I wonder.

or: Gossip is a sin.

In a discussion of a recent article, people began discussing the intimate details of the personal lives of some parishioners somewhere and how this intersected with their sacramental life. Now, the Church itself did not comment on this, because it cannot and will not comment on the anything even approaching the seal of the confessional and it would be wholly inappropriate to discuss private individuals openly on the internet for everybody. That would be evil, that would be gossip. And so, to the clergy of a certain city who wrote a complaining letter about something, and to others who talk on the internet about private individuals, I have a handful of questions:

How are you so familiar with the intimate details of the personal lives of these parishioners? And why are you sharing it with the world at large? If you're sharing it with the world at large, you surely didn't hear it in the confessional, but that would surely also mean you don't know their sins, so why are you discussing them so surely?

And then, just as a reminder, the bishops of the church frequently and continually refer to their encyclicals on marriage which clearly state the Orthodox teaching on the matter. In fact, they seem willing to sign their name to these declarations and encyclicals at every opportunity to comment. But this seems not to be enough, they want the bishops to discuss how they deal with private individuals and to do so publicly on the national stage. I believe some important guy somewhere once said something along the lines of, "What is that to you?" once, and this seems like it would be an appropriate response.

A note about a certain Orthodox facebook group

I have had enough of the Takfiri Orthodox. If all your religion does for you is give you more and better ways to be an asshole, you're doing it wrong.

I mean, I know I'm an asshole. I don't pretend that my assholishness (except for this precise moment) is in any way virtue or an exercise of religion.

This is not just about a facebook group. There is a certain strand of Orthodoxy in America that needs to be right, and it's willing to fight for what is right, but it seems to confuse being an asshole for being right. And so they do assholish things in the service of fighting some battle that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but they're justified because they're right. The Fathers were polemical, you know. So they feel free to trot out personal details and drag them through the mud, for instance, in the service of their petty battles for the phronema. cf the little, little man Rod Dreher demonstrated himself to be a few years ago. cf in the Arida matter, some people are bringing up familial details of people nearby - this is not kosher. I realize that, for the LARPodox, this is all Serious Business, and therefore the tactics appropriate for a knife fight in a phone booth apply. For the adults in the room, however, a better path presents itself: repenting and following the gospel of Jesus Christ.

HUMBLE YOURSELF.