Katie Kelaidis, PhD
by Katie Kelaidis, PhD
Over the past year, I have been engaged an effort to understand how and why Orthodox Christianity has increasingly become a bastion for far-right extremists of various stripes. This is both a professional and personal interest. As a scholar, I am interested in how history is deployed in the service of contemporary political discourse, particularly on the far-right. As a practicing Orthodox Christian, I want to challenge us to think about the ways in which our witness to the world suggests that the Orthodox faith might very well be a safe haven for those who would visit hatred and violence against their fellow human beings. Because, challenging this notion is an essential part of our contemporary witness. My work specifically focuses on Orthodox Christian identity in the American far-right. This phenomenon has a poster child in Matthew Heimbach, the founder of the now defunct Traditionalist Workers Party and one of the organizers of the 2017 rally in Charlottesville VA “United the Right” which turned deadly when a counter protestor, Heather Heyer, was run over by a car. Heimbach, who joined the Orthodox Church through a mainstream Antiochian Archdiocese church in Indiana is often used as an example that the Church is “dealing” with this problem, as Heimbach was excommunicated following a public outcry after his conversion (He was photographed beating someone with an Orthodox cross on Bright Monday).
But my research suggests this is false comfort. The church has not dealt with this problem, and the growing forces of hatred and intolerance which have become an increasingly visible and viable part of the North American and European political landscape are enjoying a highly problematic relationship with the Orthodox Church. And I am not going to bury the dead. It seems clear why this has happened. These extremists have some bigotries, that when writ large, we find acceptable; and so, we are reluctant or frankly unwilling to challenge them even when their rhetoric and sometimes their actions cross the line into advocating extreme forms of discrimination and even violence. Misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism are our gateway drug –acceptable forms of prejudice in Orthodox thought and action — excuses for ignoring the image of God in some human beings. Our tolerance of these forms of bigotry has devastating consequences.
In this article, I want to look at the two streams which I think are feeding the emergence of an explicitly Orthodox far right; and secondly, I want to look at the form this takes and what we might be able to do about it. As an advance warning, an actual solution is probably way above my pay grade.
Influence of Protestant Fundamentalism
It is important to note that for much of the history of the post-World War II Western far-right, Orthodox Christianity was seen as one of those Eastern threats to “Western Civilization.” Samuel Huntington as late as the early 1990s grouped Orthodox Civilization in with Islam as a threat to the West. The transformation of Orthodox Christianity in Western right-wing thought from Eastern threat to Christendom’s standard-bearer has been driven in no small part by a wave of conversions by those from non-traditionally Orthodox backgrounds. Over the past three decades, there has been an increasing interest in Orthodox Christianity from those in fundamentalist and mainline Protestant circles disaffected by reformist or progressive impulses within their own traditions. While reliable statistics are difficult to come by, that this interest frequently results in conversions is something that can be felt in Orthodox parishes, media, and apologetics. This influence is particularly felt due to the extent to which formerly Protestant converts dominate self-identified Orthodox media, both in specifically Orthodox circles and within mainstream media. The Orthodox radio/podcast network Ancient Faith Radio is full of the voices of adult converts to the faith, and the aesthetic of the network mimics that of American Protestant Christian media as it has developed since the late 196os. In secular American media, figures such as Rod Dreher, the editor of The American Conservative, regularly are called on to represent Orthodoxy.
Dreher, who came to Orthodoxy from Catholicism decades after leaving the Methodist faith of his childhood and young adulthood, highlights many of the cultural and ideological problems raised by the wave of modern conversions. There is little doubt, by his own account, that Dreher’s journey backward through the history of Christianity is as motivated as much (if not more) by the political tides of late 20th and early 21st century American political life as by a spiritual reckoning. Dreher does not convert to Orthodoxy when persuaded by its unique theological dicta. Rather, Dreher comes to Orthodoxy convicted first and foremost that Western Civilization is threatened from within and without, and that this crisis can only be resolved by a return to Western Civilization’s Christian roots. And while this formulation invokes the specter of historical Christianity, the fact remains that this is a political, rather than a theological, proposition. The position taken by Dreher and other similarly situated Orthodox converts is namely that Eastern Christianity must become the standard-bearer of Christendom, because it is the only form of Christianity not yet “polluted” by the corrupting influences of Western modernity. It is notable, however, that this position is only tenable when Eastern Christianity is radically transformed into the image of an imagined lost Christian past that is in its final formation decidedly Western and shockingly ahistorical.
