America has seen in generations. Black unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, female unemployment, all record lows. So this should mean women will suddenly keep and love their babies.....or we'll never find out because the stats are so deceptive and funky.

Yes, but I doubt people like Gurney would be for that :/.

 

[Zummi]

Look at it this way. As Christians, we have to subsume our personal beliefs and biases to Christ and the Church. If your personal belief or conviction goes against the Church, we have to change OUR beliefs and OUR biases. The Church does not change for us, Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If that's hard for you, it is your cross to bear, just as everybody carries their own burdens.

If one of my beliefs conflicts with the Church's teaching than it is I who is in error, not the Church.

 

[KernelPanic]

I look at the United Kingdom or Canada. What innovations are coming out of those places, with respect. Look at all the computers folks in the U.K. utilize---Macs and PC's designed largely in my state---California. Look at the cell phones folks use in Canada----iPhones or androids dreamed up here in the States.

Actually, the UK did have a bustling computer industry at one point. Popular computers in the 80s were the BBC micro and machines from Sinclair and Acorn. One of the companies that stayed on as the rest of the industry went away is ARM holdings, which currently sells its IP holdings for ARM processors that end up in iPhones, Androids and other low power devices.

Backend servers for things like websites run on Linux, which was made popular with the idea of making software open source (code is visible to all under a free software license) and a community. Today, there’s a lot of corporate contributions, but it still runs along the same community oriented model.

 

[YJM]

Actually, the UK did have a bustling computer industry at one point. Popular computers in the 80s were the BBC micro and machines from Sinclair and Acorn. One of the companies that stayed on as the rest of the industry went away is ARM holdings, which currently sells its IP holdings for ARM processors that end up in iPhones, Androids and other low power devices.

Backend servers for things like websites run on Linux, which was made popular with the idea of making software open source (code is visible to all under a free software license) and a community. Today, there’s a lot of corporate contributions, but it still runs along the same community oriented model.

Largely true.

However the company I work for is working on bleeding edge technology that 3 main contractors in the USA have said is impossible. Sadly that tech is being used to potentially kill people in conflict zones hence the reason I want out ASAP. Dreadful company and dreadful atmosphere in the place....

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

The reason my own 3 children are outstanding and so many other amazing kids I know are just that, amazing, is that they had moms who stayed home, raised them THEMSELVES, and didn't dump them into daycare, casting their kids to strangers to raise them in their stead. Personally, I hate daycare, and I see it as part of the sad system that has made millions of kids a mess. Parents no longer spend time with their own kids. They live with a stranger by day, stay in an afterschool program in the afternoon, and their "babysitter" when mom does come home is, drum roll-------the iPad! I watch these "parents" in every restaurant, doctor's office, business, and store in my town...little tiny kid in a stroller with an iPad or iPhone and the kid is a mindless zombie. They zone out and are drones, slaves to electronics. So, is daycare the "surefire" salvation you say it is? Well, I know heaps and heaps of awful kids in my classroom over the last 21 years who had full 100% daycare from infancy. And they're a mess.

There is no such thing as "free" healthcare. We all know that. There's a reason Americans' taxes aren't astronomical and our gasoline doesn't cost $8.00-$12.00 per gallon.

Cheaper tuition used to be the norm----until the U.S. government took over as the sole lender of student debt. As soon as universities and colleges learned that good ole Uncle Sam would foot the bill for all tuition, and that said tuition is guaranteed by the feds, colleges knew they could charge even more. Then they knew they could get even more.....and more....and more. This is why universities fund these extravagant sabbaticals for professors, pay folks like Hillary Clinton $100,000 to speak at their campuses, and spend money like it's being printed in the basement. They know there is literally no end to what they can charge and get from Uncle Sam. You can think government loans for the insane tuition. We haven't seen the states or the feds do anything to reign in the absurd costs of college. College shouldn't be this expensive. It's absurd. I remember when I was at Cal State Fresno, circa 1996, they charged $25 for you to "transfer" your transcripts from one department within the same university to another. Yes, two departments that are like 300 yards from each other on the same campus....$35 and it's done electronically anyway? $50 parking permit fee in 1995. Now it's over a hundred bucks. Processing fees for everything, overpaid liberal professors who teach most kids that America is a worthless racist backwater joke that needs to be annihilated and rebuilt. Meh....universities are a joke.

As far as wages are concerned, the U.S. has like the sixth highest median income in the world. Can't be all bad. I will concede, however, that wage growth has declined in proportion to inflation mostly due to the diminishment of unions in the workplace. Union membership decline and the rise of "right to work" states has created a decline.

