What are we teaching the children?
February 3, 2013
Although I am not one to constantly waive the American flag, I am happy and grateful to live in an advanced, relatively free country. The fact that I was born and raised in the United States is nothing more than an accident of birth. Considering the nationality of my father, I could have easily been born in Soviet Ukraine, or somewhere else behind the Iron Curtain, where my daily life, especially from the 1960’s until the fall of the Soviet Union, would have been consumed with trying to obtain the basics for simply getting by each day. Living in the Soviet Union meant standing in line for everything. As one priest serving in Soviet Ukraine explained to me, preaching against stealing and bribery were useless, because if one did not bribe or sometimes steal, one might not eat, have a roof over their head, wear shoes, or have other basic necessities of life. (more…)