Greece has become the first majority-Orthodox Christian nation to legalize same-sex marriage under civil law. At least for the near future, it will almost certainly be the only one.
Eastern Orthodox leadership, despite lacking a single doctrinal authority like a pope, has been united in opposing recognition of same-sex relationships both within its own rites and in the civil realm. Public opinion in majority Orthodox countries has mostly been opposed, too.
But there are some signs of change. Two small majority-Orthodox countries, Montenegro and Cyprus, have authorized same-sex unions in recent years, as did Greece in 2015 before upgrading to full marital status on Feb. 15.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
Civil unions may become more common among Orthodox countries gravitating toward the European Union. They remain off the table in Russia, which has cracked down on LGBTQ+ expression, and countries in its orbit.
THE ORTHODOX WORLD
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
Eastern Orthodoxy is a socially conservative, ancient church with elaborate rituals and a strict hierarchy. Churches are mostly organized along national lines, with multiple independent churches that share ancient doctrine and practices and that both cooperate and squabble.
Roughly 200 million Eastern Orthodox live primarily in Eastern Europe and neighboring Asian lands, with about half that total in Russia, while smaller numbers live across the world. Like other international church bodies, Orthodoxy has confronted calls for LGBTQ+ inclusion.
A 2016 statement by a council of most Orthodox churches called marriage between a man and a woman “the oldest institution of divine law” and said members were forbidden from entering same-sex unions.
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, considered the first among equals among Orthodox leaders, affirmed that stance in a statement after the Greek vote. But he added that the church must respond to members in such unions “with pastoral responsibility and in Christ-like love.”
In countries where they are a majority, Orthodox believers overwhelmingly said society should not accept homosexuality or approve same-sex marriage, according to surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank.
Greek Orthodox showed relative tolerance, with half of Orthodox saying homosexuality should be accepted and a quarter favoring same-sex marriage. In more recent polls, Greeks overall narrowly supported the marriage law.
The Greek law validates marriage in the civil realm but doesn’t require any church to perform such rites.
Nevertheless, Greece’s Orthodox leadership unanimously opposed the law in January, saying the “duality of genders and their complementarity are not social inventions but originate from God.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged the church’s position but said, “We are discussing the decisions of the Greek state, unrelated to theological beliefs.”
Civil unions may be in some Orthodox countries’ near future, said George Demacopoulos, director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University in New York.
“In terms of civil marriage, I think the countries that are in the European Union will eventually all do it,” Demacopoulos said. “My guess is the assemblies of bishops in those countries will offer some resistance to the measure, and depending on where you are, that may or may not delay it.”
(AP)
希臘成為第一個以民法將同性婚姻合法化的東正教基督教國家，這在東正教國家中幾乎會是後無來者，至少在短期的未來確是如此。
東正教並無像教宗一樣的教義單一權威來領導，但對於反對承認同性婚姻，卻一直都是口徑一致，無論在宗教儀式或民事上皆然。大多數東正教國家的輿論也多持反對態度。
但也有一些轉變的跡象。蒙特內哥羅和賽浦勒斯這兩個以東正教為主的小國，近年已批准同性婚姻，希臘也在2015年批准了同性婚姻，但2月15日升級為完全婚姻狀態。
在立場偏歐盟的東正教國家中，民事結合可能會變得更普遍，但在俄羅斯及其周邊國家則是免談，俄羅斯一直在打擊LGBTQ+的言論。
東正教世界
東正教是個保守的古老教派，有複雜的儀式和嚴格的階級制度。教派多以國家來劃分，有多個獨立的教會，也有共同的古老教義與實踐方式，既合作又意見相左。
