Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

Statistics don't show that religious people divorce any less than non-religious, unless you are talking about ultra conservative ones, who are the ones who would stay unhappily together rather than divorce, which is even worst than a divorce.

In Cyprus the public schools are mainly Christian Orthodox children, religion is taught in all 12 years, the Church basically assigns the education minister etc. And guess what. There are drugs in our schools, gratify all over the place and lots of things that aren't "proper". Christian education has absolutely nothing to do with kids staying off the streets, drugs and other vices. I too send my children to a private school and one of my reasons is the opposite of yours: A school where there is no religious brainwashing and which is not controlled by the Church. There are kids from all over the world there, and they are just fine. What is common in all private schools, religious and non-religious, is that you have to pay and therefore the lower classes are excluded and also that they have more money than public schools to improve the education, facilities, security etc.

I don't take any notice of the statistics. Statistics and other secular forces are also painting a very negative picture about ALL religions.

The Catholic Church, the biggest in Australia, is a huge target. That's because, even though Australia is a secular country, it has enormous influence with Australia's Political Elites, the establishment, the unions, and every facet of life and it does interfere in social issues regarding things like abortion, same sex marriage, gender issues and other concerns like this. The next big religion of Australia is The Church of England which also has a huge influence politically. The Orthodox is small in comparison but there are well over 1 million Orthodox.

The Catholic Church is under enormous attack because there were a number of cases of sexual abuse and or harassment in the past. The way these secular liberal forces make it look like is that everyone who has had anything to do with the Catholic Church or Education System, was abused at one point. That includes people such as myself. My father sent me through the Catholic system as an Orthodox Christian because he believed that the kids that went through that system were better quality people, and he was right too. He was also God fearing and because there was no Orthodoxy, the Catholics would have to do. As a result I want the same for my kids and I would have no problem with the Catholic System whatsoever.

In fact, I prefer these religious, whether Catholic, Anglican or Orthodox over the Left Wing and Militant Secular Neo Liberals any day of the week and twice on Sunday. These are the people I want my children to be involved with, and marry into, not some rainbow wearing, Left Wing nut jobs. who want to tell everyone how to live and kayak in front of American Naval Ships and spit on our soldiers.

The other factor is that yes, in private schools you have to pay. It is a lot more expensive. So yes, you get a lot more kids from more well to do families. That is another factor as well. But the very good thing about the catholic, Anglican and Orthodox sectors is that they all allocate a number of seats which are reserved for poorer Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox children. It isn't all about money for them. They do not want to exclude the devout based on their ability to pay. The neo liberals then turn around and accuse them that they are discriminating against non-believers.

I don't have any problem with normal families from poorer backgrounds. In fact I like them too, very much, when they work hard and most of them do the right thing and are great role models for their children too. It's just that generally, the Neo Liberals and Militant Secularists are the ones more likely to be found in the Government Sector and ruin it for everyone.

I guess I am an ultra conservative. Well, I have no problem with that at all. I don't want my kids to be hanging with the wrong crowds. I think that is pretty normal right?

Bottom line Sotos is this. Christian people just generally have more respect, more manners, and seem better balanced people for me. Might not be the case all the time but I think we can all agree that this is generally the case.

[Sotos]

I don't agree that Christian people generally have more respect, manners etc. On the contrary my observation is that the more religious somebody is, the more likely it is that they would be a racist, homophobe and hate anybody who isn't part of their own religion. Calling yourself "ultra conservative" is a contradiction with you earlier agreeing that this era is the best era so far. The ultra conservatives are those who opposed the end of slavery and who later would support racial segregation and discrimination. If the ultra conservatives always ruled the West then western countries would be the analogous of a Christian Saudi Arabia.

I don't know much about the politics of Australia, but a quick search told me that the party that rules your country for the last several years is the "Liberal Party" which is described as "centre-right liberal conservative", so not "left wing". From what I understand you are coming from a conservative family and you have certain prejudices because of that. Not being ultra conservative doesn't mean that you have to be a radical leftist. There is a lot more than the extremes, and the political views of most people are ranging from center-left to center-right... and that is where usually the right balance is.

[Paphitis]

I don't agree that Christian people generally have more respect, manners etc. On the contrary my observation is that the more religious somebody is, the more likely it is that they would be a racist, homophobe and hate anybody who isn't part of their own religion. Calling yourself "ultra conservative" is a contradiction with you earlier agreeing that this era is the best era so far. The ultra conservatives are those who opposed the end of slavery and who later would support racial segregation and discrimination. If the ultra conservatives always ruled the West then western countries would be the analogous of a Christian Saudi Arabia.

I don't know much about the politics of Australia, but a quick search told me that the party that rules your country for the last several years is the "Liberal Party" which is described as "centre-right liberal conservative", so not "left wing". From what I understand you are coming from a conservative family and you have certain prejudices because of that. Not being ultra conservative doesn't mean that you have to be a radical leftist. There is a lot more than the extremes, and the political views of most people are ranging from center-left to center-right... and that is where usually the right balance is.

Sotos,

you are in Cyprus, and I will give you a warning that might seem way out there to you. You have not yet seen what we have seen in places like Australia, UK, Western European Countries, and the USA. You do not ever want to see this regression, because if you do, Cyprus is dead in the water and finished.

We have War Veterans sleeping under the Sydney Harbour Bridge Sotos, and people will go and mock them. People prepared to lay down their lives. Selfless people.

We have people who graffiti Church's and Synagogues. We have a political polarization never seen before in our lives. We have hatred, crime, drugs and record levels of suicide. Therefore, mental illness is a pandemic and the authorities do not know what to do about it.

On ANZAC Day, we have idiots who spit on parading soldiers of The Australian Defence Force. We have the same rent a crowds that want to destroy all the political institutions, the family unit, and anything that has any resemblance of normality.

One of the things that is keeping our society together as a unitary force is in fact the Church and Christian Religions which are under attack from these neo liberals.

The Orthodox Church claims to have protected the Hellenic World and Cypriots under 400 years of Ottoman Rule and they also claim to have preserved our language and culture.

There will be a day when they will be called upon to do that again. Religions are doing it in many Western Nations.

We are in very dire straits Sotos.

This is the reason why Trump was voted in. People are under siege economically and spiritually by a small minority of people. because Cyprus is small, you will probably be the last to get this infection, but if this isn't stopped it will come to you as well, and you are going to want the Orthodox church to protect and preserve whatever it can, otherwise kiss your Cypriotness and culture Good Bye!

Being a conservative doesn't mean we do not embrace moving forward with our IPads, netflix, Hulu, Social media and just living fairly progressive lives. It's about having some respect for your elders, the family unit, our history, culture, our military, police, our educational infrastructure, and being a valuable part of your community. There are people who want to destroy everything including our very social fabric.

I can give you hundreds of examples.

Last week, the media mocked Trump's speech at the UN. It was however a good speech and he didn't say anything that was bad or wrong. They mocked him, because these neo liberals hate him and everything he stands for. You had article after article from CNN, NYT and hundreds of other outlets mocking Trump.

What the media didn't tell us was the fact that after Trump, Ahmadinejad had his speech and was saying things like how fantastic Iran was with regard to Human Rights. Not a single boo from any outlet.

There is a reason WHY Trump is the POTUS Sotos. And the smart people know what those reasons are.

In Sydney, The Greek Orthodox church feeds and houses homeless which served Australia in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have let these people down Sotos. It is a disgrace.

[yialousa1971]