If a man lives in sin, away from the Church and its sacrament of confession, his soul becomes burdened with the cumulative weight of his transgressions. Simply put, he feels bad most of the time but doesn’t know why, and continually searches for worldly solutions to relieve his internal pain, guilt, and strife. He does not know—or does not want to know—that it is the soul which demands healing from prodigal and sinful living by getting right with God. Satan ensures he does everything except seek a true alleviation of that guilt through the Church and instead pushes him into various tricks and schemes that soothe the soul only for a brief moment.

The soul is facing eternal death, but the prodigal instead seeks solutions that delay physical death. The soul knows it has transgressed before God and is “bad,” but instead seeks behaviors that make it feel “good.” Healthy living and false virtue quiet the soul just long enough to continue transgressing, but offer no meaning to life or eternal salvation.

Below is a list of behaviors that city dwellers use to temporarily but uselessly relieve a burning conscience. They all fall into the categories of health or false virtue. Note that I’m not judging individuals who commit the various behaviors but the sentiment behind them, and the only reason I understand that sentiment is how regularly I used it before becoming an Orthodox Christian.

1. Buying organic food

“In spite of living far from God, to make sure I live a long and healthy life, I pay extra for organic avocados.”

The idea of organic food is sound: it’s rationally better to eat foods that have not been laced with various pesticides or genetically modified. (I have previously preached the dangers of eating seed oils which are common in the American diet). However, one must look at the intent behind eating organic foods to see if it reveals a spiritual problem. Those far from God eat organic and pay exorbitant prices at Whole Foods because they fear death and disease. They want to prolong their life and decrease the chances they will get cancer or strokes. Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, avoid goyslop and industrial food because they’re fake, unnatural, stupid, and likely demonized. I’m ready to die in whichever way the Lord wills, whenever He wills, but I hesitate to eat canola oil because I know it’s not actually food.

2. Buying ethically sourced food

“In spite of living far from God, I make sure to spend more money on foods I love to help those who live in racially and economically disadvantaged countries.”

It’s not enough for the city dweller to perceive they will live a long life from healthy foods—they also have to “feel good” about the foods they eat and how they’re incorporated into their lifestyle. There is no other better way to do this than to put the word “ethical” on a food package next to a picture of a short African, Central American, or Asian man holding a burlap sack of the product. The city dweller does not struggle against his sins, yet paying $2 extra for a bag of coffee allows them to think, “I am a good person helping those who are less fortunate.” Needless to say but sins are not remitted from purchasing ethically sustainable foods.

3. Recycling

“In spite of living far from God, I go out of my way to put plastic bottles in a special container so that I can save planet Earth.”

It’s rational to recycle and reuse materials, but the intent behind those behaviors will tell you if the person is doing it out of practicality or trying to alleviate a filthy soul. If you’re trying to save the planet, but you’re not trying to save your soul, you’re terribly deceived.

4. Exercising multiple times a week in a gym

“In spite of living far from God, I have faith that my yoga and meditation wellness routine will allow me to live a long, happy life.”

When it comes to exercise, a blameless intent is to do just enough to serve your mission before God, but you only need to step foot inside MegaCorp gym for five seconds to see that this is rarely being done. Those who spend most of their time in the cardio area fear the looming specter of death from heart disease and want to live longer. Those in the bodybuilding area want to vainly show off their physique with tight clothing and feel a false virtue for being the most attractive version of themselves. Exercise enough so that you can stand for five hours during a festal vigil. Bodybuild enough so that your legs can handle unlimited prostrations. Other reasons, however, may be a way to feed vanity or placate a soul crying out in pain.

5. Engaging in two minutes of internet hate

“In spite of living far from God, I have the discernment to state we should go nuclear against Russia because they’re baddies, and also I’m qualified to declare that the police officer who killed a black man on duty deserves the electric chair for his racism.”

City dwellers fall into judgment because judgment feels good—it’s a way to assert your superiority over others and inflame the notion of being a somebody. Even though they are facing a severe judgment that will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth, while in the body they can pretend to be righteous and on the side of good by shaking their fists on social media with the encouragement and approval of the elites.

6. Not using plastic bags or straws

“In spite of living far from God, if I see you using a plastic bag in the supermarket, I will give you a dirty look because of the harm you are causing to the environment.”

