I am a secular orthodox (very spiritual but also very secular, which means that I am definitely into spirituality but also definitely for secularism and against any religious impositions).

Some decades ago I went to Athos / Ayion Oros in pilgrimage. It was an amazing experience, I met there extraordinary people, of great kindness, lots of bright folks with the most surprinsing backgrounds (from a former catholic italian surgeon to a romanian former atheist and champion of karate; we talked about Bruce Lee and Metallica). They were intellectually curious and opened, hardworkers and who wanted all the good for the rest of humanity. None of them was misogynist, despite chosing to live apart from any woman. Some of them were homophobic, but not as they wanted any bad to gays - they simply didn't understand them.

The most touching moment was when a monk came to me and wanted to give me the few money he had to help me travel back, saying that he doesn't need them - which, of course, I had refused.

On the dark side, I also met some extremely stupid, extremist, fundamentalist haters.

Lately I have read about violent incidents over there between some monks. I am not surprised, but I think it shouldn't cast blame on a comunity who is mostly composed by people really into sprituality and good will.

Have you been to Athos? What is your point about this autonomous monk state?