We want to offend no one with the following notes, but it will be likely that such things could occur… hopefully, for readers’ benefit! We are living a crooked life which is not on the path of Salvation, Orthodoxy, but on the one of damnation through the spirit of this world! We are playing with so many modern toys, most of the time and on any occasion. In the last 20 years or so, several working ‘gears’ – material and religious as well – changed dramatically, for the worse.  If we looked into history, carefully, the discovery will be that the dramatic turning away from a life close to Christ and His Church started some 200 years ago, when the first global experiment, the so-called French revolution, occurred. With that political change and with all the other ones that came to pass during the twentieth century, mankind started to descend on a very steep ramp towards the pits of hell.

Nowadays, there is so much change in ALL our relationships! Blessed Seraphim Rose, in his talk on the Orthodox World-View, said these: “Life is a constant search for ‘fun’ which is so empty of any serious meaning that a visitor from any 19th-century country, looking at our popular television programs, amusement parks, advertisements, movies, music—at almost any aspect of our popular culture—would think he had stumbled across a land of imbeciles who have lost all contact with normal reality.” This very clear message was given to us at the beginning of 1980’s, but since then, our “land of imbeciles” changed into the land of the demoniacs!!!

The following chunks of spoken or written words or loose ideas could be expanded so much, regrettably… But, it has to be a spiritual and personal exercise to fix such ‘deviations’! This ‘assessment’ was done in contrast with that normality, still of this fallen world, that used to be present in countries where the Orthodox Faith reigned uncontested through Disciples of Christ who just wanted own Salvation! The mentioned ‘deviations’ are not to be looked at as in a silly Inquisition, but as a signal to show to ourselves the departures from normality. Let us look into these, in no specific order:

