At coffee hour one recent Sunday, the policies of Victor Orban’s government in Hungary came up as a topic of discussion. I stated my admiration for how Orban’s government is using tax and economic incentives to encourage families to have more children. One of the parishioners objected, “That is socialism.”
The Hungarian, Georgian, and Russian governments have policies specifically designed to encourage family formation and multiple children.
“Well, it’s working there and in Georgia also,” I replied, “Don’t you agree that we need more babies? Our birthrate is too low, and whole civilizations are in danger of disappearing. Remember what Elon Musk just said about Japan?”
“Sure we need more babies,” he said, “But not that way!”
Policies that are working in more than one country to get the outcome we both desired (more babies) were dismissed without a second thought. Not because of the actual costs vs. benefits of the policies themselves, but because the very idea of them violated his commit to “conservative” economic principals of government non-intervention in the economy. Awarding benefits to families on the basis of having more children was a misuse of tax dollars for social engineering. There had to be another way more consonant with his economic values. He was sure of it. He just couldn’t think of one at the moment. No matter, Orban and his party were still wrong, even if he had no idea what might be right.
My friend and fellow parishioner is not alone in his dogmatic embrace of an ideology. It seems like our modern world is dominated by “isms” – liberalism, progressivism, conservatism, extreme nationalism, neoliberalism, Marxism, socialism, transgenderism, deconstructionism… The list of ideologies seems endless and endlessly destructive. Particularly when we try to import them into the Orthodox Church, for truly the Orthodox Faith is the enemy of all ideologies.
Orthodoxy Embraces Reality
Orthodoxy is truth as revealed to us by the Triune God. The world is fallen, and in need of redemption that only union with God can provide. God created a cosmic order in which this redemption can take place. Within that order, objective reality exists. While people can certainly find ways to improve humanity’s lot, reality imposes limits on what humans can accomplish on their own. The Church recognizes reality and lives humbly within its confines, even as the Faithful pray for miracles that only God can work.
All ideologies are distortions of the reality God created, with some more obvious about it than others. For example, typical leftist distortions of reality include: “A toddler can choose to change his or her sex.” “Same-sex attraction is natural.” “Lockdowns can stop the spread of an aerosolized virus.” “Printing and spending more money reduces inflation and helps the working class.” “Abortion does not kill a baby.” “Ukraine is a democracy.” “Fossil fuels must be ended to save the planet.” “Russia is an existential threat to the West.” “Guns cause violence.” “More immigration is always good.” “Diversity is our strength.”
For “conservatives”, the above distortions of reality are obvious. Less so are their own, such as: “The US is the greatest country ever.” “We just need to get back to the Constitution.” “America was founded as a Christian nation.” “America has always been a force for good internationally.” “The government should play no role in economic or social policy.” “The US military protects our freedoms.” “The US has the greatest medical system in the world.” “NATO is essential.” “Corporations have the same rights as citizens.” “Cutting taxes on corporations and the rich will spur productive use of money in the economy.” “American values are universal. Inside every foreigner is an American struggling to get out.”
Both sets of positions above are rejections of objective reality, rational cost-benefit analysis, historical facts, or all three. That is, of course, of no consequence to idealogues who believe in them. When reality stubbornly refuses to conform to their ideologies, true believers deny or ignore contradictory facts. They often go on the offensive against heretics who challenge holy dogma. An idealogue would rather watch children and puppies starve than rethink a core ideological belief.
This, by the way, is why so many “experts” are consistently wrong. The COVID vaccines are safe and effective, because the COVID vaccines must be safe and effective. Masks work because masks must work. White supremacy is the biggest problem in the US because it must be. Global Warming is happening and it must be mankind’s fault. Experts should be proficient at understanding and interpreting data in an unbiased fashion. Unfortunately, too often the “experts” are only interested in preserving the current “narrative” which aligns with their deeply held ideological beliefs.