I live in a state that has passed extra laws to “protect” abortion while banning all disposable bags from supermarkets, even paper bags. So in my state you can kill a baby but you cannot obtain a disposable bag of any sort. Satan, the enemy of mankind, has somehow figured out how to make people feel virtuous for not using disposable products while simultaneously supporting the killing of human beings.

7. Practicing “safe” sex

“In spite of living far from God, I just engaged in a ‘safe’ act of mortal sin with someone who is not my wife because I covered 0.5% of my body with a piece of latex.”

The copulatory act is all-encompassing. There is no part of your body that does not interface with the other. It is known that many diseases can occur outside of the groin area, yet just because a condom was used, participants think it was “safe” and blameless. Sadly, considering that fornication is one of the gravest sins, and puts you most at risk for condemnation, it is absolutely impossible to have “safe” sex outside of marriage. And it goes without saying that masturbation is never safe.

8. Taking care of a small pet

“In spite of living far from God, I’m a good person because I take care of my little pug by dressing him up and even cooking vegan dishes for him.”

It’s hard to become a mother when you idolize your career and use apps like Tinder to meet a lot of men. Motherhood means taking on real sacrifice by putting others above yourself, but this is impossible to do when your pleasure comes first. However, the nurturing instinct in women is so strong that they seek out domestic house pets as an easy substitute. A woman can get a dog, retain her self-love, feel like a good mother, and get all the societal benefits from being a mother after sharing TikToks or Instagram Stories of her cute dog online.

9. Attending a gay pride event

“In spite of living far from God, I like to attend gay pride events to give moral support to a group that has historically been maligned, treated unfairly, and for some reason accused of spreading AIDS.”

The phenomenon of straight women going to gay pride events is very real. In fact, I believe that gay pride is a psyop primarily targeted toward straight women, to bring their lifestyles more in line with the extreme promiscuity of homosexuals while fomenting distrust against the potential source of their salvation: a good Christian man who is not gay.

10. Getting vaxxed, wearing face masks, and sanitizing hands until they’re raw

“In spite of living far from God and facing imminent spiritual death, I made sure to get the coronavirus vaccine because I don’t want others to get sick and suffer physical death.”

I’m certain the coronavirus vaccine is from Satan—it’s a perfectly demonized construction that is perhaps his best work after the theory of evolution, because it helps the city dweller think he’s escaping death while being a good person who “saves lives.” In the end, hundreds of thousands of people will die due to this demonic elixir before they can repent. Meanwhile, the vaccinated man can browbeat you while soaking in virtue and “scientific” knowledge that he is making the right choice for his health and the health of those he cares about. Talk to people who got the vaccine long enough and very soon you find that it’s not just a vaccine to them but an ideology that makes them feel good about who they are.

Conclusion

All these tricks to alleviate secular guilt are done in vain. Their effects are so fleeting that the person has to essentially create a lifestyle of guilt alleviation that will perfectly coincide with what the world—and the dark prince of this world—wants them to do. The reason why those in the city are so quick to latch on to the latest cause (even if it happens to be a massive war that could potentially kill millions of people) is that it contains an implicit promise to soothe their conscience. “If you believe in this thing, you will feel good for a moment.” Or it will be a new health fad that has the implicit promise to live a day longer, postponing a divine judgment that cannot be avoided.

Because a person cannot stand feelings of guilt in their conscious, they repress them into the subconscious and unconscious where, as psychology says, they acquire an independence and from then on cause continuous torment. Though the person throws these guilty feelings there, the feelings do not want to stay there, they want to escape. They also deserve to be exposed. They continuously prod and poke, until one day they erupt in some way and the seriousness of the sickness is exposed. That is, others can see that this person is sick. It is not that before this the person was well, but simply that there was a basement where all of these things were hidden. —Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos in Anxiety

For those who participate in these behaviors, their sins grow deeper and their soul becomes more malformed. There’s only one way to alleviate the guilt of a sinful life and that’s through participation in the sacraments that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us through His Church, the Orthodox Church. Outside of the Church, there is absolutely no way to remove your guilt, even if you do everything on the above list and please the head of the Anti-Defamation League with your displays of online virtue. The path that our Lord has laid out is clear: if you have fallen, you must repent, be received into the Church, and confess your sins. Only then will the guilt fade, and only then can your soul be saved.

