And remember what the early Church Fathers, the Apostolic Constitution, and St. John Crysantamum all had to say about faithless people acting in the Church.
“So what would be the preferred Eastern Orthodox response to the scandal of a pro infanticide agnostic politician giving a commencement address at an Orthodox university?”
Probably nothing at all.
“At best it is a very grave scandal, giving harm to the souls of those who attend such an event (in that they may think such views are OK).”
Not at all, r. Such a person speaking at a commencement wouldn’t affect the faith of the laity. The idea that a politician’s beliefs would adversely impact on the souls of the faithful, to an Orthodox mind, is laughable. We spent centuries, in some places more than a millennium, under politicians who very nearly destroyed us physically. Its a shame some in the Roman Church are so very afraid of Obama that they are willing to embrace the heresy of the likes of the heresiarch Martino.
“And remember what the early Church Fathers, the Apostolic Constitution, and St. John Crysantamum all had to say about faithless people acting in the Church.”
Indeed. A great Russian hierarch, Metropolitan Philaret of New York, first hierarch of ROCOR, noted:
“The poison of heresy is not too dangerous when it is preached only from outside the Church. Many times more perilous is that poison which is gradually introduced into the organism in larger and larger doses by those who, in virtue of their position, should not be poisoners but spiritual physicians.”
There’s the problem, r! Heretics like Martino and those in communion with him who would drag the faithful into the spiritual shipwreck of the uncanonical practices.
If he was coming to preach infanticide, I assure you the university would not invite such a person. If he was invited to talk about secular issues that concern the audience, his private views would matter exactly nill.
At best it is a very grave scandal, giving harm to the souls of those who attend such an event (in that they may think such views are OK).
Is Obama coming to talk about the "beneifts" of abortion? If not, why is that a grave scandal any more than the pope praying in a syngaogue?