Rejection and/or the avoidance of truth has no place in the Orthodox Church. You are not being a good Orthodox Christian if you find yourself: avoiding / lying about facts that contradict your ideological worldview, launching ad hominem attacks to silence critics of your position, encouraging censorship to protect your ideology from inconvenient facts, engaging in or encouraging violence, and/or misrepresenting Patristic teaching to equate your ideological biases with Church dogma.
Ideologies Put Too Much Faith in Man
The Orthodox Church counsels us from the Psalms, “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” Most ideologies ignore this common sense advice, and instead proclaim infinite trust in government and men. Ideologies are, by their nature, Utopian. Just as the Puritans felt that man could be shaped by the law into citizens of the Kingdom of God on Earth, so do all manner of “isms” seek to build, or “restore”, a perfect kingdom of men. If the ideologues can just coerce enough people, then we can vanquish racism, save the planet, end gun violence, establish perfect equality, or maybe bring back the “real” America circa 1955.
It all sounds very much like the original sales pitch given to the first people, Adam and Eve, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.“ (KJV Genesis 3:4-5)” Man started out by wanting to be his own god, and seems to have never gotten over that desire. The modern attitude of Western society puts man at the center of his own salvation. If we just trust the experts and follow the science, we can do anything! Even death itself can be conquered, though you may become more machine than human in the process. We are part of an evolution from religious barbarism to a shining technocratic future. Just obey your bettors and all will be well.
The Orthodox Church takes a much more humble view of the potential of human actions such as law and governance to “transform” society. This humility is clearly laid out in the document The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church:
The law contains a certain minimum of moral standards compulsory for all members of society. The secular law has as its task not to turn the world lying in evil into the Kingdom of God, but to prevent it from turning into hell. The fundamental principle of law is: “do not do to others what you would not want to be done to yourself”.
However, in the cases where the human law completely rejects the absolute divine norm, replacing it by an opposite one, it ceases to be law and becomes lawlessness, in whatever legal garments it may dress itself. For instance, the Decalogue clearly states: “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Ex. 20:12). Any secular norm that contradicts this commandment indicts not its offender but the legislator himself. In other words, the human law has never contained the divine law in its fullness, but in order to remain law it is obliged to conform to the God-established principles, rather then to erode them.
However, the experience of the Christianization of the legal system inherited from the pagan Rome under Emperor Justinian proved to be quite successful. It was so not in the least because the legislator, in developing the Codex, was fully aware of the dividing life between the order of this world, marked with the fall and sinful erosion even in the Christian era, and the statutes of the grace-giving body of Christ, the Church, even its members and the citizens of a Christian state are the same people. The Codex of Justinian determined for centuries the Byzantine legal system and made a considerable impact on the development of law in Russia and in some Western European countries both in the middle ages and the modern time.
Humans will never build Heaven on Earth. This world will pass away in its imperfections and be restored to perfection by the Grace of God in His own good time. That does not mean we are legal nihilists. Secular law can serve an important role in keeping society from descending into a hellscape. Many American cities exhibit the need for secular law and order quite clearly, as the abandonment of even minimum standards has led to catastrophic results.
Secular law and Church law are not the same, and do not serve the same functions. The difference is especially apparent in ritual duties. We would never support, for example, the secular authority requiring people to fast, to attend Divine Liturgy, to go to confession, etc. On the other hand, if secular law contradicts or prohibits Orthodox Christian duties, then it is not law but lawlessness.
An embrace of Orthodox humility vis-à-vis the limits of secular power would have prevented the horrific, ideologically motivated violence endemic to our modern era. Humble maintenance of a minimum standard of public morals would never necessitate the deaths of millions. Only a drive for Utopian perfection would require the sacrifice of so many souls. Narcissistic dreamers are dangerous.
