The Orthodox Stance On Moral And Social Issues (Discovering Orthodox Christianity)

welcome to discovering Orthodox Christianity I'm Stacy Spanos your host for the series of programs designed to explain the basic teachings of Orthodox Christianity we're honored to be filming at the Holy Cross Chapel on the campus of Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox school of theology in the beautiful city of Boston in today's program we'll discuss the Orthodox stance on moral and social issues our guests today are His Eminence metropolitan Nicolas of Detroit thank you for being here and also father Nathanael Simeone these pastor of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in New York City and he is also the director of the archdiocese --an Advisory Committee on science and technology it's a pleasure to have you both here today your eminence let me begin with you when we talk about moral and social issues that face Orthodox Christians what are we talking about I think in the United States today we're really dealing with what we consider to be modern concerns issues of sex and sexuality issues of lifestyle issues of medication of treatment of non treatment and we think many times that these are the first times the church has looked at this but in reality some of these issues especially issues dealing basic social issues of sex and family have been issues the church struggled with for many centuries and dealt with from the beginning of time but certainly your eminence they've gotten more complex through the years our age is a different age and the difference is in community and in society I seem to request a different answer from us at times and sometimes there are issues that we have not yet explored we didn't have some of the issues based on the modern technology that father Nathan is familiar with we didn't have those kinds of concerns or questions 2,000 years ago they're showing today father Nathaniel you are the director of the Committee on science of technology for the Archdiocese and this is a committee that didn't exist what before 15 years who decided that it was time that the church look into these issues well His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios one of the first things he did as the Archbishop of America was to establish this Advisory Committee because he felt the need for the church to really start discussing some of these social and moral issues some of the more ancient issues some of the things that perhaps we the church looked at in the past but more importantly some of the newer issues related to technology and how they affect our lives today so His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios was the one who helped establish that and give us an example of some of the things you discuss who's in this council who presents before the council so the council is made up of at the moment of over 50 participants advisors and we call on all advisors from around the United States to present papers to speak at parishes about their own areas of specialty they also come together at the clergy laity meetings twice a once every two years and we discuss issues such as abortion we have looked at issues related to the environment how to be better stewards of the environment energy conservation we've looked at issues around human cloning and the stem-cell research and the hope is for this committee to start issuing parish resources through the participation and cooperation with the Holy Synod to be able to inform the Synod of the different issues of our times to pretty much get the Commission from the Senate to be able to go and offer some of the materials to our parishioners your eminence and speaking to Father Nathaniel he informed me that they don't necessarily issue guidelines in that committee yet on some very important social issues the church does have stances give us an example of some of the stances the church is taken on certain societal issues that we're facing we have a basic concern that people have today and have had from the beginning of the history of the church our issues dealing with abortion the church has a stance and abortion and that stance is that the church is really pro-life there is perhaps some development and some change that would come into play because certainly in the first and second and third centuries and the fourth centuries in all the early history of the church it was not perhaps possible to distinguish between a medical abortion for the life of the mother if that is to be considered as support as opposed to any abortion so those issues have perhaps complicated the the discussion more but it's a very standard and a very basic question most people in the United States now have the sense that life again is about what we want and they have forgotten that life is God's gift to us having forgotten that that's where the issue of abortion almost as a in some cases just a means of birth control comes in and creates a whole different realm of problems even the ability to buy medications that would terminate a pregnancy we have we have seen all of these issues again and that's in the social areas dealing about us and what we want we've not understood that life starts out as the gift of God and that creates a fundamental problem there to double will leap more deeply into the abortion issue there are some who believe life begins at conception there are others who don't believe that does the church weigh in on that the church would be with life at conception conception yes father Nathaniel let me ask you about some other issues some hot-button issues right now same-sex marriage has the church taken a stance on that well the church is stance on marriage is clear from the very beginning marriage was always the union between a man and a woman the church only marries men and women and so on that front yes the church has a position in terms of the modern-day discussion the modern-day discussion is connected to a lot of different things that not just marriage per se or the the civil unions as someone would like to call it it's it's also connected to human rights and civil liberties so the church