In a recent article on Orthodox Reflections, Archpriest Geoffrey Korz had this to say about the silence of our clergy concerning the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:
Our bishops and priests can find their voices for all sorts of matters which appeal to the chattering classes. It is time for us to find our courage to be men, even when the chattering classes might be against us, just as they are against Our Lord.
Saint Gregory Palamas reminds us, the silence of the clergy is atheism.
The deafening silence of Orthodox Christians in the West about the suffering of our brothers in Ukraine is not, unfortunately, an isolated case. Deafening silence is our default reaction in the face of almost any outrage. Which is why anyone speaking up boldly for Orthodoxy should shame us all.
Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov is a Russian, and apparently an Orthodox Christian. He recently made news by choosing to not participate in his team’s “Pride night” in support of the LGBTQ+ “community”. Specifically, Provorov didn’t participate in pregame warmups wearing a Pride-themed jersey and using a stick wrapped in rainbow Pride tape. He did play in the actual game against the Anaheim Ducks.
Explaining why he did not participate in the gay propaganda, Provorov cited his Orthodox religion. “I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices,” he told reporters after the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Provorov committed public heresy against a central dogma of the Woke political religion – the obligation of all humankind to continuously affirm the holiness of homosexuality. The Woke take such matters very seriously. The backlash, of course, was swift and unrelenting. This is a holy war, after all. No mercy can ever be shown to an infidel. Below was just one example of backlash on social media.
Attacks on Provorov were not limited to social media and the usual mainstream media channels. The NHL Network even got involved. NHL Network’s E.J. Hradek, on the show NHL Now, suggested Provorov should return to Russia and seemed to suggest he should fight in the Ukrainian War. Hradek’s comments included, “If it bothers you that much, there’s always a chance to leave” and “I understand there’s a conflict of sorts going on over there, maybe get involved.”
Bend the knee to all things LGBTQ+, or you are not fit to even be in the US, let alone play in the NHL. In fact, you may not even be fit to live on this planet, as you probably deserve to die in a war you may not even support. On a brighter note, some sports journalists were kinder and called for such “minor” punishments as a one-year suspension, a 1 million dollar fine, and sensitivity training.
Provorov refused to be a propaganda prop for the promotion of perversions which are clearly condemned by the Orthodox Christian Faith. Average Hockey fans, not known to be particularly fond of “Woke”, responded with overwhelming support for Provorov:
Just a few short days after most in the mainstream media crucified Ivan Provorov, his Philadelphia Flyers’ jersey has officially sold out online at both the NHL Shop and Fanatics.
Both websites are advertising their Provorov jerseys as ‘almost gone’ as the only men’s jerseys left are size extra-small.
Orthodox hierarchs and most clergy have responded to this controversy with…. silence. We have not heard one Orthodox Bishop, not one of our official media organizations, and precious few of our clergy with substantial online followings – say one thing in support of Provorov’s actions. Disappointing? Sure. Surprising? No.
Nor did the media appear to reach out to any Orthodox sources likely to be supportive of Provorov. Instead, NBC trotted out Aristotle Papanikolaou from Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center to provide his Woke take:
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who backs the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, said last year that Russia must resist liberal foreigners who support “gay parades.”
Putin has cynically and successfully co-opted the Russian Orthodox Church and turned gay rights into a worldwide culture war issue, said Fordham University theology professor Aristotle Papanikolaou.
So even if Provorov, 26, doesn’t harbor anti-gay sentiments, he might feel pressure to expound such rhetoric, said Papanikolaou, who specializes in the study of orthodox theology.
“If he has a home in Russia, a family in Russia, he may not have much choice,” Papanikolaou said Wednesday.
