EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis): Last week, I saw the new movie “God’s Not Dead,” and I have to tell you it is moving. You don’t have to go to a movie theater to watch it—you can stream it on services such as YouTube (link here) and Prime Video (link here). It is certainly worth your time. We are all part of a huge struggle for the heart and soul of America. This movie will give you the perfect perspective.
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Sorry Nick. This movie is part of the culture wars, that have nothing to do with Christianity and especially Orthodoxy. America is not “one nation under God”. That sentence is not part of the constitution. The founding fathers were creationists. They believed that God had made the world and then, stayed back. They gave us freedom of religion and freedom FROM religion. The type of Christianity pushed by these “super Christians” has nothing to do with Christ’s teachings. Each of us is free to choose his faith.
When I hear “God bless America”, my stomach turns. Why should God bless America and not Kenya for instance. Would the blessing stop at the Canadian and Mexican border? Why should God bless a country which goes against Christ’s command to give shelter and feed the poor, instead of threatening to deport 12 million people? We are not running out of room. Would he bless this country which sells guns to its citizens, enabling the death of 50,000 Americans per year?. God plays no favorites among nations. We are all the same. Christ said that “He is not of this world”. Yes, God is not dead. These super Christians are doing their best to kill him
Recognizing God as a protector or benefactor of a country is a historical common denominator for many countries. “God Bless the King or the Queen”, in essence means “God Bless England”. The same is true for Greece – we all know about “the God of Greece” who intervenes as a “Deus ex machina” and saves Greece at the worse possible moment. How many countries have the cross on their flags? Should we eliminate this also? You have to abandon narrow-mindedness and see things from a wider perspective. There is nothing more powerful and more soothing in people’s hearts than a religious feeling that “God will protect us”. As Christians we do not pray only for ourselves and our own salvation but for all people.
And there is no more faithful, deeply faithful, people on Earth than us the Greeks. My theory is that over 4,000 years of navigation has affected our DNA. When you are out in the ocean and the seas are rough and you do not have a compass there is only one way you can be successful in your trip and survive: Faith. At the same time we Greeks are not pious at all and we even curse our gods – a residue of our ancient culture: “Νη τον Δια”, our ancestors said, cursing Zeus. But we are the most deeply faithful [people on earth…
You took the words out of my mouth. Greeks curse God and Panayia, which indicates that we are more superstitious than faithful.
They are faithful – more faithful than any other people. They are not pious – this is our heritage from Ancient religion and culture… Where the gods were considered as sinful as humans and were viewed many times as “pals”…