• The word “planet” when referring to our earth is so widespread, that the soil under our feet became almost ‘undistinguishable’ in a ‘scientific’ discussion, from the planets with such pagan names given as Mars, Venus, Mercury or Jupiter. Therefore our “planet” could be swapped with a ‘similar’ one, according to our great science and technologies capable to produce ‘exquisite’ devices to take us on some ‘new’ earths…  Please, check on this ‘reality’ to identify the gross super-exaggerations about travel into cosmos: astronauts, after a few weeks in space, need to retrain and to readjust themselves to our earthly conditions for about… three years!!!  By the way, the “relativity theory” is a lie, too!
• The use of word “sex” instead of gender or instead of intimate relationships is not just so common, but completely irreplaceable! This is very strange, because in Orthodox countries this specific word was imported as a way of ‘distraction’, rather than being identified as a common verb or noun… Likewise, the word “homosexuality” was considered by Orthodox and normal people as a term used to reveal a certain debauchery, rather than naming a thing that no one would dare to talk about, out of shame… The perversion is so deeply instilled into this society that a nice word like ‘gay’, meaning ‘full of joy’ or ‘happy’ has now such immoral meanings! We can check with Holy Scriptures and discover that ‘knowing’ one another could be a good way to express oneself, referring to intimate relationships…
• The so-called necessity of “sexual education” for all children turned deadly to everybody…  Think about this: the ‘professional’ teacher, who is a stranger to students, openly has a lesson about such INTIMATE things with both girls and boys, in the same time! Is the teacher a relative to the underage audience? No! At any school, are boys and girls going to the same toilet? No! Is this particular ‘reproductive system’ use for reproduction, at a school age? No! Is this pornographic ‘knowledge’, as INFLICTED into these young people, useful for learning more about own development and growth? No! Finally, what is the most severe addiction, in this modern world? Pornography!!!
• The word “kid”, referring to own child, has a few interesting origins, but the most important one must be of spiritual understanding, because no one would want to be numbered with the goats but together with the sheep! Why would we want to be called with such appellative, if we know precisely that it is not the RIGHT stock?
• The “doctors from the West are much better and so well trained” in comparison with the other ones, from an Orthodox country, for example! Right? Wrong!!! We do not need to go into details, but very shortly, the Un-mercenary Holy Doctors of the Orthodoxy are the only models for such a profession! Of course, not every medical student turns into a Holy physician like Saints Cosmas and Damian, but the problem is about the spiritual background in the West, where education turned upside down, and any reference to Faith would be straight away dismissed as a … sickness! Can we have any good doctors in the West? Maybe, we can, according to God’s providence, but it is unlikely as only a tiny minority would want to become inspired by the ‘illegal’ Saints!
• Addiction to “pain killers” and running from pain, generally, is a characteristic common to all of us; indeed, this world is horrible because there are so many pressures on each one and we can’t escape them, unless we… kill that pain inflicted? Not true, because the source of that pain would be still present around us. We know that the existence of pain has to be understood as being ‘normal’, according to our fallen world. If such pain stops us from any work, we must work harder, actually! It sounds strange, but what other option would we have? To become a patient / prisoner into a hospital /camp?
• The expression “solar system” is so widely accepted that challenging this would be quite a ‘journey’ in any discussion, risking all different labels to you, from ‘retarded’ to ‘medieval obscurantist’. Identifying this earth as the place where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took flesh for our Salvation, would lead to the right conclusion: it must be the very Centre of this visible world! Consequently, the “solar system” will disappear in a second from one’s mind, unless one wants to worship the sun, instead of the Son of God. Copernicus and Galileo were among those people bowing down to astrology not just to astronomy! In other words, the “heliocentric” idea is not just a scientific model but firstly, a philosophical and religious one…
• In politics and history and in all the other associated realms, “fascism” and “nazism” must be the worst terms in regards to political opinions. There is a reason leading to the source of this admonition by which one would be impossible to survive socially and politically in this world: the mentioned political systems were against “democracy”, and obviously “communism” is for “democracy”! But “fascism” and “nazism” have been defeated by the end of the WW2, some seventy years ago! In the meantime, communism took over half of this world, reigning with its sickle-and-hammer by crushing hundreds of millions…  But this is gone, too! Or, is it not? Separately, let’s check our synonyms, as found in any Word for Windows: “communism” (collectivism, socialism, communalism, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, with capitalism as the antonym) and “fascism” (totalitarianism, despotism, dictatorship, repression, oppression, tyranny, and with democracy as the antonym). Newspeak, according to the victors of WW2 is here and already changed your life!!! We rest our case!
• “Comfort” instead of asceticism is not necessarily a sin in itself, but in the way it is accepted today shows the real impact upon one’s path to Salvation: “take it easy” or “don’t worry” and other similar expressions can make you too relaxed about important things! Associating pleasure with any action is a deadly comfort, but interestingly enough is that horrific dictators, like Lenin or Stalin, were so… ascetic in regards to food! Their “comfort” was actually the killing of so many Orthodox!!! Our Wise and Faithful people must discern about asceticism and comfort not as opposing stances, but according to interpretations given by Holy Fathers!
• Are “white” lies acceptable, instead of either yes or no? Of course NOT, because playing with these things would lead to pretense, hypocrisy, sham and dissimulation! In the Matthew 5:37 we can read: “But let your word ‘yes’ be ‘yes’, and ‘no’, be ‘no’; and what is more than these is from the evil one”. Sometimes, out of shame, one can have no courage to go about a certain ‘tough’ issue, but praying to God will succeed! Are we not sure?
• The use of word “lucky” (from Luck, the devil, who asked for child sacrifice) or “good chance” and a good “fortune” (from pagan goddess Fortuna), instead of God’s providence, is so present in greeting one another with this ‘good’ exclamation…  As a rule, the mentioned God’s providence has to be the much better alternative!
• Most of the time, there are no greetings, salutations or a simple ‘good day’ coming from children, obviously under the spell of the atheistic schooling, today! Ok, one can say that it is not just this ‘habit’ but also so many distractions and absent mindedness! Of course, it could be true…
• Fiddling with some ‘mild’ demonic characters to impress worldly rulers, and even cheating with iniquitous images could turn to be very detrimental to you and many others as well, simultaneously! In other words, it is a belief that God could forget you because there was no other option, at that time. Yes, indeed, the Lord forgets any sin if one realizes that an ‘indulgence’ is not to be repeated and that there is a struggle to overcome THAT threat to one’s Salvation…  There are many professions and jobs where the mischievous sprites are present to ‘help’ obtaining a good look in the eyes of the bosses…  It is so hard to avoid these gremlins that jump to ‘inspire’ you! Meekness and gentleness could be the answer, along with silence and modesty. Obviously, the evil spirits will become even more daring but they can give up as well…

Well, let’s stop here. There is much more happening around us, right now! Wars, invasions, earthquakes, floods, rapes, diseases, and again wars, invasions and killings! What do we do? Are we moving closer to end times? Yes, but each of us, individually, needs to fix own problems. Thoughts and words are starting points for actions. If we are surprised by certain sins committed, we must look back and identify the roots of these transgressions. Sometimes, these wrongdoings are heavily influenced by our daily routine… Let us try and change the routine to a practice of prayer, according to the Orthodox Church! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!