God Save the King!

In the past week, Nicholas took a car service from the airport after a business trip. During the ride, he struck up a conversation with the young, friendly African-American driver. The young man has a wife and multiple children to support. He told Nicholas that he was practically living in his car, sometimes spending as much as 20 hours a day trying to earn enough just to support his family. He felt like rising living expenses, soaring rent, and his onerous self-employment taxes were “ripping him to shreds”. He was in the process of dusting off his resume. He hoped that some tech certifications and prior industry experience might land him a job paying enough to keep covering the bills, while allowing him to spend more than a few hours a week with his wife and kids.

Meanwhile his “democratically elected” government continues to import millions of poor people to strain social services, print untold billions of dollars for boondoggle projects like “Green Energy” and “Defense” to enrich favored industries, send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, and in general just keeps doing all kinds of things that make a working man’s life harder than it should be. “Democracy” is a scam.

Neoliberals (see here for a definition) demand all their favored governments maintain a veneer of democratic legitimacy through regularly held elections and pro-democracy rhetoric. Why? Because Neoliberals understand that you can economically rape a populace to death if you can only convince them that they asked for it. “Well, gee this sucks! But we voted for concentrating all our wealth in the hands of a small group of hyperconnected plutocrats, so better suck it up! Besides, we can just vote the bums out, right? Time to go to my third job so I can earn enough to buy groceries.”

Americans often criticize monarchies because of the supposed power of the King or Queen. All the while, they fail to understand that, historically, the power of kings is quite limited compared to that wielded by a “Democracy”. The citizens of a monarchy are jealous and suspicious of the king. They begrudge him their taxes, their sons for military service in his wars, and his power over their lives. A king that pushes too far into debt, fights unpopular wars, levies too high taxes, and/or enacts overly burdensome societal regulations will eventually find his head on a pike and his dynasty a quaint, historical footnote. The idea of a “totalitarian” monarchy is almost impossible to imagine.

But a Democracy? Well, that is where the real power is. The people actually identify with the government because it is “theirs”. The citizens are thus willing to bear the most outrageous hardships in the name of the “common good”. Millions of citizens will willingly follow, and defend, an Oligarchic enterprise that seeks nothing but to profit from their suffering. The common man in a “Democratic” system will consent to live in a prison, as long as he gets the chance to vote for the warden of his choice. It is the most successful fraud in history.

Before you read Fr. Geoffrey’s insightful article below on monarchy, we’d like to provide a few additional insights into the nature of monarchy and “Democracy” for you to consider:

  • Monarchs take a long view of history. They not only want their kingdoms to thrive in their own lifetimes, but they want to pass on those kingdoms to their offspring. Indefinitely if possible. Elected representatives, as has been shown repeatedly by practical experience, think very short term, and mostly about their own personal gain. They will be in office for an unpredictable timeframe, so most make lots of hay while the sun shines. Congressmen trade stocks on the basis of insider information gained in their official duties. Family of Congressmen (and Vice Presidents) form lobbying groups to pocket “fees” for “representing” special interests, sit on boards, and game the system a thousand other ways. The “big guys” always seem to get their cut. Government regulators pocket money directly from industry while still in their regulatory roles. After leaving government service, they end up in high-ranking positions with the very private corporations they were once in charge of “regulating”. Politicians leave office and likewise migrate to industry without so much as a decent interval to even pretend things are on the up-and-up. Generals retire, then go to work for Defense contractors whose weapons systems they were once in charge of procuring. The whole system is so soaked in corruption that no one bothers thinking about the future of the country they are robbing blind. No monarch with real power and authority would, or even could, ever preside over the accumulation of $31 trillion dollars in debt. Only a system with “democratic legitimacy” could so thoroughly bankrupt a nation without triggering a revolution.
  • Monarchy is not incompatible with civil and economic liberties. As Americans, we are encultured to associate the words “freedom” and “Democracy”. As we have hopefully shown, these two concepts are actually in opposition to each other. Freedom is frequently curtailed through democratic means in ways that monarchs could never emulate. If nothing else, the recent COVID lockdowns, mask mandates, mandatory jabs, censorship, travel restrictions, and ruinous sanctions should have proven this to any thinking person’s satisfaction. Personal identification with government policy through electoral support turned half the population into “Karens” willing to imprison people in their own homes. The situation in Europe is another example of “Democracy” trampling the freedoms and economic well-being of citizens. NATO governments know that their Climate Change polices and Russian sanctions are weakening their own nations and hurting their own people. Yet they persist in doing so, despite the very clear will of the voters not to starve, not to freeze to death, and not to be reduced to penury by sky-high energy costs. “Democratically” elected governments could not care less about the hardships of the people they are supposed to represent. A king would think better of such policies, unless he wished to meet an angry mob at his door. It is much easier to focus your discontent on one man, than it is on an entire “system” of millions of interconnected political and bureaucratic cogs.
  • Even the most optimistic political thinkers cannot envision any way that the corrupt, sclerotic, compromised Western societies can reform themselves. The power to change course is not within the system. We will simply all drift along, things getting worse, until the system implodes. What happens then is anyone’s guess, but hard times lay ahead.
  • Orthodox Christianity does not inherently lend itself to support for “Democracy”. That will seem like borderline heresy to many, but it is the truth. Progressive “Orthodox” academics have labored mightily to imbue “Democracy” with religious significance, while simultaneously being unfairly critical of the historic realities of Orthodox monarchies. An example is here from the Greek Archdiocese FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church:

