Overt vs Subtle

I have thought about this in bits and pieces over the past couple of years and thought I would try to put together and articulate it cohesively.  This idea has come up in connection with the education of children and with religion.  The question is that of danger.  What is more dangerous, the overtly wrong thing or the subtle, slightly, ballpark, almost right kind of teaching? 
A few examples might help clarify what I am getting at.  Would it be safer to send a young man or woman to a secular university or a nominally Christian one?  It's it safer for a child to listen to overtly anti-Christian music or subtley watered down, questionably religious music? The question really comes down to defenses.  Is an obvious enemy more dangerous or a secret enemy?
Think of the difficulties in either case.  With the overtly secular music or school, we know exactly who is the enemy and where the lines are drawn.  But with the subtle situation, the line is fuzzy, the black hats and white hats both look kind of gray.
With the overtly secular situation, one is deliberately walking into enemy territory.  But with the subtle situation, one does not know who exactly the enemy is.
I'm inclined to think that the overt situation is safer.  At least one knows where the lines are.  But of course there is still the question of influence.
Historically speaking, we have seen this exact situation in early middle age middle east.  When Islam and/or Roman Catholicism was overthrowing the middle east, the Orthodox Church chose Islamic rule over Roman Catholic, for the very reason I am discussing.  They understood the danger of subtlety.  We need to ask ourselves what we should do if we are ever in a similar situation.
And of course there is still the question of recognizing the subtleties and dealing with them as they arise. Is this a safe practice in which to engage?  Or should one avoid every subtle situation, if at all possible?  I would suppose it would depend somewhat on who is exposed and what is their level of maturity.  And then there is the question of multi generational influence. We must give consideration to how an overt exposure will affect the generations that follow us.
We can even take this back one step.  We should probably even consider the influence of acquaintances as well.  These are not enemies per se, but merely different from us.  Should we not think through the possible affects of exposure to these as well?

Initial consideration

     When giving consideration to any particular set of beliefs, the first place to start is it's internal consistency.  In other words, are the claims and/or beliefs of the religious system consistent with one another.   If at one point, belief system X says that "a" is true, then at another point says that "a" is not true or that "b" contradicts "a" to some degree, the system is internally inconsistent.  If a religious system is flawed at such a fundamental level, then continued investigation at deeper levels is pointless.
     Practically speaking, being able to comprehend, interact with and analyze a set of beliefs is vital.  The less clearly and articulately one is able to think, the more likely one will be deceived.  

The Christian faith, as taught and practiced by the Orthodox Church, is the only belief system that will pass an articulate critical analysis.  In other words, at some level, all other belief systems or religions will fail.  The Orthodox faith is the only faith that flawlessly answers all criticisms.
     Of course, not all other belief will fail such a critical internal analysis.  There is further investigation that can be pursued that will reveal other fallacies.  Even if a belief system is internally consistent, it could hold false presuppositions.  Ultimately, there will be some belief that is faulty.  This has to be the case.  If one starts from a foundational question and works upward, answering each question correctly, one will end up at the Orthodox faith.  If one does not, then one has answered something wrong, somewhere along the line.

     Of course, there is always the point of personal lack of understanding or wisdom.  No one person is ever perfectly clear in his thinking.  We can be deceived.  We can make logical or emotional errors.  This is one reason that we look to the early church fathers for guidance.  When we can look to the wisdom of the church, as guided by the Holy Spirit, we can be assured of our position in the faith.

Hidden uncertainty

As it has been a few years now that I have stepped out of Protestantism, something has been coming clear to me.  As a Protestant, the choice of doctrine and practice was mine to make.  And I did make that choice multiple times over the years.  As an avid reader, and lover of study, the more I read, the broader my understanding base became.  Essentially it came to the point where I realized that anything I wanted to believe, I could justify by the manipulation of Scripture and logic and I could find a community that believed and practiced the same thing.
This is what every denomination, parachurch organization and quasi- Christian cult does.  This is the whole problem with Protestantism/evangelicalism. 
Looking back over the years as a Protestant, I wonder how I wasn't more apprehensive about the whole thing.  I guess I couldn't see the problem from the inside.  Now, as Orthodox, the thought of not having a legitimate authority over me and my family is frightening.  This is not cowardice or mindlessness, this is common sense.  One would not travel through the Amazon jungle without a guide and this world is far more dangerous than any jungle. God has given us the Holy Spirit led body of Christ (the historic church).  It is sheer lunacy to reject that authority and wing it alone.
Of course, the Protestant response is, "I have the Holy Spirit leading me."  While this sounds holy and pious, it's arrogance.  To claim that the Holy Spirit is leading your church and no other, is ridiculous.  There is no historical footing upon which to stand.  And even beside that, every single denomination, parachurch organization and quasi Christian cult makes the same claim, and they can't all be right.
Unless one wants to claim that doctrine and practice doesn't really matter, the present state of the Protestant world is untenable.
What is historically true is the fact that the Holy Spirit is leading the Orthodox church.  Herein is found the body of Christ and communion with God.  There is no need to look anywhere else.  All the answers are here.

Practically speaking

While the practical position of the Orthodox church in regards to non-Orthodox religious persons is one of non-judgment, this does not mean that the details of doctrine and the practices of various groups are unimportant.
As Orthodox, we never say a particular person will NOT go to heaven, for we can never know someone else's heart.  It seems that often we don't even know our own heart, so we should never judge anyone else.
One thing we do say, though, is that the Orthodox church is THE body of Christ.  We know where the Holy Spirit is, we don't know where he is not. 
We can say that various religious groups, as a group, are not valid forms of Christianity, and therefore should not be pursued or acknowledged as Christianity.  But again, we are talking about organizations, not individuals. Is person A part of denomination X? We will say nothing about person A, but we can say that denomination X is not a good place to be.  Although, we do believe that God can and does use a wide variety of situations, often very unusual, to bring someone to himself.
Our job is to love everyone.  If we do that, everything else will fall into place.

