Justin wrote:Tom, I've come to realize that you're prone to (often humorous, however sometimes confusing) hyperbolie when it comes to arguing.
Moi?
All I can say in my defense is that I responded with an opinion that was just as wacky as the original one and accomplished the following:
1) Kept the thread alive
2) made people think about this subject
3) support their opinions
I am a catalyst! 
And I still DO believe that those who don't eat meat are just being wacky!
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They say that I am bad news. They say "Stay Away."
It really depends on the case, man. I mean, if you look at a youth who does the whole vegan thing, a lot of the time it's for misguided political reasons or just attention, or as you said, an artificial sense of supremacy over the "unenlightened" masses 
At least that's how I was when I was vegan. Of course, after you start to get a little older and wiser, you always come to a fork in the road. I think that those like me, who did so much thinking they came full-circle, change a bit or ease up, whereas the others become truly convicted in their beliefs and adhere to them even tighter, regardless of why they bought into them in the first place. It may be whacky in The World, but I think there's more too it than that in terms of trying to live humbly, or the monks wouldn't do it. Or the prophets. Or the Saints (not all, understandibly), and it wouldn't be an integral part of all of our fasting periods, either. Anyway, good job, oh mighty catalyst Maybe someday we'll actually figure out the doctrinal basis behind monastic abstainance from meat.
Nicodemus wrote:I've still never understood the argument that fish isn't meat. Well, it certainly isn't a vegetable.
Huh? The only "meat" the Orthodox consider to be okay on fasting days is shellfish. And that is because (i think) they were originally thought to not contain blood which supposedly feeds the passions.
It is only the RC's who have changed it to allow fish on Fridays.
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They say that I am bad news. They say "Stay Away."
Justin Kissel wrote:TomS
In the "Russian" churches my wife and I have attended (OCA, ROCOR) fish and some oils are sometimes allowed during the fast, under certain conditions. Do the Greeks not have such a custom?
Yes, this does happen a few times a year.
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They say that I am bad news. They say "Stay Away."