Orthodox Christians should understand, and teach others, that there are no perfect solutions in this world. No problem will ever be fully solved. Attempting to “fix” something once and for all (zero COVID, ending gun violence, ending poverty) will always fail. That doesn’t mean we should never try to improve the human condition, only that success always has its limits. Further, in this world any solution to any problem will involve potentially harmful tradeoffs. A “cure” can easily become worse than the disease. When the “cure” becomes part of an ideology, then idealogues must downplay or ignore any ill effects. Such willful blindness is anti-Orthodox as it invariably leads to an abandonment of truth and to needless human suffering.
You could be wrong. Your ideas could be wrong. Your approach could be wrong. A wise, humble, and pious man or woman is open to these possibilities and will change course accordingly. We need more such people.
Ideologies Are Counterfeit Religions
Ideologies function like religions on purpose, because they were created to supplant religion:
“Ideology” was invented at the end of the eighteenth century as an alternative to religion and was intended to exercise the same impact on people’s minds and behavior. The French philosopher Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754–1836), who coined the term “ideology,” used les eléments d’idéologie as a foundation for his secular epistemology. Being a faithful follower of the Enlightenment, de Tracy constructed ideology as a way of cognition of the truth without engaging “religious bias.” Ideology, thus, at its very inception was anti-religious.
The passage below is from an article by a “detransitioner” and neatly summarizes how Gender Ideology functions as a religion:
The world painted by Tumblr’s radical queer, feminist, transsexual theorists was one that has since become familiar to many people. You might know it as Wokeism, DEI, Successor Ideology, or Critical Theory. It has many tenets, but to massively oversimplify, it applies a pseudo-Marxist analysis to pretty much every social issue: men oppress women, whites oppress People of Color, the abled oppress the disabled, and so on. Through the magic of Intersectionality, these class antagonisms coalesce into one great struggle: the oppression of the Marginalized by White Supremacist Capitalist Cis-Hetero-Patriarchy (the Enemy). The world is wicked, and it is that way because it was made wicked by the Enemy.
One has to understand the nature of the world’s evil before one can repair it. The first step in obtaining that knowledge is realizing that our bodies are not us, but things which we’re trapped inside of. We’re not humans; we’re ghosts haunting rotting corpses. To stop the Enemy, trans people need to make us all understand that our true selves don’t exist in our corrupted material forms. This is what gender identity actually means: We are not our bodies.
Virtuous souls have been unjustly trapped in profane flesh. The most virtuous are those who suffer most from their embodiment: women, “queer” people, the disabled, those lower in the hierarchy of the racial caste system described by critical race theorists like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. These are the Marginalized. The Marginalized are the chosen people. They are chosen because they suffer. If you aren’t Marginalized, you can become Marginalized by deciding to transition. If you’re already Marginalized, you can become even more virtuous through transition, because Marginalized identities stack. A Woman of Color is more virtuous than a white woman, and a Trans Woman of Color is more virtuous yet. Trans actually carries more weight than some other forms of Marginalization; a woman transitioning to become a trans “man” or a gay person becoming a “straight” trans person are increasing their net Marginalization despite giving up Marginalized identities.
If those who are born Black or disabled are the chosen, trans people are the converts who have voluntarily accepted Marginalization. They choose to suffer more from their involuntary embodiment. Because of this, they become virtuous. They are saved.
Greenism, Marxism, COVIDism, Critical Race Theory, Transgenderism, Veganism, Human Extinctionism, Transhumanism, and additional ideologies all function as religions in the same way. There is a priesthood, there is dogma which you may not question, there are enemies despoiling the Garden of Eden, there is sin, there is sacrifice / atonement, there is approved “art”, and there is even a path of salvation to gain their versions of the Kingdom of Heaven. Powerful elites support these religions as their anti-human dogmas always require force to enact them. More force equals more power which equals more wealth and control for those in charge.
What’s not to love?