Did you notice the slanted “Orthodox” view in the quote above? Papanikolaou and his allies are part of a group of “Orthodox” scholars and clerics trying to normalize same-sex relationships within Orthodoxy. Part of their strategy is to give the impression that “real” Orthodoxy is pro-Western, meaning pro-LGBTQ+ “rights”, while evil “Russian” Orthodoxy is an authoritarian tool of Putin and, thus, not legitimate. According to Papanikolaou, Provorov could actually be a secret “good guy” (and good Orthodox Christian according to Woke standards). Without any actual evidence, Papanikolaou asserts that Provov’s actions could have been driven by fear of that dastardly Putin harming Provorov’s family in Russia, rather than by genuine religious feeling. No Woke academic will let a paucity of facts get in the way of a useful narrative.
Fortunately, at least one faithful Orthodox priest called out the Fordhamite for what this is really about – bending the knee is mandatory for all.
https://twitter.com/frjohnwhiteford/status/1616495692335222791
Papanikolaou tying the defense of traditional Orthodox morality to the “culture war” is an attempt to delegitimize opposition to Woke as a mere political ploy. In reality, the Church’s teaching on sexuality and other moral issues transcends politics and is universal to the entire Orthodox Church – not just the local Church subject to Moscow. As Archpriest Geoffrey Korz wrote in his article, Conservative vs. Liberal Clergy?, it is wholly inappropriate to use political terminology when discussing Orthodox moral doctrines:
…while it is certainly appropriate and necessary for the Church and Her clergy to speak to many political issues which face Orthodox faithful, the political labels of “conservative” and “liberal” do not in fact have any meaning in the Orthodox Church.
Any priest or bishop who writes articles or speaks at conferences advocating for various aspects of the LGBT agenda is not “liberal” – he is simply not Orthodox.
Any priest or bishop who affirms and teaches that all sexual sins including same-sex attraction arose from the Fall and require struggle and repentance is not “conservative” – he is simply Orthodox.
Provorov may not be the best Orthodox Christian, or even a particularly good person. In truth, we know little about him. However, regardless of any shortcomings he may have, his refusal to endorse sexual perversion was the correct one and was done for the correct reason – because doing so is contrary to the teaching of the Orthodox Christian Faith. Orthodox Christians everywhere should not only approve of his actions, but should support him publicly and explain why they are doing so. This is not about politics, the War in Ukraine, or the sport of hockey. It is about the freedom (right) of a man to publicly follow the teaching of Orthodox Christianity by refusing to participate in an activity that promotes sin.
If we lived in a more courageous time, the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops would issue a statement of support for Provorov and a condemnation for Papanikolaou, while also stripping his Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham of any official sanction. They, of course, will not do so. Nor are any jurisdictional synods likely to speak up. In fact, it will be surprising if any individual bishops say anything official.
Why is that the case? Different reasons. Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese, and some unknown number of his brother bishops, are pro-gay. Some of these bishops are reported to be closeted homosexuals themselves. They wish Provorov had just worn the jersey and shut up about it. They do not want to be involved in this issue, preferring to quietly undermine the Orthodox Faith without attracting such overt attention.
Fear is probably the single biggest reason for hierarchs staying silent. Offending “Woke capital” can result in losing your Webhosting, access to banking services, access to fund raising platforms, ability to hire employees, ability to advertise, direct loss of donations from rich patrons, and more. That does not even take into consideration potential governmental punishments such as loss of tax exempt status, loss of accreditation for seminaries, fines, etc.
While “Woke corporate” cancellation of anti-gay heretics has been very successful as a mechanism of control, it is clear that the Woke want more direct government involvement. The vice president for Values and Transparency for the European Commission, Věra Jourová, has predicted that hate speech laws will be imposed upon the American public – First Amendment be damned. She is not alone in that prediction.
Given where we are, and where we are likely headed, no doubt many hierarchs and priests believe they are being wise in keeping silent about “controversial” issues. They are entirely mistaken in this regard. The Woke are narcissistic bullies. Giving into them only makes them push harder.
If we polled hierarchs and clergy, there will doubtless be other reasons cited besides these. For their sakes, perhaps some of them may even be deemed acceptable at the Dread Judgment Seat of Christ.
