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I think that the ancient Pagans at least reveled in virtue, or at least tried to live up to it. Modern secularists and "Neo-Pagans" revel in vice and try to live up to it.

Dear Bob,

Thanks for your very good post with its excellent sociological insights, and for validating my memories of values of a by gone era which was not all that long ago...

In Christ,
Alice

That is really funny because I have thought the same thing! Wow great minds think alike! When my grandfather did it my MOm and her sisters suffered for decades. My Mother wrote him when he did it and told him it was sinful and his mother would be ashamed. He stopped talking to her her for almost a year. When grandfather died a few years back he in a moment of clarity said he was sorry for what he did to his wife and to his daughters. He died a few weeks later. Before he died I sent a priest to him to give him absolution. Anyways this crime does damage to all around.

My grandmother said when she was young that yes some people did do immoral things but they tried to hide it due to public shame. The norm was to wait until you married and don't leave your spouse. There was a sense of right and wrong.

ALICE:

Thanks for the affirmation. Most of the time when I say things like this I'm dismissed as just a cranky old man.

And here's to cranky old men!!!

Seriously, though, it seems to me that it takes a community to sustain virtue. Like the case where people say it takes a village to raise a child, it takes the support of a group to stay on the straight and narrow. That's why when a group loses its moral compass the members start to drift away because the group has lost its reason to exist: supporting its members in what brought the like-minded people together in the first place. I once heard that an isolated Christian is one that is soon lost. Even with a super-strong faith, one does not continue along the path. It takes the collective memory of the group and the striving together in virtuous living that makes the Christian able to grow in the Faith, give example and support ot others, and to receive encouragement when one slips. But all this is lost in so many quarters today.

BOB

Dear MrsMW,Thank God,your grandfather realised his wrong before the end.I was married 30 years and while I never left her for another woman,I wasn't always the best husband or father.When she died,I thought I'd leave the priesthood and remarry.I realise now I just can't do that.Not just because it would be a shame to give up after 31 years(WHICH IT WOULD),but I really feel as if I'm still married to my wife.Back to the original topic of the post,yes,I do have a problem with the Russian Church giving the Castro brothers an award.Things like this prevent me from even thinking about returning to ROCOR.I currently serve in the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Father bless,
I asked a ROCOR priest about the conflict in the Ukraine and it was so one sided I didn't even bother to ask anything more. He managed to even throw in something about why the Ukrainian Catholics were to blame for some of it. I really enjoyed my time with this priest but the pro-Russia stuff was a bit much.

God bless you for staying a priest. Maybe you can use your life to help others make better marriages. I know so many couples that could use a good talking to! Men need other men to tell them this stuff.

I one talked a Serbian girl into staying Orthodox even though I was a strict protestant at the time. I remember thinking "Why am I doing this?" Last I saw she had remained Orthodox.

I don't read Playboy, have never been to Cuba (which I regret - it's said to be a nice place for vacationers), and the whole idea of "models", whether clothed or otherwise, is unsavoury and closely associated with consumerism.

I remember the time, about 20 years ago, that the first "beauty contest" took place in Moscow - this was supposed to be a sign of "perestroika" or some such. The organizers had the chutzpah to invite a bishop to be among the judges. For his part, the bishop actually turned up (fully clothed); he had misunderstood the term "beauty contest" and thought it had something to do with objets d'art and so on. Well, when these particular beauties appeared, the poor bishop turned beet red, grabbed his walking-stick, and raced for the exit! I have no idea who won the contest, but the bishop was certainly the star of the show!

Then there was the time in Athens, shortly after Papadopoulos took over, that the dictatorship staged a "Miss Christ is Born" beauty contest in the Grand Bretagne Hotel, to coincide with the night service of Christmas Eve in the Cathedral just a few blocks away. As one journalist's account put it "the chanters were singing 'Today the Virgin gives birth . . .' and the great and not-so-good of the regime were admiring the not too virginal charms of the contestants in the 'Miss Christ is Born' Beauty Contest . . ." I believe it was both the first and last event to be so titled.

As for the awards to Fidel and Raul Castro, I would take it for granted that, as has already been said, this was simply a way of returning thanks for the building of the cathedral.

I don't want to bring on an acrimonious discussion of Cuba, so I shall confine myself to the observation that there are two sides to the story.

Fr. Serge