Nicholas, the executive editor for Orthodox Reflections, joined the Dissident Mama podcast to discuss the state of Orthodoxy in America, Orthodoxy’s import for the world (religiously and otherwise), the CIA and Constantinople, persecution here and abroad, and the weaponization of insanity.
Download this podcast, watch on Odysee or YouTube, or listen at the Dissident Mama site
Here is a little bit about Dissident Mama from her “About” page:
Truth warrior, Jesus follower, wife, boy mom, lifelong learner, co-founder of the Philip Ludwell III Orthodox Fellowship, and contributor to “The Honorable Cause: A Free South — Twelve Southern Essays.” Apologetics practitioner for Orthodox Christianity, the Southern tradition, homeschooling, and freedom. Virginian by birth, Carolinian by choice, recovering feminist-socialist-atheist, graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and retired mainstream journalist turned domesticated belle and rabble-rousing rhetorician.
I’m “Rebecca Dillingham” to most folks in my day-to-day life, “Mom” to my sons, “Darlin’” to my husband, “Becky” to my parents, “Beck-Nut” to my nieces and nephews, and “Ilia” (my patron saint name) to my fellow Orthodox. But here, I’m a dissident mama who’s adept at triggering leftists, Yankees, neocons, and globohomers, so I’m going to bang as loudly as I can.
Dissident Mama co-founded The Philip Ludwell III Orthodox Fellowship which is having its first conference this year in September 2023! Already announced speakers include Dr. Donald Livingston, Dr. Clark Carlton, Fr. John Whiteford, Fr. Mark Mancuso, Richard T. Hines, and George Michalopulos. To get more information and register, visit the conference page.
Some Orthodox Reflections essays mentioned in podcast:
• Americanism vs Christianity
• Good News from the Covid Lockdown?
• 8 Lies Told by Enemies of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
• The Persecution of Roman Catholic Bishop Strickland is a Warning to the Orthodox
• How Will the Martyrdom of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Impact the World?
• 3 Harmful Myths Most Christians Believe About Judaism
• Central Bank Digital Currency is the End of Freedom
• American Holidays & Orthodox Evangelism
A few other works relevant to the conversation:
• The Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship and the upcoming Inaugural Conference
• Dissident Mama, episode 73 – Archimandrite Filaret Voloshyn
• “The Honorable Cause: A Free South—Twelve Southern Essays“
• Piety-signaling priests play with fire, part 1 and part 2
• Communist Coup In Charlottesville: Invictus Arrested For Tiki Torch Parade
What a wonderful, even joyous, discussion!
Nicholas, at approximately 38:28, you referred to a lecture presented by a Greek academic on the topic of enculturation. Is the text (or recording) of that paper available? I would love to read it. Would you please provide a link with the name of the author and title — or perhaps obtain permission to post it on Orthodox Reflections?
Many thanks!
So Nicholas heard him give this lecture at a festival of books. The priest’s name is Fr. Emmanuel Clapsis and the lecture was from his book Orthodox in Conversation, specifically the chapter on Gospel and Cultures: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective. The book is available:
https://holycrossbookstore.com/products/orthodoxy-in-conversation
Nicholas used a quote from that book in an article:
Father Emmanuel Clapsis explained it this way in his book Orthodoxy in Conversation:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/does-the-orthodox-church-love-american-culture-enough-to-transform-it/
Great, thanks very much!
A very good discussion with Dissident Mama, who is new to me. I’m a regular reader of Orthodox Reflections since the start.
What you two talked about echo many recent experiences I’ve had with my parish priest. (Still using 2 spoons.) I believe he considers me a “Rad Trad” which he definitely is not and doesn’t appreciate my “sources” of information. His verbal aggressiveness toward me has increased of late, as has my “push back,” standing firm and restating his words so he “hears” himself – all done with respect towards his priesthood. It’s hard. Very hard.
Thank you for the “fresh water” and knowing that there are more of us who think alike that appears at first glance.
It is with a full heart of rejoicing, I listened to your interview with Dissident Mamma. When I think nothing will remain after the sifting (Hello, St Peter or will it be Judas), I am reminded of you and that there will be a remnant, there is a remnant, and—to the revulsion of our interlocutors—the scale is tipping. Coalescing agreement among the tribes, a common mind has emerged: Yes, we have a problem, “Stop lying to us”—“Behold all ye bishops, God is with us” If you know what is good for you, stop poking Him in the eyeball,[1] when the Father puts His food down, you will be under our feet).
Remarkably, I listened to the whole thing, which for me says something. Raised on hell-evision, my attention span often evaporates after 10 minutes—the time between commercials in the afternoon sitcoms of Gilligan’s Island, F-Troop, and Hogan’s Heroes every day after school. Yes, hell-avision was always a brain-train mechanism with hypnotic power, including the 60HZ hypnotic frequency of any screen’s cycling rate, that sucks you in, and numbs your mind—which mysteriously matches our power grid (me conspiracy theorists?, never!). Calling all mommies: ween your babies off the screen, it’s a potent pacifier laced with a powerful hallucinogen. Demons dwell in the imagination, if unchecked.
When God needed an axe, to cleave the root (a la the Baptist) of the issues, He laid His hands on you. Do you hear what I hear? Chop-chop! “CUT DOWN THE TREE” SAID THE WATCHER.[2] Stumps, stumps, stumps, behold a forest of stumps. All the Nebuchadnezzars, cut down to size. No longer do they block our view of the world as it is, discerning friend from foe, and the goal of ever forward and upward of God’s people; eyes fixed on the prize of our collective high calling of bringing backward something of the eschaton—the Kingdom and Its King, within everyman.
Now even a small dog can rip back the curtain revealing the powerless little men clutching with white knuckles the levers, twisting the dials, speaking boastfully, NEVER Ever adding anything substantive to anybody’s life, rather sucking life out of whatever they touch.
Nick, we stand with you in prayer and with the all-powerful agreement; “yea, and amen!” Do I sense “the spirit of slap?” Must be the name.
[1] Psalms 16 (17): 8
[2] Daniel 4:13