A homespun aphorism assures us that, “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you, it’s all the things you know that just ain’t so.” Getting people to know things that “ain’t so” is a specialty all to itself these days. Not just in the media and politics, but also within the Orthodox Church. If you mix in just enough truth with the lies, even sincere Orthodox Christians can come away deceived.
Nicholas Anton
is a Chicago native who currently serves as the Director of Operations for the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA. Prior to his current role, he was Ecumenical Officer and Director of the Department of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. He also has an M.Div. from Holy Cross. Anton wrote a piece in June 2020 on Racism and Orthodox Christianity in America: A modern commentary. He reprised the same key points in a November 2021 speech to the Philoptocos at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church NYC. In both the article and the speech, Anton provides a master class in how to subtly link progressive propaganda with Orthodox truth to mislead the Faithful.
Anton starts out with an incontrovertible truth – Orthodox Christianity is incompatible with racism:
Therefore, hatred and bigotry, racism and discrimination, or indeed any other action or attitude that violates the “other,” who is our neighbor, our brother and sister, are the exact opposite of love and fail to embrace Christ’s command to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). By contrast, any form or degree of racism embraces actions that are biblically condemnable, while simultaneously ignoring and contradicting the commandment to love. Ultimately, this is a rejection and denial of God, who is Love. Put plainly: one cannot be racist and Christian; the two are mutually exclusive.
Anton also correctly points out that Orthodox Christians have suffered persecution. We all remember what happened to Orthodox Christians under Muslim and communist rule in the “home countries”. But the United States presented challenges for Orthodox Christians as well. Orthodox Christians in America from non-European countries did experience racism because of their appearance. Many Orthodox Christians from Europe also suffered for the Faith in ways most have forgotten. Powerful organizations once sought to stamp out Orthodoxy in this country. Americans usually think of the KKK only as a racist organization, with precious few remembering that it was also a Protestant supremacist one. The Klan, whose nation-wide membership (mostly in the Midwestern states) peaked in the 1920’s somewhere in the 4 to 6 million range, was violently anti-Roman Catholic and anti-Orthodox. Our national obsession with skin color frequently causes Americans to forget about the horror of religiously-based hatred.
After a couple of correct points, Anton then starts to slip in the propaganda. The progressive buzzwords are bolded below for emphasis:
Unfortunately, because of the struggles of our ancestors – as well as for those Orthodox who are not white and continue to struggle – the concept of white privilege is neither readily acknowledged nor accepted. And by not recognizing this sense of privilege, some of our people have, over time, unfortunately, embraced the ideals of racism and white supremacy. Some of these individuals even preach distorted and erroneous understandings of the Orthodox Christian tradition in the hope of recruiting others to their unhinged ways.
Now, to return to my argument: despite the actions of a few, the majority of Orthodox Christians lift up the aforementioned theology of solidarity, embracing the experiences of others and embodying the love of Christ. In this way, the corporate body stands committed to addressing racism and ending discrimination, while remaining firmly positioned to promote essential equity and eventual equality.
Today, an annual conference entitled “Moses the Black” focuses on missiological principles among African-American communities and addresses systemic racism from a biblical and Orthodox perspective.
Anton does not bother to define any of the terms emphasized above. Nor does he clearly separate the use of those terms from the previous portion of his talk which included Orthodox Theological and historical truth. Instead, he casually inserts them as if this were all part of the Orthodox Christian Faith. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Systemic Racism is a term often used by higher-ups in the Greek Archdiocese, but almost never defined. Here is one progressive writer’s definition:
Systemic racism is both a theoretical concept and a reality. As a theory, it is premised on the research-supported claim that the United States was founded as a racist society, that racism is thus embedded in all social institutions, structures, and social relations within our society. Rooted in a racist foundation, systemic racism today is composed of intersecting, overlapping, and codependent racist institutions, policies, practices, ideas, and behaviors that give an unjust amount of resources, rights, and power to White people while denying them to people of color.
Racism is in fact built into the foundation of U.S. society and that it has over time come to infuse all aspects of it. It is present in our laws, our politics, our economy; in our social institutions; and in how we think and act, whether consciously or subconsciously.
