Emily Oster is an economist at Brown University and recently made headlines for her article in the Atlantic calling for a “Pandemic amnesty”.
We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.
I have been reflecting on this lack of knowledge thanks to a class I’m co-teaching at Brown University on COVID. We’ve spent several lectures reliving the first year of the pandemic, discussing the many important choices we had to make under conditions of tremendous uncertainty.
Some of these choices turned out better than others. To take an example close to my own work, there is an emerging (if not universal) consensus that schools in the U.S. were closed for too long: The health risks of in-school spread were relatively low, whereas the costs to students’ well-being and educational progress were high. The latest figures on learning loss are alarming. But in spring and summer 2020, we had only glimmers of information. Reasonable people—people who cared about children and teachers—advocated on both sides of the reopening debate.
The COVIDIAN Party Line seems to have become, “Time to move on. Well-meaning people made mistakes with the best of intentions. We were afraid, and in the dark about the truth of the disease. We hysterics did the best we could. Now we must forgive, forget, and move forward”.
The answer from all of us on Team Reality is a resounding, “NO!”
Your grandma died alone in the hospital.
Your husband was fired over a mandate.
Your teenage son has heart problems.
You lost your business.
You weren't allowed to go to church.
Your 2-year-old was forced to mask.But you wanna forget the whole thing?
NO. I will NEVER forget.
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) October 31, 2022
As Orthodox Christians, we will forgive those who were wrong. We will love them, and we will pray for them. But amnesty for their past actions without active repentance? Absolutely not.
Particularly for those who caused so much trauma within the Church herself, there is no amnesty without a public recognition of COVID sins and repentance from them. Without that, we have no confidence that everything won’t just happen again – based on the same false excuses made before. In some states, the power to repeat the worst COVID policies has even been codified into state law. Next “public health emergency”, whatever that may be (a virus, climate change, food shortages, gun violence, racism…), we could easily find ourselves once again locked down, masked up, and/or mandated into doing God knows what. We could also easily find many of our clergy, and fellow Orthodox Christians, enthusiastically going along with it all just like last time.
We need accountability. We need public apologies. We need the worst COVIDIANs removed from office – political office and church office. We need to hear the right people say, “We were wrong, never again!” Only then will even a modicum of trust be restored in the system.
From an Orthodox perspective, we need to remember how much harm COVIDIAN hierarchs, clergy, and laity really caused. Many Orthodox parishes shut down for an extended period of time. Some parishes lost as much as 40% or more of their membership as a result. Among the parishes that stayed open or re-opened during the height of the Pandemic, many reduced attendance, required masks even on toddlers, forbade the kissing of icons, cancelled weddings, cancelled funerals, cancelled baptisms, and forbade priests from caring for the elderly and dying.
There were priests and bishops (whole synods even) who not only went along with every idiotic mandate, they actively endorsed following them as obedience to God. In many parishes, “Karens” took it upon themselves to scold the non-complying. They went so far as to scour social media, and report their own priests for lapses in COVIDIAN compliance – both in Church and in their own personal lives. Their constant scolding and reporting created an atmosphere of tension and mistrust that has never fully healed.
More than a few Orthodox bishops went above and beyond what the state asked of them. They kept their parishes closed, masked, attendance restricted, and/or restricted in other ways longer than local directives required. “Out of love for our neighbor”, many Orthodox completely forgot how we were supposed to behave during a plague. Too many priests and bishops even changed how we receive communion, supposedly out of fear that the common spoon could transmit disease. The multiple spoon controversy tore parishes and jurisdictions apart. In many ways the controversy is still with us today, simmering in the background just waiting for the next “crisis” to flare up again.
Many Orthodox hierarchs and clergy still claim multiple spoons are perfectly acceptable. The problem is with the ignorant laity who don’t understand their own faith. Even if those ignorant laity happen to be MDs, RNs, medical researchers, and noted Theologians.