Surefire ways to significantly lower abortion rates is to increase wages rather than keep the poverty wages the rich brainwash people into believing is fair by devaluing the work and therefore the human behind it; provide free healthcare so expectant mothers can get the care they need for themselves and their children throughout their lives; provide free or significantly cheaper college tuition so everyone has the opportunity to achieve their dreams of their field of choice regardless of where they come from or how they were raised; provide free or significantly cheaper daycare so mothers can work and not have to forfeit at least half of their wages.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

What’re you designing?!? Drones!?

Largely true.

However the company I work for is working on bleeding edge technology that 3 main contractors in the USA have said is impossible. Sadly that tech is being used to potentially kill people in conflict zones hence the reason I want out ASAP. Dreadful company and dreadful atmosphere in the place....

 

[KernelPanic]

Largely true.

However the company I work for is working on bleeding edge technology that 3 main contractors in the USA have said is impossible. Sadly that tech is being used to potentially kill people in conflict zones hence the reason I want out ASAP. Dreadful company and dreadful atmosphere in the place....

Yeah, defense contractors are always a sticky situation. A lot of those companies seem to exist to just overbill the government for everything. There's one that's in my town and some of the comments I've heard from former co-workers are less than flattering. I don't know how it is in the UK, but if you have a security clearance, that should open future job opportunities for other positions. Some defense or research jobs in the US won't even look at your resume unless you have or have held a clearance of some kind.

As for the whole developing weapons or other stuff, there's two ways to look at it. You can see it as an immoral action or you can see it as a way to deter or remove future threats from causing more harm. Both are valid in my opinion and that's kind of reflected in some of the saints. There were those who were peacekeepers and those who were soldiers that participated in battle.

In any case, I hope your job situation improves! Bad workplaces are never good for you.

 

[YJM]

What’re you designing?!? Drones!?

No I PM'd you.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I will say one thing about "pragmatism" and its effect on a personal level.

When I was 12 years old, with no real interest in boys, my mother took me to a doctor and had me put on birth control. It was a horrible experience for me, and I felt like she was saying "you're going to run around and have sex with lots of boys anyway, and I don't want you bringing home a baby". Actually she did say something to the effect that I would be having sex.

I remember being a little bit heartbroken, and sad to learn that "this is how things are". There was zero expectation that I could be better than that?

I continued for some time not to be interested in boys, just going to school and doing my homework and being "on the pill" ... but it did something to mess up how I thought of myself.

I loved my mother, and I'm sure she thought she was doing the right thing. She was a nurse, very practical, rather feminist, raising 3 kids with zero help from two ex-husbands. May God grant her mercy and rest. But I still think this is a tragic way to raise a child.

You are correct, to some degree, that I wouldn't be for that. The thing I hate about socialism and liberalism in general is this idea of "pragmatism" over morality. Any sane person would look at heroin addiction, lament it, pity the addicts, and try to fund rehabs while discouraging shooting up this heinous drug. But in places like San Francisco, my state's liberal utopia, they give them fresh needles. Pragmatism. Well, these dopers are going to keep shooting up drugs anyway, might as well give them clean needles to shoot up without passing HIV around! Pragmatism is the sanctioning and surrender of sin, accepting sin as inevitable and unstoppable. I see the arguments with abortion. Supposedly if we dumped heaps of money into the projects and gang-banger-infested neighborhoods, give these folks everything for free, they'll miraculously stop aborting their babies. Not buying it.

A good example of this theory of "dump more money into poor communities, less abortions, Voila!" is the 8 years of the Obama Administration. People were saying, well, Obama's administration had WAY less abortions than during the Reagan, Bush, and second Bush administrations! Obama gave crazy amounts of dough to Planned Parenthood, had contraception everywhere, dolled out the welfare, pumped up the food stamps, gave folks free phones, and Obamacare affordable insurance flowed! As a result, mamas didn't have to abort their babies as much!

There is a problem with that whole line of thinking. It starts with statistics. The CDC reports the abortion figures for the United States. Under 60% of the abortion clinics in the United States actually report their stats to the CDC. California, for example, my state, reports ZERO abortion data to the CDC. And California, due to its off-the-charts awful amount of abortion clinics and easy access to infanticide coupled with its liberal encouragement to women to slaughter their children, California is likely a MONSTER baby-killing mill of a state. California doesn't report the data to the CDC. Maryland and New Hampshire also do not report to the CDC.