American society has always been pervaded by racism. It is not a personal sin, so it is not something you can atone for. Any differences in outcomes in any areas (employment, education, incarceration rate, health, wealth, etc.) between “people of color”(POC) and Whites (increasingly Asians as well) are argued to stem from the “system.” If you are White, you are racist, whether you intend to be or not. Welcome to the secular version of “Original Sin.”
The idea of Systemic Racism is at the core of Critical Race Theory, which finds its own origins in Marxism.
CRT has its roots in the early 20th Century thought of neo-Marxist Antonio Gramsci, founder of the Italian Communist Party. His desire was to spur on the stalled communism of 19th Century social revolutionists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels toward an overthrow of the “bourgeoisie” (ruling middle- and upper-class) by the proletariat (working-class). To accomplish this goal, societal norms and institutions, such as family, nation state, capitalism, and God, needed to be torn down, and this is where we begin to see the notion of group-based morality, with the idea that what is moral is what serves the interests of the “oppressed” or “marginalized.”
Instead of “bourgeoisie” versus the “proletariat”, we now have “Whites” versus “POC”. Instead of individuals made in the image and likeness of God, we now have diametrically opposed “groups”. One group is comprised of perpetual “oppressors” and one group is the “oppressed.” This is entirely based on skin color, regardless of the personal history or success of any individual. A Romanian immigrant, from a nation and family with no historical participation in any slave trade ever, is an oppressor. A recent immigrant from Africa, whose ancestors were never part of the Atlantic Slave Trade nor lived under any kind of American racism, is part of the oppressed. An unemployed, Meth-addicted, depressed, laid-off former factory worker is full of privilege by virtue of being white. Whereas Oprah is oppressed in her multi-million dollar mansion. It’s not about individuals, but about the overall system:
Within a racist society, White people enjoy many privileges denied to POC. Among these is the way that vested group interests among powerful White people and “ordinary Whites” allow White people to benefit from their racial identity without even identifying it as such.
If everything is the fault of the system, then forget changing hearts and saving souls to make the world a better place. For real change you have to manage outcomes to remove any disparity. How can you do that? Why, Anton told you how! He endorsed it explicitly – Equity! Not equality, a traditional American value that is perfectly compatible with Orthodoxy. Equality means everyone has the same access to resources, opportunities, and treatment before the law. Equity! is totally different. Equity means some authority is empowered to allocate resources, opportunities, and legal treatment as needed to create equal outcomes. Similar terms, radically different meanings. Equity, in practice, leads to racism and tyranny.
How can equity be used to combat systemic racism? Here are some suggestions from actual critical race theorists (see if you can spot the Marxist influence):
- Past oppression must be avenged by present oppression against the descendants of past oppressors. Those whose ancestors were past oppressors must become and remain permanently oppressed. Maybe, someday, the guilt of the “original sin” of racism may be fully expunged. Until that magical day, outcomes must be tilted in favor of the oppressed.
- Suspend / end private property rights to seize land and wealth for redistribution along racial lines. Otherwise known as “reparations”.
- Create a federal Department of Antiracism with the power to nullify, veto, or abolish any law at any level of government and curtail the speech of political leaders and others who are deemed insufficiently “antiracist.”
- End individual rights and replace them with group-based rights.
- Restrict free speech to eliminate “hate” speech.
- Federal control over education to further CRT and “antiracism”.
- Prioritization of POC in medical care over Whites.
- Reduce and/or eliminate cash bail.
- Defund the police.
- Reduce the rate of incarceration for POC by: Selective prosecution / non-prosecution, Reduce penalties for misdemeanor crimes or eliminate those crimes altogether, Early release from prison
- Delegitimization of the nuclear family.
Implementing even a few of the ideas above would totally restructure our society, end personal freedom, sow chaos, and end free enterprise as we know it. Freedom of Religion would not be far behind. CRT seeks to bring about a Marxist Revolution under another name. One CRT theorist named Ibram X. Kendi said it plainly, “In order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anti-capitalist.” This route to tyranny ensures everyone will be oppressed equally. Such progress.