The problem with Western Orthodox Christians not supporting each other is not confined to the hierarchy and clergy. The laity aren’t much better, even when speaking out is risk free to them. For weeks, Orthodox Reflections has been running a petition drive to support the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox and express outrage at the persecution of our fellow Christians. The articles about the situation in Ukraine and the petition drive have been read almost 100,000 times in order to gather 531 actual signatures. This is a completely normal situation. Even when given a chance to speak out, the vast majority of Orthodox laity in the West choose to stay silent.
I don't know what this is but it sure doesn't belong in a church.
"#Ukrainian Nationalists staged a demonic play in a #OrthodoxChurch seized by the SBU. Is this what they wanted to Holy Temples for?"
◾Follow:https://t.co/z3neXFKNOw pic.twitter.com/oMMgtILxxY
— Jim Jatras (@JimJatras) January 22, 2023
Why so few signatures? Your guess is as good as ours. In the West, this is just how things work.
Provorov may be the latest Orthodox Christian left twisting alone in the wind, but he is not the first. Remember when Novak Djokovic refused the mRNA vaccines and was banned from playing in multiple tournaments? Despite residing in Spain, we can’t recall him garnering any support from Western hierarchs, too many of whom were so deeply in the pro-jab camp that they were unable to support any sort of protest in favor of medical freedom or freedom of conscience.
History teaches us plainly – freedoms not defended will be freedoms quickly lost.
Have you heard of Jeff Younger? Younger’s ex-wife began “transitioning” his son James when he was just 2 years old, and tried to enroll him in a gender clinic in Dallas at age 5. A gender therapist who evaluated James recommended that he begin transitioning by wearing dresses and going by “Luna”. What reasons did his mother give for believing him to be “trans”? His mom said the child requested a “girl’s toy” and wanted to be one of the female characters from the Disney film “Frozen.”
In testimony that matches the experience of other parents, Younger says that personnel at his son’s former school in California were in cahoots with his ex-wife and helped secretly transition the boy. “I’d bring my son to school in boy’s clothes and they’d give him a dress and make him use the girls restroom,” he said during an appearance on Tucker Carlson.
Unfortunately, Younger has waged a mostly losing court campaign to prevent his son from being permanently damaged by his insane mother’s desire to see him “transition” to something he can never be – a female. Younger’s fight for his son has drawn the support of several conservative leaders, including Texas Attorney General Bill Paxton and US Sen. Ted Cruz.
While political conservatives may have supported Jeff Younger, the Orthodox hierarchy in the US has been decidedly quiet about his plight, despite the fact that Jeff Younger and his son are Orthodox Christians.
The divorce between Jeff Younger and his ex wife, Anne Georgulas, was ugly. Georgulas made a lot of accusations that paint Younger in a not so flattering light. Younger denies most of the allegations. But whether true or not, none of the father’s sins have any bearing on the abuse Georgulas is perpetrating on an innocent Orthodox Christian child.
An Orthodox child is facing puberty blockers, and possible future surgical mutilation, over the objections of his father, and not one Orthodox Bishop in the entire United States cares to comment? Other than an article on Orthochristian quoting Lifesite News (a Catholic publication), it is difficult to even find Orthodox commentary on the case.
The silence is deafening. Why is that? Christ warned us what happens to those who harm the innocent. By standing silently by, do we not draw some of Christ’s just condemnation on ourselves?
We will end this article with Joseph Sciambra. After being sexually abused as a child, he was convinced by those around him that he was gay. He spent half his life in a prison of gay sex and drugs. He eventually turned to Christ through the Roman Catholic Church, only to become disillusioned with it. He is now an outspoken Orthodox Christian. His Twitter feed, Websites, and books tell the unvarnished truth – no one is born gay and repentance is always an option.
I was not born gay. I was groomed and then abused by a man; who convinced me that I was gay. And I was a vulnerable and confused boy; so I believed him.
— Joseph Sciambra ☦ (@JosephSciambra) January 20, 2023
Imagine growing up as the boy everyone picked on. Then, you go on Grindr or walk into a club – and a long line of gay men want to talk to you or take you home. That's how so many vulnerable young men are abused in the gay male community.