Take, for example, Western-rite Orthodox parishes, a phenomenon which began in the 1980s and 1990s, attributable largely to the conversion of whole Catholic and Episcopalian parishes to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Most of these parishes, once under the authority of an Eastern bishop’s jurisdiction, did not adopt the Byzantine liturgy, but instead adopted the pre-Vatican II Catholic Mass (providing for the deletion of the filioque from the Nicene Creed and the addition of a stronger epiclesis in the consecration of the Eucharist). These modified rites are usually permitted to be said in either Latin or the vernacular. Even more strangely, perhaps, some such converted parishes practice a Eucharistic celebration based on old versions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. This practice is defended at length on the official website of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, not surprising as this is the jurisdiction into which most of these rogue Western parishes converted (On the Western Rite Liturgy, http://www.antiochian.org/node/22396).
The theological correctness of these practices is neither within the scope of this paper nor the author’s expertise; however, the sociological and historical implications of such a practice cannot be overlooked or understated. While contemporary religious fundamentalist movements imagine themselves as quintessentially reactionary, the fact remains that these movements are in practice largely, if not exclusively, radical. Rather than growing out of the historical practices and theology of the traditions from which they emerge, fundamentalist movements instead dialogue primarily with modernity and center around innovative ideology and practice largely drawn from an imagined past, created out of a desire to contradict those aspects of contemporary culture which adherents find distasteful. This is not to suggest that Western-rite Orthodox parishes are all “fundamentalist” in orientation; rather, this is to demonstrate that the liturgical practice adopted by Western-rite parishes reflects the wider issue of how converts from the Western Christian tradition have been received into Orthodoxy (particularly in America), the concessions that have been made for these converts, and the way in which these concessions can allow fundamentalist and/or Protestant impulses to be introduced into Orthodox Christian thought and practice.
Moscow Patriarchate: Radicalization and Nationalism
At the same time as primarily American Orthodoxy has experienced this infusion of fundamentalist thought, Russia, the world’s largest majority Orthodox nation, has re-entered the global geopolitical fray in pretty big ways. Not a small part of this has been a kind of soft-power culture politic that has sought to prop up right wing forces in Western nations as a way of destabilizing those nations. And when placed in the context of Orthodox history and contemporary Russian Orthodox posturing, the threat of the union between American fundamentalist Orthodoxy and a revived, radicalized Russian Orthodox Church both within Orthodoxy and within the broader world becomes evident.
I don’t think it is controversial to argue that Vladimir Putin has, for his part, put this revival to good use. In domestic policy, he has embraced the Church’s hardline positions on a host of social issues from abortion to LGBT rights (positions shared by shockingly high numbers of ordinary Russians), frequently echoing the anti-Western sentiments of Orthodox clerics in his own stance. While similar to conservative Christian views anywhere, the particular Russian flavor of these positions are a reflection of a worldview born in Russia’s centuries long struggle to protect Orthodoxy from Western corruption. Patriarch Kirill told Russia’s state-sponsored English news network RT that “Western law now conflicts with man’s moral nature” (See: discussion of Dreher 2017, above). This same interview could have shown a softer side of the Patriarch who, here at least, says that LGBT people should not be discriminated against or punished by the state. However, it is difficult to see a call for tolerance in a statement that is followed by an assertion that, “…this new trend poses a significant threat for the existence of the human race.”
The Church’s social positions are clearly flowing over into Russian life. The horrific legal and social position of Russia’s LGBT community has been well-documented, including the 2013 “Propaganda Law,” which effectively forbids any civil rights advocacy on behalf of gender and sexual minorities. There is also Russia’s highly controversial law essentially legislating domestic violence. The list goes on.