So this really prompts the question---how do we know when abortion rates are down? Can we truly draw a link between more welfare, freebies, free or cheap health care, and other things with relation to abortion? I would argue we just can't since the biggest state in the Union refuses to report along with two others. California hasn't reported abortion stats since 1997. That's been a while.

If a robust economy deters women from aborting their children, then under Trump we should see a steep decline since this is the greatest economy America has seen in generations. Black unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, female unemployment, all record lows. So this should mean women will suddenly keep and love their babies.....or we'll never find out because the stats are so deceptive and funky.

 

[Andrei D]

My problem with the theology of birth control is that there is an undebatable link between birth control and widespread women's ability to develop academically, professionally and even spiritually and have far richer lives. In turn, that means I have the great gift of a wiser, more knowledgeable, experienced and achieved beautiful wife, who has before proven she was able to be in the leadership of a fortune 100 company and now stays at home to raise our child by choice. I cannot reconcile something evil having such pervasive wonderful downstream effect. I'm not drawing any conclusions, and I don't dare think I have some truth I discovered myself, I am just saying I have an inner controversy on the topic.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I have an inner controversy too - based on several reasons. But if I bring them out, I think it just invites discussion of the appropriateness (or not) of economia. (I'm not saying yours does that - your reasons are different from mine.)

I'm thankful it's no longer a question for me to be in conflict about. I'm past the age to get pregnant, and I was past the age to successfully carry a child some years ago. Because I probably would experience distress on some level if it was a matter of decision for me.

I did want more children though ...

 

[MariaJLM]

The reason my own 3 children are outstanding and so many other amazing kids I know are just that, amazing, is that they had moms who stayed home, raised them THEMSELVES, and didn't dump them into daycare, casting their kids to strangers to raise them in their stead. Personally, I hate daycare, and I see it as part of the sad system that has made millions of kids a mess. Parents no longer spend time with their own kids. They live with a stranger by day, stay in an afterschool program in the afternoon, and their "babysitter" when mom does come home is, drum roll-------the iPad! I watch these "parents" in every restaurant, doctor's office, business, and store in my town...little tiny kid in a stroller with an iPad or iPhone and the kid is a mindless zombie. They zone out and are drones, slaves to electronics. So, is daycare the "surefire" salvation you say it is? Well, I know heaps and heaps of awful kids in my classroom over the last 21 years who had full 100% daycare from infancy. And they're a mess.

There is no such thing as "free" healthcare. We all know that. There's a reason Americans' taxes aren't astronomical and our gasoline doesn't cost $8.00-$12.00 per gallon.

Cheaper tuition used to be the norm----until the U.S. government took over as the sole lender of student debt. As soon as universities and colleges learned that good ole Uncle Sam would foot the bill for all tuition, and that said tuition is guaranteed by the feds, colleges knew they could charge even more. Then they knew they could get even more.....and more....and more. This is why universities fund these extravagant sabbaticals for professors, pay folks like Hillary Clinton $100,000 to speak at their campuses, and spend money like it's being printed in the basement. They know there is literally no end to what they can charge and get from Uncle Sam. You can think government loans for the insane tuition. We haven't seen the states or the feds do anything to reign in the absurd costs of college. College shouldn't be this expensive. It's absurd. I remember when I was at Cal State Fresno, circa 1996, they charged $25 for you to "transfer" your transcripts from one department within the same university to another. Yes, two departments that are like 300 yards from each other on the same campus....$35 and it's done electronically anyway? $50 parking permit fee in 1995. Now it's over a hundred bucks. Processing fees for everything, overpaid liberal professors who teach most kids that America is a worthless racist backwater joke that needs to be annihilated and rebuilt. Meh....universities are a joke.

As far as wages are concerned, the U.S. has like the sixth highest median income in the world. Can't be all bad. I will concede, however, that wage growth has declined in proportion to inflation mostly due to the diminishment of unions in the workplace. Union membership decline and the rise of "right to work" states has created a decline.

I do think that, ideally, one parent should be staying home rather than dropping their kids off at some stronger's home but in today's society that is often simply not possible. The costs of living are so absurdly high that it requires two incomes. Even more so here in Canada. The more children one has the more it only increases. Stay at home parents *can* be possible, but typically only if one is already extremely wealthy or has no more than one or two children.

