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Response to Racist Violence in Charlottesville, VA
Friday, August 18, 2017
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of
America
Response to Racist Violence in Charlottesville, VA
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of
America stands with all people of good will in condemning the hateful
violence and lamenting the loss of life that resulted from the
shameful efforts to promote racial bigotry and white supremacist
ideology in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Orthodox Church emphatically declares that it does not promote,
protect or sanction participation in such reprehensible acts of
hatred, racism, and discrimination, and proclaims that such beliefs
and behaviors have no place in any community based in respect for the
law and faith in a loving God.
The essence of the Christian Gospel and the spirit of the Orthodox
Tradition are entirely and self-evidently incompatible with ideologies
that declare the superiority of any race over another. Our God shows
no partiality or favoritism (Deuteronomy 10:17, Romans 2:11). Our Lord
Jesus Christ broke down the dividing wall of hostility that had
separated God from humans and humans from each other (Ephesians 2:14).
In Christ Jesus, the Church proclaims, there can be neither Jew nor
Greek, slave nor free, male or female, but all are one (Galatians
3:28). Furthermore, we call on one another to have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to expose them (Ephesians
5:11). And what is darkness if not hatred? The one who hates his
brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness (1 John 2:11)!
Furthermore, in 1872, Hierarchs from around the world assembled in Constantinople and denounced all forms of xenophobia and chauvinism (phyletism). They agreed that the promotion of racial or national
supremacy and ethnic bias or dissension in the Church of Christ is to
be censured as contrary to the sacred teachings of the Christian
Gospel and the holy canons of the Church. It is formally condemned as
heresy, the strongest category of false teaching.
Finally, such actions as we have witnessed in recent days, by
self-proclaimed white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and various racists and fascists, betray the core human values of love and solidarity. In
this, we pray wholeheartedly for the families of those who lost their
lives or suffered in these tragic events. In like manner, we cannot
condone any form of revenge or retaliation by any group or individual. Therefore, we fervently appeal to every person of good will, and
especially the leaders of our great nation, to consider and adopt ways
of reconciling differences in order to rise above any and all
discrimination in our history, our present, and our future.
https://t.co/ny6Cbud2lr
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