Youth?

So you think our culture doesn't worship youth?  Just find a 35 year old woman and tell her she looks 50.  I guarantee, she won't give you a pleasant response.

Ideological homosexuality

In the heavy metal music scene, the sub genre of black metal, to be exact, there is a fairly common thread that is found.  Oddly enough, in this dark, violent, ugly, male dominated scene, the practice of homosexuality is common.
From one perspective, this makes absolutely no sense, considering the stereotypical image society has of rock stars.  But when one understands the philosophy behind black metal, this deviation makes sense. 
The genre of black metal is intellectually, philosophically and deliberately founded upon Satanism. This is not the kind of Satanism like one sees in the movies.  Aside from a very small (and i mean very small) group of actual devil worshippers, the kind of Satanism promoted by black metal even denies the very existence of God, Satan, or anything beyond the physical.   For the Satanist, this life is all there is, the grave is the end.  They believe that there is no absolute right or wrong and that one should do whatever one wants. One thing that is common with the Satanist is the lifestyle of antithesis toward Christianity.  They see organized religion as slavery and inhibition, as contrary to normal life.
Thus the commonality of homosexuality.  It is contrary to the Christian faith and completely self serving. The Satanist acknowledges this and deliberately pursues that which is contrary to organized religion and morality.
What is the point of all this explanation?  What can we learn from this?  We can learn to be committed to our faith.  If the Satanist can practice homosexuality based on its meaning, rather than on its passion, how much more so should we as children of God live according to life and truth, rather than by our passions?

Your own business

One of the many things I have learned in the Orthodox faith is that of minding one's own business.  On the surface, this sounds so unloving and self centered, but as is often the case, that is an incorrect perception.
To mind ones own business means to not be looking around, trying to point out everyone else's sins and struggles.  We all have our own sins that should take a huge amount of our time to address, if we are doing it right.
I have to admit this is not an easy thing for me to do.  Refraining from looking around and instead looking within at my own sin.  Fighting our own flesh, learning to love and not judge others and learning to follow the lead of the Church instead of our own desires, these are the most difficult.
Right or wrong, people don't like unsolicited advice.  It is not received well.  We are called to love God and neighbor, not correct neighbor or try to be God.
God has provided us the church to lead and direct us.  God has protected the church, he has led the church, and he is purifying the church.  The church is not man's idea or invention.  It is the body of Christ, of which we are part, to our growth and sanctification.  We can be part of her and become more like Christ, or we can follow our own passions and end up like the world.
This fact alone should remind us of how much work we have to do in our own lives, without trying to correct everyone else.

Pragmatism?

We eat because something tastes good, but should we?  We have sex because it's enjoyable, but should we? And what about things that have no pragmatic purpose?  Entertainment, sports, art, fashion?
Should we live only for pragmatic reasons? Where does pleasure come into the picture? Is doing something simply because it's enjoyable acceptable?

Thoughts on children

I have a few thoughts on children, their sin and our own sin. From my own interactions with various people, from all the things I have done and from raising my own children, it seems that our own sin has a direct influence upon the formation of our own children and their subsequent sinfulness.
I would say that the sins we see in our children is a clearer manifestation of our own sin.  Children learn, in part, by imitation. As they see in life, they imitate.  Their imitation may be rawer and less refined, it may be less rationalized and defensible, but therein lies the value.  Are we willing to look at our children's sin and see ourselves, possibly in a way that we were unable to, simply looking at ourselves?

Hatred in the face of perfect love

It's a really ponderous thing that someone can actually hate God.  It makes no sense, from many different perspectives.  For one, God is love.  Everything he does is good and for our benefit.  Even when we don't understand or see the immediate fruits.  Two, God is all powerful.  How can it make any sense, whatsoever, to hate someone who is in absolute control? 
I suppose it could be argued that a particular person doesn't hate God specifically because they don't even believe in God, they simply manifest a hatred toward organized religion, usually in the form of Roman Catholicism.
But even this fails a logic test.  It is one thing to hate the way a professed follower of a particular religion unfaithfully practices that religion as opposed to hating the God of the religion itself.
Or possibly one hates the concept of organized religion in general and the requirements it places upon them.  This is probably more often the case, as rebellion is a common seed in man.  But if this is the case, at least be honest about it. 
But sadly, more often than not, many of the criticisms raised against Roman Catholicism are somewhat legitimate, at least the abuses therein that are so common.
So what do with this realization?  There are two ways to address this.  From a negative perspective, we must live in a way that gives no one any grounds for despising the faith.  From a positive perspective, we must know and love out our faith in a way that we can display the love of God.  In doing so, we will draw men, even those who hate and despise.

Our responsibility

Jesus made it very clear that the most important thing is loving God and loving neighbor.  We see this emphasis in the Orthodox church, but in a very interesting way.  The monastic ideal, if one believes themselves so called (as opposed to the married path), is about totally coming oneself to God for the purpose of purity and prayer for the world. 
It is here that we see Jesus' directions lived out.  We love God by hating sin and striving after purity and communion with God.  We love neighbor by praying for them, a lot.
But how does obedience to Jesus' manifest itself in the married life.  Really,  in exactly the same way.  We commit ourselves to purity within the married state, which is a very real form of chastity, we love God by hating sin and striving after holiness and we love our neighbor by praying for them, a lot.
We are all in different situations but we all have the same goal, loving God and loving neighbor. It is our responsibility to work out how. A good place to start is in gaining guidance from your priest.