In this article, we talked about the real damage being done by lockdowns to the poorest members of our society. Many bishops were silent. Too many bishops were outright supportive of lockdowns, school closures, and church closures. In this article, we explored if the bishops were really afraid of COVID, or of the government. In this article we told real stories of people who had been harmed by Church COVID policies, including an RN asked to leave her parish for the “safety” of others. In this article, we talked about the perspective of Orthodox parish priests who were being bullied by their bishops over COVID policies. We talked a lot about the multiple spoons controversy, but this article is a good summation of it. This article tells of a young man who wanted a blessing before going to military training, but was afraid to approach his parish priest on a morning the entire sermon was devoted to chastising the faithful for insufficiently following COVID protocols. This article explores the marketing efforts by some bishops on behalf of the COVID jabs. Marketing by trusted “religious authority figures” seems to have been particularly effective at increasing the uptake of a dangerous, ineffective, experimental “vaccine”. In this article, we talked about how badly future conformation to government edicts could go for us Orthodox.
We should also point out the blatant hypocrisy of many hierarchs who publicly violated the very COVID protocols they so scrupulously enforced on their parishes.
COVID can infect you at the altar, but not when taking a picture.
At a time when the elderly were not being attended by clergy and funerals were cancelled, the rules didn’t apply to an Archbishop.
Perhaps the worst was the refusal of so many Orthodox bishops to support Orthodox Christians in obtaining religious exemptions from the COVID jabs. Many bishops outright instructed their flocks to get the jabs, often saying it was their Christian duty to protect others. (Even though the indications were there from the beginning that the jabs did not stop “the spread”.) These pro-jab bishops excused the links of the jabs to abortion in ways that weakened Orthodoxy’s pro-life witness. The biggest offender was the Greek Archdiocese, which publicly, clearly, and viciously declared that Orthodox Christians had no right to a religious exemption from the jabs. Thanks be to God that American law does not require agreement with your religious hierarchs to get a religious exemption from a jab.
Real Orthodox Christians with real souls sustained real and lasting harm. Even as we continue to pray for our hierarchs, clergy, and each other – we cannot let that go. Especially since some of the worst COVIDIANs are doubling down on their horrible performances. In a recent interview, this is what Archbishop Elpidophoros had to say about the vax, science, and vaccine exemptions:
Q: You have been clear from the outset on the matter of the COVID vaccination: Yes to vaccination and no to exemption on religious grounds. So do you believe that there is no contradiction between science and faith? Can the two coexist?
A: Not only is there no contradiction between faith and science, but there is absolute harmony. Science is God’s gift to humankind; it is the gift of knowledge through which each of us discovers the miracle, the wealth, and the diversity of creation. And in all of these, we discover the God, Creator Himself.
There is a wonderful phrase in Church history, according to which “faith seeks understanding.” This perception is the stark opposite of the proverbial saying “believe and do not question.” We can never claim that our faith or our knowledge is perfect. As the Apostle Paul points out, “Now we only see a reflection as in a mirror.” (1 Cor. 13:12) Consequently, we navigate our lives with reason (insofar as science is concerned) and with faith (insofar as our church life is concerned). If our motivation is the power of love, and not the love of power, then we will be able to find the necessary balance. For science cannot replace religion, but neither is religion in a position to replace science. Such an argument would have been condemned by the Church Fathers as arrogant.
After all, science and the Church are not searching for different truths. There may be a distinction, but there must be no dichotomy between the transcendent and the worldly, between heaven and earth.
Never was a man so full of himself with so little justification.
Anyone paying attention knew two years ago that TheScience™! was a slogan being used to cover up massive corruption and politicization in our public health establishment. We published dozens of articles by Orthodox RNs, MDs, and other experts all saying the same things – the jabs being pushed on the American people were poorly researched, dangerous, ineffective, and unnecessary. In the meantime, safe and effective treatments and preventions were being suppressed to create a need for massively expensive, and profitable, “vaccines”. We were not alone. Tens of thousands of courageous health care and research professionals put their careers on the line to tell the truth.
