Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Peter Helland is now in the Phillippines after getting married this last September 19th to a Christian Filipina he had been “courting” online for 3.5 years. He was dumbfounded at seeing so many single mothers in the Philippines. 58% of the children are born out of wedlock. Peter traces a big part of this fornication epidemic back to the very beginnings of this sexual lust. The Church fathers from Augustine to Chrysostom to Bishop Bossuet all warned about the vice of jesting called eutrapalia in the Greek in Ephesians 5:4. They said that this vice can easily lead to fornication if not brought under control and defeated. Below is a sample from Bishop Bossuet’s book “Maxims and Reflections on Plays” (1799) as he explains why all the church fathers until St. Thomas Aquinas unanimously condemned eutrapalia as a vice. Aquinas adopted Aristotle’s view and opened the door for it now being almost universally seen by the Church itself as a virtue!
"In the Judgment of the Apostle Paul, the Three blameable Qualities of Discourse are the being Indecent or Filthy, the being Light, Inconsiderate, or Foolish; or the being Smart, ridiculing, or jesting, or (if you allow that rendering) savouring of Buffoonery; For all these words have Significations, which it is very difficult to express in strict propriety of Terms. Now I desire it may be observed, that St. Paul gives this sort of Talk the very best and most creditable Name, that is ever pretended to belong to it; …. And yet St. Paul, after having taken this merry and jocular way of Conversation, under the best figure it is capable of making, and given it it's most favourable Name, does not scruple to rank it among the Vices. Not that we are from hence to conclude ourselves absolutely forbidden to be sometimes pleasant and diverting in Company, but because to be always upon the merry pin, and make it one's constant business and Trade, as it were, to promote Laughing, is exceeding faulty and altogether unsuitable to the Dignity of Men or Christians. St. Thomas, who attended but little to the propriety of the Greek Text, could not make this Reflection upon St. Paul's manner of expressing himself. But it did not escape St. Chrysostome, who had the skill to observe, that the word Eutrapelos, does properly signify a man of Art and address, One who can with great Ease turn himself into different forms and humours, (which agrees with Aristotles account and Etymology of the word) Only the Father and the Philosopher differ in this, that Aristotle takes it in a good sense, as it implies agreeableness of Conversation, Readiness of Wit, and Gayety of Humour, and is opposed to the blunt Rudeness and Ribaldry of Fools and Clowns; Whereas St. Chrysostome keeps his Eye chiefly upon that part of the Signification, which implies the Levity and Inconstancy of the Person, the Meanness of turning Mimick, and affecting to make the Company Laugh. All which he looks upon, as Qualities much too trifling and airy for the Gravity of a Christian, who hath such important Concerns upon his hands; and beneath whose Character it is to descend to such little and despicable Artifices and Designs."
#fornication
#philippines
#travel
#marriage
Peter Helland is now in the Phillippines after getting married this last September 19th to a Christian Filipina he had been “courting” online for 3.5 years. He was dumbfounded at seeing so many single mothers in the Philippines. 58% of the children are born out of wedlock. Peter traces a big part of this fornication epidemic back to the very beginnings of this sexual lust. The Church fathers from Augustine to Chrysostom to Bishop Bossuet all warned about the vice of jesting called eutrapalia in the Greek in Ephesians 5:4. They said that this vice can easily lead to fornication if not brought under control and defeated. Below is a sample from Bishop Bossuet’s book “Maxims and Reflections on Plays” (1799) as he explains why all the church fathers until St. Thomas Aquinas unanimously condemned eutrapalia as a vice. Aquinas adopted Aristotle’s view and opened the door for it now being almost universally seen by the Church itself as a virtue!
"In the Judgment of the Apostle Paul, the Three blameable Qualities of Discourse are the being Indecent or Filthy, the being Light, Inconsiderate, or Foolish; or the being Smart, ridiculing, or jesting, or (if you allow that rendering) savouring of Buffoonery; For all these words have Significations, which it is very difficult to express in strict propriety of Terms. Now I desire it may be observed, that St. Paul gives this sort of Talk the very best and most creditable Name, that is ever pretended to belong to it; …. And yet St. Paul, after having taken this merry and jocular way of Conversation, under the best figure it is capable of making, and given it it's most favourable Name, does not scruple to rank it among the Vices. Not that we are from hence to conclude ourselves absolutely forbidden to be sometimes pleasant and diverting in Company, but because to be always upon the merry pin, and make it one's constant business and Trade, as it were, to promote Laughing, is exceeding faulty and altogether unsuitable to the Dignity of Men or Christians. St. Thomas, who attended but little to the propriety of the Greek Text, could not make this Reflection upon St. Paul's manner of expressing himself. But it did not escape St. Chrysostome, who had the skill to observe, that the word Eutrapelos, does properly signify a man of Art and address, One who can with great Ease turn himself into different forms and humours, (which agrees with Aristotles account and Etymology of the word) Only the Father and the Philosopher differ in this, that Aristotle takes it in a good sense, as it implies agreeableness of Conversation, Readiness of Wit, and Gayety of Humour, and is opposed to the blunt Rudeness and Ribaldry of Fools and Clowns; Whereas St. Chrysostome keeps his Eye chiefly upon that part of the Signification, which implies the Levity and Inconstancy of the Person, the Meanness of turning Mimick, and affecting to make the Company Laugh. All which he looks upon, as Qualities much too trifling and airy for the Gravity of a Christian, who hath such important Concerns upon his hands; and beneath whose Character it is to descend to such little and despicable Artifices and Designs."
#fornication
#philippines
#travel
#marriage
