Orthodox Editors

Hope and Change … the Constitution

March 29, 2010March 30, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

Human Events | by Larry Elder | 3/25/2010

We live in a fundamentally different country from that which existed only days ago. The government now requires that every American purchase health insurance. The Constitution has been attacked, interpreted in a way beyond its original intent. Therefore, we must change it.

Ignoring the will of the majority of the American people, the discouraging experiences of countries with socialized medicine, and the already staggering amount of entitlement debt, President Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats “reformed” health care. Once a nation under a Constitution that restricted government intrusion, we now want government to provide for our “needs” by calling them “rights.” [Read more…]

Coercive Charity Destroys the Human Spirit

March 26, 2010March 26, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

American Thinker | by Joseph Rosenberger| 3/26/2010

A society that compels each individual to provide for the personal happiness of one’s neighbor, which can come only from selling one’s labor or one’s private property, and then handing those earnings over by confiscatory taxes, is a society with less individual freedom or liberty. At the current bankrupting levels of benevolence that comprise Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, this health care log will no doubt pulverize every bone in the camel. The destruction of our great nation — what the enemies of America could not accomplish by war, we are doing to ourselves by misplaced compassion.

We are not a collective. Nor are we slaves or servants to each other. While we hold many things in common, we must keep our hands off that from which all goodness and compassion come: the individual. [Read more…]

The Witness of the Holy Spirit

March 25, 2010March 25, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

BreakPoint | by Regis Nicoll | 3/12/2010

God: “He is there,” wrote the late Francis Schaeffer, “and He is not silent.”

As I have noted elsewhere, God not only is there, he has given us ample evidence of that fact through his Word: the incarnate Word of Jesus Christ, the written Word of Scripture, and the Word of creation, conscience, and the Church, with the indwelling Word of Holy Spirit as light and guide.

Misunderstood, ignored
Few doctrines of the Church are as misunderstood as that of the Holy Spirit. I suspect this is partly due to His title. The word “spirit” conjures up a fuzzy, if not, spooky image—a mysterious life-force, a formless immaterial being, a wraith—that inclines us to think of the Holy Spirit as “it” rather than “Him.”

There’s also the matter of instruction. Although we give the Holy Spirit a nod in our slogans, mission statements and church talk, He is largely ignored in our teaching, except as he relates to our spiritual gifts and prayer life. [Read more…]

Exempted From Obamacare: Senior Staff Who Wrote the Bill

March 24, 2010March 25, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

New Ledger | by Ben Domenech | 3/22/2010

For as long as the political fight took over the past year, the abbreviated review process on the health care legislation currently pending on President Obama’s desk is unquestionably going to result in some surprises — as happens with any piece of mashed-up legislation — both for the congressmen who voted for it and for the American people.

One such surprise is found on page 158 of the legislation, which appears to create a carveout for senior staff members in the leadership offices and on congressional committees, essentially exempting those senior Democrat staffers who wrote the bill from being forced to purchase health care plans in the same way as other Americans. [Read more…]

20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms

March 23, 2010March 23, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

Investors.com | by David Hogberg | 3/23/2010

It is worthwhile to take a comprehensive look at the freedoms we will lose under ObamaCare.

Of course, the bill is supposed to provide us with security. But it will result in skyrocketing insurance costs and physicians leaving the field in droves, making it harder to afford and find medical care. We may be about to live Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” [Read more…]

Leadership: Is the Microphone On?

March 23, 2010March 23, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

The Orthodox Leader | by Fr Basil Biberdorf | 3/23/2010

The recent turmoil surrounding the recent passage of healthcare legislation by the United States Congress is providing ample opportunity to look at the absence of Orthodox leadership. As a reminder, this blog’s purpose is not political. To the extent this legislation reflects Caesar’s affairs, it is generally best for the Church to remain silent.

Sadly, though, this legislation is not purely about political matters, for it has provisions for using taxes gathered from individuals, including Christians, to pay for elective abortions in all or part (c.f., here and here). Despite the scandalously equivocal language used by the Ecumenical Patriarch in discussing abortion (c.f., here, here, here, and here), the Church’s teaching cannot be misunderstood. As a best example, consider St. Basil the Great (AD 330-379), who says absolutely nothing new: “Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses” (Letter 188).

Children in the womb are human beings, and their willful destruction is murder. So what about all those who will now find themselves accessories to the crime through the new legal requirement to fund abortion? [Read more…]

America Lost

March 22, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

American Thinker | by Steve McCann | 3/22/2010

In the 1970s, there was an evocative public service advertisement on television. It showed an old and grizzled Native American Chief with a tear rolling down his cheek as he surveyed the pollution scaring the landscape of the once-pristine land.

As the House of Representatives passed Health Care Reform, many of us who were blessed to immigrate to the United States in search of freedom and opportunity (and were welcomed with open arms) found ourselves looking across the panorama of our adopted land with a tear rolling down our cheek.

Many of us who came to the United States did so to escape the brutal hand of government or as survivors of the consequences of tyranny run amok.

It has become difficult to watch, as our adopted land appears to have chosen a path that will lead to a nation we dare not imagine: a nation beginning to resemble what we left behind. [Read more…]

Congress Health Care Vote: A Dark Day for Freedom in America

March 22, 2010March 22, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

Telegraph UK | by Nile Gardiner | 3/22/2010

The passage last night of Barack Obama’s health care reform bill through the House of Representatives is yet another blow to freedom in America inflicted by the Obama administration. The legislation, which comes at a staggering cost of $940 billion, will hugely add to the already towering national debt, now at over $12 trillion. It is yet another millstone round the necks of the American people, already faced with the highest levels of unemployment in a generation. [Read more…]

Orthodox Priest: Appeal for Prayer and Fasting, Fight Demonic ObamaCare Bill

March 19, 2010March 20, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

by Fr. Demetrios Carellas | 3/19/2010

“And He said to them, ‘This kind can come forth by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.’” (Mark 9:29)

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said those words to His disciples, when they asked Him why they were unable to expel the demonic spirit from the man’s son. I firmly believe that we have a similar situation today in our Nation. It is the goal of the party in power to have signed into law by March 22, 2010 a national health care bill, which would permit the use of taxpayers’ dollars to fund abortion on demand. While there are many other things in this health care bill that should cause us much concern (in addition to the fact that the majority of the people in Congress have not even fully read the bill!), the ‘keystone’ of this Bill’s foundation is to – in essence – make the killing of pre-born children a part of the very fabric of our Society. As one person stated, if this becomes law, then the pro-abortion movement, will have finally acquired its “Holy Grail”: using tax dollars to pay for abortions.

As a Greek Orthodox priest, I am compelled – in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus – to rebuke and renounce this Bill as being demonic. Although there might be some good things within the Bill, they are totally negated by the presence of this ungodly attempt to make every working American culpable to the blood of these precious little ones, who are being slaughtered by the thousands – for PROFIT – everyday of the year! [Read more…]

Beyond Arrogance – Obama & Company’s Reckless Disregard for the Rule of Law

March 19, 2010March 19, 2010 by Orthodox Editors

RedState | by hogan | 3/19/2010

The United States of America is great for a number of reasons. Its commitment to liberty, dedication to charity, defense of its friends and freedom around the globe, historical reliance on the individual and on free markets, and in my opinion, national reverence for the Almighty, are among those things that make our nation the greatest the world has ever known.

But perhaps second only to our collective Faith in God – our commitment to the rule of law sets us apart and serves as the foundation for our strength and prosperity. One need not look any farther than our southern neighbors in Mexico to see what the world looks like when the rule of law is abandoned. [Read more…]