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| author | Ambrose <me@librelife.org> | 2026-03-19 01:17:20 -0400 |
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| committer | Ambrose <me@librelife.org> | 2026-03-19 01:17:20 -0400 |
| commit | cd9ab29bf27c8e74f85d5158c4dbf15f86e24b63 (patch) | |
| tree | 903d2d3ee149de7e98e54441b99b113adef03032 | |
| parent | afcfe8940c35355fe1e6d01d7f9a569bf050850a (diff) | |
Copied religion post over from old website
| -rw-r--r-- | articles/religion.html | 126 |
1 files changed, 126 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/articles/religion.html b/articles/religion.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dab703e --- /dev/null +++ b/articles/religion.html @@ -0,0 +1,126 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> + <meta name="description" content="My personal website, made by hand with with love."> + <meta name="author" content="Ambrose"> + <title>Ambrose's Personal Webpage</title> + <link rel="Website icon" href="/static/favicon.svg" type="image/svg"> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles.css"> + <script src="/static/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script> +</head> +<body> + +<h1 class="title">Religion</h1> + +<!--navigation bar--> +<div id="nav-placeholder"> + +</div> + +<script> +$(function(){ + $("#nav-placeholder").load("/static/nav.html"); +}); +</script> +<!--end of navigation bar--> +<i><p> + <b>Note on Mar., 19, 2026:</b><br> + I have recently redesigned my website from the ground up, and that + includes moving away from PHP and embedded javascript footnotes. So + please forgive any encoding errors or etc., when reading this article. +</p></i> +<center><h3> Dec., 30, 2025 </h3></center> +<a href="/img/icon_wall.jpg"><img src="/img/icon_wall_thumb.jpg" alt="My Icon +Wall" class="image-right" width="220px"></a> +I am a recently baptised Orthodox Christian. After a few years of searching, I +have found my home in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, Orthodox Church. <br> +My religious background is surprising not very eventful, I was raised pretty +secular; As most Americans are raised now, we still had the ghosts of Western +Christian culture, we had Christmas, Easter, and St. Patrick's day. But on +those <i>holy days</i> we didn't celebrate what they were originally created +for. But rather their <i>secular</i> corporate rebranding.<br> +On Easter <i>(Pascha)</i>, it was not about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, +his <i>defeating of death by death</i>,<span class="footnote">The Paschal +Sermon, Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople. <a +href="https://www.oca.org/fs/sermons/the-paschal-sermon">https://www.oca.org/fs/sermons/the-paschal-sermon</a>.</span> +nor passover. But rather candy, and an egg-hunt, not saying that those things +were or are bad, but I didn't even +really know what Easter was or why we celebrated it.<br> +Same for St. Patrick's day, but Christmas was always a little bit different. It +was still mostly about Santa Claus and getting / giving gifts, but I think one +due to the name "<b>Christ</b>-mas", and the person of St. Nickolas, there was +still a Christian element to it. Even modern Christmas music still speaks of +the Christ-child and the Virgin Mary. <br> +But, I still didn't know really what the religion of Christianity believed; +Religion wasn't something spoken much about in my house, I did learn the +very-very basics of the world faiths, I learnt of Judaism and their holiday +<i>(Holy-day)</i> Hanukkah, along with the far-eastern religions of Hinduism +and Buddhism, as well as Greco-Roman paganism.<br> +But I was brought up with <i>nothing</i>, however that works... But in my early +teens, I became more interested in religious discussion, but ironically, it +lead me towards Atheism and then <i>Antireligion-ism</i> <span +class=footnote>Also known as <i>"New Atheism"</i>.</span> +which now looking back, it's very sad yet comical to have your belief system be +defined as being +an <u><i>anti</i></u> anything, it is like being a spiritual reactionary.<br> +That was all during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and I basically realised that by +practising what I preached <i>de facto Nihilism</i>, I was just wasting my +short life doing nothing for no reward, and I wasn't happy doing it.<br> +I, like many others were kinda stuck in the Western paradigm of either being +Protestant or Roman Catholic. So when I started my journey into properly +researching Christianity, I first went the protestant route, <i>(mainly due to +issues I had with the papal claims)</i>, I picked up an NIV which was gifted to +my father by my grandfather. +<span class="footnote">I am quite critical of the NIV now, but I do think it is +good for teens and pre-teens, or people with a lower reading level, with proper +guidance of course.</span> +I read the Gospel of Matthew, Revelation, and the first section of Exodus. And +alongside a more scholarly look into things, via online documentaries, I didn't get a +perfect understanding, but a much better one than I had before of the Christian +faith.<br> +After attending a quite low-church evangelical church that some of my family +also attended, I knew something was missing, I could tell there was something +unique about the Christian faith compared to the rest of the world religions, +but modern, Western Christianity felt dead, and a shell of what I knew what the +Christian faith truly was.<br> + +And around that time, I was starting to hear of another branch of Christianity +that was neither Catholicism nor Protestantism, <i>Eastern</i> Orthodoxy! I +actually passed an Orthodox almost weekly my whole life, but I never really +gave it thought when I first started looking into Christianity.<br> +But after giving it a good solid look, listening to Orthodox and non-Orthodox +alike, explaining their belief, right then and there, I knew it was the true +Church. I couldn't properly put it into words at the time, but I could see it +had everything good that I liked about Roman Catholicism, but without any of +the errors I saw in Rome either.<br> + +I couldn't properly put it into words at the time, but I could see it +had everything good that I liked about Roman Catholicism, but without any of +the errors I saw in Rome either. +<br><br> + +That was about two years ago now, and I am finally a member of Christ's Holy +body, I have learnt and changed so much from those two years, and I have to +say, most of it wouldn't be without the Orthodox Church. I am so thankful for +my priest, my godfather, my patron saint Ambrose of Milan, the Theotokos, and +Jesus Christ, for I don't know where I would be without them.<br><br> + +<b>-- Ambrose</b>. +</p> + +<!--footer--> +<div id="footer-placeholder"> + +</div> + +<script> +$(function(){ + $("#footer-placeholder").load("/static/footer.html"); +}); +</script> +<!--end of footer--> + +</body> +</html> |