Racism: What's a priest to do? The role of the will in our salvation.

Over the last few days, the Orthodox Facebook world has exploded with the news that a White Supremacist, Matthew Heimbach, was received into the Orthodox Church a few weeks ago.  The man in question advocates racially-based violence, including murder.  He even beat someone up with an Orthodox cross the day after Pascha(!).  Since our Lord's passion, death, and resurrection free us from all cause for hate and violence and bring true peace into the world, using His Cross, not as a "weapon of peace," but one of aggression and violence, kind of defines missing the point.  It would be hard to express adequately how repugnant I find this.

It should go without saying that, while every group will always have a few unstable people in its midst, the racist and violent views that Mr. Heimbach preaches are not the teaching and tradition of the Orthodox Church.  The Church condemns racism, teaching that all human beings, without distinction, are created in the image and likeness of God.  In Orthodox Churches here in America, it's very common to see Arabs, Ethiopians, Eastern Europeans, Greeks, converts, etc worshiping side-by-side.  The sheer number of languages in which we shout "Christ is risen!" should testify to the equal status of all peoples, races, languages, cultures, etc. before God and in the eyes of the Church.

However, while the outrage about the racism of this new convert is understandable and correct, several people have made comments that touch on larger issues of pastoral care and the relationship between priest and parishioner that I think are very important and worth reflecting on a little.

First of all, some people have faulted Mr. Heimbach's priest for not doing enough research on him before agreeing to receive him into the Church, pointing out that his racist views were publicly available on the internet.  Fr. Peter himself has apologized for not doing enough research on him.  Others have insisted that Fr. Peter make Mr. Heimbach close down his website and publicly renounce his racist, un-Christian views.  What Fr. Peter did or didn't know in advance is private, but I want to speak in more general terms about the idea raised here:  Should a priest do internet research a parishioner or potential parishioner?  Does the priest's role as shepherd include actively seeking out information about his parishioners beyond what they themselves share?  Can priests force their parishioners to do things?

While there are exceptional circumstances, I believe that in general, the answer must be a firm no.  Why is that?  Fundamental to Orthodox theology is our understanding of both the freedom and the fallenness of the human will.  When God created us in His Image, that including giving us the freedom to choose freely between what is right and what is wrong.  Through our sins, our God-given will is no longer fully free -- rather, we are enslaved to our habitual sins -- our passions.  Our wills are wounded and broken.  Because of this, God Himself became man, assuming all of our humanity, including our human will, so that He could heal and repair our broken wills.  His Passion gives us the gift of freedom from our passions and opens the way for us to use our wills rightly.

However, it goes without saying that our wills cannot be healed against our will, otherwise God would not be healing our wills, but removing them.  God will not force us to be healed.  Whatever sins we bring to Him, He will willingly forgive.  However, He will not and does not force to repent.  He does not make us open our hearts to him.  As St. Silouan the Athonite said, "God exercises no compulsion on man but patiently and humbly waits for him to open his heart to Him."

This is key to understanding the relationship between a priest and parishioner.  While priests, and especially

bishops, are often called "pastors" (which means, literally, shepherds), the true shepherd in any parish is always Christ, the Good Shepherd.  Bishops and priests are only pastors inasmuch as they serve the Christ, the true shepherd, and so they are obligated to act as Christ acts.  Their role as spiritual shepherds and spiritual fathers depends on this.  Just as Christ does not compel us and force us, but rather "Stands at the door and knocks (Rev. 3:20)," so also Orthodox Christian clergy cannot and should not use spiritual violence as a tool of pastoral care.

Often, this issue can come up in private confession.  It should come as no surprise that sometimes, people might not be completely honest in confession.  Sometimes, facts may get left out or details may get distorted in a way that's more sympathetic to the penitent.  A husband and wife, a parent and child, or just two friends may each come to confession individually and confess the same argument, but with such different versions, that it's clear both versions can't be true.  However, the priest should never use knowledge from one confession to "correct" someone else's confession (i.e. "Oh yeah? That's not how your wife describes what happened!"). He must accept how each person describes things and the extent to which each person willingly opens their hearts. If a person lies or conceals things, they do so to their own spiritual detriment. The Church is not the spiritual version of the Gestapo.