— Joseph Sciambra ☦ (@JosephSciambra) January 18, 2023
24 years – drug free and gay-sex free. Recovery and healing is always possible with God. Never let anyone or anything lock you into an addiction or an identity.
— Joseph Sciambra ☦ (@JosephSciambra) January 19, 2023
Not all incidents of same-sex attraction are attributable to abuse and grooming. However, it appears that most of them are. Regardless of its cause in any particular individual, homosexuality is not normal, and should never have been mainstreamed. I highly recommend you download this PDF by author Jeffrey B. Satinover, M.D., Ph.D. titled The “Trojan Couch: How the Mental Health Associations Misrepresent Science”. In this paper, Satinover blows the lid off how shoddy science combined with political activism and violent intimidation to create the myth of “born gay”.
Sciambra is not alone in his witness, others have walked a similar road, but he is particularly effective at communicating the ugly truths of what it means to be “gay”. He is also subject to attacks from practically all sides, including from Roman Catholics for having gone home to Orthodoxy.
Given his powerful witness against one of the chief perversions of our age, Joseph Sciambra should be a household name in American Orthodoxy. He isn’t. The vast majority of Orthodox Christians have never heard of him, nor have any idea that such a powerful story of overcoming homosexuality could even exist. Orthodox Christians should be at the forefront of telling the world what a fraud the “mental health” embrace of homosexuality really is.
But we aren’t.
The Fordhamites, who support and propagate the “born this way” myth, have a lot of money and backing, but their reach alone can’t explain the reticence of so many Orthodox Christians to effectively witness for the truth of Christ. Persecution by “Woke Capital” is a major problem. Some years ago, I wrote a popular article supporting the Orthodox teaching on marriage. I was threatened with dismissal from my job and placed on probation. I ended up keeping my job, but at great personal and professional cost. Today, I would have been fired immediately and blacklisted from my entire industry.
But still, many Orthodox Christians are cancel-proof due to occupation (self-employed, work for the Church, independently wealthy, independent journalist). Plus there are ways to speak out (Orthodox Reflections for example) that do not demand you become a martyr just yet. Though that day is coming for us all.
So why all the silence? Whatever the reasons behind it are, time to start shouting instead.
Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America
I deeply respect this young hockey player, Ivan Provorov. All of us Orthodox Christians should be ready to witness as he did for our God and our Orthodox Faith. Mr. Provorov is more correct and strong in his beliefs than most of our clergy and hierarchs. May God keep and preserve him. (Posted 4 February 2023)
In the chronicles of King Solomon, there is an interesting story. Two prostitutes lived together. Keep in mind, in those days, community aid was not available and any disenfranchised woman might resort to prostitution just to keep body and soul together. If a prostitute—any poor woman for that matter—had a son there was at least a hope as he grew up he could support her in her old age, when her body was useless on the open market. In those days, many folk’s retirement was their children, which was God’s design anyway.
As the story goes, both prostitutes had infant sons. One carelessly rolled over onto her child while asleep and killed him. Embarrassed about her egregious carelessness, she traded out her dead son for the other woman’s live son. Of course, the matter came before Solomon to judge. Declaring the remaining living son should be cut in half—killed—with each receiving a dead half son. The real mother intervened in the gruesome judgement opting to let the other woman keep the son that he may live. Giving him up would mean any hope of future escape from the trade would be lost. Additionally, that would also have been grim, because if the other woman killed one, no doubt, she would roll on to another that did not come from her own body. She who chose the child over her self, demonstrates the mothering instinct, the core of femininity.
A large part of the feminine instinct—feminine mystique, whatever you want to call it—is the mothering instinct. Without that no woman is human. When a woman aborts a child out of convenience her mothering instinct takes a major hit, seared with a hot iron, if any is left. With the prostitute who rolled onto her child, it was without any awareness of the presence of another human being that was fully dependent upon her to live. To abandon that is to abandon her core humanity; she becomes the most grotesque of monsters. To then further declare the other woman’s son should be killed, puts her in the same league as some of the utter degenerates now days that abort time and again and then harass those women who chose to have, love to have, want to have children. It’s not enough to kill their own, but they want to kill yours too.