In this context, Russia has taken on a strange new image, particularly among ascendant far-right movements. These groups, both in the United States and Europe, many familiarized with Orthodoxy via the conversion of their political allies, have adopted a view of history shockingly similar to the one that has pervaded the Orthodox world for centuries, namely a view that Western progressivism and Islamic expansionism threaten true Christian civilization, and that these twin forces must be combated at every turn. It is this shared view of the world that is at the heart of the Trump-Putin affair and the reason that Patriarch Kirill calls Trump a “man who gives the world hope.” It is also the reason that many members of the far-right outside of traditionally Orthodox countries have found a spiritual home in Orthodoxy, a migration that has met with mixed reactions among the clerics and faithful of the Church.
The unifying ideology, one advanced by men as powerful as Steve Bannon, has a name with a very Orthodox appeal: “traditionalism”. This ideology, which attempts to distance itself from more recognizable white supremacy, blends nationalism with an anti-globalist agrarianism and reactionary religious conservatism. Its targets are “global elites” and “cultural Marxists”; and while most traditionalism has this flavor of economic populism, its rhetoric and most pointed activism are centered largely among issues of gender and sexuality as well as immigration, particularly from the Muslim world. It is “traditionalism,” as innocuous as it sounds, that is the real threat. In this configuration, theological differences are often sublimated in the name of action against shared cultural and political enemies. It is a sort of perversion of interfaith dialogue, if you will.
To demonstrate how these two threads play into each other and also to show what this traditionalism looks like in practice, I want to highlight two non-Heimbach examples. The first is Heimbach’s spiritual leader, Matthew Raphael Johnson. Johnson was also present in Virginia this last weekend. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska and is, for what it is worth, the intellectual powerhouse of Orthodox nationalism in America. For years, Johnson was a priest in a non-canonical Orthodox group called the Old Calendarist Greek Orthodox Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia before being defrocked for phyletism, essentially for being a racist. And yet, even from these far-off margins of the Orthodox world, Johnson has managed to have an impact on the mainstream. His books are Slavophilic revisions of Eastern European history and completely marginalized in academic circles. However, because his first book, The Third Rome: Holy Russia, Tsarism and Orthodoxy, enjoyed enough mainstream acceptance within Orthodoxy when it first came out, it was sold at the canonical Orthodox Church in America (OCA) parish I attended in college. Johnson’s books and podcast, The Orthodox Nationalist, push the same brand of nationalism that adherents refer to as “traditionalism.”
There was also a small upheaval about a Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia parish in Lenoir, Tennessee. Members in the anti-fascist Orthodox Facebook group believed that known white nationalists, neo-Confederates and neo-Nazis, were in the parish. The group members had left negative Facebook and Google reviews, and now the priest’s son was trying to contact them. I reached out to the priest’s son as well. His reply read: “There was a massive misunderstanding about our parish on the internet spread by people who have never been to it. I reached out to these people to correct that issue, not to talk about any conspiracies within Orthodoxy in general. Our parish is not Neo-Nazi or Neo-Confederate.” And despite some very questionable things posted by parishioners, I think he is basically right. The parish isn’t “Neo-Nazi or Neo-Confederate.” But there is much to suggest that the parish is perhaps a bit too tolerant of those who are.
And this for me is the problem. Much of what these extremists say does not sound extreme to our ears. In fact, often the nature of rhetoric in Orthodox circles, both in the diaspora and beyond, is a little too close, for comfort to the rhetoric of those extremists. And that makes us susceptible to becoming co-opted by them. What I advocate is better conversation, what we are trying to do here at this conference. For far too long, the Orthodox mentality has been one of siege, and our fears have frequently manifested as hatred. Clearly, there are historical reasons for this, but I cannot see any theological ones. “Be not afraid” the Lord tells us again and again. We have nothing to fear, least of all the world, least of all our fellow human beings. When we live in fear, we create a culture in which violence can grow, in which violence can be defended as the Orthodox response. If the relationship between Orthodoxy and the far right makes you uncomfortable, well, it should. Then I implore you to use your voice.
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Katie Kelaidis, PhD is Visiting Instructor at Loyola University Chicago. She received her Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley and her PhD from the University of London, both in Classics. Follow her on Twitter @katiekelaidis.
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32 Comments
The OCL has posted several articles that are controversial. If the OCL does not post a disclaimer the reader must assume these are the views of the OCL. This is true not only of this article, but recent ones concerning the issues in the churches of the Ukraine. I feel you are straying from your original founding goals.