on the one hand only recognizes marriage between as a union between a man and a woman but is also looking at the concerns that some of the people in the gay community have such as the inability to have the same rights as a married couple when visiting someone in the hospital so we are the churches trying to put forward a position that's nuanced that's informed but also very consistent with it's a faith tradition your eminence if I can ask you about another hot-button issue and especially one that was very prominent in your area up in Detroit physician assisted suicide of course with dr. Jack Kevorkian who has since passed away yes does a church have a stance on that well I I think say see we're going back to the beginning life is God's gift recently I was in a in a store and I knew the shopkeeper and he was telling me I had known that a year ago his wife had died and I had gone in to see him and I missed him and he as I went in now and he told me you know God lent her to me for 35 years and I think it was his way of acknowledging that part of of the truth that life is God's so the problem that we have for the assisted suicide is the issue first of all who's whose life is that I'm living it what is the dignity of the life but there's something else that comes into play sometimes people feel a sense of hopelessness and we have forgotten that sometimes in order to get to the end we have to go through the struggle so physician assisted suicide as a means to end a life where one could still give glory to God where one could still have human connection is problematic to us I would however I want to I want to pull in a different issue and that is what happens at end of life when do we stop for example of promoting physical medical care for someone and when my in my ministry I have always tried to ask the family and and and work with this issue are we preserving the possibility of life or are we simply avoiding death and I think that's the question that has to be meted out there but the idea that someone alone or in concert with a physician could determine that this life has no more possibility of being saved also removes whether it's frequent or infrequent is not the question God's miraculous intervention we remove it ourselves and that becomes the problem I will tell you that the greatest I think difficulty for the person in this position seeking a an assisted suicide is the idea that in their minds they are it's not worthwhile life is not worthwhile life has become meaningless and sometimes it's because they don't recognize that God is with them God is there and he hears them and he holds them and he loves them and that's the job of the pastor that's the job of the priest that's a job of the family community to come in and hold and love that person so I think that it starts out from the issue of not recognizing that life is God's gift to us and I think it it gets more complicated when we determine that there is no hope that I think from a hospital perspective of a father you may agree with me or not but I think that what we do in the hospitals when we don't give a person a sense of hope we remove to some degree the ability to continue struggling father Nathaniel on your committee you said one of the other things that you discuss is social media and the prominence of it along with 24-hour internet access comes a lot of pornography viewing we know that as a church taking a stance on pornography and if so what absolutely Stacey so just to come back to the committee the committee has three areas that it looks at the first is the environment the second is Bioethics and Medical Ethics and third is social media and information technology so the Church's position on pornography is very clear it's something that shatters the image of Christ in each of us when we view whether you're viewing it in a magazine or in on a television screen or now on your computer or your smartphone even the church rejects that and we we have in conjunction with the information technology department have issued statements against online pornography there are resources on our archdiocese and website and the archdiocese is also working with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the Catholic the bit Roman Catholic Bishops in America to offer families various resources to help educate families to help protect children so there are now not only adults watching pornography but also because of the use of smartphones and the prevalence of social media in our lives little kids are exposed to it more and more your evidence let me ask you about some of the issues that are polarizing a lot of Americans these days should the church say something about these issues be more vocal about these issues and risk alienating parishioners should we be worried about that which is specifically the moral issues your moral issues yes I think that we have to speak I think the problem is that we are unclear what our people understand can we draw them into the process of making our statements understandable because that's part of the question to simply get up and make a proclamation from the pulpit and have somebody not really get it and send them out into world that 24/7 is dealing with the opposite impression doesn't help them we need to be able to involve them in the conversation make them understand what that means for example with even with the issue of pornography that it again deals with the self it is something about me I want this for me it doesn't deal with the dignity of the other person it doesn't deal with the dignity of the human being it deals specifically with the self so I think we have to speak more clearly but we also have to speak more articulately to the people so that they have the ability to understand why this makes sense we can't simply make a same pornography is wrong but why why now when we explain it when we talk about the dignity of the human being that the love that the husband would have for his wife the fact that we are not created our sexuality is not just for us it happens to be a mechanism of salvation between husband and wife and more than that it is part of a community's