Can you imagine if Anton had been honest and forthright to his Orthodox audience about what he was endorsing, instead of hiding behind code words? “Hi! I think Orthodox Christianity supports totally demolishing American society and rebuilding it from the ground up as a Marxist hellhole full of anti-White racism. Who’s with me?”
How do you think that would have gone over? Especially given the prevalence within Orthodoxy of so many survivors of communist regimes?
You know how it would have gone over – like a pig in flight training. The ratio on social media would have reached epic proportions. Which is why Anton, Archbishop Elpidophoros, the Fordhamites, the authors of the Social Ethos document, and even the Patriarch of Constantinople never speak plainly about what they are endorsing. They use progressive code words to speak to the “in-crowd” while sounding innocuous to most normal people. Unfortunately, these words actually represent radical, dangerous, and anti-Christian concepts. As more people understand the truth behind these concepts, linking them to Orthodox Christianity risks bringing the Faith of Christ into unjust disrepute.
Equity, in practice, leads to anti-White racism that harms innocent people, including children, in a myriad of ways. Abbot Tryphon talks about this new anti-White racism in regards to the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. You should watch it below. No one should be labeled part of a “privileged class” simply based on being White. No one should be denied a fair trial, civil rights, medical treatment, employment and educational opportunities, or taught that they are evil, merely because of the color of their skin. This is all profoundly immoral and anti-Orthodox. The answer to racism can never be more racism.
CRT harms not just Whites, but also the POC it claims to be helping. Which is why a multiracial coalition is building to oppose it. CRT divides everyone into mutually combative groups. Society ends up divided along multiple racial lines, not just White versus Black. America is far too integrated to encourage people to treat their friends, neighbors, co-workers, customers, and fellow students as implacable enemies. Many African Americans reject CRT because it 
designates them as perpetual victims. What successful, talented individual wants to be called a victim for his or her entire life?
Other African Americans reject CRT because of its dishonest treatment of American history. African Americans are often staunch American patriots. Try telling veterans that they fought for an irredeemably racist and evil country.
African Americans are also largely fair-minded enough to realize that America 2022 is not Alabama 1965. A White-majority America has already elected African Americans to the offices of President, Vice President, Senator, governor, etc. Whether in politics, business, sports, or the performing arts – African Americans are successful and well represented. What happens if you discount all that progress, and instead pretend that racism is just as bad today as it was under Jim Crow? Many African Americans are worried about the answer to that question.
A number of Christian African Americans reject CRT, and its fruits, because they want no part of anything originating in atheistic Marxism. Not to mention the fact that as Christians, they reject all racism, including the anti-White variety.
Further, many African Americans understand that token measures such as tearing down statues, renaming streets / buildings, refusing to prosecute criminals, letting riots run rampant in their neighborhoods – none of these things will actually benefit them materially. The “accomplishments” of the purveyors of CRT will not make anyone’s life better in any way. Nothing of consequence will change. African Americans increasingly understand, along with Americans of other races, that for the big businesses and politicians propping up CRT – preserving the status quo is exactly the point.
Academics and professional rabble rousers may believe in the glory of the coming revolution, but the powers-that-be surely don’t. Well, not in its entirety. They are extremely happy with the way things are, but they could always use more money and more power – things CRT can be easily manipulated to provide. Our governing class is rich, powerful, corrupt, and staggeringly incompetent. They have wrecked our economy, exported our jobs, flooded our nation with illegal immigrants, devalued our money, turned our cities into homeless encampments, destroyed our supply chain, ruined our health in myriad ways…. The scope of the damage is practically endless. Who has been held accountable for any of this?
Especially after the Global Financial Crisis, most of our business and political class should have been stripped of power and jailed in solitary confinement. But that would have required a unified movement of people who recognized that their shared interests as citizens and workers transcended petty concerns over race (or ethnicity for that matter). Our relentless focus on race keeps distracting us from our real problems. This did not happen by accident.