Unfortunately, many such ideologies, especially Greenism, have found their way into the Church. Adherence to heretical ideologies often separates Orthodox believers from one another, and too often forms a shared basis for “ecumenical” engagement between Orthodox Christians and other faiths. The non-stop Climate Change propaganda from the Greek Archdiocese comes to mind, along with the accompanying endless stream of joint “papers” and “declarations” on the environment with heterodox religious leaders.
Even when Orthodox hierarchs and priests oppose socially-transforming ideas put forth by ideologies, they often do so as if they were dealing merely with harmful policies crafted by the political process. Rather, we must all recognize that we are fighting the implementation of malignant religious dogmas that are actively competing with Holy Orthodoxy for human souls.
The current policies of the governing elites are politically toxic. Parents are increasingly alarmed at the government, corporations, and cultural elites pushing Transgenderism on their children. Despite Americans demanding lower gas prices, the governing elites remain committed to strangling access to fossil fuels. The vast majority of Americans are sick of Critical Race Theory, but elites are doubling down on it everywhere they can. Americans are increasingly reluctant to get any more COVID vaccines and boosters, so now the FDA is pushing the jabs on toddlers and babies. Jabs that European countries have said are too risky for those under 18. This is certain to end well, right? Crime is skyrocketing, so the governing elites discuss how to further disarm law-abiding citizens to make them more vulnerable. The dollar is in sharp decline, so the elites print and spend more of them.
None of this makes any sense if your goal is to win elections. If you are trying to accumulate more power and wealth under the cover of religious dogma masquerading as “science”, or if you are a true believer in a non-Christian religion that demands illogical things – then perhaps it all makes sense after all. Particularly if one takes into account the action of Satan, the father of lies, with his consuming desire to distract mankind from the true path of salvation.
Conclusion
This is not a call for the Church to stay completely out of political affairs. When policies and laws clearly violate Christian duties, then the Church must protest. When the state impinges on the freedom of the Church to proclaim the Gospel and minister to the Faithful, likewise must the Church speak out. The Church should also use her Prophetic Voice to speak for the poor, the downtrodden, the common people whose lives have been devastated by ideologically-driven lockdowns, mandates, inflation, sanctions, and the degradations of our educational system. When doing so, however, the Church must come from a place of defending reality as it is, and not as some wish it to be. The Church must recognize heretical religious dogmas, and reject them for what they are. As part of that effort, the Church can do much to reclaim true scientific inquiry that expands human knowledge, rather than curtailing it. The Church must also remain humble, aware of the limitations of secular law, and teach others to mindful of that as well.
We cannot make the Earth into Heaven, but perhaps we can at least halt its slide into Hell.
Constantine is a cradle Orthodox raised in the Greek Archdiocese who currently attends a Serbian parish
Characterizing someone as “rich” for the purpose of then taxing THEM but not yourself is participating in the institutionalization of envy, which will destroy a society. It assumes, without evidence, that the “rich” are rich at the cost of exploiting others. Failing to see that this palpably evil is moral blindness.
What in the article does this comment refer to?
citizens.” “Cutting taxes on corporations and the rich will spur productive use of money in the economy.”
The point is not to raise taxes, the point is that this kind of dogmatic statement-“Cutting taxes on corporations and the rich will spur productive use of money in the economy”- is a misrepresentation of reality. It was never a given that corporations and/or rich people would take their tax savings and turn them into productive investment. That was assumed. That is how it was sold. But that is not how it worked out. CEOs used tax savings to buy back their own stock, which increased the stock price but at the long-term result of reducing investment in growing the businesses. Offshoring continued, as did insane levels of money printing by the Fed that led to Wall Street turning into the world’s largest casino. The rich didn’t build factories to employ people and produce goods, they bought and sold paper on the exchanges.
