Orthodox Reflections

Copyright © 2026 By Cassandra St. John, an American Orthodox Christian

Empire is the way of the world, and it is a useful frame of reference for current events. We live in the U.S. Empire, unlike any other in history. It is a militaristic, hegemonic empire hitched to a massive, greedy arms industry.

Think of “empire” as a vehicle with component parts. The U.S. Empire is what results when politicians and bureaucrats take a republican body and a capitalist motor, install a militaristic GPS, and pay people to shoot up foreign neighborhoods in the name of “freedom and democracy,” while lobbyists, talking heads, and central bankers pave the way.

It is time to put the brakes on the U.S. Empire and confiscate the keys. By that I mean: Bring home the troops, and reintegrate them into civilian life. Let’s skip the domestic police state that some informed people are predicting, however.

The U.S. should use strategies beyond militarism abroad, while protecting the homeland, enforcing its laws, and repairing its infrastructure. Keep America and its crown jewel, the Bill of Rights, intact. Ditch the empire-building, the bullying, the wars, and the school bombings.

The U.S. reportedly bombed an elementary school in Minab, Iran, with cruise missiles on the first day of its war against that country. This grotesque act killed more than 150 people, mostly children, along with some teachers and parents. For details about the diabolical “double-tap” strike and for interviews with grief-stricken family members, see this on-site report. Lord, have mercy.

But at least Raytheon’s stock is strong!

Graves are dug for the victims of the U.S. Empire’s school bombing in Minab, Iran.

File this School Bombing under both Stupid Seeding of Future Terrorism and War Crime. Commentators are comparing it to the U.S. Army’s 1968 My Lai Massacre of unarmed Vietnamese villagers and to the current genocide in Gaza, aided and abetted by the U.S. government.

I believe that most U.S. wars, including the current ones, are a stain on our nation, a long road of bones traversed by a rapacious Superpower. Edward Gibbon’s observation still holds: “The history of empires is the history of human misery.”

In the year 390, Bishop Ambrose of Milan rebuked Emperor Theodosius I and withheld Holy Communion from him, until he’d repented for ordering the massacre of 7,000 civilians at Thessalonica. Can you imagine any modern bishop holding a ruler accountable to divine law and to the Church? Me neither. “The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there,” L.P. Hartley rightly observed.

St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan (Dec. 7), pray for us!

The aggrieved Iranian parents wrote to Pope Leo to thank him for opposing the war on their country. Although I appreciate the pope’s outspokenness, neither he nor anyone else on Earth will be able to hold the managers of the U.S. Empire accountable for anything. Reportedly, the war in Iran has stopped for now, because it hit a brick wall of economic reality; however, the ceasefire is tenuous.

What will the U.S. Empire do next? It is like a hungry animal that must keep hunting to survive. During the last two-and-a-half centuries, as the heir to the British Empire’s dominance, the U.S. has spied on, conquered, plundered, and managed as much of the globe as humanly possible. Unlike empires of old, however, the U.S. Empire flies the shameful LGBT banner and commands the world’s reserve currency. It sits atop a globally integrated system reliant on its dollar, its debt, and its economy.

To summarize: You live in the Wokest and the Brokest Empire™ in history. The bigger the empire, the bigger the mess.

I hear faint grumbling. As soon as I mention “empire,” someone protests that the concept itself should not be criticized, because some aspects of the Roman Empire were admirable. Apparently, many men around the world frequently think about the Roman Empire and even romanticize it. But what do they think about the empire that we actually have, the U.S. Empire, also known as “the empire of military bases”?

When discussing “empire,” let’s not be anachronistic or obtuse.

Let’s not forget that the U.S. Empire is killing innocents.

Let’s speak up.

Let’s not be distracted by the bread and circuses.

The Roman Empire encompassed parts of Europe, North Africa, and western Asia. In 395, after decades of crises, it was finally divided into Eastern and Western halves, each with its own sphere of influence. The West fell in 476, but the East survived until 1453, when Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.