One has to wonder, is the Greek Archdiocese also using CRT concepts as distractions? Why hold a conference every year to talk about “missiological principles among African-American communities”, when you could just evangelize African Americans? Why focus on combatting “systemic racism” when you can focus on transforming lives? When Archbishop Elpidophoros marched with Black Lives Matter, did he invite a single attendee to visit one of his Greek parishes? Did His Eminence remind the marchers that Orthodoxy has a robust history of African saints and that they should learn more about their own African Christian heritage? How could a primate of the Orthodox Church go to such an event and not try to win a single soul to Christ?
Perhaps the focus on “systemic racism” helps hide the fact that the Greek Archdiocese is not interested in actually bringing Christ to African American communities? No doubt rich Archons appreciate the distraction from their crimes as well. Call it a “win-win.”
If so, the academics who run the Greek Archdiocese need to rethink their strategy of abetting anti-White racism as a cover for the crimes of the Global Elite. As people wise up, this will play worse and worse. Even dyed-in-the-wool progressives are getting sick of it all. Many former leftists are sounding increasingly like future conservative voters:
You don’t get to be “against the rich” if the richest people in the country fund your party in order to preserve their government-sponsored monopolies. You are not “a supporter of free speech” if you oppose free speech for people who disagree with you. You are not “for the people” if you pit most of them against each other based on the color of their skin, or force them out of their jobs because of personal choices related to their bodies. You are not “serious about economic inequality” when you happily order from Amazon without caring much for the devastating impact your purchases have on the small businesses that increasingly are either subjugated by Jeff Bezos’ behemoth or crushed by it altogether. You are not “for science” if you refuse to consider hypotheses that don’t conform to your political convictions and then try to ban critical thought and inquiry from the internet. You are not an “anti-racist” if you label—and sort!—people by race. You are not “against conformism” when you scare people out of voicing dissenting opinions.
When “the left” becomes the party of wealthy elites and state security agencies who preach racial division, state censorship, contempt for ordinary citizens and for the U.S. Constitution, and telling people what to do and think at every turn, then that’s the side you are on, if you are “on the left”—those are the policies and beliefs you stand for and have to defend.
Anton mentioned in his article / speech that there are individuals who, “preach distorted and erroneous understandings of the Orthodox Christian tradition in the hope of recruiting others to their unhinged ways.” He never tells us who these people are (Abbot Tryphon among them?) nor explains their “unhinged ways”. This is a common tactic among progressives – denounce and call names without engaging the actual substance of what your opponents have to say. In this case, however, Anton really had no choice. If he had honestly recounted what most of these “unhinged” persons actually teach, then his audience would immediately recognize that they are more Orthodox than he is. Too bad for him, and his fellow academics, that the truth of Orthodoxy cannot be suppressed. It will always find a way.
Alexander is a cradle Orthodox Christian, a member of the Greek Archdiocese, and a veteran of the U.S. Army
I think that the question that ought to be asked is whether or not such universal color “racial” categories such as “white” and “black” have any part in Orthodox Christian thinking. Byzantines identified groups according to ethnicity, that is, language, religion, and location. I suggest that one ought not identify as “White” (or “Black”) and also “Orthodox” but rather by primary Language + Orthodox. The growth of Orthodoxy in terms of national churches seems to reinforce this concept.
My suggestion to everyone who feels like they have no ability to fight back against these heretics, is to immediately stop donating any money to the GOA or any other archdiocese that allows and encourages these anti-christian beliefs.
Please, please bear with me. I am not trying to corner the dialog and I may be wearing out my welcome. But, I feel constrained to voice some warnings–not to those on board–but rather to the many detractors that inspect this site looking to find fault.
The overarching error of our day is rightly discerning the Body–in the Chalice, in the members, and in the human body.
If you can rightly discern the Body in the Chalice, you will discern it in the members and the human body–they are all mystically One.
AND you would be able to discern any and every counterfeit that comes down the road. If you knew the Chalice intimately, when the anti-chalice comes down the road, your sensibilities would be so offended, it would be like watching a dog eat its own vomit. Of course, this is not offensive to the dog, that is what dogs do (spiritual gentiles, not sons of Abraham). But that’s not what we do.