So cutting taxes is not a panacea as other complex factors come into play. Raising taxes is also not a panacea. Instead of really looking at where we are and how to move forward, we end up with a shouting match of mindless slogans – “Make the rich pay their fair share” versus “Cut taxes to spur growth”
A generous per child tax exemption (perhaps on all taxes, not just income) combined with a flat income tax bracket would make it more affordable for lower and middle income earners to afford larger families while simplifying the tax code and reducing the incentive to game the system for higher earners? It’s an idea. We need those and not just slogans if we are to make progress.
Encouraging more babies through tax dollars for the economic purpose of more laborers is also wrong. If people want to help struggling families or any other cause, they can do so by keeping more of what they earn and giving themselves; not funneling it through the government’s fingers to distribute charity for them. By doing it through government, less help gets to people who actually need it.
Not about helping struggling families. Many couples are okay, as long as they either don’t have children or have only one. The current fertility rate for U.S. in 2022 is 1.782 births per woman. This is well below replacement, much less affording any population growth. This is not about charity, as because of the economic conditions, families are simply not forming. Kids are staying at home, living with roommates, and not marrying or marrying much later. Consequently, they never grow up. If they manage to have kids, then it is one at some point in their 30’s or early 40’s. This discussion is going on all over Twitter as a result of Roe v Wade going down in flames, and many people are speaking like you. Most government social program spending is absolutely wasteful and usually counterproductive. Support for family formation does not have to be. Nor does it have to be a federal project.
We need strong families with multiple offspring just to maintain our society. This was not happening before the potential COVID jab impacts on fertility. We may have even fewer fertile young people now than we did before. So the questions are – how do we encourage family formation and multiple children? How do you take a fertility rate below replacement, and get it back to a healthy state? The only countries that have done it so far, relied on monetary assistance, tax incentives, and social incentives.
To be honest, you did the same thing characterized in the article. You rejected the Hungarian model, without giving an alternative.
When the better of the two is rejected, this is what you get. Some might have to read inbetween the lines to get the meaning of this statement.
Nice work Constantine,
In my humble (or not so humble) opinion, just a few sorted thoughts:
1. All income tax—all means all—is for one reason: social engineering in one form or another. The ONLY fair tax—if we are to be taxed at all—would be a consumption or sales tax. Rich people who buy more pay more, poor people who buy less pay less. Food should never be taxed as is in all states. Keep in mind, America went many generations without any income tax. AND, some said the federal government should never tax but only print money to support a minimalist government budget. While this seems crazy, it would be very workable because as the economy grows so does the money supply. When the US government signed over it sovereignty in controlling its own currency to the Federal Reserve Bank, it signed its death warrant over to the globalist bankers—the FED RES is controlled by foreigners; so they could print money to support the one world government.
2. Since the fall, Man has come to experience in everything the “knowledge (experience) of good and evil. This is in all things in differing proportions; everything is a mix of good and evil. E.g. When America was established, two America’s were established (tares and wheat): 1. There is the wonderful, benevolent, and just nation founded by those wanting freedom to worship God, we all know and love and 2. at the same time Free Masonry (based on ancient Egyptian and Babylonian sorcery) was also planted as George Washington and other founding fathers were practitioners of the extremely demonic secret cult. When America prays, God’s will is largely implemented, when not, the demonic plan for America takes place; two Americas, two plans, life or death—choose life; it’s the same for every nation. Right now, we see the second happening (evil). The line between good and evil runs through every nation, every people, and every individual. St John Chrysostom said there is no person so good there is no evil in him, and there is no person so evil there is no good in him (sermons: Rich Man and Lazarus). Rebekah had two nations (peoples, lifestyles, persons) struggling within her; one was profane Esau, and the other good—Jacob. Chose life; right now America is choosing death (brace for impact).
3. Ever since God said, “Be fruitful and multiply…”God’s will has been big families. God wants a big family in eternity. All Orthodox churches with few/no kids are mono-generation, do not satisfy God’s requirement for the Church, and doomed.
