Beholding the Beauty

I recently came across this article , by a non-Orthodox person styling herself as "a rebellious iconographer". [EDIT: I have today (10/18/2023) discovered that the article in question is no longer extant. The author commented here shortly after publication. Given the original's removal, all the links here are now broken.] My response is as follows: If one is going to claim no female saintly presence for an icon, she would do well to choose icons that actually have no female saintly presence. The Pentecostal icon she uses as her first example ( Fig. 1 ) has a HUGE female saintly presence: the Mother of God herself is front and center. In iconography, that position is huge, which even she admits: The Apostles are depicted seated in a semi-circle, with no individual among them taking the central seat of authority. She is correct that none of the Apostles occupies the central s...

A Facebook commenter asked me yesterday whether those of us who support "forcing a mother to give birth to an unwanted child" -- that is, protecting the unborn child's right to life -- would be around to adopt or support the child being born, or whether we would just let them fill up the streets and probably die of starvation anyway. The answer is:  Yes, we would!  Most pro-life advocates (not all, but most) are Judeo-Christian in their religious outlook.  Orphanages and foster care have long been the grateful privilege of the Christian Church, "to care for the least of these", even if their own parents don't want to (abortion) or can't (have to give up for adoption). Originally, I had the following conclusion: Unfortunately, however, orphanages are no longer legal in the United States.  That leaves a huge burden on the individual couples who might desire and have the resources to adopt.  Historically, the orphanages were the default place for ...

In debates about abortion, the phrase "it's my body" often pops up. If the debate is able to move past that (rare), the fallback is usually, "Why should we force a woman to have to have a parasite (essentially) feeding off of her body and making her do/feel weird things?" Most counter-arguments focus on the whole "parasite" phrasing, but I grant it . A baby is exactly that, functionally, and an accidental one probably even carries with it (for the mother) all the negative and pejorative connotations of that word, especially if it is the product of rape. Nevertheless, the point must be answered: why should the woman have to support this drain on her resources, potential killer (complications from pregnancy and birth can, on rare occasion, kill the mother), etc.? My answer is this: because it is a Human Being, who enjoys, by virtue of that fact, a Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. These three are not equal, but hierarchical -- they ar...