[jeaccatty]

To tag on, a little bit to Fr Raphael's comments;

It is necessary to look at the purpose of the law. In the scripture, we learn that the law was given in order to reveal sin. Without the law, sin remains hidden. The problem with this is that sin is not simply the transgression of a regulation, but it is an act of spiritual self-multilation. Sin wounds the soul. Without the law, we would go on wounding ourselves without knowing it or without knowing how to avoid it and we would be carrying around festering wounds in the soul without the knowledge or opportunity to treat them. Thus the law, then points out what is "safe" behavior (what the law prescribes) and what is "risky" or self-injurious behavior (what the law proscribes). Therefore the fact that homosexuality is "against the law" in Christian cultures as well as many other cultures would indicate that it is a spiritually harmful practice. Homosexual behavior is not about societal norms, but about the harm that it does to the soul. A person may object that they do not perceive this harm directly, however, the purpose of the law is to bring this unperceived harm into our awareness and point it out.

An objection might be made here that the above would refer only to the "law of God" and not to the secular laws of man (which would then begin an argument about whether the laws concerning sexual practice are actually divine prohibitions or simply the result of cultural norms and mores). Therefore, it is necessary to look at the role and purpose of civil authority and "secular" law. In the west, we have an idea that government is "of the people" - in other words that the secular/civil authority derives its mandate to govern and authority to govern from the people. However this is not at all the scriptural model. The secular rulers, according to the Biblical model are given their authority and mandate by God. Let us look at the people of God - the Hebrews of the OT. They were led first by the Patriarchs - they did not choose Abraham and his lineage as their rulers - Abraham was called by God and given the authority to "rule" as Patriarch by God Himself. In Egypt, Moses was not elected but chosen and appointed by God, to lead the people - so also with Joshua. After the return to the promised land, the judges were chosen and raised up not by the people, but by God. When the people called for a king, they did not "elect" a monarch and put him forward, but rather they asked God to give them a king. The scriptural and historical model of civil government is that it is appointed by and draws its authority from God - not from the people. This "top down" model of government is confirmed in the NT by Jesus Christ (render unto Ceaser that which is Ceasar's) and again by the Apostle Paul (Rom 13:1).

With this in mind, then the question arises, what is the purpose of the laws promulgated then by the civil authority? As the Apostle indicates in Rom 13:4, the government is in place as God's minister. The purpose of civil government is to create and maintain an orderly peaceful society. The benefit and goal of this society is to provide an environment in which one can most easily work out one's salvation. Thus those laws against things which are prohibited by the civil authority are there, in one manner or another, for the purpose of eliminating from society those practices and influences which are spiritually destructive. When a civil government forgets this purpose or when it no longer fulfills this purpose then it is in danger of judgment, not from the people, but from God (which btw rules out revolution as a spiritually sound practice - vengeance is mine saith the Lord). When the civil government abuses its God-given authority, or neglects its true purpose and begins sanctioning that which is spiritually harmful, it is removed by God. (Also according to the Church's interpretation of the purpose of the Russian revolution, when the people no longer appreciate or submit to a God given government, then they are deprived of that government by God and given over for judgment in order to bring about repentance and return them to following the path of salvation)

Warning - here I begin a personal rant, so please just stop here or if you do read this feel free to ignore or discount it at your leisure. If I happen to offend anyone, I apologize in advance - please feel free to let me know by PM how I am in error

Russia is struggling to regain its identity as an Orthodox Christian state. Unfortunately much of the rest of the world is either immersed in Islamic totalitarianism or in the worship of the "individual" and the "mob rule" of democracy(T. Jefferson's term I think). Both of these are antithetical to an Orthodox government and thus Russia stands alone in the world in trying to bring back the Orthodox state.

Fr David Moser