Orthodox Reflections

By Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

Many Americans are sick of the status quo in this country. The real economy is a wreck. U.S. employers announced 150,000+ job cuts in October, the highest number since 2003. Estimates are that if unemployment were counted in a logical fashion, the real rate in the economy exceeds 20%. About 58% of recent Gen Z graduates are still looking for full-time work. Real wages, as measured against cost of living, have declined for most of those lucky enough to have jobs. Between 1979 and 2023, the top 1% of earners saw wages grow by 182%, while the bottom 90% saw growth of only 44%. From 1978 to 2024, CEO pay increased by 1,094%, while typical worker pay only grew by 26% during the same period. The share of aggregate income held by the middle class has fallen significantly since 1970, while the share held by upper-income households has increased. The top 1% of households make more than six times the total income of the bottom fifth.

Average people are increasingly relying on credit cards to just survive and pay for the basics of life, which has driven that debt to an all-time high of $1.23 trillion at an average rate of 22%. All across the board, Americans are drowning in debt they can’t pay. Record $18.6 trillion in total household debt. Record $13.1 trillion in mortgages. Record $1.7 trillion in auto loans. Record $1.7 trillion in student loans. Total household debt is now up +60% over the last 10 years and total credit card debt is up +50% since 2020. Meanwhile, delinquency rates on subprime auto borrowers are at a record 6.1%. The car market in the United States is stagnant, with an estimated 25% of dealerships going out of business in 2025.

Medical costs are out of control, crushing already stretched Americans at some of the worst times of their lives – when they are seriously ill. Hospital services alone are up 256% since 2000. Insurance premiums crush family budgets, while coverage and care both continue to plummet.

All the while, Americans have watched their government tax, borrow, and print money to fund a seemingly endless series of foreign wars, foreign bailouts, and domestic corporate welfare. In just the last 25 years, U.S. government debt expanded by an astounding 600%.

The already rich are getting richer at an ever faster pace. The middle class is disappearing. The poor are drowning. If there is one thing that characterizes many Americans these days it is pure desperation. The game is rigged. They know it. They want out of it.

Which is why in 2016, 2020, and 2024 tens of millions of Americans voted for a thrice divorced casino developer named Donald Trump. He said all the right, populist things. He was going to put Americans first. No more foreign wars. Prices would come down. Wages would go up. Fiscal sanity would re-emerge in Washington. No more hundreds of billions to foreigners while Americans made due with failing infrastructure. Trump was going to Make America Great Again by restoring a broad-based economy and a strong dollar. Many of the policies articulated by Trump during his campaigns were denounced by more “mainstream” Republicans as radical and dangerous. But for struggling working Americans, it was music to their ears.

In 2025, over a million New Yorkers voted for Zohran Mamdani for mayor. Mamdani is supposedly a Muslim, socialist radical. Mamdani crafted his policy proposals to appeal to economically frustrated New Yorkers who were crying out for life in the city to be more affordable. His proposals included universal, free childcare, a rent freeze, fare-free buses (funded by taxing the wealthy and corporations), a significant minimum wage hike to $30/hour by 2030, reform of small business regulations, community safety teams, and even city-owned grocery stores.

At first glance, it may seem like Trump and Mamdani are complete opposites. But look closer at these two. In both cases, these two candidates represented the most seemingly extremist options available to voters in their respective elections. Extremism is what desperate voters turn to when trying to rid themselves of an intolerable status quo.

Did it work? Well, in the case of Trump we know the answer. In the case of Mamdani, who has yet to take office, we think we can reliably forecast the answer. The status quo has not changed, and will not change. Regardless of how “radical” the electorate votes.

