Food for thought
I wonder...
What do you all think means to be an Orthodox Christian today, especially in Western part of the world?
Other than all these externalities, beautiful services, prayers and icons, warm fuzzy feeling of belonging to the 'real', traditional Christianity, does it really mean anything special to you, something you'd die for?
Is it possible for an Orthodox Christian to remain a true follower of Christ in the modern pluralistic society, for example, in America?
Is it completely normal for a Christian to hide their faith behind so-called 'love' thus remaining silent about Christ to anyone non-Christian in the midst of this world. It's 'love', we think, because we pretend we don't want to 'hurt' other people feelings by not mentioning Christ and his Gospel? Being politically correct 99.9% of the time...
Can we just happily live same as we are, unchanged, 100% satisfied with who we are? Isn't it somehow plain wrong? What about taking up our Cross and fighting our own passions?
Does it mean that the true Christianity nowadays is ALL about social work (feeding poor etc.) and politics (gain power via connections with government, like in Russia), and there is no time for an average person left to think about such 'nonsense' as personal repentance, personal guilt before others, not to mention quietly crying about own sins.
What do you think?
What do you all think means to be an Orthodox Christian today, especially in Western part of the world?
Other than all these externalities, beautiful services, prayers and icons, warm fuzzy feeling of belonging to the 'real', traditional Christianity, does it really mean anything special to you, something you'd die for?
Is it possible for an Orthodox Christian to remain a true follower of Christ in the modern pluralistic society, for example, in America?
Is it completely normal for a Christian to hide their faith behind so-called 'love' thus remaining silent about Christ to anyone non-Christian in the midst of this world. It's 'love', we think, because we pretend we don't want to 'hurt' other people feelings by not mentioning Christ and his Gospel? Being politically correct 99.9% of the time...
Can we just happily live same as we are, unchanged, 100% satisfied with who we are? Isn't it somehow plain wrong? What about taking up our Cross and fighting our own passions?
Does it mean that the true Christianity nowadays is ALL about social work (feeding poor etc.) and politics (gain power via connections with government, like in Russia), and there is no time for an average person left to think about such 'nonsense' as personal repentance, personal guilt before others, not to mention quietly crying about own sins.
What do you think?