Yet, here we are at the end of 2022 and Archbishop Elpidophoros, who helped give a prestigious award to the CEO of Pfizer for his “contribution” to humanity, is still pushing the pro-jab narrative. He is not alone, either. An OCA chancellor recently was caught chastising his clergy for spreading vaccine “misinformation”. He is still a believer, evidently. There are many more just like these two within Orthodoxy.
It is not enough to be silent about the COVID mistakes of the past. It is not enough to pretend it didn’t happen so we can “move on”. It is definitely not acceptable to keep pretending that you were somehow “right” in supporting Orthodox COVIDism. From the lowly parish Karens to the exalted ranks of the Episcopacy – all of you must publicly repent and promise to do better. If you can’t, or won’t, then go with God. We love you. We pray for you. But regardless of who you are, we will never trust you again.
—Orthodox Reflections Staff
Below are some articles on how we would have liked to see our bishops and clergy face the Pandemic:
Apostolic Boldness from Abbot Tryphon: God Arranges Everything for Our Salvation
Faith Over Fear – Apostolic Boldness in the Age of COVID
Orthodox Christian COVID Heroes
Bishop Irenei – The Church Will Never Alter Her Beliefs or Practices Out of Fear
Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou Defends Orthodoxy Against Covid Restrictions
St. Dionysius’ Paschal Encyclical – Orthodox Faith in Time of Plague
Let No One Fear Death: Orthodox Christian Leaders Respond to the Covid-19 Challenge
Bold Orthodox Leadership is Necessary to Avoid the COVID Backlash
When Jesus said it would be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgement, what did He mean? How on earth could any place on earth be more wicked than Sodom? What was it about the generation of the Pharisees that drew such condemnation from our Lord?
To fathom what our Lord was saying, let’s lay some ground work, bringing some perspective regarding leadership.
King Saul and King David were set in history for our learning. In the comparison, we find many answers regarding what is acceptable in leadership and what constitutes the highway to hell. While King Saul started from humble beginnings, was even filled with the Holy Spirit, yet in the end he was totally rejected. But why?
Saul had one wife, David had many. Saul had good kids—Jonathon was David’s best friend; David brought us Absalom. Not only did David commit adultery, he committed murder as well. While this sin cost him the privilege of building God’s house—because his sin made him into a man of war (only a man of peace can build God’s house), God’s covenant –and the execution of the Everlasting Covenant—was with David. Jesus defines Himself as the “Son of David” not the son of Saul.
Keep in mind, as a leader; Saul appeared to have it all, head and shoulders above the rest, while David had many shortfalls. If we were to place the “goodness” of Saul on the balance scale, it would seem his good deeds would outweigh the bad. As for David, it would seem quite the reverse. But God saw things differently.
What single weight abruptly brought the balance down—something Sodom was incapable of—for the religious elites of Jesus’ day? What is that sin with such gravitas it overthrow so many good things like we see in Saul—but not in David?
That sin is the lust for, the grasping of, and the intoxication with POWER.
Power is a drug in any context, but religious power all the more deceiving, all the more hideous. Even to the clergy himself, because it is all couched in good things of the Church he himself is unable to escape the delusion.
Thinking of Saul—and some Orthodox hierarchs—when it seemed he was losing control of things, he consulted witchcraft, becoming involved in the occult. At times he was tormented by demons. He destroyed the “good” priests who he felt “betrayed him.” What abundant narcissism? Yeah, we have hierarchs doing all these things and it points in one direction—intoxication with power to the point of cutting deals with the devil to keep the power train rolling.
Among our clergy we have Sons of David and we have Sons of Saul. One is a good shepherd, the other is a donkey driver (see Saul’s beginnings). One treats the sheep with compassion rightly discerning Christ in them, the other treats the faithful like a bunch of dumb as—s. One will fend off the predator, the other becomes the predator.
Why will it be more tolerable for Sodom than for some of our hierarchs (even though some are already in Sodom), in the day of judgement. To come under Sodom’s spell, one had to go there—like Lot’s wife, some never make it out. But to come under the spell of Bishop Saul, Metropolitan Saul, one only needs to go to Church and follow along with the way things are going.