a gift from God so we're not here just for ourselves and that's that's part of where we have perhaps not adequately explained our message have either one of you lost parishioners because they didn't like the stance the church has taken on a particular issue have they said I'm not coming back here because of that I know many just as an example I know many Catholics shy away from attending church because they don't agree with the birth control policy of the church I have not and I can't say that I stand at the pulpit and I you know pontificate and claim to even know the position of the church or state the position of the church on all these different matters the beauty of the Orthodox Church is that we have a personal connection with our people when they come to us and they speak to us that's when as his Eminence said we can discern what level they are how much of our faith they understand and offer them guidance and explain to them why the church believes this is wrong why this is the church's position and they you engage in a dialogue and they more readily accept what the church believes rather than issuing a statement a generic statement against abortion or birth control or any of these issues that one might want to ask such a priest or the church the personal connection the the interaction the personal interaction is very important and that's what I think keeps our people engaged in wanting to learn more I would add Stacey that one of the problems is that we make statements and we cannot forget that in the congregation are people who have had abortions in the congregation are people who are in same-sex relationships that's a possibility there and that's the problematic of simply making a kind of overt statement without understanding without the people being able to understand why it makes sense to the church this way and why the other doesn't and that's that's I think is that is the greater key so have we had we've certainly I've had people complain to me that priests said something about abortion while he's supposed to but the point was it wasn't in the context in which he could develop give the information and and and help the person understand if I would even call it in this manner the logic and the wisdom of the church's stands so can the person just decide for themselves then what is right and what is wrong I think sometimes people do I think sometimes people who are not coming to the church for worship but it may be occasional visitors people who have never had the stole of the priests placed on them for confession people who have never been able to open up themselves and ask what am i doing people who haven't heard and we've said this before who haven't heard the voice of God to Paul on the road to them what are you doing when a person comes into contact with God in that force the light their life has changed and once our life has changed all these things become discussable in a real way because the person is seeking to learn sometimes we ask questions because we want a particular answer we don't really want the truth we want an particular answer what I'm getting the sense I'm getting of Orthodox Christianity throughout these programs is one of Orthodox Christianity is like a parent an authoritative parent but not an authoritarian parent that there have guidelines but they also approach each situation differently and come from a spirit of compassion and love that's the sense I'm getting am i off and thinking of it that way I think I always go back to the baptismal statement blessed is God who desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of truth our goal is to help everybody on that journey for some people the same issue what appears to be the same might require strictness for somebody else it might require some laxity because the issue is not to stop and say make them stop and think what are we doing and then to help them move on so there is there are rules but that's why the bishops the priests by extension have that ability to help make the exception for the person and father Nathanael we've seen other denominations that are very rigid in their rules absolutely no homosexuals absolutely not this absolutely not that and in fact a lot of them preach it from the pulpit that is not the style of the Orthodox Church is that a concerted effort not to be that way if I may say see there are other also other denominations that say anything goes right so they were we invite everyone everyone's invited to the table so I just come as you are don't worry about anything just come and I would say that neither of those represents what the Orthodox Church is or tries to do and if I may I think the Orthodox Church can be compared to a hospital and the pastor or the bishop is the doctor and Christ is the doctor become to the church to be healed and every one of us has ailments and so when we go to the doctor when we go to the hospital it takes that physician it takes time for him or her to come to get to know you to do to diagnose what's wrong with you to establish a history of medical issues with your family with you to be able to then guide you to give you the proper prescription so that is what the church is the church is ultimately the body of Christ and people come to be incorporated into it not to be necessarily cut off from the body of Christ and we do that in different ways for each people for each person depending on what it needs needs to be grafted onto that body they say I'm going to add something here because what father is saying is what we have said earlier as well he made an important statement everyone is invited he made the use use the words come as you are you can come as you are but you better leave different somehow God's grace and his power and his wisdom and his strength should change us as we enter his church as we hear his word as we see his sacred image as we live that life we can come as we are but we should go as he asks us to be and I think that's the the unique difference in how we try to approach this so we're not going to he's not going to sit up and say you you can't come come come to the table change change let's talk