At the same time, some are deceived like Eve (ignorant parishioners), yet others partake with full knowledge like Adam. As covenant head (all hierarchs are covenant heads),it was his actions that became multi-generational.
Putting parts of the Church cross-ways with the Fathers, you will be judged by the Fathers. And are now judged by the Fathers as not discerning the Body.
Like I said before, the “vaccine” is the Eucharist/initiation/communion/covenant bond of the New World order:
https://www.infowars.com/posts/author-the-state-has-turned-vaccination-into-a-transubstantiation-ritual/
Bottom line: Both the Church and the “mystery of iniquity” (anti-Christ new world order), function by way of covenant. So, everything anti-Christ is also anti-Church and to be so it bonds people together by covenant initiations. So, toxicity aside, getting the vaccine establishes a covenant with death–getting married to this death.
But to those that repent, Scripture says this:
“And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.”
Now, trampling down death by death has new meaning.
It is time for all hierarchs who pushed the vaccine to repent of their covenant with evil and the new world order. We fear not man, but God and God will purify His Church.
While we have a lot on our plate regarding Orthodoxy here, some military analysts are saying a Russian invasion of Ukraine is Imminent.
https://www.infowars.com/posts/us-embassy-orders-evacuation-of-non-essential-staff-diplomats-family-members-from-ukraine/
While I do not have to necessarily agree with all of the commentators views in the video, it is nice to know something very serious may be about to happen.
It would be nice if somebody more versed in the Ukraine situation could spell things out in layman’s terms (I am a simple man). I know the EP as an arm of the US state department has targeted Russian Orthodoxy in Ukraine (right?). Of course, Ukraine is inherently woven into the Orthodox metanarritive for Russians.
“After a couple of correct points, Anton then starts to slip in the propaganda.” Yes, that’s how it’s done. It’s disheartening to think of how many Orthodox listen to public figures like Anton and just drink in his words mindlessly. Thank you for this excellent piece exposing yet another facet of deception in our midst.
If Mr. Anton and his confederates are so concerned with equity, perhaps they can spend 4 hours a weekend feeding the poor. Talk is cheap. Or donate to feed the poor, many of whom are minorities, even here, in San Francisco. But it is easier to drop words like ‘equity’ and ‘white privilege’ which you learn in college. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s when schoolyard revenge was meted out with a vengeance to “oppressors” although I doubt the grade school kids who avenged themselves knew the word. So, according to Mr. Anton I have ‘White privilege’–laughable, indeed. Mr. Anton had not even been born when I had firsthand experience of applied ‘equity’ as he calls it. So this is the new doctrinal stance of Washington/Constantinople’s Progressive Axis? And they wonder why I wait them out. ‘Blind guides leading the blind, and they shall both fall into the pit’–XC. Also: “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek,barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is above all and for all’–rough paraphrase of St. Paul, but better than you deserve, Anton. Think about that as you feast over the pre-Lenten Crab Feed. No room in St. Paul’s theology for Marxist rhetoric. I won’t waste any more theology on you. I leave you and your masters to the Sleeper King, the Duke, Vatatzes. Coming to a theater near you soon…
While I may have over stated my point–for that I apologize–, I still perceive a very, very serious error to label it a “Protestant movement” I would call it a movement (a cancer) among Protestants, just like it was a movement among the Russian Orthodox pre-civil war:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Freemasonry_in_Russia.
In fact, it was FM infiltration among Orthodox Russia that caused the Russian Revolution.
https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/what-role-did-freemasons-and-bolsheviks-play-in-the-russian-revolution/
With the history and the current resurgence of FM among the Orthodox, do we call it an Orthodox movement?
To attribute the hymns “Old Rugged Cross” and “Onward Christian Soldiers” to Masonic inspiration or influence is really bad logic. And while I have heard “The Old Rugged Cross” sung many times, I could never make any connection with the influence of FM. As for “Onward Christian Soldiers” we did not sing that, as it just sounds silly, it was the song exclusively sung among Sunday School Children.