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It's sad to see so many young attractive women waste their youth on higher education or professional sports etc. (often with a cat or a dog at home as a child replacement) You'd be amazed at how many women in Norway have obviously great genetics, but waste it on a career in law and so forth. They don't realize that having kids at 37 will not generally yield the same results genetically as having kids before age 30 at least, (ideally 16-25) which in turn is a punishment or sin that is transferred to the offspring.

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Good article. I’m not sure that the real reason urbanites do these behaviors is to alleviate guilt - I think their consciences are so damaged that they don’t feel any guilt at all. Or if they do, it is deeply subconscious.

I think the motivation is rather to get a dopamine rush from behaviors or activities that feed base appetites like hunger or pride or materialism while also making them feel good about themselves as a virtuous person, which is a pretty toxic combination, yet potent marketing to those who want to feel superior to the average consumer. I have often been quite guilty of this.

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Roosh, just a note about a typo: "Those in the bodybuilding area what to vainly show off their physique"

I think you meant "want", not "what"

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"However, one must look at the intent behind eating organic foods to see if it reveals a spiritual problem. Those far from God eat organic and pay exorbitant prices at Whole Foods because they fear death and disease."

Modern people are so spiritually and emotionally detached that they think it's enough to eat right and excercise to stay healthy and live long. This completely excludes the social and psychological factors that cause most illnesses. Because of the preexisting mind-body dualism in the west, Western medicine can only look at the physical and mechanical cause of an illness while ignoring the wider social and psychological context.

This means that most illnesses have a spiritual origin, while the illness itself is a symptom of inner disarray. In the materialistic world view, life is unfair and illnesses are random. Hence the logic is to "eat healthy" to "stay away" from illness. In reality illness is the body saying no to some form of spiritual/emotional shortcoming which has been suppressed. Sooner or later, this manifests as a malignant tumor or whatever it takes for the body to get the attention of the soul.

So ultimately we are responsible for most illnesses we cause to ourselves, albeit unconsciously. The Orthodox concept of theosis is invaluable since life is ultimately about purging oneselves of the negative echoes of personal and inter-generational sin.

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None of the ten items that keep city dwellers from guilt are worth anything. The city dweller numbs their existential angst versus confronting it. It's like using Febreeze, which turns off specific odor receptors in your nose instead of actually disinfecting and, thus, tackling the issue at its root. But, if your house stinks it still stinks. And that's the life of most city dwellers. Perhaps some of these items will help but for only so long. Eventually, they'll lose their effectiveness entirely and the subject will be left with the same problems but bigger since they've been neglected. Kind of like with "modern" women. They forgo marriage in their 20s for their "career", reckless casual sex and "independence" only to wake up still spinning from the night before alone in their 1 bedroom or studio condo/apartment as a 30-something post-wall woman with no prospects of any true meaning in life. The Febreeze has long since vanished and the place stinks. No amount of spraying or papering over the large pile of detritus on the floor will work.

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None of the ten items that keep city dwellers from guilt are worth anything. The city dweller numbs their existential angst versus confronting it. It's like using Febreeze, which turns off specific odor receptors in your nose instead of actually disinfecting and, thus, tackling the issue at its root. But, if your house stinks it still stinks. And that's the life of most city dwellers. Perhaps some of these items will help but for only so long. Eventually, they'll lose their effectiveness entirely and the subject will be left with the same problems but bigger since they've been neglected. Kind of like with "modern" women. They forgo marriage in their 20s for their "career", reckless casual sex and "independence" only to wake up still spinning from the night before alone in their 1 bedroom or studio condo/apartment as a 30-something post-wall woman with no prospects of any true meaning in life. The Febreeze has long since vanished and the place stinks. No amount of spraying or papering over the large pile of detritus on the floor will work.

This is cope (modern women part).

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This is a brilliant take. I never considered my vegan phase as a way to alleviate secular guilt but that is exactly what I was doing.

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Good article. I’m not sure that the real reason urbanites do these behaviors is to alleviate guilt - I think their consciences are so damaged that they don’t feel any guilt at all. Or if they do, it is deeply subconscious.