4. In the world, but not OF the world. From here on out, we—as God’s people—will have to put more and more distance between ourselves and the mechanisms of the world. No longer will your 401k have any security; no longer will the medical establishment hold any value of trust or any promise of healing modern diseases. Like it or not, all the props are being—one by one—kicked out from beneath all of us; time for the eaglets to fly. Whatever you trust is your god; and our God is a jealous God taking away every other thing to trust.
5. Because the world is the world—Jesus did not pray for the world—my only concern is what is happening in the Church. Human government was for one purpose : to bear the sword—mount a defense and punish evil. The Church is to be the bearer of grace, feeding the poor, healing the world. When government started caring for the poor the Church stopped. Here is where we are all mixed up: because for generations we have expected the government to do the Church’s job of feeding the poor, now, the government expects the Church to do the government’s job of enforcing mandates.
6. The “Basic Social Concept” is perhaps the most significant Orthodox document of the 20th century, the wisdom for the 21st. After the fall of communism, the Russian Orthodox hierarchs began asking questions as to how the collapse into communism was allowed to take place. In other words: Russian hierarchs were doing constructive introspection on how culpable the Church was in allowing the revolution. St Arsiny put it this way, “we allowed this to happen, it’s our fault” (paraphrase). While the document leaves out some things that were not yet problematic, its 85% right there. The first parts defining the Church and its role with government are brilliant. Should be mandatory reading for every catechumen.7. It’s not about what the world does, but God’s people and every day folks that determine God’s demeanor toward nations whether judgment of grace. As one who has tracked the globalists agenda starting in the 1970’s, I know about chemtrails; I know about the One World Government, I see the horror nightmare in the vaccines, that child trafficking is also child ritual/sexual abuse and sacrifice; I know about the globalists cabal prying open the gates of hell through human/child sacrifice just like the Incas and Mayans; I have studied the relationship between 5g and military kill tech and nano materials; I understand the origins of evil from the watchers, niphilim, Nimrod, and successors and yet the most horrifying sign of the time is this: the average Americans going about their business totally oblivious to the impending judgment. Jesus said, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all (Luke 17:26). It was not what evil people did, it was about what good average people were NOT doing at a particular juncture in time. All the things they did were good, but often good displaced God in people’s lives; fatal mistake!!. Driving from Colorado Springs to Pueblo to attend St Michaels, I25 is packed with boaters, fishermen, RVs, motorcycles, convertibles, sports vehicles of all kinds; nobody is going to church on the LORD’S DAY. That’s the straw the breaks the camel’s back pushing America into full judgment. Brace for impact, get ready for things to change. BTW: expect a great reset in the Orthodox Church, the changing of the guard.
The Bible says children are a blessing, debt is a curse. In America (dare I say in most countries) people reject/ limit the blessing and sign up repeatedly for the curse.
As a mom of seven, no government tax credit was an incentive to have more children. It makes sense to help families doing so, but if the church/leadership does not herald God’s command to be fruitful and multiply then who will? Tandem with the heralding of the fruit of the womb, is the idea that mothers that stay home to raise them are valuable, necessary and to be praised. It is the highest calling in terms of vocation. That sadly is still not the case. The church has followed the culture in this regard. The modern Christian family has “upgraded” even the raising children and turned that over to the experts. I know there are many factors, income, etc. But as Christians we should sign up for blessings and reject curses!
I tried giving 5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️but didn’t work! Lol.
Excellent salient points Fr Jeremy!
Should be sent out to every Eastern Orthodox Church mailing list to ensure some critical thinking of its faithful.
Excellent. Well said. I would point out that our own government theoretically encourages more children by offering child (dependent) tax deductions. So, for the person that objects to government ‘intrusion’ in the case of Hungary it is silly on its face. The USA has been at it a long time. I will say though that we should do far more in terms of incentivizing (is that even a word?) more children and in tact families rather than making so-called family planning (we know what that really means) so easily available even for minor children. There are far too many disincentives in our country but again the idea that incentivizing more children counters a free society is silly and not fully thought out.