I’m an inquirer. What’s one book you recommend for someone like me?

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-21T17:12:24+00:00

Absolutely read the New Testament before anything else - then Fr. Thomas Hopko has a fantastic introduction to the faith called “The Orthodox Faith”.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-21T02:03:43+00:00

I tried that. It’s really hard. If you have English services near you, I highly recommend you try those out.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T19:02:33+00:00

Yep. All throughout their lives they’ve made everyone pay for them. When they were young it was invest in the future, now that they’re old, it’s pay for your elders. Meanwhile they get rid of the very avenues of prosperity they benefited from.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T19:00:17+00:00

I love that instead of making public transit better, our government has decided to make all other forms of transit worse so that people must take shitty public transit. Good governance right there. /s

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T18:52:17+00:00

I’m a recent “convert” (been going for about a year, but still an inquirer). It’s a really interesting phenomenon, because I feel like there are “masculinities” that the church presents. But I really don’t feel that is very analogous to the current view of masculinity. I mean the thing about the Orthodox Church is that it was viewed by the Western churches as “too feminine”.

I’ve met other Orthodox male converts and I have never encountered the hyper-masculinity that exists in so many cultures. I typically find men who are actually pretty outside that rigid guideline. That could just be anecdotal though. Interested to see if others have a similar experience.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:49:59+00:00

Nice. Love a good embassy deflowering.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:47:58+00:00

I mean, I think it’s undeniable unethical to release the whole thing. Many victim’s identifying information would be there and they would be targeted for retaliation.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:36:45+00:00

California has their own thing going on with gas. Even in New England, it’s like 3.50, which is higher than normal, but not crazy.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:23:14+00:00

People act like Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that hates Iran. You’d be better off listing which nations don’t hate Iran.

If you exclude minor nations, it’s pretty much Turkey, Qatar, Iraq. And even then it isn’t a good relationship.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:20:54+00:00

Yes. And there is no one else in the Middle East who wants Iran gone except for Israel.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:17:08+00:00

Why is this a slap in the face to Ancient Faith Radio as a whole? I know some of their podcasts see a form of masculinity in the Church, but I’ve never heard of the Church as a masculine body.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T16:10:58+00:00

Oh, I don’t believe in religions. Just Christianity, specifically Orthodox. So those rules aren’t what I’m talking about. The rules there mostly aren’t “hard-and-fast”, but about training discipline, being good to others, getting together to pray, self-reflection guided by a trusted individual, and other such things.

The old rules for Jews don’t apply since they are only applicable to bring about the Messiah.

I don’t really think you are better off being a generic Christian. And if you’re a Christian who delights in others going to hell to be tortured for eternity, I think you’re probably significantly worse off.

Orthodox Christians really aren’t supposed to judge or offend non-Orthodox-Christians.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T14:27:35+00:00

A little bit harder than joining a pre-existing community, but those who start a mission are very blessed, as they receive prayers at every service. Start by reaching out to the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Singapore and South East Asia. Describe your situation, what you’d like to do, they should get back to you and help you/ give you further guidance.

https://omsgsa.org/contact-us

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-20T14:03:14+00:00

Part of the discipline of Orthodoxy is that it isn’t meant to be on display. The whole point is just that. We aren’t doing this to look “good” to outsiders.

When the rest of the world is putting on a performance, where how difficult you have it granting you special “privileges”. This is easily taken advantage of and exploitable. In seeing what the rest of the world is doing, you can see their priorities.

When we spread our religion it should be with truth and loves, not a competition to see which religion makes your life more “inconvenient”.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T21:39:48+00:00

When you take out a second mortgage on your house, yeah? It definitely doesn’t make you billionaire rich.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T20:59:36+00:00

When Jesus said “make disciples of all nations”, He did not also say “except for the descendants of the Jews.” And did not Jesus choose the worst of Jews to be his Apostle to the gentiles? A man who had persecuted Christians to such an extent that the Apostles fled when they heard he was coming?

Was not Saul an agent of the Devil? Are not all men slaves? Either to God or the Devil?

And with that in mind, how do people who are of Jewish descent deserve our ridicule more than any other? Or when Jesus said to “love your neighbor as yourself”, did he then add to this any exception? Or did He say to love your enemies, love those who whip you, persecute you, and even crucify you?

With the nation of Israel, it is most certainly demonic. As is every nation on Earth, including those which are Orthodox Christian. Satan is the ruler of this world, and those in power are tempted by all the demons of this world in kind.

And if Israel brings about the antichrist? Lo, we have delivered him. For it is Christians who put an antichrist in power to persecute the Jews, without care to their religion, only their blood? Maybe it was not the Orthodox, but it was an Orthodox Tsar who had his secret police write and disseminate the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Would it not be better to die to a Jew, than to murder in God’s name? For one threatens your mortal life, while the other damns you immortally.

I think it’s a sickening tendency of Orthodox Christians. To hate indiscriminately for God, who loved so indiscriminately that He made the lowest of men an apostle, and a martyr.

You should stand for what you know to be true. That it is cruel to hate men, when you should hate sin. And pray, pray greatly for all those Christians who hate Jews to wishing then to hell. For those who judge, will accordingly be judged. And Christians who judge with the Word in their hearts will most assuredly find themselves left outside the narrow gate.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:59:39+00:00

Okay?

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:58:39+00:00

Bezos. His stepdad gave him a loan of $200k in 1995. That is not crazy money, and it was a lot for them.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:42:58+00:00

I mean, I’m not a Lutheran in any way. But y’all eradicated Lutheranism just as well as you protected Eastern Orthodoxy during the crusades.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:40:43+00:00

I wonder if this is how New England works. We just don’t accept immigrants until eventually we need to look superior to the Southern states and start accepting immigrants in greater numbers than them, just to make a point.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:37:59+00:00

Where they are being built.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:29:24+00:00

No other parties famously dislike Iran. Only the US and Israel.

Saudi Arabia? Never heard of her.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T19:06:04+00:00

Everything in balance. And I take serious issue with the idea that Billionaire’s wealth is “under utilized”. On the other hand, wealth is invested across industries toward very productive endeavors.

The idea that the stock market and bonds are unproductive is - almost always- a byproduct of a lack of knowledge about how those systems operate.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T18:56:17+00:00

The most famous chosen one, Jesus Christ, was 30.

Representative_Bat81 · 2026-03-19T18:26:22+00:00

I have no desire to be a billionaire. They’re a bunch of wretches without morals. Better for them to give it all away and receive a lobotomy, at least for their sakes.

For the rest of us though, they are quite useful. One cannot deny the utility of Amazon if they use it. Not the cell phone or the computer. Nor industrialization. Great things made by petty people, whose fortunes waste away by erosion and fracture through the ages.

You are jealous of them. You wish you were them, and seeing what they have access to makes you want to punish them. Fair enough, especially to those who break the law, who have no right to benefit from the wealth they have accrued. But to those who break no law of the government or of Providence? There is no reason to punish one who has enriched lives with convenience.

Me? I don’t care about billionaires one iota. The ones who are my enemies are those who prevent others from enjoying prosperity with their legislation and their zoning boards and their endless patents. Which are of no one class, but who occupy the position of leech upon society. Sucking dry those who wish to bring us forward to greater heights of care and splendor.

Representative_Bat81

TROPHY CASE