Tag: Family

How Ingratitude Became a Virtue

· Hieromonk Gabriel 3 Leave a Comment on %s
Immanuel Kant once wrote: “Ingratitude is the essence of vileness.” And while I think that this is doubtless true in the modern sense of the word “vileness,” for the purpose of this article I would like to consider the archaic meaning: it comes from the Latin vilis, which means “worthless.” Kant is saying that there is nothing more worthless to human beings than ingratitude. “Not so!” argues a recent article in The…

The Crucible of History (Anthropology of Antichristianity, Part 3)

· Hieromonk Gabriel
In the most recent article of my series on the anthropology of Antichristianity, I discussed loneliness as the defining characteristic of the modern age, stating that: “We have become existentially unmoored, and so it is no surprise at all that we feel lost, purposeless, and alone.” Faced with such a dilemma, as I see it modern man has only three real choices: Christianity, Antichristianity, or suicide (the latter of which comes in…

The Consequences of Contraception

· Hieromonk Gabriel
50 years ago, Pope Paul VI issued a papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, which he addressed not only to Catholics but also “to all men of good will.” In it, he reaffirmed the universal and unbroken teaching of the Church Fathers, both of the East and of the West, that artificial contraception is intrinsically sinful and incompatible with the Christian life. At the time of its publication, the widespread Orthodox response was…

On Political Philosophy, Fairy Tales, and the Spiritual Life

· Hieromonk Gabriel
It might, at first glance, seem strange that I spend so much time writing about political philosophy and propaganda on a site dedicated to Orthodoxy and the spiritual life. It might seem even stranger given the fact that I am a monk, and claim to have renounced the world. Why should I concern myself at all with political philosophy, much less write articles on the internet trying to convince others of my…

Making Saints: Toward Establishing Orthodox Schools

· Hieromonk Gabriel 9 Leave a Comment on %s
The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions, but to destroy the capacity to form any conviction. -Hannah Arendt I’ve been writing a lot about Orthodoxy and education lately. However, I have as yet done little more than to point out the utter travesty which modern public education has become, as well as to emphasize the dire necessity of founding Orthodox schools for our children. Providentially, a friend forwarded me a…

Public Schools and Antichristianity

· Hieromonk Gabriel
Matthew Cochran has just published an extremely important article exposing the subversive indoctrination tactics being used in current sex education programs in public schools today. According to its publisher, the specific curriculum which he investigates is being used (as of 2017) by over 50 school districts across the country, including 11 of the largest 25. As Cochran details in his article (please read it), the program adopts a tone of innocuous impartiality…