Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church, Tallahassee FL

Food is pretty good. Seating is good. Lines are long. Not enough arts/crafts/ or other activities to do.

This is a beautiful church and some parishioners are genuine believers (thus some stars). I used to be a parishioner at this church, visiting fairly regularly. Fr. Robert O'Laughlin and his wife both of whom I've know for many years seemed to be very fond of me, he would typically say that it was "always a blessing" to see me. One would hope, in fact assume, that in this case, if someone tries to slander the person the priest would be the first to come to his parishioner's defense and stand firmly, together with the parishioner, against the accusations, supporting the parishioner in face of difficulties. Unfortunately when someone tried to bring proceedings against me to declare me mentally incompetent or insane and came to Robert O'Laughlin to get his sign-off, he, although probably initially in disbelief of accusations, allowed himself to be convinced thus betraying his parishioner. In my opinion the priest should have defended the parishioner at least until allowing the parishioner to respond to any accusations and present the other side. Moreover, when I asked for truth later, he denied and engaged in gaslighting, again believing or at least perpetuating the lies. Denying truth to the parishioner, particularly when being asked for it, is denying God in my opinion, given that God is Truth, and to me it indicates at least the weakness of Faith on the priest's part. Even for a plainly moral secular person the fact that the proceedings were conducted behind the back, dishonorably and in violation of human and civil rights, depriving the person the possibility to defend oneself, should have been a red flag. This situation also highlights the flaw in the legal system that considers evidence * as if * from independent sources but obtained by the accusing party upon presenting people with one-sided damaging information. The court should solicit others' opinions independently, without informing of the details of the allegations or who is bringing them.