The evil of the Pharisees—offspring of Satan— was much more deplorable because it wore vestments and stood in the courtyard of the faithful rather than the back alleys of Sodom. Many innocent people are being deceived.
Bottom line: if the boys in drag show up at your child’s school, you can always home school, but when King Saul is running the Church into the ground, it’s hard to find another church and because so many have the deep roots leaving is not an option. Yeah, this is more deplorable than Sodom. The words of our Lord make perfect sense.
Understanding covenant puts all things in perspective. Here is what I mean.
Which rite do you prefer? Is it the Slavonic Rite or the Scottish rite? The Slavonic Rite is an Orthodox Rite and the Scottish rite is of Free Masonry. Both are covenant systems having blood elements, signs, seals, hierarchy, oaths, initiations, and covenant renewals. Many Protestants think Catholic and Orthodox to be pagan because they see the rituals like in devil worship. Because they lack understanding of covenant being expressed by ritual, their Christianity is more academic and the sermon is central. Because Protestants are covenant and rite ignorant, there are some sins they are incapable of committing. Not so with the Orthodox.
C. S. Lewis spoke of this very thing that ark angels make more powerful demons (The Great Divorce). The ranks of both angels and demons are baked into their constitution. Man is unique because he was made to transcend even to be judge of angels. As for the Holy Mother of God, she shot to the top higher than cherubim and seraphim (top angels).
Those people who are more attuned to rites as portals (e.g. Jacob’s ladder) to either heaven or hell—those raised in liturgical churches—the more appetite they would have for the occult. No way does the occult resemble “free worship” but only covenant ritual, because that is where the power is, either way.
Because it all runs by covenant, not knowing covenant vernacular is worse than signing a contract without reading the fine print— or any of the print. Do you really trust that salesman to tell you what your signature binds you to? It makes no difference what he tells you, it’s what’s in the contract that matters, period, full stop.
The occult is like (rather, IS) a very bad (consumer) loan contract (e.g. borrowing to buy a big screen to see the super bowl) too long and too confusing to read all the fine print (“just get the damn shot!!” they said). While getting the upfront of cash, gratification, convenience-ing the expectations of loved ones, revenge, fame and fortune is so pleasurable, there will be hell to pay, and the cost for most will be eternal—it all was done by covenant terms you agreed to.
The problem is, the occult Orthodox clergy keep their position in the Church and become vassal-rulers of darkness. For years, they will look flawless in their execution of everything—indeed folk may even profit from this external normalcy—, until the overlords call for other things to become the agenda of the Church. One day we wake up—those of us who wake up— in the morning and our church is overthrown.
God made Man to be His vassal-king to rule on His behalf and in the end put an end to Lucifer whose fall was previous. Not only did Adam fail to porter access to his garden and wife—he was commanded in the covenant to “guard and keep it”—against evil, he became Satan’s vassal-king.
Throwing Adam out of the Garden was not because God no longer love him, but because God could no longer trust him; because God could not trust Adam, it was God’s love to throw him out. Love and trust are two totally different things, but inseparably linked.
Interestingly, God gave the authority to Man over everything that slithers (not upright/transparent/in equilibrium—just a predator). Slither defines how they conduct their business—a crook in every move they make: nothing for them is ever in total honesty, they always have many secrets, closing their hearts to God’s grace and other people’s love.
Because the fall was one conspiracy after another, the world is conspiracy within a conspiracy, within a conspiracy.
While Adam failed in the dominion mandate in the creation covenant, Christ finished the job but is allowing us time to get a few licks in. Are you in the arena yet?
We can learn a lot about covenant from ancient Suserain Treaties. If one king wanted to conquer another, he would first offer the lesser ruler opportunity to submit without incident. Obviously, this worked best with a big army to back it up. Submission was always billed as a win-win (with strings of course). The overlord get to keep the new tax base, and the underlord got to stay alive, maybe even keep his throne.