Ok, what am I missing here? FM brought Russia (singularly Orthodox) into total depravity (holds world record numbers for abortions), creating the enslavement of the entire Eastern Block, the genocide that makes Hitler look like an amateur, and the total cessation of the long history of the Czars and we call this a Protestant Movement?
Oops, I put this comment in the wrong place. It should have been under the OR comment. Here is yet another site on FM in Russia:
https://www.rbth.com/arts/history/2017/08/01/did-russias-last-tsar-fall-prey-to-a-conspiracy-hatched-by-the-masons_814678
To be clear, Free Masonry is condemned by the Orthodox Church. It is a heresy, and its position within the Orthodox Church has had as its goal to foster the Ecumenical movement as a move towards creating a unified, one-world religion. https://orthodoxreflections.com/freemasonry-and-the-rise-of-ecumenism-in-the-orthodox-church/
The Klan was heavily influenced by Free Masonry, but the Klan was not at all synonymous with European Free Masonry as described above. First of all, the Klan was rabidly anti-Catholic but believed that Protestant religion was the natural religion for the United States. Whereas European Free Masons put all religions on the same level, the Klan only did that with Protestant sects. The Klan were rabidly nationalistic, and Protestantism got mixed up in that belief system. Keep in mind, we are talking about a Klan that no longer exists and will never exist again. The so-called “modern” Klan is a group of FBI informants. This Klan is history going back 100 years at this point. In any case, call them whatever makes you happy. They were a movement that perverted American nationalism, American history, and Protestant religion by combining them with Free Mason symbols and cultic practices.
As for the Protestant hymns referenced – the article did not state, and no one would state, that those hymns were written by Klan or Free Masons. They were incorporated into Klan service. They were put forward as an example that the Klan borrowed from Protestantism and consciously saw itself as Protestant. Why did you read what was written and extrapolate that into someone saying those hymns were written under Masonic influence? Now, were Klansmen good Protestants? They weren’t even Christian as far as we are concerned, but they saw themselves that way and that was accepted, at one point, by a large number of other Protestants. Without a hierarchy, it can be difficult to combat movements like that.
The purpose of the Free Masons in today’s context, within the Orthodox Church, is to destroy the Church. The goal is to unite all religions, which destroys the uniqueness of the Gospel. You can’t call it an “Orthodox” movement if the goal is to actually undermine the Orthodox Church. The goal is to support a one-world state. You can’t call it a “Russian” movement if the goal is to overthrow Russian sovereignty and make Russia a mere administrative province of a global government.
Contrast that with the Klan. The Klan’s goals were to preserve American independence, preserve White dominance, and the dominance of Protestant religion, in part by keeping out immigrants (particularly Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Jews). The Klan was a toxic mix of perverted American nationalism, perverted racial consciousness, heretical religion, and xenophobia. But perverted or not, the Klan still included all those elements. It was a mess, which is why it collapsed within a few years as people got their sense back.
The Free Masons in Russia wanted to overthrow the Tsar and destroy the Church. The Free Masons in the Klan worshipped the Constitution in a perverse way and wanted to legally protect Protestant Churches from any competition from Rome. These things are fundamentally different. The current Free Masonry movement in the United States is very much aligned with Europe, but in the 1920’s and in the Midwestern states, that was not necessarily the case with Klan supporters.
Now, we ignore or downplay the religious intolerance of the Klan at our own peril. Any one who writes on issues considered “conservative” has been called a KKK supporter / member. It happens on social media all the time. To which we always respond, “As Orthodox Christians, the historical Klan you have in mind would have hated us just as much as they hated any one else.” That always kicks off an argument, because the Klan at this point is presented as a one-dimensional caricature focused solely on racism. No one seems to understand who the Klan were at a time when they had somewhere between 4 million and 6 million followers. The term “Klan” has simply become a cudgel with which to beat conservatives, even conservatives whose very religious identity and practice would make them potential victims of Klan violence in the 1920’s. This is just part and parcel of our obsession over skin color to the exclusion of all else.
You said: “The Klan was heavily influenced by Free Masonry, but the Klan was not at all synonymous with European Free Masonry as described above. First of all, the Klan was rabidly anti-Catholic but believed that Protestant religion was the natural religion for the United States.”