Many right-wing nuts appear in ALL jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church. It is key that they be called out and people understand who they are and what they stand for. What ALL Churches must do is PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED AND RISEN. When in our local churches we preach something other than Christ, like NATIONALISM, we end up with corruption. Even in the early church, there were many heresies that had to be uncovered and addressed. Many led to councils to examine their twisted ideologies. There is no doubt that we find many converts bringing their OWN brand of Orthodoxy, but how is that different than the “IF YOU AREN’T GREEK (RUSSIAN) YOU AREN’T ORTHODOX” groups? The answer is education and preaching Christ, not anything else!
Greek-American liberals calling themselves “Orthodox” such as this author cry about “muh racism” and “muh white supremacism” 24/7. And it’s so stupidly ironic because they have nothing but the utmost extreme racism and hatred for Russians and American converts, as demonstrated by this article! Maybe these bishops like Elpidophoros should address the bigoted anti-American and anti-Russian racism that’s rampant in Greek-American “orthodox” before marching with anti-Christian groups like BLM…
Thanks Anonymous! The Greek Church has sold out like a Judas Betrayer.
Reading Ms. Kelaidis silly vendetta reminds me of our Lord’s question, “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?” She seems to conflate God with the talking points of the Democratic Party. That’s not to suggest the Republican Party is any better. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with BLM; it’s a civil rights movement. Speaking of the civil right movement, I’m reading a book right now by one of the great leaders of the movement C. T. Vivian. It reminded me of the late great Archbishop Iakovos. In my humble opinion, he was the greatest Orthodox Christian in US history. He made us all proud when he marched with Dr. Martin Luther KIng Jr. from Selma. He’s the kind of Orthodox Christian I want to emulate. In my humble opinion, he should be canonized a saint, but the Ecumenical Patriarch will never do this because of his support for breaking Constantinople’s power in the US. I pray the Lord will send us another Archbishop Iakovos. His voice needs to be heard now more than ever.
This is just a hit piece. Yet another jab at Tradition and mores that are never SUPPOSED to change with the times. It’s all dressed up in flowery niceties and such, but garbage nonetheless. How does “Ms.” Kelaidis justify her own pro-abortion and pro-homosexual “marriage” stances? Along with all her other attacks on Tradition and Dogma ? Fr Seraphim Rose was indeed right when he stated how so many Christians- Orthodox Christians- are surely seduced by the Spirit of the Age rather than the Holy Spirit and the Mind of the Church. I guess the OCL is yet but another pseudo-Orthodox liberal mouthpiece like so many out there, eroding our Faith, one renovation at a time. Lord have mercy on us.
Amen!!
Maybe she realizes other people’s lives aren’t her business and their actions don’t impact her salvation at all.
Forcing non-Orthodox people to live by Orthodox laws doesn’t make sense because Christ would want you do follow his laws out of love.. not by force.
They’re fine with removing religion from the state and I’m all for it. It’s all fun when it’s Christianity that’s a state religion but ask the same people how they felt about Ottoman rule and all of a sudden they’re singing a different tune.
You don’t need a state religion to achieve salvation. Get out of people’s business if it isn’t impacting your Faith.
what on earth are you talking about? Do any orthodox that espouse your views read church fathers and church history? No we are NOT for separating church and state. This is ultimately what led us to the filthy moral decay being LEGITIMIZED. So many orthodox need proper catechesis. It’s embarrassing.
How does a Ph.D. in Classics (basically antiquity up to the 4th c.) qualify one to comment publicly on current politics, moral theology, etc.? I mean, everyone has opinions, but why should we listen to these?
And this is of course aside from the enormous methodological problems with this piece. “…reliable statistics are difficult to come by” is basically code for “I have no objective evidence to present here, but I’m really sure of what I’m saying.” One is also duly impressed by the mind-reading on Dreher’s conversion to Orthodoxy (politics, of course, not religion), failure to engage with the historical morality of Orthodoxy that is not left-wing as this author would prefer, trotting out Heimbach (who was excommunicated almost within moments of being chrismated, once his priest and bishop found out what his deal was; and now he’s connected with fringe schismatics, which should bother us why?), and lack of any apparent understanding of what Protestant fundamentalism actually consists of. One also has to wonder if she’s even aware of what 1960s Protestant media looked like.