Rome operated on this principle. Herod was Jewish, he build a temple, and tried to work things favorable to the Jews. If Herod were not Jewish, the Baptist would have been a bit out of line in calling out his sin (he should know better). While being “king of the Jews” (only a part of Rome) he was absolutely beholden to Augustus. Bottom line: Herod was on a leash. He could do a lot of things within the measure of rule given him. If fact, it was expected of him to do so; perhaps the motivation for building a Jewish temple. If he ever got crossways with Augustus, his days would be numbered in single digits; but for the most part Herod was given a long leash.
I explained all that, to say this: before COVID, we were just rolling along so nicely. Our parish was planting a new parish (not so much now). Our liturgies were spot on; true to the truncated Chrysostom version always used. Our parishes were functioning as they had been for many generations. Then all of a sudden BOOM—out of the clear blue: parishes closed, masks mandated, shots encouraged or required, multiple spoons, even infomercials without pay (can anybody rationally explain this?), the unjustified persecution of priests who refused to channel Hitler’s SS etc, etc.
What happened?? What the hades is going on here? There is only one explanation. All of these clergy are vassal-kings of somebody outside the Church. By definition, the Church has become tax paying citizens of the globalist economy. Paying taxes how? By advertising their shots, and toe-ing the line they set.
Just like Herod, their assignment is to run things as “normal” as possible until everyone is settled in, cozy in life, and just at ease living as they wish, then suddenly, the changes are so swift and harsh many are traumatized throwing them off their groove. This shock and jerking is for a purpose.
For a person, a group, or even a nation, a major trauma becomes a wound/womb/portal because it is a rip in the personality, in some cases a rip in the fabric of creation. When you are traumatized emotionally, a gate is opened and depending on how you handle that by gatekeeping the heart will determine whether a demon or God’s grace (even an angel) steps through that wound into your life. In a trauma, you will either get bitter (evil steps in), or better (God’s grace abounds). Your trauma can be either a gateway to heaven or gateway to hell, depending upon whether or not you learn the art of forgiveness.
The scar is always caused by the tension after the injury (plastic surgeons know this) creating a distorted healing. The cure for an emotional trauma: learning to embrace the enemy especially when it’s your own pain (releasing the tension for healing). This grants passage to the other side without a scar (or much of one). Without God’s grace, this is impossible. Crying out to God, the cross is thrown in and the bitter water is made sweet ( in Exodus).
By court order, the Vsafe vaccine database (which contains the CDC’s own data sets) has released its data about the Covid poison death-shots, confirming the industrial-scale death, disability, and injury they have caused, brought to you by the U.S. government, Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, and their accomplices in the media, medicine, business, and churches (here is looking at you, complicit Orthodox clergy!).
See the summary and video here: https://stateofthenation.co/?p=144484
Its a confidence trick. Dr Wolfgang Wodarg said, The governments have sealed contracts with vaccine makers where they secure orders in advance. They wait until the WHO say Pandemic and activate the contracts. To further push their people in the cogs of the who. Their influence can soften the definition of pandemic. Seems to me they put their trickers in many churches. They have squandered tight health budgets and put people at risk of side effects and deaths.Our chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said their were going to be 650,000 deaths from the Swine flu and their were 250. Seems from their history they seem to get more worse. The thief comes to steal kill and destroy.
When Jesus said, “it will be more tolerable for Sodom….” here is what that means (oh, clergyman).
Everytime you are afforded an opportunity to walk it back, come clean, make amends, that you refuse, it just goes around the table again (for now): the ante is upped, the stakes get higher, repentance becomes all the more costly, the mouth of hell all the more open. Correcting things in the first week would have been easy; now not so much, but it will only get harder. Going to the grave without squaring up with the Church across time and geography by admitting gross error now, will not let you rest in peace.
When you give Satan a deed of trust (the shot), don’t be suprised when he shows up insisting on moving in.
