Orthodox Reflections

At the outset, I seek the prayers and forgiveness of all who read this; it is easy when writing to utilize vicious rhetoric. To the extent that I am able, I have written out of love for the Church.

-Brother Caedmon

 The contemporary world is overwhelmed by crises; economic uncertainty, conflict at home, conflict abroad, social unrest unprecedented in most of our lifetimes, and most importantly, the rise of paganism. Awareness of this last and greatest crisis is, as far as I can tell, barely extant; or, if it is known, it is looked on with a benign paternalistic smile, accompanied by some aphorism about “the real world” or “growing up”. Is the Church filled with fools? The young men and women who, for a variety of reasons, have fallen into the brazen arms of Odin, Thor, Aphrodite, Athena, Ares, Freyr, and Loki are not in the midst of a childish fad. They are enchanted by the fallen gods that shed the blood of many thousands of our mothers and fathers in the faith!

Estimates of Pagans in the US range north of 1.5 million. There are more active Pagans than Presbyterians, and probably more than Orthodox Christians as well. Paganism is thought to be the fastest growing religion in the US.  

Their hatred of mankind has not diminished since Hades’ Harrowing. Rather, it has increased. Misanthropes roaming, as St Peter reminds us, seeking to devour the unwary. And who, I ask, could be more unwary than the youth of the contemporary West? The soft, sola mentes Christian religion handed down by the morally bankrupt proponents of “enlightenment” have nurtured a generation notorious only for its catastrophic naïveté and unrivalled love of comfort. In spite of this wretched state, that impulse native to all formed in God’s image still weakly flickers, hungering for something, anything that will restore its dying soul-fire. So, they rise from hedonistic stupor, seeking the fulfillment denied by lavish, petty living hoping to find order and meaning; but when they scan the horizon, they are greeted by chaos.

Scattered and leaderless, the scions of the Reformers have little enough coherence. Their primary offering is little more than sound and fury at “sin” and “the world”, or else an opiate haze of hippy maxims about “love” and “come as you are”. The Latins are no better. Overcome by self-conscious shame (mostly undeserved), they have, to no small degree, bound themselves to the petty doctrines of lesser men, offering liturgical masquerades to the hoi polloi, and carefully walling the sacraments behind theological battlements.

Paganism is usually mystical and ritualistic. Two characteristics of worship that, among Christians, only the Orthodox Church has managed to fully preserve in the modern world. Unlike Roman Catholicism, many of whose priests seem to have lost all supernatural belief. 

Little wonder then that these lost ones seize upon the gods of the mist-bound past. Of course, this is not often done consciously, as yet there are few enough who knowingly confess allegiance to the demons who once dominated the world. However, only a fool will observe the intoxicated, orgiastic lifestyle of so many university students and not perceive the hand of Dionysus guiding the debauchery. In like manner, is not the increased social breakdown in the United States and Europe a result of Loki’s caprice? And the ensuing violence? Who else could stand behind it but bloody handed Tyr and Ares, brothers in strife!

We Orthodox know this, but as yet, we have done nothing to oppose it. Instead, our hierarchs are either enmeshed in political gamesmanship, or, as in the case of Archbishop Elpidophoros, have actually publicly honored pagan gods because they were part of his cultural heritage! Brothers, sisters, this may not continue. Pride in one’s heritage is a fine thing indeed, but we do not honour our ancestors by bowing the knee to the demons who ground them into the bloody earth, generation by generation, until Christ’s resurrection broke their power.

Archbishop Elpidophoros at the replica Parthenon in Nashville, TN posing in front of the replica of the statue of  Greek goddess Athena Parthenos. She is holding a lesser goddess, Nike.

For though the demonic powers are broken and consigned to death, they are not dead yet; the new pagans rally behind their heroes, Thor, Ares, Odin, Aphrodite, Freyr, Kali, and Loki, believing that, should they triumph, their fealty will be honored. They would do well instead to recall the only law respected by demons is power:

 “…By majority vote the Greeks have decreed as follows: your daughter, Polyxena, must die as a victim and prize of honour for the grave of Achilles. The army has delegated me to act as escort. Achilles’ son will supervise the rite and officiate as priest.

 

There matters rest. You understand your position? You must not attempt to hold your daughter here by force, nor, I might add, presume to match your strength with mine. Remember your weakness and accept this tragic loss as best you can.

 

Nothing you do or say can change the facts. Under the circumstances, the logical course is resignation.”

 

-Odysseus, king of Ithaca, speaking to Hecuba, queen of shattered Troy

 

A frightening prospect, at least it would be if we really were what the pitiful pagans believe us to be, servants of a dead god. But we serve the Living God, and the saints bear witness to this; Caradoc thought to force himself on St Gwenfrewi and got only death as a reward for his use of power while she received life again; St Guthlac repented of a life of violence and became a scourge of demons.

Today’s little pagans are weary of meaninglessness, but the women still abandon their virtue, and the men still savour petty cruelty. This will only remain the status quo if we, whom God has placed in the world at this dark hour, do not live as our fathers and mothers, the great Saints of the Church. We cannot ignore their example. We must be St Boniface, striking down Woden’s oak before the very eyes of his acolytes; but we must also echo the Theotokos saying, “May it be unto me according to thy will”, for the experience of the Church and her saints is not one of ease.

In closing then, I humbly suggest that it is well past the time that the jurisdictional struggles over the West be put to death. If we cared less about these pathetic struggles, the rotten oak of paganism would not have dared to sprout in our lands. It does not seem a stretch to say that competing jurisdictions are among the root causes of our problems; and it is not just the hierarchs who are to blame. Need it be said that it is not they alone, but also the laity, who keep the holy traditions? What are you waiting for? Defend them!

The tools to do so are at your disposal, withhold funds from diocese whose bishops insist on courting these demons, refuse their blessings, do not allow them into the temples, remind them that they have rendered themselves anaxios, pray that God will have mercy on us and them. Maybe then our lampstand will not be removed. May the Holy Trinity have mercy upon us all.

-Brother Caedmon of Midgard