Orthodoxy is and must be based on a relationship of trust and freely chosen openness.  If people lie or conceal facts necessary to proper pastoral care, they harm themselves by doing that.  However, it's not the priest's place to force more openness than a person chooses willingly, to pry deeper into their hearts than he is invited to go.  He should, rather, exhort gently and lead patiently, walking with the penitent along the road to the healing we have in Christ.  To do otherwise, he opens himself up to temptation and risks alienating the grace of God since, as St. Silouan reminds us, compulsion is foreign to the Holy Spirit.

As priests, we cannot go where we're not invited.  We don't Google our parishioners, check their internet search histories, and interview their friends and relatives before we receive them into the Church or give absolution.

Likewise, when it comes to making Mr. Heimbach shut down his racist websites and publicly renounce his views.  For better or for worse, a priest cannot make anyone do anything.  He can only use the tools that are available to him, all of which are pastoral tools.  He can withhold Communion until he is willing to repent, which he is, apparently, doing.  Even this, though, is done not as a matter of punishment and force.  Rather, a priest withholds communion for the sake of the spiritual well-being of the person, to help heal them, not to harm them.  Every encounter we have with God is a moment of judgment.  We cannot approach God, whom we cannot see, if we are determined to hold on to hate and violence towards our brother whom we can see, and in whom Christ hides Himself.

That having been said, I want to make a few things clear.  I agree with those who say that Mr. Heimbach should publicly renounce his views.  Since he is publicly trying to connect the Orthodox Church to his racism, it seems right to me that he should publicly renounce them.  I think it would be appropriate for that to be made a condition of his being readmitted to communion.  Also, I am not trying to take a position on the facts of this specific pastoral case.  I don't know what Fr. Peter knew when and from whom and I have no desire to know.  This specific incident is being worked on by Fr. Peter and Bp. Anthony together who are taking the matter very seriously.  In both of these issues, I have full and complete confidence in both Bp. Anthony and Fr. Peter, who know far more of the details than any of the rest of us, that they will do everything they can to work with Matthew and help to lead him in the right direction.  Ultimately, however, they cannot force him and so the choice will ultimately be his alone.  Let us pray for him, that God opens his heart and helps him to make the right choice.

Christ is risen!

On the raising of children -- Why "sheltering" is not enough.

Watching children at different ages, it's easy to see how much influence their parents have on them -- both their interests and often even their choices of words when they talk. It's clear that what goes into a child's mind and heart has a strong influence on what comes out later. At the same time, it's also clear that people make their own choices - parents can't make their kids do or be anything as adults.

Over the last number of years, I've seen some cases where children were raised with Christian faith, but without understanding - faith had been something forced upon them. It had been their parents' faith, but never really their own, except for the outward, unquestioned belief of a child. However, that is neither right, nor sufficient. As parents, we must work to develop the hearts and minds of our children, so that they themselves make the right choices.

I want my kids, when they grow up, to go to Church, not because they know I want them to, but because they themselves know why and desire God. Likewise, in morality, I want them to be good, kind, and humble people not because they know I'd be disappointed in them if they cheated on their spouses (for example), but because they know why that is important.

I think the desire to shelter children is understandable and, to an extent, good.  There are somethings that no sane parent would want to expose their children to, especially at a young age.  However, sheltering children from the evil in the world around them doesn't make that evil go away and doesn't mean that they won't have to know how to deal with it someday.

We should try to preserve our children's innocence but, in the end, the kind of Christian innocence that we want them to have as adults can't be a sheltered innocence, the result of lack of knowledge, a "passive" innocence.  Rather, it must be an informed, *active* innocence, that allows them not to be isolated, but rather to be in the midst of the evil and suffering around them, humbly and lovingly serving those that are broken and in need, while preserving their own hearts whole and intact.  As Pascha shows us, God Himself didn't keep Himself aloof and isolated from us in our sins and brokenness, but rather went and ate and drank with us, and ultimately suffered for us, in all of our sins.  In all of this, He didn't lose His own innocence or purity, but rather imparted it to us.  But how to do that?  Hmm...