    In many countries in the world today, civil order, freedom, human rights, and democracy are realities in which citizens may trust; and, to a very real degree, these societies accord persons the fundamental dignity of the liberty to seek and pursue the good ends they desire for themselves, their families, and their communities. This is a very rare blessing indeed, viewed in relation to the entire course of human history, and it would be irrational and uncharitable of Christians not to feel a genuine gratitude for the special democratic genius of the modern age.  Orthodox Christians who enjoy the great advantages of living in such countries should not take such values for granted, but should instead actively support them, and work for the preservation and extension of democratic institutions and customs within the legal, cultural, and economic frameworks of their respective societies. It is something of a dangerous temptation among Orthodox Christians to surrender to a debilitating and in many respects fantastical nostalgia for some long-vanished golden era, and to imagine that it constituted something like the sole ideal Orthodox polity. This can become an especially pernicious kind of false piety, one that mistakes the transient political forms of the Orthodox past, such as the Byzantine Empire, for the essence of the Church of the Apostles. The special advantages of the Church under Christian rule may have allowed for the gestation and formation of a distinct Orthodox ethos within the political spaces inhabited by Orthodox Christians, but they also had the unfortunate additional effect of binding the Church to certain crippling limitations.

    For astute readers, it is clear that such efforts are merely the attempt by well-paid academics to turn Orthodoxy into a religious support system for Neoliberal globalism. A reasonably good monarch is going to be concerned with preserving the cultural, religious, and economic legacies of the unique people(s) over which he reigns. “Democratic” institutions typically have no such concerns, which is why Globalists favor the pretense of popular sovereignty over true monarchies. Helping Globalists transform our world into a transnational nightmare is not a role fit for the Orthodox Church.

The sentiments expressed above, and those expressed below by Fr. Geoffrey, may be particularly troubling for Americans as steeped as we are in the lore of representative government. We are in no danger of having a monarchical system any time soon. Be that as it may, any reasonable person should see that our current system cannot stand forever. Even the hyper-Neoliberal New York Times openly laments that the endemic corruption of our political order threatens its “legitimacy” and encourages Americans to choose “non-democratic alternatives”. With what shall we replace our current swamp when its continuation finally becomes untenable? Whatever comes next will never be perfect, as perfection is not attainable in this world. But could we not at least strive for a system that does not collapse into rapacious Oligarchy within a scant few decades of its founding?

—OR Staff


God Save the King!

A few days ago, crowds gathered in sorrow around the front gates of Buckingham Palace in London. The waited, and they watched.

Finally, the flag on the palace was lowered, and they knew Her Majesty the Queen had died.

Spontaneously, the crowd broke into song.

They sang, “God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen!”

Most people recognize this as the national anthem of Great Britain.

It is, of course, also Canada’s second national anthem, although many have forgotten it.

