The secular humanists are slaves to the philosophy of Extreme Materialism. They claim that sexual perversions are genetic, and that one is thus predestined by their genetic make-up to be slaves of particular unreasonable sexual acts. This is such a hopeless position, suggesting there is no revision, conversion and reform, no healing, and no health possible, only progressively greater levels of insanity.
They take this view as an excuse for their own sexual proclivities, and bristle at the idea taught by the Church, from the start and held by the church of all ages, that man is a Rational Creature, capable of CHOICE. We are not all tempted in the same ways, but each when tempted faces CHOICE.
It is true that the mechanism of Choice gets damaged by sin – by ACTS of sin. There is cultural damage, family sickness, evil influences in the environment, and generational evil. The innocent child faces greater and lesser degrees of all of these, because this is a sinful and fallen world. We all reach adulthood in this over-sexualized, materialistic culture, educated in Scientism and Relativism and not Reason and Morality, our innocence stolen early in our childhood, warped to one degree or another.
Saint Paul talked candidly about this, when speaking of the brokenness of his own nature, as he was trying to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to Heal, saying that by reason he willed one way, but upon occasion acted even against his own will, so strong was the conditioning of his sinful culture.
I find Saint Paul's story especially compelling and HUMAN and a comfort for any and all who struggle with particular types of "environment caused, ingrained and conditioned sins, those sins that warp human nature." Here is the sinner Paul speaking, already well into his apostolic ministry but still struggling to become the Saint he became.
Some theologians (especially Calvinists) call this passage "difficult" as if a man can't struggle with ingrained psycho-spiritual patterns of behavior and have been converted. In other words, if one isn't instantly a saint upon conversion, ones healing/salvation is not real. OR they take the opposite extreme and say that the sins committed by the body mean nothing, once Christ has been received as savior. After all it is only the Spirit that counts, right? This is called "antinomianism" and has had some very famous evangelists like Adolf Hitler, The Marquis de Sade, Aleister Crowley, Herbert Marcuse, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrision, to name a few.
I don't see this candid account in Saint Paul's own words difficult at all. When walls of the good are damaged and broken and psycho-spiritual patterns of behavior are established in sin, even with a restored conscience that wills to the good, wills to what is better and healing, those psycho-spiritual tapes remain. It is more than mere dormant "scars" of sin, since those scars speak, present urges, insist on their former central role; the old ways play in ones head, and the struggle to sanctity is just that, a struggle.
Romans 7:14-25 (KJV)
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
THINK! This a an Apostle of the Church speaking, well into his apostolic ministry. A man who Christ himself met upon the Damascus Road. At this point in his life, having suffered stoning and other tortures for the faith, having taught the faith to thousands of people, yet, in humility he said as ALL true Orthodox Christians say, "I am a sinner." "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on me, a sinner." - the CORE prayer of any Orthodox Christian, and remains the central prayer, one year or a hundred years into his walking The Way. The Hope is, as Saint Paul's history records, healing comes, when we press our will in cooperation with the Christ's Holy Spirit.
How does the Apostle speak about the means of the struggle? He compares it to an athlete "running a race" not to a couch potato prattling his own "sanctity" while lazily "trusting in Jesus" and wallowing in his sin.
It must be noted that the most common word for salvation in the Greek old and new Testaments, is SOZO – which means healing as much as it means saving. Becoming healed from, becoming saved from those things that are death engendering, deadly to body and soul.
When Saint Paul talked about willing one thing and physically doing another, he was talking about his own spirit, (his NOUS) having become vitalized - that is alive in the Spirit of Christ, thus gaining a clearer and clearer vision of himself, of his own scattered soul. This word NOUS, is sometimes translated heart and sometimes mind, but it means the spiritual energy and God given intelligence of a person. This is what is meant by "renewing our mind (NOUS)." Roman 12 ff
Saint Paul, was first Saul of Tarsus. He was a religious fanatic, filled with hatred, much like modern Islamic Jihadis. He ASKED permission of his religious superiors to whip and murder those "Jewish Heretics" who had become followers of Christ. Through his religious fanaticism, his conscience had turned to DUST. His NOUS - that is his Noetic Faculty, his spiritual intelligence had perished. What he took to be spiritual intelligence was nothing more than fanatical, murderous hatred.
It would be foolish indeed to think that Saint Paul's religious sickness, produced only one form of perverted behavior. One form of human degradation leads to other forms of the same. He didn't start out a villain, but from one degradation to another degraded to become a persecutor of Christians. The innocent Muslim child does not start out a persecutor of Christians, but through degradation after degradation, created INSIDE his religious sickness, he becomes such. The same can be said for the Secular Humanist slaughtering the unborn, assisting in suicides, eliminated the burden of old people by "medical murder."
I draw this harsh but real picture of Saul of Tarsus, who became Saint Paul, because Saint Paul is our perfect example of those who have grown insane and yet, through God's Grace and their own struggle, come to sanity. He is not alone in the Scriptures; King David wasn't just an adulterer, he was an adulterer and a murderer. Moses wasn't just a murderer, he was a murderer and at times acted as an unbeliever and a blasphemer. Abraham pandered his own wife, like a pimp and she a whore, to save his own life, TWICE scripture records this.
