60 minutes Nov 18 - Young babies and morality

[Maria]

If a father stays home while the mom takes the children to church, then later on, teenage boys and girls will rebel and will want to stay home with dad. If the father is a chanter and goes regularly to church, but the wife stays home, then the children will follow their dad and usually become devout. Intact families are crucial for the development of our faith.

Wow, that is interesting Maria. Where did you pick up on that point? I wonder why there is this difference...[/quote]

There is an Orthodox Priest, whom I know, who did his Master of Divinity thesis on the importance of intact marriages and the faith of the father on his children. He concluded that if a father has the faith, then usually that faith will be transmitted to the children as the father is the spiritual head of the family, and that position is extremely important. His thesis was based on the Epistle to the Ephesians that is read at marriages. Greek brides, to their own detriment, often request that this epistle be read in Greek because they no longer believe that the man should be the spiritual head of the family, and they claim to be embarrassed by this epistle reading. If the man is the spiritual head of the family, then he should be providing a good example of faith, respect, and love, not only to his bride, but also to his children. This needs to be stressed today.

[Matthew]

Very interesting! Thank you for that insight.

[Barbara]

I missed out on this discussion, due to the TV show mention. I figure almost all stuff
shown even on more sensible shows like that would still fill one's head with too much fluff.

The discussion is really intriguing, though.

I liked Icxypion's sensitive observation on psychologists as analogous to demons.
Definitely, definitely ! I believe they are necessarily infected by actual demons, or they would never take
up that profession which is secular and seems to almost HATE anything truly spiritual. Buddhism is fine
with many of today's more "cool" psychologists, but Christianity is passe - at best.

Which brings up the Greek women's avoidance of that Epistle. I am surprised that Greek women would
be already so influenced by American feminism ? Or is it all over Europe anyway?
I assumed that a Greek Orthodox family would be immune to such obviously brassy exports as feminist ideologies.

That is too bad. I wonder whether this same problem is occurring in other Orthodox countries ?

[Maria]

I missed out on this discussion, due to the TV show mention. I figure almost all stuff
shown even on more sensible shows like that would still fill one's head with too much fluff.

The discussion is really intriguing, though.

I liked Icxypion's sensitive observation on psychologists as analogous to demons.
Definitely, definitely ! I believe they are necessarily infected by actual demons, or they would never take
up that profession which is secular and seems to almost HATE anything truly spiritual. Buddhism is fine
with many of today's more "cool" psychologists, but Christianity is passe - at best.

Which brings up the Greek women's avoidance of that Epistle. I am surprised that Greek women would
be already so influenced by American feminism ? Or is it all over Europe anyway?
I assumed that a Greek Orthodox family would be immune to such obviously brassy exports as feminist ideologies.

That is too bad. I wonder whether this same problem is occurring in other Orthodox countries ?

I should have clarified my statement.

Have you ever seen MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING?

It is loaded with feminism.

Here in the USA, both in the Antiochian and Greek Orthodox Churches (n.c.), brides will often ask the priest to read the Epistle to the Ephesians in Greek so that their non-Orthodox feminist friends who are clueless about Greek, will not be embarrassed. This shows that these so-called Orthodox Brides are not really "orthodox" or practicing right beliefs. While many Greek Orthodox priests will acquiesce thinking that their relatives from Greece will be delighted to have parts of the service in Greek, the Antiochian Orthodox Priests usually refuse to do so, and instead correct these brides for their wrong beliefs.

[Matthew]

I also want to clarify that when I say that Psychologists are behaving like demons, I mean not the fairly decent folks in that profession who are acting merely as family counselors or something like that and who are in that profession because they honestly want to help people live better lives and heal from their problems. There are many such men and women working in the counselling field. Rather, I had in mind the more intellectual and experimental and research scientist types who are busy trying to crack people's brains and souls to gain some power of knowledge over them or their "issues". I think such people, perhaps well-intentioned are influenced by demons and act like demons, imagining themselves to have somehow ascended above the "low-evolved and weaker life forms" (their neighbours) that they are picking apart like creatures in a Petri dish.

[joasia]

Maria wrote:

I found this psychological study interesting because several Orthodox Christian Priests said that young babies are capable of evil, and this is why babies should be baptized and communed as early as possible. Furthermore, this study shows that children as young as three months want people who differ from them to be punished, which is the root of bullying, retaliation, and anti-social behaviors

I disagree. Babies are not capable of evil. This is an influence from movies and t.v. shows. Babies should be baptized in order to be united with Jesus Christ. This study is full of it and it's crazy. These psychologists are complete idiots. Why do you believe them? Don't believe them.

[joasia]

Perhaps I should mention that I studied psychology in university and I have a degree in childhood education in which I worked in a daycare. Social expectations are determined by the society that the infants live in. Other societies may judge the behavior of these infants as positive because they are looking for aggressive behavior. I do agree that we are born with certain characters. I cannot explain why one baby may be more docile or why another may be more active, but a child is affected by their surroundings. These "psychologists" did not provide the babies' backgrounds.

As for what the priests say, we are all born with evil (sin) as this is the meaning of our separation from God.

If a father stays home while the mom takes the children to church, then later on, teenage boys and girls will rebel and will want to stay home with dad. If the father is a chanter and goes regularly to church, but the wife stays home, then the children will follow their dad and usually become devout. Intact families are crucial for the development of our faith.

I know a priest who had two sons. One stayed faithful and the other left the Church and also doesn't care about his mother. The priest fell asleep in Christ at 95 so the son, now is in his 60's. So this theory is wrong.