 

[Tutorman]

Economics: Capitalism. It isn't perfect, but communal living is nonsense. I am just a teacher. I didn't create iPhones or invent Windows and Microsoft. I didn't come up with the idea for Amazon.com or Uber. In my humble opinion, capitalism unleashes the potential of creativity and innovation. Brilliant ideas are rewarded along with hard work. Again, it isn't perfect. If unchecked and unfettered as well as unregulated completely, it favors only the top and "mom and pop" shops are eradicated along with the middle class. That's why capitalism needs checks and balances against it. Since I am merely a teacher, I get a decent wage. I make around $85,000 a year. It's respectable. It's not epic. But then again, guys like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Jeff Bezos, etc. came up with ideas that I never would fathom as possibilities. Great ideas deserve great rewards. And you don't see amazing ideas and massive ideas unleashed in heavily-socialized societies. I look at the United Kingdom or Canada. What innovations are coming out of those places, with respect. Look at all the computers folks in the U.K. utilize---Macs and PC's designed largely in my state---California. Look at the cell phones folks use in Canada----iPhones or androids dreamed up here in the States. Our movie industry, music industry, fashion industry, television industry is the most robust in the world. Innovation is unleashed when it's not completely choked and strangled by regulations, within reason. The problem with socialism, sayeth Margaret Thatcher, is you eventually run out of other people's money. Socialism leads to heavy government control and atheism usually comes close behind. Most socialized countries seem to be the most atheistic and prideful. However, I'm VERY pro-union. Unions, which were not socialist in their foundations, offered a healthy check on capitalism ensuring workers had strong wages, schedules, dignity, and retirement. The decline of unions has hurt the American worker, not helped him/her.

Abortion: aka infanticide. Baby murder. Should be illegal in all cases all the time. Threats to a mother's life are insanely rare. Harvesting fetal tissue is unconscionable and vile. Encouraging and subsidizing a mother to slaughter her own offspring is not only un-Christian, it's unthinkable in a civilized society.

LGBT issues: We have over-sanitized this issue. What these folks do in the privacy of their bedrooms is disgusting, unclean, and just plain nasty. It also happens to be contrary to Scripture, Tradition, the Fathers, the Church, and has, until the past few years, been considered a form of mental illness. The LGBT agenda is beautiful in the minds of modernist liberals because these folks cannot procreate. Liberals want zero population increase. What better way to achieve it. LGBT also goes against the traditional norms of Western Civilization. Modern liberalism is anti-Western Civilization. That's why liberals cozy up to Islam---they share a common disdain for Western heritage. The LGBT community is ripe for propaganda and control of people. They use this wedge issue for lawsuits, persecuting an "intolerant" Church, and discrediting people. It's but one more thing the Far Left can utilize to shame their opponents. It is unnatural, unclean, un-Godly, and unacceptable.

Euthanasia: Nyet. Suicide is never an acceptable solution. Suffering, sadly, is a part of life. It is the destiny of some, others will be spared it. I hope I am. I hope all in this forum are. But we are called to take up our Crosses, pray, hope, and never see despair and annihilation as norms. It goes against the Hippocratic oath and is another innovation of the Far Left that is anti-Western Civilization. What happened to euthanasia and suicide being tragedies? Again, it is a lack of a good classical education that leads to acceptance of these vile things. I look at antiquity in such stories as The Aeneid where Queen Dido kills herself because of the pain of the curse laid upon her while Cassandra copes with her curse by Apollo and struggles, keeping up the good fight. When did despair become chiq?

Immigration: I see no real statistical proof that massive diversity is a strength. In most Western countries, the more diversity, the more violence, intolerance, racism, hatred, and struggles have come to the fore. That being said, I'm not opposed to diversity, just not convinced it's a strength. I see that as a feeling, not a fact. I'm a sovereigntist. My country has the right to heavily regulate, monitor, scrutinize, and inspect anyone seeking to become a resident or citizen. Citizenship in the U.S. is a right, not a privilege. I'm for heavy vetting, not pandering to just the Southern border, I'm fine with voter ID laws, and if we are to have a robust farmworker program, then we need something akin to the Bracero Program with structure, limitations, rights for the immigrant, dignity for the immigrant, clean and dignified conditions, and monitoring. We need to focus more on skilled labor and medical professionals than unskilled labor imho. I see nothing wrong with nationalism as long as it is not fascist. Nationalism does not automatically equate to Hitler and company. That's a cliche. I'd much prefer to nationalism and pride in one's country over the idea of globalism. God forbid. I don't need someone in Belgium, Toronto, Paris, London, or Rio de Janeiro telling my state and my country how much they can ship, grow, export, import, and how much my currency is worth. I don't need foreigners dictating my laws, destiny, or values. I don't need foreign nations dictating to my country how many immigrants to take in from the Middle East or how much to tax our people. Pass.


