Source: American Orthodox Institute
November 2, 2016
Photo: http://www.aoiusa.org/
Giving the Patriarch Athenagoras Human Rights Award given to New York Governor Mario Cuomo was a mistake. Cuomo is a first string linebacker for the abortion industry. He uses the power of the state and his bully pulpit to bulldoze anyone who dares defend the unborn. Gov. Cuomo advocates for partial birth abortions up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Maybe you didn’t know.
The award muddies the moral waters. The first calling of Bishops of the Orthodox Church is to “rightly divide the word of truth.” All of us – clergy and laity alike – pray for this every time we meet for worship. Rightly dividing the word of truth applies not only to what is taught inside the church but also applies to the public witness of our Orthodox faith in the larger society. And the tradition is clear: aborting the unborn is morally indefensible.
This is not the first time the waters were muddied. Paul Sarbanes, the former Greek Orthodox senator from Maryland, was feted countless times with no apparent awareness that his abortion advocacy militated against the moral tradition. It scandalized the faithful, so much so that when Sarbanes was appointed as the honorary chairmen of the Twentieth Anniversary Celebration of International Orthodox Charities back in 2012, the faithful protested.
No second-tier moralizing is necessary. Yes, we know that abortions are frequent. We know that given the cultural climate some women chose abortion out of desperation and confusion. Priests deal with this all the time. But certainly you know that healing cannot occur until the disease is properly diagnosed and that the unrestricted abortion that infects American culture is a cultural disease of the first order.
Sin corrupts and the corruption unrestricted abortion fosters is not only personal but cultural. Do you not see this? Ask yourself if selling the remains of aborted baby parts doesn’t reveal we are falling even deeper into a dark pit. If you see this, then ask yourself: Why give Gov. Cuomo – who defends these practices as a social good and advocates for them – an award for human rights?
Yes, we understand that Gov. Cuomo untangled a political knot that allowed the Ground Zero ecumenical shrine to be built. We also understand that politics is a complicated business especially in places like New York. You could have given Gov. Cuomo a certificate of merit or a plaque thanking him for his service – anything that does not muddy the moral waters in the way that you did.
The award has been cheapened, the meaning of the words “human rights” diminished, the moral waters muddied, and the public witness of Orthodox Christianity in America weakened.
Do you not see how this erodes your own moral authority as well?
