Posted by Mark Paredes
ἐντολὴν καινὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν, ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους· καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους. ἐν τούτῳ γνώσονται πάντες ὅτι ἐμοὶ μαθηταί ἐστε, ἐὰν ἀγάπην ἔχητε ἐν ἀλλήλοις.
[A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another] – John 13:34-35
“Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire.” – Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, Greek TV interview, December 2010
[A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another] – John 13:34-35
“Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire.” – Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, Greek TV interview, December 2010
Recent weeks have reminded me of why I love Jews so much: they’re supermen (and women). Numbering only 14 million worldwide, they really get around. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has detected a “Jewish conspiracy” to discredit him and his organization, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has discovered that Jews and Zionists are trying to push the U.S. to go to war with his good buddy Moammar Gaddafi (“my brother and my friend”), and Yemen’s president has revealed that Israel is behind that country’s unrest. That there are Jew-haters in the public square is undeniably true. What is also undeniably true is that if any of these leaders had made similar statements in Athens, they would have been greeted with indifference (at best) and perhaps faint applause. Greece now has a reputation as the most anti-Semitic country in Europe. It is also somewhat hostile to minority faiths, including the LDS Church. Given that 95% of the country’s population claims to be Greek Orthodox, it is past time for that church to invoke its considerable moral authority to preach tolerance and respect to its members, including government officials.
This is a painful essay for me to write. I grew up attending the Greek festival at St. Demetrios Church in Michigan, and still attend the LA Greek Fest at St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles and the Valley Greek festival at St. Nicholas Church in Northridge. I took a class in Russian iconography and have visited Orthodox churches in Greece, Russia, Romania, Moldova, Israel, Egypt and Italy. One of the first things I see every morning is a Mother of God Bulgarian icon from the Rila Monastery, a treasured gift from a friend who knows of my love of icons. The Orthodox Easter service is one of my favorite religious experiences, and a Bulgarian Orthodox priest in Los Angeles invited me to join him at the altar behind the iconostasis (a rare privilege) after seeing how moved I was by the icons in the church. In short, I have a deep appreciation for Orthodox liturgy and symbolism, and believe that they are capable of teaching and inspiring people in a profound way.
This is a painful essay for me to write. I grew up attending the Greek festival at St. Demetrios Church in Michigan, and still attend the LA Greek Fest at St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles and the Valley Greek festival at St. Nicholas Church in Northridge. I took a class in Russian iconography and have visited Orthodox churches in Greece, Russia, Romania, Moldova, Israel, Egypt and Italy. One of the first things I see every morning is a Mother of God Bulgarian icon from the Rila Monastery, a treasured gift from a friend who knows of my love of icons. The Orthodox Easter service is one of my favorite religious experiences, and a Bulgarian Orthodox priest in Los Angeles invited me to join him at the altar behind the iconostasis (a rare privilege) after seeing how moved I was by the icons in the church. In short, I have a deep appreciation for Orthodox liturgy and symbolism, and believe that they are capable of teaching and inspiring people in a profound way.
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