Michael Walsh, author of The Fiery Angel, writing about the pandemic in The Epoch Times Wednesday, April 5/6, 2021:
“Most disgracefully of all, at a time when most people could have used spiritual solace, we closed our churches – and the clergy obeyed without objection. For this, every single prelate, priest, rabbi, bishop or cardinal who meekly obeyed secular ‘authority’ ought to be publicly shamed, stripped of his clerical garb and never be allowed to attend to souls again”.
We had and will have slim chances to meet Elipidophoros or other Pro-Vaccine hierarchy but, we met our own families, other parishioners, as well as some assumed friends. They behaved as bad or worse than the hierarchy we expect to be saints-like.
For me, coming out of a Communist country, in mid 80’s, when the system was still in power, the behavior of many during the “pandemic”, reminded me of those past times. We could not trust anybody because, the human nature is weak under a tremendous legal pressure.
However, the most important thing is how mentally and morally prepared we will be, if another “apocalyptic-spontaneous pandemic” would be spreading around. If we consider the “Digital ID” and “Digital currency,” for which the government has already passed the laws, we would have nothing left other than to pray for us and anyone around.There will be a lot, a lot, of suffering. When that reality is going to be upon all of us, we will be tested if we are truly merciful, know how to mourn, and accept to be persecuted for the true faith.
This is a great summary of what we all have been saying.
The issue is not forgiveness, we forgive them all; the issue is trust; we must never confuse the two. They have broken trust and we cannot trust them because they are either totally incompetent or malefactors. Either way, without public repentance, just means given the opportunity, we’ll get more of the same.
Unfortunately, they cannot walk this back; the train wreck of injuries will continue. Admitting culpability opens for litigation for injuries. Additionally, their hubris will not let them publicly admit a lapse of good judgement.
The credibility gap for hierarchy is growing. While it used to be great joy when the bishop comes to town, now its a great day to go fishing, skiing, how about golf? Of course, not every bishop was that stupid, but the reputation of all suffers for the ignorance of some. And of course, in reality, it is the pilot who flies the plane, not the guy in the tower. Many priests are to be commended for just holding things together while their hierarchs seemed hell bend on wrecking it.
Families are the backbone of the Church. Anytime, it becomes not family friendly, that’s really becomes bad business. Without children, there is no future but only judgment.
While Jesus said to turn the other cheek, at some point you must just take your face out of harms way.
What an atrocious position to act as though in hindsight you were somehow on a moral high road not to heed opinions of doctors and scientists. We all did do the best we could to balance reasonable considerations. Don’t forget about the log in your own eye. Focus on your own repentance.
This response needs some clarification. Are you responding to John Lee or it is a general statement for everyone?
No moral high ground, some of us were just better educated and could see through the crap we were being put through. If anything it was people like you who never questioned anything that got us in the mess we are in today, and have no humility about being wrong. We were the ones who were ostracized and thought of as fools. SO much damage to the health of the people, can we get that back?? Unfortunately many of our loved ones are DEAD or physically damaged because of the “advice” they were paid to give!
It is always a good idea to focus on repentance. We all need it. But in this case, this is not hindsight. The contributors to this blog, and many commentators as well, were right about all of this from the beginning. We have published hundreds of articles since June 2020 about the irrationality of the COVID narrative. We even sponsored a Webinar with an MD, a lawyer, a Theologian, and a public policy expert about the entire situation (including the jabs).
https://rumble.com/vsaya9-the-journey-through-pandemia-where-are-we-now-how-close-are-we-to-getting-o.html
We are not new to this issue. In this very piece, anticipating someone posting just this kind of comment, we included links to just a few articles contributed by, in some cases, RNs, MDs, medical researchers, public policy experts, statisticians, lawyers, and in all cases featuring quotes, links, etc. to the best scientific and policy information available. Reprinting it below:
We do accept that some people were legitly blinkered or simply too accepting of authority. On the other hand, anyone with any sense could have seen immediately through this narrative. We did. Tens of thousands of scientists and Health Care Workers did. It was not “rocket surgery” as they say. Many people were willfully blind. Many others simply have proven themselves to be incapable of logical thought. Many leaders have proven too craven, too lacking in discernment, too corrupt to be allowed to continue in authority without massive, public, groveling, repentance.