This piece is an embarrassment to publish on any website, even ones that might be sympathetic to the idea that Orthodoxy should be submitted to the au courant revisionist morality. It doesn’t actually make any argument but just waves a bunch of scary images in front of the reader and hopes that he will also be whipped up into a frenzy that Nazis are supposedly infiltrating the Orthodox Church.
I totally agree. This is a pathetic left-wing hit piece — attacking everything from ROCOR to the Western Rite Orthodox to the Old Calendarist Orthodox to a mainstream conservative commentator such as Rod Dreher. Apparently, the author of this essay is uncomfortable with traditionalism and traditionalists in the Orthodox Church and laments the whole idea of converts, especially anyone to the right of Pete Buttigieg, having entered the Orthodox Church because they stand in the way of her vision of the Orthodox Church as a nice, harmless ethnic social club at prayer or, better yet in her left-wing secularist mentality, evolving into an Eastern Rite version of Episcopalianism or some other decaying “mainline” Protestant denomination whose “theology” is indistinguishable from DNC talking points. Sorry, but there are those of us even among the “cradle” Ortodox who see the Church much differently. Shame on OCL for posting this long-winded diatribe.
I thank the OCL for posting this very informative essay. Katie Kelaidis has articulated my sentiments and observations on Orthodoxy in the U.S.A. in the 21st century. Converts with Alt-Right, racists, neo-nazis and anti-semitic agendas have indeed infiltrated Orthodox parishes. The climate in Orthodox parishes today is not the same as what it was 50-60 years ago.
Katie as a scholar used her professional researching skills to write this essay. It is well documented and if anyone has an issue with it, they should refer to her sources. Again, thank you OCL for posting this essay and thank you Katie Kelaidis for writing it.
Katie,
God is not a liberal, and He doesn’t want to keep conservatives out of His Church, as you seem to wish. Nor is God a conservative. Liberalism and Conservatism are political systems that we choose hoping that we have happiness and comfort here on earth. God has given us all we need to know to have eternal life after we leave this life. As we step into the Church we are united around the chalice-conservatives, liberals, Greek, Russian, American, male and female, rich and poor. We come to Church for forgiveness of sins to help us achieve salvation. We are all invited. None are excluded. The Church is a hospital for sinners. One caveat. We must have the humility to recognize our sins. We must never in pride, declare our sins to be virtues. Thou shalt not kill means we don’t do ethnic cleansing nor do we kill unborn babies. We don’t say same-sex marriage is allowed, or adultery is OK, when scriptures says otherwise
Peter, you are well in the minority in worldwide Orthodoxy and thank God for that. We don’t need Communists or Liberals in our Church wagging their fingers at their fellow Christians for following the Church’s traditions and teachings.
Brandon, I guess you’d prefer the alt-right, neo nazis, white supremacists, racists and anti-semites do the finger-wagging in your church. I hope and pray that we don’t cross paths. Because people like you cause me to fear for the safety and lives of well-meaning Christians. I hope and pray that you’re not one of those who carries a concealed weapon in church.
No, I’d prefer true Christians with the Spirit of Christ in their hearts over someone like Katie who advocates for feminism and killing children in the womb. But I don’t have to worry. People like you and Katie are swiftly becoming a minority and will sooner, rather than later, be routed out.
“people like you cause me to fear for the safety and lives of well-meaning Christians”
You are hysterical.
Thank you for publishing this piece. Difficult topics and unpopular opinions from divergent perspectives need a platform where they can be thoughtfully examined, discussed, and considered.
While I don’t agree with the tone or premises of this article, I appreciate that the OCL published it. I believe that free speech is important and sharing ideas is important. It appears this author is perhaps judgmental, close minded and would like to shape Christianity into a mold that fits the world and its values; it is important to hear from and shine light on these lines of thinking. Thank you Dr. Kelaidis for taking the time and sharing your thoughts.
Matthew Segel, this is a very charitable comment 🙂
Thank you for writing such an honest and timely piece. It’s spot-on sadly. I believe the Church is more than simply a space for men who fetishize beards, idolise Trump and the last Russian Tzar, adore medievalist fantasy and *above all* want to dehumanise women and girls, the eternal enemy. The new converts have sniffed out the older strains of despotism, anti Westernism and misgogny and anti semitism in the Chruch and latched onto them as a protection from all they see as wrong with Western Society e.g. domestic abuse services which protect women and children, education for women and democracy in general.