That—openly—the Klan/FM was anti-Catholic means absolutely nothing whatsoever because they use this same ploy but with different targets everywhere they subvert. This IS the nature of evil; it always hides behind good, just like the vaccines, just like the mandates, just like the lockdowns, just like using many spoons and it always succeeds by targeting a group. This is exactly what they did in Russian and against the Czars. This is exactly what they did to start the French revolution and its what’s behind the current melee.
How could they kill the Czar without first fomenting bias among the masses? Of course, the obvious target was not Catholics over there, but to highlight the opulent life styles of the aristocracy while the masses went hungry.
Do we not see the pattern here? FM has always been globalist in nature using any and all devises (e.g. the Klan) locally to overthrow Christianity, marching us all toward the new world order. BTW; FM in Russia was introduced and largely controlled from outside; but it gained enough foothold in the masses to succumb to the FM will. Separating it European from American—or Russian from American, or European from Russian– is slicing where there is no division and to miss understand their strategies of subversion and more importantly to fail to see hideous demonic powers behind it all. As the driving force behind globalism, by nature its structure is singularly globalist.
So my contention is not with the original post (very well done) and in nearly everything, we are in agreement, but often the devil—literally—is in the details. Labeling the Klan as strictly an American FM tool for subversion is to not perceive the nature of this evil, which we cannot afford to miss if we are to navigate our blessed Church and to prevail against the gates of hell that are now being open wide swallowing indiscriminately all who are deceived.
Thank you for hearing me out.
+++++++++
While this article is well made, I have to take issue with on statement.”precious few remembering that it was also Protestant supremacist.”
Blaming the KKK on Protestantism is erroneous and demonstrates a form of social bias. While the kkk members attended some Protestant church, mostly high church–Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodists, this was for them a ruse to hide behind because they all were cultic Free Masons. Now we know some Orthodox are Free Masons.
When I was a kid, a black family moved from down town Denver to the suburbs and starting attending our all while Assembly of God church. The dad had gotten a job as a pipe fitter–the first fully certified African American pipe fitter in Colorado– and needed to be close to his place of work. I took to this family because their kids were my age. In fact, I would go over to their house and spend weeks on end during the summer. I went camping with them, and sometimes to their down town all Black church where all of their extended family went. At 13 I was visiting–when they went–their down town all Black church. The only white person in the building, I never felt one sliver of discrimination. And truth be told the Black community had always had very strong church roots and many–many- music icons sang in the church choir. Go back and study the most accomplished black performers and they all grew up singing in the choir.
After graduating from high school I left home to do ministry work with Teen Challenge. There I saw there is two black Americas. The over arching difference between the crime ridden ghetto–I’ve seen them first hand–and fully accomplished, highly employed, is the presence of a father.
So, blaming the KKK on Protestantism is like saying the EP–most likely a Freemason–represents the entire Orthodox Church.
Many, many revivalists were black preachers who went to both black and white churches (William Seymour). So to reiterate. Freemasons are cultist who attend churches to give them a front, just like in Orthodoxy some are cultists.
While I am not defending Protestantism, I am pointing out an error.
No one is blaming Protestantism for the Klan. The Klan did not represent all Protestantism, any more than Baptists do or Episcopalians do. The Klan was also America First and highly patriotic, should we put Charles Lindburgh or Donald Trump in the same category as the Klan? Of course not. Any more than we can blame the Catholic Church for the IRA. That does not change the fact that the 2nd Klan was exclusively Protestant, anti-Catholic and anti-Orthodox. While the anti-Catholic activities got more attention, Greek immigrants especially were hurt badly by the Klan. Also, at the time it was not considered strange to be a Freemason and a Protestant. In many places, it is still considered acceptable. This was the 1920’s, and the vast research on the Freemasons we have at our disposal was not available then. While the RC had condemned the Freemasons, many Protestant bodies had not done so and many were thoroughly infiltrated from top to bottom. Really, not sure at all why you read this as blaming Protestantism for the Klan.
From https://aleteia.org/2015/11/09/the-klan-and-the-catholics/