We really wish this article had been more popular. There were many groups in society who seized upon the pandemic for their own reasons. They did not necessarily coordinate, and they did not all have the same motivations. But like Baptists and bootleggers working together to restrict legal booze (different reasons, same policy), the net effect of all these groups cooperating was the complete nightmare called the “Pandemic”. If we are to be wise going forward, we need to recognize that often we are not dealing with a “conspiracy” but rather a “coalition”, the members of which agree on what they want to do, just not why they want to do it.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/covid-baptists-bootleggers-and-orthodox-bishops/
An ad hominem argument if ever there was one. I am a physician and GOA parishioner. I was on the moral high ground, if you will, not by way of boasting but by way of being abandoned there by arrogant, scientists, physicians, professional societies, and medical administrators and bureaucratic toadies who could have recognized what was going on by Day Two had they read the existent and emerging literature with an open mind. We were abandoned there by people who called us deniers and killers and who demanded we toe Leviathan’s line or else. We don’t claim moral superiority by any means in this mess except by attentiveness, discernment, grace, and default. Don’t lecture me about the log in my eye. I’m well aware of it and it doesn’t read “covid”.
To be clear, my beef has never been with doctors or health practitioners, but, rather Orthodox clergy. Of them I have a higher expectation in that at their ordination, through the laying on of hands, a “special grace” is imparted bringing supernatural wisdom to bear in order to guide and guard the flock even when the true nature of things is obscured. Even simple common sense would have said to wait until more is known. Their actions revealed a total void of discernment forcing me to suspect a much larger decay. And, oh boy, look what the cat dragged in. Now, more and more, the true nature of things is being laid bare for all to see.
As one who spent 20 years tutoring (owned an insurance agency) clients how to avoid liability, culpability, and being sued, the initial actions of our hierarchs would have been contrary to their lawyer’s and insurance agent’s advice. In essence; they took the whole liability (legally and morally) regarding the shots—something they had no hand in creating— squarely on themselves and the Church (in the business world, this is beyond stupid, this is self-destruction). As I watched it all go down, all I could think was, what a bunch of amateurs; how could they stand as a surety bond for things totally out of their control???? In my line of business these types of unforced errors would have meant being fired on the spot and losing my license. In my appointment with a broker/dealer to sell securities, it would have meant jail time and fines in the hundreds of thousands.
In essence: our clergy—thus the Church as a whole—vouched for the safety of the shots as a stock broker guaranteeing a stock to profit (even worse, because health trumps treasure). In my world, you do this, you do hard time and we had bishops stumbling over each other to drive the agenda. As for St Tihkon sponsoring infomercials, it is tantamount to selling Luciferian cult amulets—things used in the demonic version of liturgy— in the narthex. Talk about bringing strange fire… To not see this, how morally bankrupt must they be?? The only sensible thing to do is retrace the error in front of all, apologize to everyone, and offer a resignation. Without that, it is just doubling down on apostasy.
Obviously, not all clergy abandoned their trust of guarding the flock; rarely are they mentioned. Your piety will always be your protection. Yet, if the error of some is not pointed out, others may join them; the lines must be clearly drawn for the next go around. We will need honest and clean clergy to rebuild after it all gets cut to the ground.
Here’s a similar article from a while back:
https://www.monomakhos.com/will-there-be-repentance/
I went to a Patriachal church during this mess. Didn’t go back to OCA until they lifted all their protocols. During that time Greeks, Carpatho Russians and some Antiochians came to the Patriarcha church because it had NO protocols. Lo and behold the above mentioned jurisdictional people till this day never went back to their parishes but stayed in the Pariarchal parish. One mans lost is another mans gain.
Amen and amen.
I was a GOA parish council member throughout the Covidian scare. Elpidophoros was the worst of the episcopal offenders. He ought to apologize and resign. Let him return to Istanbul and be quiet.
He was bad, indeed, but not the only one.
Excellent essay! #NeverForget