大約兩億東正教徒主要生活在東歐和鄰近的亞洲地區，其中約一半在俄羅斯，少部分在世界各地。與其他國際教會機構一樣，東正教也面臨包容LGBTQ+的呼聲。
大多數東正教會的理事會在2016年發表聲明，稱男女之間的婚姻是「神聖律法最古老的制度」，並表示禁止成員進入同性婚姻。
君士坦丁堡〔即伊斯坦堡〕宗主教巴爾多祿茂被認為是東正教地位最高的領袖〔君士坦丁堡普世牧首〕，他在希臘國會投票後發表的聲明中確認了此立場。但他補充說，教會必須「以牧養責任和基督般的愛」來回應進入同性結合的成員。
華盛頓智庫皮尤研究中心在2015年及2016年進行的調查顯示，在東正教信徒佔多數的國家，絕大多數人表示社會不應接納同性戀或批准同性婚姻。
希臘東正教表現出相對寬容，東正教徒有一半認為應接納同性戀，四分之一的人支持同性婚姻。在最近的民意調查中，希臘人總體上以些微優勢支持同婚法。
希臘的同婚法律承認婚姻在民事領域的有效性，但並未要求任何教會舉行同婚儀式。
儘管如此，希臘東正教領導層在一月一致反對這項法律，並表示「性別二元性及其互補性不是社會發明，而是源自上帝」。
希臘總理基里亞科斯‧米佐塔基斯承認教會的立場，但表示：「我們是在討論希臘國家的決定，與神學信仰無關」。
紐約福坦莫大學東正教研究中心主任喬治‧德馬科普洛斯表示，民事結合在不久的將來可能會出現在一些東正教國家。
「就民事婚姻而言，我認為歐盟國家最終都會這樣做」，德馬科普洛斯說。「我的猜測是，這些國家的主教會議將對此議案做出一些抵制，這可能會也可能不會延遲法案的通過，端看是在什麼地方」。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
Street lights are often taken for granted until a power outage plunges the world into darkness. When that happens, the value of these lighting installations becomes evident as the world turns into a more dangerous place for pedestrians and motorists alike. The Chinese could claim to be the first to have constructed a crude type of street light. Around 500 BC, residents of Beijing employed a type of street lamp that used hollow bamboo pipes and natural gas vents to create burning torches. Later, ancient Romans adopted lamps fueled by vegetable oil, which relied on slaves to light and
Undersea cables are conductors wrapped in insulating materials and laid on the seabed. Their main functions are telecommunications or power transmission. The core of the undersea cables used for Internet signals is optical fiber, using light to transmit Internet signals. Taiwan’s communications are currently handled by 10 domestic undersea cables and 14 international undersea cables. About 99 percent of Taiwan’s Internet bandwidth relies on undersea cables, making them Taiwan’s “digital lifeline.” The demands on the cables’ bandwidth are only set to increase with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), which relies on the data fed into it. Today, data is
A: Who else is on Billboard’s list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century?” B: No. 15 to 6 are: Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Usher, Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Britney Spears. A: I can’t believe that Adele’s only at No. 10. B: No. 5 to 1 are: Lady Gaga, Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Beyonce. A: Well, they surely deserve the honor. A: 《告示牌》雜誌的「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」，還有誰上榜啊？ B: 第15至6名是：麥莉希拉、大賈斯汀、妮姬米娜、阿姆、亞瑟小子、愛黛兒、亞莉安娜、小賈斯汀、肯伊威斯特、小甜甜布蘭妮。 A: 真不敢相信愛黛兒只排第10名。 B: 第5至1名是：女神卡卡、德瑞克、蕾哈娜、泰勒絲、碧昂絲。 A: 這幾位真是實至名歸！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
Spoiler alert and shift blame 破梗&甩鍋 在新冠疫情期間，無論是因為封城 (lockdown) 還是居家隔離 (self-isolation at home)，人們關在家中使用網路的時間大增。這也讓一些原本只存在於網路論壇的用語廣為普及。我們來談一下破梗 (spoiler alert) 與甩鍋 (shift blame) 這兩個用語。 有位古典文學教授 Joel Christensen 針對領導統御與疫情控制寫了一篇以古喻今、相當深入的文章：“Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales”，文中出現一些講法，可用來翻譯上述的流行語： In the 5th century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins Oedipus Tyrannos with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) (Joel Christensen, “Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales,” The Conversation, March 12, 2020) 作者提到 Oedipus（伊底帕斯）想找出瘟疫何以降臨他的城邦的緣由，加了一句：Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.（破梗：領導無方）。Spoiler alert 就是「破梗」，如果用在有人洩漏電影劇情的情境中，也可以翻作「小心爆雷」或「劇透警告」。疫情之下，在家看影集、電影成了很多人的娛樂，但要小心劇透 (spoilers)，很多 YouTube 上的影評在開頭也都會說 Spoiler alert!，警告還沒看過電影的觀眾小心爆雷、劇透。 至於「甩鍋」，源自大陸網民用語，通常意指某人犯了錯之後想推卸責任、轉移焦點、甚至讓別人背黑鍋的做法。疫情爆發後，相關網路資訊量爆增，許多中國網民也想找人為這場疫情負責，紛紛呼籲地方政府首長、地方黨書記不要「甩鍋」。 其實，在古代文學《奧德賽》中，就有「將自己的責任怪罪眾神」的說法，試用時下流行的「甩鍋」來重新翻譯： Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering, but they experience
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