In just the last few months, Trump has signed a nearly $1 trillion defense bill that gives Ukraine $800 million and Israel $692.5 million. Americans get to go deeper in debt to fund foreigners and Raytheon. Trump signed an executive order federally protecting AI companies from state regulations. Democratically elected state governments can’t be allowed to interfere with the “AI Revolution.” If Trump doesn’t protect hi-tech billionaire robber barons, who will? America went from blowing up Venezuelan fishing boats, to hijacking oil tankers. A regime change war there might just be inevitable. Trump engineered giveaways to Pfizer and other Big Pharma giants guilty of poisoning Americans for profit. Trump added Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, to his Ukraine negotiating team. Blackrock stands to make billions heading up the reconstruction of Ukraine. Assuming the war ever actually ends. Which it was supposed to within 24 hours of Trump taking over. But, nah.

On the surveillance side, the Trump team has proposed rules to collect DNA, eye scans, voice prints, and facial recognition data from a wider range of individuals involved in immigration processes, including sponsors. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is proposing to collect up to five years of social media data from travelers from certain visa-waiver countries. If you believe that none of this will eventually apply to traveling American citizens, then we have beachfront property in Arizona you might be interested in. If you haven’t heard of Palantir yet, don’t worry. You will soon, and you won’t like what you find out.

Trump supposedly brought peace to Gaza, but anyone paying attention knows the slaughter continues there and in the West Bank. Everyone is just supposed to ignore it now. In fact, Trump is busy building an entire censorship infrastructure to make sure you have no choice but to ignore it. Trump’s U.S. Anti-Semitism Czar, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, giddily announced that the State Department is going to “have a whole division” dedicated to battling “anti-Semitism on the internet” and pushing social media to do “better on algorithms.” Tech leaders, “many of whom are Jewish,” have already “offered their assistance,” he says. “The [Office of the Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism] is going to be revamped entirely to be one of the highest-profile offices in the State Department because that’s what the [Secretary of State Marco Rubio] wants and that’s what the President wants.”

Stupid Americans, free speech only applies if the government likes what you are saying.

Cancel culture was supposed to go away with Trump’s election. It hasn’t. You just get cancelled for different reasons now. You can criticize trannies and racial minorities all you want. But step out of line on America’s enslavement to Zionism? Then the formerly “free speech” Republicans come for you. That is not progress.

Then there was volte-face on the Epstein Files. They were going to be released. Then they didn’t exist. Then something is getting released, but it was heavily redacted for “national security.” The entire affair has exposed to the American people a horrifying truth. A well-connected intel operative ran a multi-decade blackmail racket serving up underage girls at the highest levels of power, with the collusion of multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies. A blackmail racket that is part of a multinational system of control so immensely powerful, that keeping its true scope and nature covered up is apparently the highest priority for practically everyone.

On the economy, nothing substantive has changed for the better since Trump took office. I refer you to the litany of woe that began this article. Trump can find time for endless meetings with Benjamin Netanyahu, his billionaire donors, and corporate vampires sucking the blood out of average Americans. But he can’t seem to find the time to care about his voters.

To be fair, some things have gotten better. RFK Jr and MAHA have had some success with food, vaccines, and stopping the sexual mutilation of children. America bombed Iran, but didn’t end up in a full blown war. Yet, at least. The border seems more secure. Unfortunately, America is still flooded with illegal immigrants, while Trump keeps endorsing the importation of a lot of new “legal” ones in the future. Because America can’t educate engineers, or something. Or maybe Americans are just too lazy. Whatever.

All in all, it is pretty weak sauce for a man who campaigned on totally transforming America into the best possible version of itself. Trump’s base is eroding faster than that of any American politician in living memory. Trump doesn’t care, of course. He’s too busy planning luxury beachfront condos in Gaza.

Okay, so the people who voted for the supposedly “right-wing” populist have gotten screwed on everything from war, to the economy, to fiscal policy, to the decline of the dollar, to corporate welfare, to censorship, to the Epstein files. Will the New Yorkers who voted for the Democratic socialist do any better?

No. They won’t. Mamdani is no more “radical” than Trump, with whom he had a very convivial meeting following his election. Mamdani is the privileged son of a Columbia University professor and a movie director. On election night, Mamdani was heartily congratulated by Alex Soros. Because, you know, venture capitalists are always on the side of radical, socialist revolutionaries. If you think it’s a scam, that is because you have an IQ over room temperature.