How do we, as parents, give our children the right tools? How do we properly equip their hearts and minds so that they can stand on their own two feet as mature adults? What do you, as parents, do that you find helpful or less than helpful? (Sorry for the length - just thinking about this today). I sincerely appreciate any advice or insight.

On the role of habit in the spiritual life

For at least the past year, I've been thinking a lot about the power of habit, both good and bad.  I think it's something worth reflecting on.  There's wisdom in the quote attributed to Aristotle that we are what we repeatedly do.

One of the biggest difficulties in the spiritual life is inconsistency.  We go through periods of zeal (often after reading the Scriptures or the lives of the saints), where we want to change our lives dramatically all of a sudden, to turn our hearts to God and seek Him.  Later, the zeal fades and we stumble more.  A bit later, it returns again.  And so we find ourselves caught in the constant ebb and flow of the moment and we make no real progress towards Christ.  The bad habits we have built over years remain and we make only slight progress in developing good habits.

If we want to address this, if we want to be cured, to allow the grace of God to penetrate our hearts and transfigure us, I think it's important that we begin to take a long view of things, rather than expecting instant change.  There are some saints, especially martyrs, whose lives changed dramatically in an instant.  But even for most of the martyrs, they were prepared for martyrdom by long years of patient, steady progress, seeking God.  In the Gospels, Christ doesn't tell us "Knock once and the door will be opened" or "Ask once and you will receive," but rather "Keep on knocking" and "Keep on asking."

St. Paul also talks about this when he points to the examples of the Old Testament saints and then says, "Therefore, let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus." (Heb 12:1).

We must, then, make the effort daily to make slow and steady progress, asking God's help.  If we don't pray regularly, then we should start simply and say a few prayers, as regularly as possible.  If we're too greedy with our money and don't help others, we should begin by giving away a little more than usual, and then increase it.  If we're too addicted to food, we can begin by avoiding going back for seconds, or snacking.  If we have a bad temper, we can try just once to give a gentle answer.  If we're lazy, we can try to build a habit of doing just a little bit more around the house or at work.  If we're self centered, we can begin to try, even once in a while, to ask the people around us how they're doing and really listen to what they say.

All of this is important because it shows us what our salvation looks like.  We believe that everything that is true about God by nature becomes true of us by grace.  The grace of God is transformative.  That means that God doesn't care as much about what we do (single actions) but more about who we are and who we become.  And we are what we continually do.

What are your thoughts on habit?

A grain of wheat

"The Brothers Karamazov," perhaps the greatest work by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, begins with an epigraph, a verse from the Gospel of John: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).  This verse is a fitting choice, because throughout the rest of the book, the theme of voluntary self-denial is woven throughout the narrative -- it is there when Fr. Zosima tells the story of the "Mysterious Stranger" and his reluctance to confess his crime, when the sick and dying Markel voluntarily places himself below his own servants and even asks forgiveness from the birds, and when Ivan struggles with how to react to his brother's trial, given what he knows.  Above all, it is found in the saying repeated over and over again: "We are each of us guilty before all people and for the sins of all people, and I more than any."

The Christian acceptance of death can be either through repentance for the actual sins and failings that we've committed or it can be through the voluntary bearing of the burdens of our friends, neighbors, and even (and especially!) our enemies, according to what St. Paul says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2).  Whichever it is, however, it is a voluntary taking up of and sharing in the Cross of Christ and like His Cross, it is a life-giving and life-creating death.

This idea is particularly shocking to us because we're raised to think and do the opposite.  We're taught that we deserve to have what we want, that we have a right to it.  When we help other people, it's usually out of whatever we have left over.  We're not just unwilling to lay down our lives literally for others, but often unwilling even to be seriously inconvenienced.  We cling to our lives with both hands and yet, we cannot hold onto them.  If we try to save our lives, we lose them.

However, throughout my life, I've met many people who show that there is another way to be, another way to live.  People that radiate a humble love.  People that are always willing to listen when someone is going through a difficult time, to pray for them, to weep and rejoice with the sorrows and joys of those around them.  People who find their lives, not in themselves, but in others.

I want to learn how to be like those people.  Please pray for me.