Racism: Racism sucks. There is no place for it in a civil society. But the word "racism" has become watered-down and a buzz word that is comfy for people to whip out for purposes of discrediting, ruination, and humiliation. Racism seems to be, in 2019, a one-way street. Only white folks can be racists it seems, and never people of color. Some of the most racist people I've observed were non-white in my life in Central California.

Contraception: Government should not pay for people to not have sex. If people want to use contraception, that is their thing. I shouldn't subsidize people getting horizontal.

Intervention/War: The Iraq War was a good example of a farcical use of American power imho. But America must police the world because the world ALWAYS HAS AND ALWAYS WILL need policing. My view on this often angers people, but I maintain that a world with a weak America is akin to a world with a crippled Roman Empire. Human nature is that mankind will always want power and dominance. World War I happened because of a lack of a global policing. World War II occurred because Hitler was left unchecked, totally able to encroach and conquer at will. Take America out of the world and Russia and China will utterly dominate along with Iran in the Middle East. While American intervention can often be for selfish reasons (petro dollar anyone?), it is sometimes the only thing keeping dictators and psychopaths at bay. I'm not a Zionist. I don't see Israel as some rebuilding of the folks we see in the Old Testament. I've been to Israel, so I have at least "some" exposure. Israel is largely a secular atheist country. It's not a religious hub or prophetic piece. For me as a Christian, it is a place to visit ancient, holy places, nothing more. I don't believe our future salvation revolves around Jews.

It seems people who believe like us (I share your beliefs, though I am a tutor not a teacher ) are becoming extinct

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

It seems people who believe like us (I share your beliefs, though I am a tutor not a teacher ) are becoming extinct

Due to mocking, name calling and ridicule to mention some of the reasons why...

 

[Andrei D]

deleted, sorry

 

[GoingByzantine]

I will say one thing about "pragmatism" and its effect on a personal level.

When I was 12 years old, with no real interest in boys, my mother took me to a doctor and had me put on birth control. It was a horrible experience for me, and I felt like she was saying "you're going to run around and have sex with lots of boys anyway, and I don't want you bringing home a baby". Actually she did say something to the effect that I would be having sex.

I remember being a little bit heartbroken, and sad to learn that "this is how things are". There was zero expectation that I could be better than that?

I continued for some time not to be interested in boys, just going to school and doing my homework and being "on the pill" ... but it did something to mess up how I thought of myself.

I loved my mother, and I'm sure she thought she was doing the right thing. She was a nurse, very practical, rather feminist, raising 3 kids with zero help from two ex-husbands. May God grant her mercy and rest. But I still think this is a tragic way to raise a child.

I can't speak about this personally (for obvious reasons), but there have been women I know of who went through similar things. I have heard that the pill is "necessary for regulation" and similar things, but that just can't be right. God already created the perfect system for all of us, a system that humans have been using since the dawn of time. That system has been and continues to be upended in Western Society. It's quite a shame. Our parents honestly didn't know better, and now we are forced to bear these same decisions for our children.

It's already been said, but I think that the role of Capitalism has impacted our ideas of what is and isn't normal. Everyone is in a rush to reach the top of their profession, to make big money, to go on vacations and own fancy items. In this pursuit, they forget about the true meaning of life. They forget about their faith, their family and their children. At the end of the day it is the children who suffer the most under this system. Just as little girls are put on chemical pills to regulate their natural functions, little boys are put on ADD and ADHD medicine that wreck their brains and turn them into shells of themselves. Then there are children who are outright abandoned - they end up on street drugs, locked in prison, in homeless camps etc. all because of the selfishness of humankind.

 

[Moses Medina]

@MariaJLM

Hey, just letting you know my wife is a new convert to Orthodoxy, she holds near identical views. She has felt isolated at times, esoecially in the LCMS (Lutheranism) but has found Orthodoxy to be a wonderful experience. I pray you find solace, keep up the faith, keep the prayers. You are not alone.

 

[MariaJLM]

@MariaJLM

Hey, just letting you know my wife is a new convert to Orthodoxy, she holds near identical views. She has felt isolated at times, esoecially in the LCMS (Lutheranism) but has found Orthodoxy to be a wonderful experience. I pray you find solace, keep up the faith, keep the prayers. You are not alone.

Thank you. I needed to hear this. It can be quite isolating, especially in a church that is seen as being "right-wing" and where nearly anything even remotely resembling leftism is widely condemned. I fully admit to having leftist sensibilities, but I'd say it stems primarily from my upbringing in poverty. I think people should just be thankful I'm no longer a full-blown Marxist as I was before I converted.