But the phrase “God save the Queen” – or now “God save the King”, does not come from a song.

In six places in Holy Scripture, we find the words, “God save the King”.  Two are most famous.

The first occurs in 1 Samuel (1 Sam 10:24), where we read, “Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen (referring to King Saul), that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.”

The second occurs in 1 Kings (1 Kings 1:39), where we read, “Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon.”

George Frideric Handel wrote his famous anthem for coronations, based on this verse. We’ll hear it played again in a few weeks, for the first time in seventy years.

The Orthodox Church – from the time of the Old Testament, straight through the days of the early Church to the twentieth century – is filled with kings and queens who are saints and even martyrs for Christ.

These are examples of holiness and self-sacrifice.

We have famous examples, like Saint Constantine the Great, who not only Christianized the Roman Empire, and made Christianity legal, but convened the First Ecumenical Council which defended Orthodoxy against the heresy of Arianism.

Or the Empress Theodora, who after nearly two centuries of the destruction of holy icons throughout the Byzantine Empire, courageously restored them to the churches under her rule, despite fierce opposition.

Or the passion-bearer Tsar Nicholas II, who faced the assaults of the atheistic Bolsheviks, and with his family were led to the slaughter, trusting in Christ, and praying for their captors.

Orthodox Christians who deeply understand their faith also understand why monarchy has throughout time been an instrument of God to sanctify the fallen world.

Monarchs are not chosen by men – they are only accountable to God.

If they fulfil their calling, their reward is very great, and if they fail in their calling, their punishment is very severe.

Christian kings and queens usually do not achieve their positions – or keep them – because of buying off public opinion. They are not voted in, or voted out. The passions of mankind affect them as individuals, but it is the hand of God – not political ambition or an election campaign – which puts them in their place of rule.

A wonderful book, Pious Kings and Right-Believing Queens, compiles the lives of hundreds of such saints – all of them kings and queens. Many of these saints are martyrs for Christ.

One can hardly imagine a book about saints entitled Pious Presidents and Right-Believing Prime Ministers – of course, there is no such book!

We do not have to look very far to find examples of leadership based on ambition, and the kind of results ambition brings to the world.

The Holy Gospel presents us with a stark contrast to these righteous kings and queens, in the person of King Herod.

Of course, this Herod was not a real king – he was a political appointee, by the Romans. He was a fake king.

Saint John Chrysostom contrasts him with the moral purity, the moral excellence of Saint John the Baptist. This is the reason John the Baptist bothered him so much – because he spoke the truth about Herod’s sinful life, and his marital immorality.

The Venerable Bede tells us John the Baptist was righteous because of his truth-telling: Herod was not. He lived by lies. He married the wife of his dead brother, and then, while trying to impress his friends on his birthday, he made a very stupid promise to the daughter of his new wife.

It was this promise which eventually led him to murder Saint John the Baptist.

Brothers and sisters: righteous people are not manipulated by the opinions of their friends.

Righteous people speak the truth.

Saint John Chrysostom tells us we all – as Christians – actually owe that to people who are living sinfully. We owe it to people to tell them the truth.

One is reminded of our late Queen’s televised Christmas messages each year, in which she always spoke about the birth of Christ.

Who else would do that? Would some elected political leader do that?

Even as the head of a heterodox church, she spoke the truth, and lived righteously – and was on her knees in prayer for her nations and her family every night – literally, I might add.

You can be sure Herod was not doing that.

Righteous kings and queens – the saintly ones – are given to us as icons, here on earth, as heads of nations, to show us grace, and holiness, and righteousness, incarnate within our very governments.

For Orthodox Christians, this is not a philosophical concept, because we recognize that Christ sanctified all creation – including governments – by His incarnation in the flesh.

Any Orthodox Christian who truly understands the Orthodox faith and the teachings of the Church Fathers will also have learned this – or at least, will not reject this when they hear it.

Dear brothers and sisters, as we give thanks for the blessings of seven decades of rule of a righteous Queen of our own country, let us recall the hundreds of kings and queens whom God has raised up as saints of the Orthodox Church: true icons of holiness who are praying for us before the throne of God, in the Eternal Kingdom.

– Archpriest Geoffrey Korz

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