Not long after the election, Mamdani came out swinging against Latin American socialist governments in Venezuela and Cuba. Do you think this guy is going to lead the nation’s largest city in an anti-war direction?

Fiorella Isabel, international journalist and geo-political analyst, summed up the Mamdani PSYOP perfectly:

He’s not going to better the lives of New Yorkers, he’s not going to take on Zionism—he’s taking about “anti-semitism” FFS. He’s certainly no communist nor is he even remotely a threat to the establishment. His election is of 0 significance to Palestinians or U.S. imperialism— to which he will simply add a better flavour for USIANS. But let’s be real that’s all 80% of Americans care about anyway. They don’t really GAF about the world beyond their slogans.

 

On the contrary, he’s rather a part of the elite (beyond Soros which is an obvious indicator), that will continue to divide the masses to fight over a fake poser, just like Obama, AOCIA etc—all of whom are not anti-establishment but a progressive rebranding of it, necessary to dupe the idiot “left” into trying reformist politics for the 2992949 time and continue to fail, and also necessary to alienate the entire country away from any actual anti-establishment organization by convincing the idiot right he’s an Islamic commie.

 

It’s absolutely insane to watch this from across the world. To watch exactly how none of the so-called progressive podcasters have moved an inch toward intelligence, be it for money or clout and the right just eat whatever red meat is thrown at them, even if it’s fake.

 

Sad and also alarming but totally confirms that the USA is far—far from understanding the root problem is they’ve had 0 democracy or say in government for a long time, that they’ve been manipulated to be distracted by this dumb reality tv election show, purposely divided instead of united against the true enemy, and are endlessly stuck watching theatrics unfold, election after election, as the empire crumbles around them and the elite make their moves to save themselves while laughing at the brainless masses doing exactly as expected.

 

But this is your own doing. You play into the game and it will continue to play you until you stop.

For many Americans, the “politics” game has already stopped. Regardless of how they have voted, which political movements they joined, what campaigns they volunteered for – nothing of any real substance ever changed for the better. They are done with the transparently fake political process. Which scares the crap out of the American governing oligarchy. If Americans stop caring about elections, then they might hit the streets the way farmers have in the EU and citizens have in countries such as Bulgaria. The powers-that-be don’t care how you vote, but your non-compliance is the stuff of their nightmares.

To be honest, however, I don’t see Americans going into full-on riot mode. I see this shaping up differently. Now that politics as a substitute religion has patently failed, I expect a lot of Americans to give the real thing a shot. If you can’t beat the system, then transcend the system. The only thing offering actual transcendence is God. The only thing offering permanence is God. The only thing offering comfort amidst the decline is God. The only thing offering a meaning to life is God. The only thing that will never fail you, lie to you, or exploit is God.

Which is one factor why younger Americans are now more likely to attend church than their parents. That is according to data from the Barna Group. God is real, elections are fake, and the temporal world is spiraling into an abyss. Young people are done with Clown World and sense the need to prepare for the Age to Come.

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But not everything called a “church” is going to benefit from this trend. Evangelicalism is in a tail spin, closing thousands of churches and shedding millions of members. Vapid “Prosperity Gospel” messages hold little appeal when a ruined economy doesn’t afford the opportunity to live “your best life now!” Unaccountable mega pastors living in million-dollar mansions, while feeding off congregations struggling to pay rent, creates anger not inspiration. “Worship” services that resemble political rallies (either of the “left” or “right” persuasion) do not feed souls hungry for God. Slavish devotion to Zionism is not going to pack the pews with Americans, who are sick of both twisted 19th Century Dispensationalist Theology and foreign entanglements.

Evangelicalism is so done. As are the so-called “mainline” Protestant denominations, and the so-called “non denominational churches,” usually cults of personality centered on charismatic pastors. In America’s search for authenticity, only two choices will stand out above the rest – Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Catholicism. The rest are doomed.

