Celebrate Halloween???

Yes,
What could be so wrong about children dressing like Spiderman and getting candy?

Or how about...

No,
It glorifies the Devil, the occult, and death.

He Talk Like a White Boy

and yes...I hear it a lot too

After I had answered a question in class a Black girl from across the room raised her hand and announced, “He talk like a White Boy!” That, as they say, was the beginning of my life. Everything changed for me after that moment. I had never been called an Uncle Tom before, never accused of wanting to be white, Never before assaulted because I raised my hand in class and spoke proper. Of course now that I am writing a weekly column and appearing on radio and television as a commentator the accusation is no longer that I speak like a white boy, but that I think like a white boy.
...
To say that one speaks (or thinks) white is to claim that there is some crucial element missing in my self definition. The question I ask is who is it that decides what these elements are? The very fact that we are talking about a self definition suggests that there can be no set of hard and fast rules. One of the things that makes America great is that we are at liberty to define ourselves. And if we wake up one morning and don’t like what we see we can erase it and begin again. This thing we call a black identity is made up of millions of individual identities and each one of them is authentic.
-Frontpagemag, Joseph C. Phillips

50 Years Since Hungary's Crushed Revolution

"Hungarian soldiers were obliged to wear a Red Star cap-badge, and one of the sounds of the time was the tinkle these cap-badges made when whole units threw them off. Hungarian soldiers and policemen joined the freedom fighters, established themselves in a cinema and a barracks, and fought off the Soviet army. More than epic, it was Homeric, something to remind mankind of the heights we can rise to in order to be free. Dragged along by events, the newly installed Prime Minister Imre Nagy did his best, but he had behind him a lifelong career as a Communist, and he made the fatal mistake of trusting the Russians. We know now that Khrushchev and the Politburo in the Kremlin always preferred a military solution to a political compromise with Hungary. They tricked the Hungarians into coming to arrange a treaty, arrested the delegation, sent the tanks in, smashed up everything, judicially murdered Nagy and at least 300 others, imprisoned over 20,000 and drove 200,000 into exile in the West.

“Help Hungary. Help!” was the final appeal on the radio, put out by Gyula Hay, the playwright and in his day a veteran Communist too. In sad fact, the United States did nothing, making it plain that the Soviets could do their worst. On hearing that a revolution had broken out, President Eisenhower limited himself to saying, “The heart of America goes out to the people of Hungary.” Heart is all very well, but what about muscle? Robert Murphy, then undersecretary of state and an experienced trouble-shooter, summed up Washington’s failure: “Perhaps history will demonstrate that the free world could have intervened to give Hungarians the liberty they sought, but none of us in the State Department had the skill or the imagination to devise a way.”"
-David Pryce-Jones, National Review

Ancient Christianity and African American Conference

This is neat. A testament to the Catholicity of the Orthodox Church!

Matt Bryant Day

So what if we're still 2-4?

So what if we're bracing for another losing season?

Beating those "stupid Philadelphia Eagles," as my old Indian dad likes to call them just feels soooo good!

And now the Mayor has declared today, October 23rd, 2006 as "Matt Bryant Day!!"

Go Bucs!!!

No More Yankees

New York, the world's financial capital, takes money very seriously. And New York has been the intellectual epicenter of political liberalism, which has consistently preached, and has consistently disproved, the efficacy of pitching large sums of money at social problems. In the city where America's welfare state was first imagined and implemented, the entitlement mentality bred by the welfare state includes the assumption that the Yankees are entitled to be in the World Series, which they have not been since -- gasp -- 2003.
-George Will

A very wise man (Deacon Ghee) once suggested this:
Football is like Orthodoxy, because it's traditional but current
Basketball is like Protestantism because it's focused on individuals
Baseball is like Catholicism because it's about ritual and legalism

The Greatest Resume Ever!

This is especially funny for those of us in the job market as we speak! Maybe being "Ivy League material" DOES give you a big head?

The single greatest resume ever. And, by "greatest" I mean "absolutely most hilarious!"


"Success..."
*clips of Aleksey working out*
"is"
*clips of Aleksey playing tennis*
a mental transformation"
*clips of Aleksey ballroom dancing*
"If you're going to work...work...if you're going to train...train...if you're going to dance...then DANCE...but do it with PASSION!"

Special thanks to Anu for the forward!

*smashes stack of bricks in half*

The Monastery Reality Show

So is this...appealing to red state viewers???

THE MONASTERY premieres Sunday, October 22, at 10 PM (ET/PT) and follows five men of varied backgrounds and faiths who volunteer to join a Benedictine monastery. For the duration of their stay, they agree to the monastery's strict rules and the regimen of prayer, study, reflection and manual labor set out by St. Benedict 1,500 years ago -- a regimen that the monks believe, followed correctly, can transform lives.