My point being that those who become the Saints of God, do so sometimes (most times) from very dark places. Such is the story of Saint Augustin of Hippo. The Story of the Prodigal Son, told by Jesus tells us that these people who overcome great sin and darkness are very special to the Father. Yet we are ALL called to sanctity.
We become bent, warped, where moral walls are destroyed and crumble, insanity takes our thinking, this happening as our innocence is turned to sinfulness; this happens to one degree or another for all of us as we grow up. This is called religious sickness, because it reflects the "ideas and practices" we followed to become wounded. Most people are terribly wounded and are unaware of it. One of the Holy Fathers pictured this insane state as a mad man, laughing and dancing with joy, besmeared with his own feces, unaware of it. Such a one "FEELS" that his unnatural behavior is "natural" that is, part of his nature, even that he was predestined to be so warped. Some are so blasphemous they say, "GOD, made me this way, so I will wallow in my sinful nature and take PRIDE in it." Only God has the power to bring to life a conscience that has turned to dust. When we come to Christ (in His Body the Church)and seek repentance, our restoration begins; like a little child we begin again, yet, moment by moment we are faced with CHOICES. We then, "work out out healing, carefully, seriously." We don't take relapse and failure as an answer. Nor do we except the LIE that we cannot change.
Our English word, CHOICE is from the French which is from the Latin causa - cause, reason – Choice means the exercise of REASON. Choice says that human "persons" by REASON, enlightened by Christ's Holy Spirit, energized IN Grace, may participate in the molding of his own character, may guard his physical being and soul, even his intellect from what is unreasonable and insane. This is our situation as innocent children and it become our situation again, when covered in Christ's blood and with the help of the Holy Spirit we begin to rebuild the walls that were broken. The Prophecy of Isa_58:12, is of course of Jesus Christ, but it also is a prophecy of the power His sacrifice gives us, when we avail ourselves of his "salvation - his healing power." "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." HE and we, restore THE WAY for one another, for healing salvation is not a solo journey, but a journey WITH the Faithful of all ages, in the Communion of Saints.
What must we do?
First we must regain our SANITY.
Saint Paul, speaking from his restored sanity, his restored conscience, the Noetic Faculty - the Spiritual Intelligence Christ had Restored in him, observed from that vantage point, the damage of sin in his body, his animal thoughts, death still warring inside himself.
This is why the Holy Fathers of all ages have called sexual acts that are against nature and reason, INSANITY. On this very subject, Saint Anthony the Great spoke to the sexual devolution of his time. It was a time much like now, when homosexuals (then called Sodomites, and pederasts, that is, men who sexually abused boys, and rich men keeping sexual slave girls and boys) . . . they were claiming even to the officials of the Church that their perversions were merely an "alternative, privileged lifestyle."
"A time is coming when men will go mad. They will take hold of you and say, 'You are mad. You are not like us."' 21st Century America has reached this level of insanity. The promotion of sexual perversion of all kinds is constantly in our faces, and literally paraded as normal, just an alternative life style. But nonetheless, it is insane.
We hide all sorts of insanity behind the phrase, "consenting adults." And indeed American Liberty allows much licence to "consenting adults." AS for the premise of “consenting adults” - the fact that two insane adults consent to what is immoral and unreasonable, what is in fact insane, should come as no shock to any of us. And it is not our job to stop this behavior. It is our job, to witness a better way. Those consenting adults are merely victims of sin. Tricked into insanity, unaware of their wounds.
Young women holding little value and appreciation of their person, the blessed wonder that is their own womb, the miracle of conception, the life affirmation of child birth, repeatedly allow and PAY FOR innocent human life to be ripped from their wombs. They destroy the future, they wipe out their promise, they impoverish themselves, they wound themselves. They and their God Given Future die, abortion by abortion.
In this culture of death, because of sexual insanity, despite the miracle of modern medicine, sexual disease is epidemic. Self abuse of every sort is rampant, and the young try to bury the pain of their sickness and wounds through drugs, and ANYTHING to produce the illusion of joy and peace.
The mocking desecration of the natural and beautiful human body, is seen on every street corner now, the young people showing off their body art and piercings and some times even grosser forms of self-debasement. This is a mighty victory for Satan, whose sole purpose for existence is the desecration, humiliation and destruction of Humans. He does this little-by-little, by enticing through "innocent acts of insanity" progressively destroying Human Reason, till what is life-engendering and what is death-engendering is indistinguishable to his victims. Only those grown sick (insane) cooperate with him.
Here's the kicker - WE ARE ALL INSANE - we have all cooperated to one degree or another in our own destruction. We are all sick in body and soul, suffering the damage of irrational minds. But there is a difference, called HOPE in some, because of the witness of the restorative power of Jesus Christ. You see, some are moving to greater and greater levels of insanity, and some are moving in the opposite direction, who just like Saint Paul, though it is a struggle, are making the right choices, praying for help, marking their failures with repentance and new beginning, examining their hearts, clearing their minds, seeking and finding the fullness of LIFE. Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
What does that mean? It means that everything that is for your health and healing, for your maturity and strength, for fulfillment of talents and discovering talents, for expressions of peace, love, beauty, for the seeking of justice, for acquiring mercy, for soundness of mind, for warmth of family, for the trust of real friends, for the joy of enjoying, for the help and healing of others - all of it - ALL of it is yours.
Come and See!
