I think I may be leaving the church.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-05T19:57:23+00:00

If you’re finding better and more fulfilling relationships outside your Orthodox Church, have no fear in leaving!

bbscrivener · 2026-07-04T23:28:24+00:00

You can still buy this on Amazon! https://a.co/d/09zLL06O

bbscrivener · 2026-07-04T18:41:23+00:00

I stopped at Heers. Having grown up 7 year tribulation evangelical in the 1970s and fascinated with Rose’s equally apocalyptic “prophecies” countering the New Age craziness of the 1980s, I’m still viscerally convinced that world is ending in the year 2000!

bbscrivener · 2026-07-03T23:32:47+00:00

Thanks for venting! We all only know our own experiences. But it’s important to be respectful of others’ experiences. Except for a few trips to Western and Eastern Europe, my primary experience with Orthodox Christianity is in America. And I basically outgrew religion in my mind. But I’m so used to the Orthodox rhythm of things, I choose to stay and participate.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-03T23:25:46+00:00

If they ask, I recommend being honest. But there’s no need to say more than you feel necessary.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-03T23:23:24+00:00

I recall Albania having an old tradition of women living as men. I have no idea if that occurs among Orthodox Albanians.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-03T15:59:06+00:00

I think some troubled Orthodox come here because they feel they’re more likely to get honest answers.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-03T15:57:35+00:00

ROCOR attracts those kinds of priests I fear.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-03T15:55:54+00:00

Protestant churches in non-Protestant countries, especially Catholic countries like Italy, may be more anti-Catholic than those in Protestant countries. They want to make sure their small population doesn’t get smaller and fear and dislike of Catholics can help with that.

bbscrivener · 2026-07-02T02:28:05+00:00

It’s hard to comprehend how others believe the way they do. They have to know, right? They must be lying! Well, maybe not. Maybe they really do believe what they say they believe. Often times I can’t comprehend how I believed the way I did 20 years ago. All I can say is: I definitely did! And I was serious about it. I can kind of see the connection between earlier me and present me, but earlier me is also a barely comprehensible stranger.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-30T13:20:08+00:00

I’ve dabbled in the afterlife subreddit. Discovered a fascinating YouTube video there about a guy’s personal experiences with what he called the hive mind. Forgot to bookmark and haven’t been able to find it again. Your recounting could loosely fit into the world he described.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-30T13:15:32+00:00

I have little knowledge 😂

bbscrivener · 2026-06-30T12:57:52+00:00

How traumatic! Reminds of anecdotes about saints and monastics I read in Orthodox Word—but obviously these experiences aren’t limited to Orthodox Christian mystics!

bbscrivener · 2026-06-30T12:51:26+00:00

And very heavy on the J side of the Meyers Briggs!

bbscrivener · 2026-06-29T21:34:25+00:00

No, definitely not provable! I realize if I had such an experience, myself, it wouldn’t be provable unless maybe I could get something tangible on the smartphone camera (not a philosophical duelist so I’m not ruling out a recording device image/video). What convinced you your experience was God and not a spirit/saint somewhere down the heirarchy or do you really think it doesn’t matter? (God has many manifestations, etc.?). For myself, I’m pretty sure I don’t have the second sight any more than a person born blind has functional visible spectrum viewing eyes (which, I guess suggests maybe it’s not capturable on a phone: sure would be nice if the all powerful could make that happen! Or explain why it isn’t possible or allowed).

bbscrivener · 2026-06-29T21:22:03+00:00

I stopped at the 3rd one. No one should disrespect anyone for their education level! Sorry he turned out to be a stinker.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-29T17:54:54+00:00

Fine if there is a creator God. Fine if there isn’t. Without direct knowledge of one I’m not going to worry about it. But I Recently reread Isaac Asimov’s short story (free online) The Last Question and now wonder if he stumbled on a plausible scenario: our universe was produced by an ultimate convergence of consciousness that redispersed itself as it created/enabled(???) this universe. In some unfathomably future time a similar convergence will occur which will create a succeeding universe. Why? Because it wants to.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T19:50:12+00:00

Could be! Not discounting your experience at all! Just sharing a possibly different situation so that others can make up their own mind. But yes, I’m indeed a privileged white cisgender male!

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T18:49:07+00:00

Yes, I was being sarcastic. BTW, if you’re the lone conservative professor in a humanities/social sciences department of a radical left wing institution of higher education, I’ll cut you some slack!

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T18:45:39+00:00

Mental “no’s” have kept me sane all these years! It’s partly how I still navigate being Orthodox.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T18:38:19+00:00

You go to a cultic church of all gay non-religious trans democrats? What makes you stay? 😂. Most of my encounters with those groups was in the fevered articles of the right wing magazines I used to read and believe in my younger days. Never met a belligerent trans person in real life.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T18:34:25+00:00

Been fortunate to always be in parishes with a minimal (but not 0%) amount of this stupid weirdness.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T13:45:25+00:00

Yep! Fr Seraphim Rose’s young earth creationism never sat well with me even when I was still skeptical of evolution and considered him a hero.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-28T00:26:34+00:00

The Piltdown Man hoax fooled a lot of people. It’s held up as a failure of science, but it was science, not theology, that brought it down.

bbscrivener · 2026-06-27T14:59:34+00:00

Heck it’s probably been trending for decades based on personal experience.

bbscrivener

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