The men featured in THE MONASTERY come from all walks of life -- a recovering alcoholic, an ex-con, a veteran of the war in Iraq, a cynic and an aspiring Episcopal priest. Despite their different backgrounds and faiths, all participants share hope that this journey will put their lives back on track.

Filmed at The Monastery of Christ in the Desert in northern New Mexico, THE MONASTERY offers a rare glimpse into a closed community that follows an ancient discipline. Each of the five hour-long episodes follows the men as they struggle with the rigors of monastic life. The group is guided by Abbot Philip Lawrence, who pairs each participant with a monk as a mentor to share their experiences and daily struggles. Participants are also furnished with private video cameras to record their thoughts and reactions throughout the process.
-Yahoo news

Essential Books for Young Indian Orthodox Christians

Here's my list of recommendations along with recommendations of others:
1) Orthodox Study Bible- Same RKJV Bible but with excellent notes in the margins. Also there are a few great articles on sacraments and theology as well.

2) Orthodox Way- Bishop Kallistos: This is one of those standard readings for new converts. It can tend to be a bit abstract, but definitely worth the read.

3) Becoming Orthodox- Fr. Guillqist: I like this book better than Orthodox Way, personally. It's more relevant for us because the predominant mindset we're
up "against" is similar to the Bible-based fellowships which Fr. Gillqist migrated away from into Orthodoxy. He also goes point by point through a lot of
theological issues.

4) On the Incarnation- St. Athanasius: This strikes me as more inspiring and devotional than strictly theological. It's also readily available online, along
with the other patristic writings on my list.

5) Mystagogical Catecheses- St. Cyril of Jerusalem: This is another good reference for point by point introduction into Orthodox thinking. St. Cyril is
teaching an audience very similar to the reader, which would be catechists interested in learning more.

6) First Apology- Justin Martyr- Important to read to see the worship patterns of the early Christian Church. Hopefully one would see the continuity between
us and them.

7) Mere Christianity- CS Lewis: This book is Orthodox in everything but name only. Lewis makes reference to the Eucharist as well as the need to be theologically coherent.

8) West Syrian Liturgical Theology- This book is extremely academic and must be "graduated" into. However it is very thorough, and perhaps one of the
more intellectual works written by one of "us."

9) The Eucharist- Fr. Schmemmann: This is another excellent work on the Eucharist. I think Fr. Schmemmann's explanation of Orthodox symbolism is very
important for everyone to understand. It does reference specific aspects of the Byzantine liturgy, but I think it's still understandable.

10) Christians of Kerala: Life among the Yakoba- Susan Visvanathan: This is the only book like this I've read. I'm not sure if there are any sociological
studies of our Church people otherwise. I didn't particularly want to read it when I checked it out, but I found it was actually quite engaging.
From Dn Gregory Varghese:
"Utmost for His Highest"- Oswald Chambers

From Dn Paul Cherian:
"BOUNDARIES"- by: Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
"TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE"- Mitch Albom
"FAITH OF OUR FATHERS, HOLY FAITH- A Handbook for Youth- Fr. A.K. Cherian
"EXPERIENCING JESUS WITH MOTHER TERESA"- by: Jean Maalouf

CBS Free Speech- Brian Rohrbough

"I'm saddened and shaken by the shooting at an Amish school today, and last week’s school murders.

When my son Dan was murdered on the sidewalk at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, I hoped that would be the last school shooting. Since that day, I’ve tried to answer the question, "Why did this happen?"

This country is in a moral free-fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak, without moral consequences and life has no inherent value.

We teach there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. And I assure you the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including by abortion. Abortion has diminished the value of children.

Suicide has become an acceptable action and has further emboldened these criminals. And we are seeing an epidemic increase in murder-suicide attacks on our children.

Sadly, our schools are not safe. In fact, we now witness that within our schools. Our children have become a target of terrorists from within the United States."
-Brian Rohrbough, father of Columbine Massacre victim

Where are you on the spectrum?

I found this on getreligion.org

It's an intriguing thought; being able to perform a quick litmus test of socio-religious outlook. Here are the questions, followed by my answers (Well I'm pretty sure where I stand is obvious...duh!):

Tmatt-Trio

(1) Are the biblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus accurate? Did this event really happen?

(2) Is salvation found through Jesus Christ, alone? Was Jesus being literal when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)?

(3) Is sex outside of the Sacrament of Marriage a sin?

and my answers...

1) Yes
2) "...ooooh short answer yes with an if, long answer no with a but..."- Rev. Lovejoy
He said it himself, Salvation is only through Him. But, what "salvation" and "being in Him" means can be up in the air.
3) Yes