Holy Cow, not every kind of Christianity sucks!

ok, please ignore the lack of grammar that has already occurred and will continue to occur.

so i’m reading about symbolism in christianity and i happened to come across the eastern orthodox cross (which looks way cooler than the regular western catholic and protestant cross, go figure) and so i decide to learn up all about these orthodox fellas and i’m reading and reading, thinking that i’m going to have to suffer thru all this christian bs that i usually hear from idiot protestants around here…. but was i ever wrong!

ok so basically the history of it is the the church in constantinople was pissed at the church in rome cos they said the pope was infallible and he was a big cunt and that they kept changing traditions that had been passed on since the time of jesus and the constantinopelians (being smarter than their western counterparts) split from rome in THE GREAT SCHISM!!! and continue to do things the way that jesus did them way back when and actually have some decent philosophical/theological stuff that lends some credibility to the whole jesus is similar to buddha stuff.

okay so here are some of the believes of the eastern orthodox church what rock:

- When questions of belief, or new concepts arise the Church always refers back to these early beliefs and those truths that have been built on them. They see the Bible as a collection of texts that sprang out of this tradition, not the other way around; and the choices made in forming the New Testament as having come from comparison with already firmly established belief. The Bible has come to be a very important part of “tradition“, but not the only part, in contrast to Protestantism, which generally relies upon the Bible as the ultimate doctrinal authority.

- The Orthodox approach to sin and how to deal with it is never “legalistic”. Following rules strictly without the heart “being in it” does not help a believer with his salvation. Sin is not about breaking some set of rules; rather, it is the name for any behavior which “misses the mark,” that is, fails to live up to the higher goal of being like God.

Thus, in the Orthodox tradition sin is not viewed as a stain on the soul that needs to be wiped out, but rather as a failure to achieve a goal. Sin, therefore, does not carry with it the guilt for breaking a rule, but rather the impetus to become something more than what we are. Because each person’s experience is unique, dealing with one’s sinful habits needs individual attention and correction. The ultimate goal for this process is to become more Christ-like in one’s actions.

- Prior to Christ’s incarnation on Earth it was man’s “fate”, when he died, because of the fall of Adam, to be separated from God. Because man introduced something alien to his nature by participation in evil through disobedience to God, mankind placed itself in a terrible and inescapable position. The answer to this problem was for God to raise man’s fallen nature, to unite his divine nature with our human nature. This he accomplished through the incarnation, becoming man and yet remaining God. This is why Christ Jesus is referred to as the Logos, the solution to man’s problem (one of the several meanings of Logos). It is fundamental for Orthodox Christians that they accept Christ as both God and Man, both natures complete.   It is said that St Basil stated: “We are to strive to become little gods, within God, little jesus christs within Jesus Christ”. In other words, Orthodox Christians must seek perfection in all things in their lives; and strive to acquire Godly virtue. It is believed that God, through participation in mankind, makes it possible for man to participate in divinity. While it is true that Orthodox Christians believe in not becoming “separate” gods in the pagan sense, they participate in the divine energies of God (which are not separate from God) and still retain individuality.

Anyways, yeah, that’s been some of why Orthodox Christianity is the only type of Christianity (aside from Gnostic) that i can stomach.  Oh those Greeks!

Top Ten Reasons I’m not a Communist

10.  Red makes me look fat.  Seriously.
9.   My name is “Not Lenin”.

8.  I don’t like umm… dialectal materialism…?

7.   I say screw the proletariat!

6.  I OWN factories.[Zeppelin factories what employ children who DON'T belong to a union.]

5.  I don’t like to share.

4.  I am a Viking.  You can’t be BOTH!

3.  I own slaves.

2.  No one has ever called me “Comrade” or “Chairman” in my life.

…and the number one reason I am NOT a Communist is…

1.  I am not a Communist.