For this roundtable discussion, Ashley the Editor wants us to answer the question, “Do animals have souls?” Across the centuries, Christians have approached that question in a variety of ways. The historic consensus is that, yes, animals do have souls, but animal souls are not like human souls.

For this roundtable, Ashley the Editor asks, “Should you form strong relationships with those who have different religious views than you?” Since we columnists are encouraged to keep these reflections to about 800 words, I’m going to interpret the phrase “strong relationships” as a reference to friendship.

So this coming Sunday is January 1, 2017 but, while most American Christians will be celebrating New Year’s Day, we Orthodox will be celebrating the Feast of the Circumcision, because we celebrated the beginning of the New Year back on September 1st of 2016. Which, for most of you, is going to just be further evidence that we Orthodox Christians are totally weird, but, in our current culture, weird isn’t a bad thing to be.

Our columns for The Hill Country News are due on the Wednesday before they actually appear in the paper. So, I’m writing this article on November 1, one week before the election. But even though I don’t know which candidate is going to win, I do know how it’s all going to end. It’s going to be disappointing.

For this roundtable, Ashley the Editor wants us to write about whether religion is an appropriate basis for political belief. Of course, there is no such thing as generic religion; however, in the United States, there are lots and lots of very specific religions. But since I cannot answer for the Sufi Muslims or the Zen Buddhists or the neo-pagans out there, I’m going to address the question from the perspective of Orthodox Christianity. And from the perspective of this Orthodox priest, there is currently way too much religion in our politics.

For this roundtable, Ashley the Editor wants us to write about predestination and free will. I’ll get around to that topic eventually, but, first, I need to say a couple of things about the assignment itself.

All of us are afraid. You can call it anxiety; you can call it uneasiness; you can get fancy and call it angst, but the truth is, we’re just frightened.

Lately, a lot of folks have been making the case that the world is just falling apart. And there’s certainly enough going on to support that interpretation: All around the globe, religious fundamentalists are committing horrible acts of violence. Entire populations are on the move. Totalitarian groups are gaining more and more influence as people become more and more anxious.