I think the motivation is rather to get a dopamine rush from behaviors or activities that feed base appetites like hunger or pride or materialism while also making them feel good about themselves as a virtuous person, which is a pretty toxic combination, yet potent marketing to those who want to feel superior to the average consumer. I have often been quite guilty of this.

Yes it's an subconscious process. They don't even think they have guilt that needs propitiation, even though they comitt serious sins. The dopamine hit is for instant pleasure/relief they can perceive. The damaged soul also demands a more invisible relief through participation with these behaviors. The quote I shared from the book Anxiety by the Archimandrite shares more details about this process.

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My brother is always jumping on a new high exertion, really expensive outdoor activity, and he really is trying to burn off the unhappiness and angst he feels about his life. He has night terrors and it's excruciating to hear someone who is clearly experiencing something really unpleasant, even if it's not conscious.
I hadn't really thought about it, but I haven't been to church since the last time we went together. Something about the experience took all of the praise out of me.
He tells me things that I don't want to know about his personal life that make it really hard to even have a relationship with the rest of his immediate family. It's heartbreaking. And the justification for it all is that it's the lifestyle they're accustomed to.

I try to think of him as the 14 year old who used to answer the phone when my friends called by asking, "you wanna get a hotel room with me?" That's about the depth of him, and the idea that he can keep his daughter from knowing it. And it makes me so sad.

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Without the Blood of Christ. There is no remission of sins. And without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We have no part with Christ.

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People do not realise consciously. But people do feel a spiritual emptiness. Of meaninglessness of modern life. Manifesting as nihilistic lifestyles.

And falling prey to messianic secular ideologies like in the 20th century.

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I find myself doing number 5, at least in my thoughts. How many hours I have wasted intentionally looking up things on the internet to get outraged about... Even worse when I go digging for scandals among the Church hierarchy, in order to feel superior to them even though I spent the vast majority of my life engaged in habitual mortal sins. Most of the internet is just a big temptation to pride, procrastination, and addiction, even right wing news sites. It would be better if I prayed or spent time with my family or did something productive.

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I hadn't really thought about it, but I haven't been to church since the last time we went together. Something about the experience took all of the praise out of me.

I sympathize with your plight (about the praise). But I ask you please, and literally for the love of God, force yourself to go to church soon.

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I find myself doing number 5, at least in my thoughts. How many hours I have wasted intentionally looking up things on the internet to get outraged about... Even worse when I go digging for scandals among the Church hierarchy, in order to feel superior to them even though I spent the vast majority of my life engaged in habitual mortal sins. Most of the internet is just a big temptation to pride, procrastination, and addiction, even right wing news sites. It would be better if I prayed or spent time with my family or did something productive.

Instead of any scandal or outrage. Beyond your control. Commit to Prayer for God is an Avenger. That Justice may be done and leave it at that.

Same if over the dinner table someone brings up terrible News. Commit the matter to Prayer and move on with your life. Some burdens are best left to Rulers and God himself.

Unburden yourself of loads that aren't yours to bear.

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1. A lot of it is about status too. Like “look at me I can afford it.” Yes but more importantly it is about doing everything one can to extend their life and have no care in the world for God, Jesus and salvation. Then if they are not raised Christian and have all of this secularized influences that are anti-Christian and think they are getting their “spirituality” from being new age instead. New ageism is about eating organic foods and veganism.

2. Yes and these people tend to not be very kind to people of European descent and usually not Christians neither, regardless of ethnicity. Read Candice Owens.

3. Yes it is all about saving their “mother earth.”

4. I am going to go on a risk and “gossip“ about someone but be as anonymous as I can (as I always am): I know of someone who’s sibling died of cancer and instead of going the Roosh route and doing something to heal their soul and become Christian and concern about salvation, they started training harder in the gym, to minimize their body fat, hoping they will live longer and lessen their chance of getting cancer, but of course same person will have breast implants and botox injections. Hey the person eats organic. I am not in contact with this person anymore and at the time I knew them, I was not a devout Christian.