They are worse than animals, the bottom of depravity described in Deut. 28: 15-68. Not only do they eat their young—in every sense of the word—but they are not going to share with you. Yes, this is sick. But it is the reality of our day. When children become a commodity—the ethos of LGTBQ—, then it is pretty much over with; judgment is right round the corner. This passage is indeed a commentary on our day. When clergy cozy up to it, something wrong runs very deep.
Unlike those Jews of the captivity, the modern depravity is not forced by starvation, not yet.
The dearest thing to me is to see little girls take their dollies up having the dollies venerate the icons. Even in a little girl, the mothering instinct can thrive. No doubt, the Holy Mother of God takes great pleasure in this. And it gives me hope for the future.
With this feminine thing, masculine thing, we should cultivate it, grow it, make it real again.
Thank you Ivan Provorov! Thank you for standing up for righteousness in the face of God-less tyranny.
It took firm conviction and enormous courage for Ivan Provorov to take the uncompromising publicstand he took. When we do otherwise, when we remain silent before those who call evil good and good evil we, in effect, deny Christ and offer incense to Antichrist. Our Orthodox brother chose not to cave in to the demands of a pagan world, nor to be silent. Those who choose to participate in the “deafening silence” should take heed: “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38); “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Timothy 1:8)
Let our Lord’s words be a warning to all who would choose to be silent in the face of the crowds screaming “Crucify Him!’ –
“But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Mathew 10:33)”-
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Thank-you, Nicholas!!!
THE ORTHODOX STUDY BIBLE
The Second Book of Timothy – Major Theme: Overcoming hardship in the ministry
2 Timothy 4:2
“Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching”.
As the Bible states, “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” no fear, no wisdom, simply as that. Some people along with priests and hierarchy lack the biblical definition of wisdom.
Surely, we are born into and with our predetermined and pre-ordained biological life formulas.Male and female, it is simply essential to the propagation of our human species. The controlling formula is not perfect, it can be interrupted resulting in positive or negative variations, some are good, perhaps a child prodigy is one such? Some are bad, as in deformed physical outcomes. Those related to LGBTQ and it’s variations,are indications of corruptions in natures “programming” which resides and is controlled and administered by our minds. This appears to be remarkably similar to programming we install on our computer hard drives; it is capable and responsive to being updated, amended, corrected. It responds to our controlling mind.We know that our brain, mind, programming, is also capable and responsive to being re-programmed; this requires a strong persisting, insisting, controlling mind, one capable of overcoming and understanding, but also insisting, that any “learned” variations to the true biological programme, must be deleted and replaced with appropriate intentions. Easier said than done, because some “subjects” lack the ability to insist, their “will” be done.
You folks give me hope! If you ever need materials translated into French, lmk.
I was born a girl. My dad worked in a plastics factory and would bring me all kinds of dolls to play with, but I never played with them, except to take them apart to find out what was inside. I was always disappointed to find out they were hollow. I guess I was hoping to find flesh and blood, so I could see how people really worked.
I loved playing in the dirt with the boys, their toy cars and trucks, and pistols. My favourite toy was a plastic sword in a sheath. With that, I had impaled everyone in the neighborhood until a little boy peed in the sheath and I never touched it again. When I turned 4, my aunt and uncle bought me a beautiful doll, but what I really wanted was the toy machine gun another little boy was walking out of the store with.
Well, I did not grow up to be a killer, but I did become a doctor. Thank God my parents laughed at everything and no one tried to trans gender me. There was never any question in my mind or anyone else’s that I was a girl who hated dolls. So what? I’m a wife and mother now, and I still don’t like them.
I share this to lend some support to Jeff Gunner and his son James. I can’t believe the insanity! Keep fighting for your son, Jeff. His interest in a girl’s toy is only that and means nothing more. May God protect you and your son from every evil in this world.