Roman Catholicism is unlikely to win the lion’s share of new converts. Few Americans fleeing politics are going to sign up for Papal lectures on combatting Climate Change. Or on the need for open borders, for that matter, with the concurrent responsibility of shoveling billions of dollars we don’t have at people we don’t want. Pope Leo is a globalist through and through, as it appears are most of his bishops and priests. Combine all that with the other issues in the Roman Church, and it is hard to imagine America becoming a Roman Catholic country.

Which leaves Orthodox Catholicism – the ancient Church actually founded by Christ. A Church that preaches an eternal message of salvation through Christ that is not tethered to the petty political concerns of the day. A Church that has survived Roman persecution, barbarian invasions, Islamic cruelty, communist genocides, and Zionist oppression. A Church centered around worship, prayer, and personal holiness – not political organizing or the pursuit of temporal power.

A Church that does not sugar coat the realities of life. You will suffer. You will be tempted by sin. You will endure hardships. You may struggle to find enough to eat. God will not magically spare you from adversity, but He will give you the strength to endure trials by growing ever closer to Him. The Orthodox Church produces saints, not political activists or shallow Bible “scholars” endlessly debating theological points real people couldn’t care less about.

The current wave of interest in the Orthodox Church is not a fad. It is not an interesting cultural artifact of the post-COVID era. It is the beginning of a genuine transformation of an American society entering a post-political and post-abundance phase of existence.

Now, one caveat to this analysis. Given its current leadership, the Greek Archdiocese of America will struggle the most among all Orthodox jurisdictions to benefit from the oncoming deluge of converts. Why? Because at the top, the Greek Archdiocese is a political organization. Even worse, it is a political organization that is transparently dedicated to foreign interests. In an interview, Archbishop Elpidophoros made it clear that serving Greek national interests is his primary institutional role:

However, when discussing his own relationship with the Greek government and Greek national interests, Abp. Elpidophoros explicitly stated multiple times that serving those interests is his duty.

 

Asked about tensions with the Greek government and whether he helped arrange a White House visit for Prime Minister Mitsotakis, the Archbishop said: “It’s not right to get into such details. Even if it was requested, it’s not a bad thing. I would have done my duty. I’m not doing anyone a favor—this is my institutional role: to serve Greece and our national interests. If I do it, I’m simply doing my duty; if I don’t do it, I’m not fulfilling it.”

 

Earlier in the interview, discussing his approach to tensions with Athens, he stated: “For us clerics of the diaspora, the stance must be clear: regardless of which government exists in Greece, we serve the nation, the Church, and the national interests. Greece may hurt us, but ‘blood doesn’t become water.’“

Elpidophoros is also infamous for currying political favor with both President Biden and President Trump, in ways that make the term “bootlicking” come to mind. He has also been heavily involved in BLM protests (among other “left-wing” causes), the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Climate Change hysteria, and COVID restrictions (masks, church closures, lockdowns, multiple communion spoons). He was a huge advocate for the mRNA jabs.

Americans are unlikely to sign up en masse for a church jurisdiction headed by a cleric who sees his primary role as political, rather than spiritual. If they wanted that, they would stick with John Hagee. Given the 20% decline in the Greek Archdiocese since his tenure in office began, it is apparent that even many Americans with Greek heritage have little regard for him. There are amazing priests in the Greek Archdiocese, and equally amazing parishes. But as long as the top of the Greek Archdiocese is this politicized, those priests and parishes will never reach their full potential. Other Orthodox jurisdictions will simply outgrow them.

To sum up – politics is done. Americans are accepting that they have no more control over their national life than did Christians under communism or Muslim rule. They are ready to turn inward, to build strong local communities, to find meaning, to find unity with God, to prepare spiritually for even rougher times ahead. Across the American cultural landscape, only the Orthodox Church can offer them the sanctuary they are seeking.