On some other message board somewhere, in the land of crazy people talking about Orthodoxy (why are they all crazy on the internet?), some guy started a thread complaining about how his priest wasn't hard enough on him in confession. Namely, he uses pornography and such and wanted practical advice about kicking the habit. The priest, however, according to his impressions, was basically saying, "Yeah, whatevs, stop doing it, it's bad. Okay, let's talk about the other stuff." At the time, I said, in my infinite wisdom, that it's a specific problem and the priest might not have the specific resources to help him deal with it. Big deal, go to SA or something, get professional help, whatever. He's not being a bad priest.
Recently, though, somebody brought up how utterly weird this stuff can get. In retrospect, I think the guy should be grateful his priest isn't some weird fellow who wants to get involved with this sort of stuff (perhaps helpfully, perhaps not). This stuff can get downright crazy. However, some people, it seems, want the crazy. Not sure what can be done for them. Perhaps they can all get on a boat and sail to an island that they can have for themselves.
2 comments:
Wasn't that island, that city on a hill, what New England and the New World was meant to be?
Priests are not in possession of magic bullets against sin, just as they aren't in possession of a switch that turns the Uncreated Light on and off for you. Sometimes, pastoral forbearance and encouragement to struggle without winning, and without calling a sin something other than sin is what's called for.
Also, we often choose the 'safest' sins to be obsessed with. Porn might be embarrassing and fittingly 'sinful' to confess, but pride, gluttony, rapacity, greed, and hardheartedness might be our unseen problems of far greater import to our salvation (and to those around us). Triage and picking one's fights happens in church, too.
I definitely agree.
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