It pains me to hear anyone encourage discrimination. In America we have laws against discrimination. May the Lord help us to preserve, maintain and enforce those good, correct laws.

Homosexual marriage is unpalatable to Orthodox thinking. This is a civil matter, however. There is no talk of forcing any church to marry same-sex couples. This is about legal equality, partner benefits…

The notion that it is a “threat” is preposterous. Orthodox are free to speak about why homosexual activity is sinful: to each other, to their children, to non-Orthodox. As Orthodox, we have that right. Let’s not deny others a CIVIL right. Let’s not set a precedent for denying civil rights. Otherwise, we soon might lose the right to speak our minds.

If same-sex marriage is a threat, so are many, many other things in this life.
Why not talk about inequality, social injustice, the expoitation of the poor by the rich, the weak by the strong? People who protest same-sex marriage should cry out against real injustice, confronting the strong, not the weak.

If respected voices in the Orthodox Church continue to come out against CIVIL rights, the future of the Church in this country will be dim. Young people of today and tomorrow will not accept this hatred, bigotry, and the immense hypocrisy of denying civil benefits to fellow citizens while ignoring other cases of non-Christian behavior because spiritual courage is lacking to confront entrenched interests. Young Orthodox love their Orthodox faith, but they also love their country and the values of fairness and tolerance at its core. Tolerance is not a “notorious” idol. Tolerance means not judging (Matthew 7:1).

We do not live in a religiously homogeneous society. Our neighbors are of different religions, or no religion. Let us pray that they all sin no more and come to the Orthodox faith. But let us pray that the Lord forgive our own sins also. We should be moving towards Christ: our eyes should be focused straight ahead. If we look back or to the side, at what somebody else is doing, we’ll lose our way.

I am Orthodox.
I support the President.
The Lord knows who is true to His teachings.

The tragic part is that many Orthodox Christians are apathetic toward statements like these. Our Church not having had a position of influence in this country, and thus not being part of the social fabric at a higher level, people do not realize how far this will affect us. Orthodox in America are often dualistic about religion (private) and politics (abstract), not understanding the dynamic of culture. We think we are “above the fray” and hold political views inconsistent with our ecclesiastical morality. We generally accept these things, and we thus allow them, and their consequences, to happen.