In the last month two stories of violence against Orthodox priests caught the Orthodox news channels attention. One happened in Russia and one here‚ on American soil.
The first one you can read it here:
This is a most tragic event. A Russian Orthodox Priest who was outspoken against the Islamic religion was gunned down in his own Church in Moscow. May he rest in peace.
The second one available here:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article1050707.ece
is a story of confusion‚ of mistaken (?) identity that ended up with a severe beating of an Orthodox Seminarian by an US soldier.
Both this stories are disturbing because they show how misdirected religious convictions and misinformation can lead to violent outcomes. American soil and even Orthodox priests are not exempt to it.
Two stories of violence‚
These are very isolated events of this kind‚ but they are a reflection and a manifestation of a certain mindset that has to do with the intricate ways we “manage” to integrate diversity and differeces when it comes to our most inner convictions.
We gradually lost our capacity to act and react to both simple and complex chalenges of life‚ having a tendency to embrace the extreme when reasoning‚ feeling or naturally unfolding our actions.
I think that a certain behavioral gust originated in the war zones of our days tend to permeate our cultural habits‚ poluting and desintegrating human values as never before.
We need to be able to embrace while still staying strong in our convictions and to be true to ourselves while still accepting the others.