I believe the origin of this type of mind set stems from the unification of church and state. Not in a literal sense but in a rational sense. Many Christians have incroperated their day lives of satisfying man with Christianity. They have formed there own type of Religion. They are trying to appease both Christ and man. These type of people can biblically be called not cold or hot. They try to balance there everyday lives to please both heaven and earth. Sadly, Christ goes on to say that he will spew them from his mouth.
 It's very sad because many good people have fallen victim to western culture. I myself am sometimes guilty of it. My biggest concern is living in these surroundings. Because they can do great harm to ones soul. The culture fully surrounds you at all times. It's very hard to find a quite place where one can isolate themselves from it. That is why we must continue to pray and separate ourselves from this world.
Definently. I think what we're seeing here is another example of why Church and State must be seperated. We saw this in Russia in the 18th century, with the reforms of Peter "The Great" (I beg to differ) and how he essentially made the Church a branch of the government. Then the Church is subjugated under the worldliness of the government, and the errs of the politicians.
In America, it could never be worse. These Christian hypocrites attempt to marry together the humanistic deism that founded this country and traditional Christian values. But in all the cases that I've seen, the former wins ultimately.
And yes, I think most of us Orthodox here in America can be labeled guilty of falling victim to the prevalent humanism of American Western culture. Maybe we should start forming coenobitic communities and go Amish
?
I guess we can just use these examples of history and present situations to help show us what to do and make of the current world stage. I have a twosphere theory of the world. I suppose it could be labeled rather dualistic or whatever. One is the Church and the other is national government. I personally feel that the national government can do whatever it wants. I do not feel that us Orthodox need to go out and establish some fundmentalist theocracy like most evangelicals do today. Instead, I think that we can remain unafflicted by the government's influence and still be active within it for the sake of the church, by merely going to the masses. The approach to lobby congress to pass this pro-life law or anti-gay-marriage law, I think, carries major flaws. But we can show them the Light of the Church by just sharing Orthodoxy with them. This is where the sphere of Church comes in. Like I said, we can remain active within the gov't without making it a theocratic pet of ours. The Church is our first government - Christ is our first King. Yes we may have different social opinions with those in the secular realm, but here is the Church - this is what we believe. You can choose to accept it, or go with the ways of the world. Listen to what we have to say, but we're not going to make it a law. It's choice, it's free-will. Hope that all made sense, lol.
We are not here to dictate what the world is to say or do. That would contradict the central ascetic struggle of Orthodox Christianity. But we are here to serve as a Light for the World. Share, but do not force. Serve, but do not ask. I like to heed the words of the angel in Apocalypse:
11 He that hurteth, let him hurt still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is just, let him be justified still: and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still. Apoc 22:11
We should all be concerned more with our salvation in Christ then the worldly woes of washington politicians. Perhaps this is what we can keep in mind when we struggle day to day against the ominous force of secularism.
Peace,
Ioannis