5. Yes with some people when they put others down publicly it makes them feel better about themselves, they obviously have something they need to overcompensate for, projection. Or they do not have God or Christ in their lives or not sincerely anyway. There is so much gossip in the secular environment, that when the person being gossiped about is NOT anonymous at all and when it is obsessive it is horrible. As for in the internet world, the worst is twitter. It is good for one soul to be on twitter as minimum as possible.

6. Yes, the perks of democracy and liberalism without Christ.

7. Secularists in general have no problem with fornication especially co-habiting since marriage is just “a piece of paper,“ even if married to practice “safe sex” to prevent pregnancy means smaller birth rates.

8. I have noticed a consistency that people who are self-proclaimed animal lovers, will do very treacherous things to humans. They think being animal lovers makes them “good people” or that is the impression they want to give to people.

9. Seems filthy in one of those. I have never attended one.

10. Yes with Godless leftists it is not about health but a cult mentality and self-righteousness; virtual signaling.

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Speaking from experience, alleviating guilt seems to skip over, from the left “lane” of one’s perceived transgressions, a narrow middle road, and settle on the bumpy right shoulder of moral high ground and judgment. And the vehicle one makes these lane changes in is generally a hybrid car or a bicycle or some such.

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even though they comitt serious sins

Don't the Orthodox and most other Christians commit sins all the time but simply go to confession and continue to repent every day? Living under such a burden, it sounds horrible. I know faith is hard and given the choice it's easier to admit defeat and reconcile oneself to the consolation prize of unending sin and repentance. And speaking of serious sins... Is there a list of sins in order of seriousness?

If Jesus Christ himself commented on this forum, do you think you would recognize him and accept his comments, or would you ban him immediately?

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Do none of you have faith beyond that God exists and sent his son to pay for your sins?

James 2:19 NIV
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder.

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Great article.

To add a few:
11. Not taking the plane - Telling everyone you don't go on vacation across the globe this time and you go close as life is great here as well. Some might even take the train for extra points.
12. Not getting a new iPhone every year - Telling everyone you don't need to replace it. And it's fine to use it another year.
13. Buying vintage clothes in a hip shop - Telling everyone how wasteful the clothing industry is and that we can wear many things longer.
14. Taking your own cup to the coffee shop - To not waste a throwaway cup.
15. Buying CO2 credits when buying stuff online or flying.

It's all really sad to be honest.

Indeed they promise to alleviate guilt temporarily. The forgiveness of guilt has become a full industry. Where companies now build machines to take CO2 from the air. The new plant is called Mammoth.

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All to prevent us from going on our knees for our Father and say, sorry father for I have sinned.

Pondering further on it makes me angry.

For a long long time I didn't know what sin was.

I had a very narrow understanding of sin. E.g. don't steal, don't cheat. I cheated on my girlfriend and felt I committed the greatest sin in the world. I felt I couldn't come across her family and her. The worst I could ever do was cheat.

Now looking back I was living a full life of sin, sinning to my creator all the time.
- A girlfriend? What's that. What was I doing? Living together with a girl to get sexual pleasure and when the pleasure dies out I trade her in?
- Lust - Going out all the time to go lust after girls and hoping they allow me to go home with them?
- Alcohol - Drugging myself going out, so I can find the courage to sin?
- Studying - What was I doing? Spending years in university learning propaganda? Hoping to get accepted by the elites as a servant in the system?
- Denial of God - Making fun of Christians? Old fashioned. Boring. Just have fun.
- Praying to false Gods - Sitting in Yoga classes. Namaste.

I could criticize the "woke" ones which we didn't call woke back then. Lefties. But I was living a life of sin myself.

One of the largest liberations of faith is a better understanding of sin for me. So I can work on the things that matter.

Because it's just incredibly sad. Those people buying CO2 credits are also God's children. And this is what they can come up with to alleviate their built-up guilt. It's like being 50kg overweight and the doctor gives you candy with 10% less calories.

It's a guilt economy. With psychologists, psychiatrists giving drugs, with all these "solutions" you gave.

And these people just sink deeper in their pits of despair, of guilt, shame. A highway to hell.

It just shows the importance that those who have received the grace of faith that we need to go out there. That Christ died for or sins, that he has risen and that we have the answer to alleviating guilt.

God, his son and the holy spirit.

Maybe people need to go in this dead end street to finally see the light, I hope many will be saved.

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