about some of the people that Americans have chosen to serve them in a political capacity should their religious ideals guide them in any way or do you believe it should be completely separate do you believe there should be separation between church and state I'm going to start in function III I think that living the United States we recognize that there is a separation of church and state that to me means that they that the government is not going to oversee the teaching the ministry the general practice of the church to assume however that a person who has a faith background all of a sudden becomes some kind of divided personality and enters government service without the strength and character of that background is not fair either because it implies the person is you know somehow not a whole personality but a split personality so I think that we also choose people based on the courage and the commitment that they have of their convictions convictions that are not specifically religious or secular but which somehow weigh into that idea that we would call that eternal true and we look at that eternal truth as being godly and divine with that being said would you trust somebody in public office who did not have a spiritual background or a religious background I can as long as I'm witnessing the courage of their convictions so I have to if I have a sense of what the conviction is I understand the basis on which they will see things because each one of us comes with a bias each one of us comes with some kind of way in which we look at things so I am I am convinced that people whose faith background allows them to recognize that they alone are not the only they are not the final source of life and they are not the final authority I think that helps in weighing out and in making decisions Daniel can we have morality if we don't believe in a God well I would say that faith faith in God is transformative it's salvific and therefore it affects not only who we are first and foremost but it should affect our actions so you can have faith in God or say that you have faith in God but that faith becomes an ideology and all you have is a set of tenants and tenants and principals and and so your actions are not really guided by faith in God and you may you can have a person that you're struggling to find out who God is and ultimately like His Eminence ed knows that he or she is not the ultimate authority at the end of the day and understands that they are finite that it can make a positive difference in life so I we need faith in order for our actions to be transformative in this world but somebody who's struggling with faith or is trying to grow in faith or trying to find faith can also make a difference I would say your eminence how can our Orthodox faith play a role in the personal choices that we make think that we have to recognize that our life is here on the one hand to give glory to God and to thank him for the gift of life and on the other hand to love and ennoble the people whom he likewise has made it's interesting that in the story of creation the only thing that God creates with his own hands is the human being so there's a very personal sense when we talk about man in the image of God humankind in the image of God there's a very personal relationship with God and man so I think that our function on this is to recognize where we come from and to do we had in the last les Sunday's Gospel reading Jesus and usually has this conversation with his father I did what you told me to do I have common I have done what you have told me to do and I think backwards that's what we have to say to the people we are doing what God has called us to do and he has called us to help to minister to serve he has called us to stand for the right of personhood he has called us to protect the unborn he has called us to do many things to recognize the need to act properly in his name to give him glory and if we have lost sight of our moral compass is there a way to redemption can we get it back absolutely there's hope for everyone and each of us has to constantly keep refining our compass our moral compass to keep pointing north and that's what the role of the church is to constantly come to ask Christ's forgiveness to repent to tweak our understanding of our role in this world how we can make a difference to learn from our mistakes not to try not to repeat our mistakes and ultimately to sanctify our lives so that we can make a real difference in the world like the prodigal son like the part of the son and your eminence I'd like to end with you what advice or what would you say to someone right now who maybe has made a terrible moral decision they feel badly about it what would you say to them you know terrible moral decisions are some something like secrets we can't really keep them but you have to know that you can talk to someone in confidence and in trust to help sort it through so the first thing I would say is don't sit in the corner alone the church is waiting the Lord's arms are open and we're here really as his servants to welcome you home welcome YouTube back to the church so that he can put his loving embrace around you yes you made a mistake I'm a day doesn't go by that I couldn't have done something differently but I'm grateful because I know that God and I know that in my heart in his love receives me forgives me and will let me continue as I try in my feeble way to give Him glory and to preach his truth thank you so much your eminence metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit and father Nathaniel Soumya Neely's thank you thank you and I invite our guests to log on to our YouTube channel for more programs in this series they're called discovering Orthodox Christianity you can find us at youtube.com slash Greek Orthodox Church I'm Stacy Spanos thank you for joining us you you

Channel: GreekOrthodoxChurch

Views: 44,621

Rating: 4.7352519 out of 5

Keywords: Greek, Orthodox, Christian, America, Social Issue (Film Genre), Orthodox Christianity (Religion)

Id: yOIdSsQ9Ea8

Length: 29min 33sec (1773 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 03 2013