Should Christians Speak Against Clergy Sexual Misconduct?
Stan Shinn
Posted on September 24th, 2009
Metropolitan Philip spoke in defense of Bishop Demetri Matta Khoury, a convicted felon and registered sex offender.
Categories: Essays
Metropolitan Philip spoke in defense of Bishop Demetri Matta Khoury, a convicted felon and registered sex offender.
By Stan Shinn
[Editors note: The follow letter to the editor appeared in the eactions poured in the Sept. 6th Dallas News regarding the recent Harry Potter Icon used in an article illustration (see the full reactions here — http://tinyurl.com/nw3382 — regarding the Harry Potter Icon story first reported here — http://tinyurl.com/lqv3tp.)]
The letter:
The front page of the Points section displayed a traditional Orthodox icon with the image of Christ replaced by Harry Potter.
Many who do not hold icons sacred — as the Orthodox do — may not see this as a big issue.
To the Orthodox though, this is sacrilegious and offensive in the extreme. Orthodox Christians are trained from an early age to read icons. The halo with a cross background is iconography’s way of saying: This person is God.
While the illustrator may not understand the theological ramifications of this image, educated Orthodox do.
Icons are sacred, and a sacrilegious illustration like the Harry Potter icon is — wittingly or unwittingly — a mockery of Christianity.
Stan Shinn, Wylie
While we are called to forgive those who sin against us, we are also as a church called to champion justice, protect the innocent, and discipline the unlawful.
Our church officials are not telling the truth about the Nicholas Katinas lawsuit.
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6)
I am pleased to offer for download an excellent resource “Orthodox Parishes in implementing a Safe Environment program”
Here are some clergy abuse topics I would like to write on at some point:
The following reflection by Fr. Vladimir Borichevsky on authority in the church is apropos given the many scandals of our day.
Are policies enough to constraining sinful man? T. S. Eliot gave his opinion seventy years ago in his poem, “The Rock”:
They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect
that no one will need to be good.
I thought this article by Fr. Thomas Hopko to be perhaps the best summary I’ve seen anywhere of how to deal with the various issues of our day…the crux of it comes in his seven points in the second half.