What does the Orthodox Church teach about the Church's power to bind & loose sin?
I think that "conscientious objection" is a derivative of "Just War" theory. I think the West recognizes the inherent evil of war, all war, even just wars. While you see the ongoing slaughter that's taken place in European crossroads throughout the ages, the wars that the Western Church prevented rarely get mentioned in any history books. An excommunicated prince had a great deal of difficulty gathering any army, because death on the battlefield by anyone who fought under his banner meant certain damnation.
No recognizing sin for sin and dealing with it through the sacraments is leading to a sort of moral relativism in the West which may well lead to its downfall because, unlike the recognition of the sinfulness of war in the Christian East, its non recognition or nuanced recognition in the West makes the whole concept of evil disappear, sort of like the Evil One has, BC.
I see your point, but wonder about the Eastern response to communism's rise to power in the USSR. The Church survived underground, but it didn't prevent Russians from taking up arms on behalf of their nation.
I'm again reminded of the urban legend about young Catholic girls having abortions, because an abortion would only be one sin, whereas, there's no way to repent if she's committing an ever growing number of sins by taking birth control pills.
“I see your point, but wonder about the Eastern response to communism’s rise to power in the USSR. The Church survived underground, but it didn’t prevent Russians from taking up arms on behalf of their nation.”
I doubt we can ever know how many, if any, wars the Orthodox Church has prevented. Human beings go to war whether they are Orthodox or Latin or Reformed or Hindus or Mohammedans, etc. We shouldn’t be surprised if men war with each other. That’s reality. We however should never believe, much less teach, that war is not always sinful.
“What does the Orthodox Church teach about the Church’s power to bind & loose sin?”
That’s sort of a broad subject. In a nutshell, Orthodoxy teaches what Rome teaches but there’s more to it than that.
“I’m again reminded of the urban legend about young Catholic girls having abortions, because an abortion would only be one sin, whereas, there’s no way to repent if she’s committing an ever growing number of sins by taking birth control pills.”
I don’t doubt that’s a legend, however, it speaks volumes about the position the Latin Church has placed at least some of its people in.