The answer to speech someone finds offensive is not silencing speech.. it is answering that speech with better speech. Bad arguments should be met with better arguments. False teachings should be answered with true teachings.
Castigating OCL for posting opinion articles notwithstanding the Disclaimer prominently displayed at the top of the Comments Section is simply an effort to silence “thoughtful discussion on topics and concerns relevant to Orthodox Christians living in a pluralistic society.” Those from countries where religion is established by the State need to be reminded that in pluralistic, multi-cultural America we live in a Church-State separated country. No one religion is favored over another (unlike Iran, Turkey, Russia, China, Greece, etc., etc.) we are not only free to believe as we wish, but our government does not put its weight and support on one religion and suppress (or disfavor) the others.
The Founding Fathers of our Republic wisely enshrined the most important of our rights in the very 1st Amendment to our Constitution. It reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
I am not Orthodox but Eastern Rite Catholic and I enjoyed this piece very much. Bless you for writing it and I am grateful to have read it. Glory to God.
I stumbled upon the work of Matthew Raphael Johnson while researching Berdyaev and I think he analyzes Berdyaev correctly but I think that Johnson is not faithful to the logical trajectory of Berdyaev’s philosophy. What I find disconcerting with Johnson’s immersion in the white nationalist movement is that Berdyaev was a philosopher of the Spirit and of Freedom and also an anarchist. As such, he is opposed to any form of nationalism (including of course white nationalism) that would place a super-structure of identity above the Spirit of the human person.
Inevitably, Berdyaev’s philosophy must become theological because only through adherence to God and the Holy Spirit can the ego be minimized and true freedom expressed. This is the key point. In the end, it is love and freedom that must create the political forms that support the community. Therefore, nationalism (white, LGBTQ+, Black, and so on) cannot supplant the freedom of the person. YET the freedom of the person allows them to express their unique identity in the public square and so there can be no racial or sexual discrimination. But neither can there be the idolatry of identitarianism. This is the middle ground that we are called to walk I think.
What Orthodoxy calls for is spiritual theosis of the person. In and through prayer and the liturgy we are transformed but nationalism cannot transform us it is only the Spirit. Yes, there is political involvement but that political involvement needs to be animated by the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. And that political life will be fundamentally free and cannot permit any form of discrimination for any reason (gender, sexual, creed, racial). All must be free to participate in our shared life. Division comes from the evil one. But our individual life is what gives rise to more perfect justice in the world through our divinization. And we are all sinners but through infusion and adoption in Christ, we can better manifest God’s justice.
At the same time, we have to discern the Spirits as the evil one is looking to devour people, especially the elect. And I detect within all these rightist movements disquieting racist overtones even while I share their frustration of economic discrimination and unfairness and elitism and all the concerns that burble forth.
If you’re not a knowing agent of the military-intelligence sector, you’ve been brain damaged by too much Foucault, Butler, Irigaray, Lacan, Dworkin, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or maybe Starhawk and Gardner. Whatever the case, why mix Orthodoxy into it? Just cut to the chase and provide us with a defense of your ideological interpretative lens. Let’s hear it, Katie. Why should we adopt critical theory — any critical theory — as an interpretative lens? Get into, girl. Let’s hear your take on Saussure and Lacan’s attempt to divorce Freud from biological considerations. Tell us why Butler’s borrowing of Austin’s speech act theory isn’t a misapplication of what Austin was after. Chart out an ontology of the self that avoids “Aristotelian essentialism” and the “totaliziing of Being via Heidegger’s notion of Dasein. Provide a brief gloss on Foucault and his Kantian use of transcendental arguments to show institutions preserve power by replicating the logic of their legitimacy. Isn’t that what’s going on here? Or, maybe you simply imbibed a bunch of critical theory nonsense second or third hand from your professors and you’ve never actually read carefully or deeply into the philosophical sources of your worldview. Shame on you —
What?????
“We have nothing to fear, least of all the world, least of all our fellow human beings. When we live in fear, we create a culture in which violence can grow, in which violence can be defended as the Orthodox response.”
This seems to be refutation of everything else in your article. Which belies a profound lack of self-awareness. You’re obviously living in fear of right wingers in Orthodoxy. But who comes to worship is the Lord’s business, not yours.
I’m 64, and a late in life convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, having been a cradle evangelical (SBC). I now belong to an Antiochian parish, and in the past 1-2 years, we’ve seen a large and steady influx of disaffected young men (and a few older men and younger couples) fleeing evangelicalism and desiring to enter the Holy Orthodox Church. I’ve discovered other Antiochian parishes are seeing this trend, as are ROCOR, Serbian, and OCA parishes. I don’t know about the Greek parishes, but I’m assuming they may be seeing this trend as well. Several of these young men are my godsons, and I’d say most if not all these young men are like myself, based traditionalists. I’ve not seen any Neo-Nazis. Most of these types are atheists, or pagans who worship Nordic gods.
This writer is an educated woman, and as I see it, finds it distasteful and disconcerting that young (and not so young) based traditionalist men are fleeing feminized TradCon or woke evangelical churches and megachurches for the Eastern Orthodox. But the Orthodox Church offers heritage, absolutes, and ancient and unchanging faith to these young men, who are weary of goofy evangelicalism.
The Orthodox Church teaches that the anti-Christ will be Jew. During Holy Week, the Jews are referred to as ‘cursed Hebrews’ who killed ‘God.’ It is medieval and reactionary (look at the Russian church’s involvement in Russification and violence against Jews, etc), it is misogynistic – contrary to what the priests say – and you wonder why it attracts right-wing losers?
Vicki:
The Orthodox Church teaches no such thing. The “Anti-Christ” can be anyone or any philosophy or teaching that opposes the teachings of Christ. Right now in the world, we have many anti-Christs.
How to begin commenting on this article? First of all, as Orthodox Christians we are not to judge the heart and intentions of anyone. Yes, we may look at the “fruit” they are bearing, but I find your judgmental comments on Rod Dreyer’s motives and intentions concerning. “ There is little doubt…that Dreher’s journey backward through the history of Christianity is as motivated as much (if not more) by the political tides of late 20th and early 21st century American political life as by a spiritual reckoning.” Wow.
While there is a lot that I cannot come close to condoning about any far right movement that is discriminatory, violent or dishonest, some of what the “far-right” upholds is also upheld by the canons and doctrines of the Church as well as the Holy Scriptures. But to so unilaterally bash the movement of converts into the Church, including the most excellent ministry of Ancient Faith Radio, I also find offensive and appalling. We find an exodus of Orthodox Christians in our churches (as churches of all Christian faiths are experiencing). Should we not be glad for those converts that find our Church as a place of spiritual delight, correctness of teaching? They also bring many things that our church as a whole sometimes we find lacking (a knowledge of scripture, a passion for missions, love of small group ministries for the purpose of growing in their faiths and a general passion for God) – and can be a great asset to any parish. We have much to be thankful for the converts coming to our church, as well as the faithful “cradle” members who have a lifelong anchoring to the history and past of the local and universal Orthodox faith – I see we have much to learn from each other.
This is MUCH that we cannot and should not turn a “blind eye” to in our Church. That includes, yes, radicalism that is not consistent with the faith we uphold. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We also cannot turn a blind eye to the damaging effects of modernity, lethargy, love of our separate ethnic identities more than our love for Christ. Satan comes like a roaring lion. Dangers to the left, dangers to the right. Lord have mercy on us all.
Jesus Christ CLEARLY put the onus on PERSONAL CHOICE. We have free-will to choose between following Christ or not. Liberalism is just that – a personal choice. The ultra right-wingers want to squash personal choice. Understand, under the umbrella of saving America or saving Orthodoxy these people want to limit our freedoms. Christ did not!
If my local church had been like this, I never would’ve converted. There were liberals and conservatives, no headscarves, no extreme fasting, no hint of Christian nationalism. The women were basically the opposite of Trad Wives. I came for the mystical theology, the doctrines on Hell, the focus on love instead of wrath, a more rational view of what is Antichrist, etc. Now more converts are coming into the local church and it’s starting to change and make me extremely uncomfortable. I begin to wonder if I was duped all those years ago about what Orthodoxy is all about, and if it’s time to leave. Or will my church go back to what it was before?