On March 12th the Texas Monthly published a hit piece titled “Inspired by the Confederacy and Czarist Russia, “Ortho Bros” Are on the Rise.” This “article” was primarily an attack on my father-in-law, Fr. John Whiteford, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), and the notion of Southern Orthodoxy. This article was authored by a recent convert named Meagan Saliashvili, a graduate of Harvard Divinity who posts many things which may lead one to believe she is an advocate of pro-LGBTQP church policy, abortion rights, and a female diaconate/priesthood (she has denied this – though not publicly – and I will take her at her word. continued in note1).
Meagan’s narrative (as well as subsequent statements she has made on Twitter/X) is that far-right extremist conspiracy theorists are infiltrating the Orthodox Church and, aided by political preachers, seek to change the Orthodox Church into a haven for some weird mix of neo-confederate monarcho-fascism – as if that even makes sense.
This is laughable.
The Orthodox Church is traditional by nature. By its very nature it rejects Modernity and the hyper-rationalism which has led the West to apostasy. Proving this to be the case will be a major focus of this article. Orthodoxy is in no way, shape, or form compatible with modern American Liberalism. Orthodoxy flat out rejects the hyper-rationalism which has led the West into apostasy.
Additionally, we need to discuss the fact that Meagan’s efforts fall in line with that of a much larger effort by a small but well-funded and highly motivated group of Left wing subversives (largely contained within academia) who aim to subvert the Orthodox Church.
These folks are motivated by a perverse conception of the Orthodox Faith, and seeing their conception rejected by the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Christians, their pride makes them incapable of admitting that they may have it wrong. They believe their path to “correcting” (ie., subverting) and “modernizing” the faith is by destroying the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR3). Who these people are needs to be discussed.
To my Protestant, Catholic, Non-denominational audience: This is just as important for you to read and understand. Make no mistake, if they are successful in destroying my Church, yours is next.
Meagan, if you are reading this, know that I mean you no ill will. I am praying that you will see the Truth, repent, and be fully converted to the faith.
A Dangerous Narrative
I feel no real need to make a point by point defense of Fr. John as he has already done that; she misled those interviewed, misused quotes and more, effectively doxing members of his parish.
Her narrative is dangerous and needs to be discussed, briefly. Meagan attempts to weaponize Russophobia, anti-southern sentiments, and far-right/cult sectarian imagery, and this has the potential of inciting violence against Fr. John and his flock.
Meagan, who herself claims to be Orthodox, does not paint the picture of the beautiful and ancient Orthodox liturgy which many of you have heard me describe, but the service of a fundamentalist end times sect tucked away in the swamps of East Texas, more a political rally than a religious service.
She calls his vestments a “ceremonial cape,” as if Americans are too stupid to know what the word vestments means.
His short homily (on the subject of the recent violence in Gaza and imploring his parishioners to not hate those killing Christians, but to forgive, pray for, and love them) she describes as an evangelical “sermon” (the type in which the book of Revelation is used to justify political opinions – which weren’t discussed in his sermon) which lasts until the end of the “ceremony.” In subsequent conversations on Twitter/X, Meagan makes clear that she wrote the article this way because it’s not meant to be read by Orthodox Christians, but by a “general readership” in Austin who follow the Texas Monthly – ie., leftists and secularists. In other words, she created a false narrative about Fr. John and his parishioners, levied serious accusations against them with zero evidence, and peddled that narrative to potentially violent Leftists.
In doing so, she inadvertently paints a large target on the Church for malcontents and the mentally unstable to attack.
Considering that for the last two years, our churches have been vandalized, received regular death threats, our parishioners verbally and physically assaulted – including in the vicinity of the very city in which she published this hit piece – Meagan’s actions are beyond reckless and shameful, and increase the potential for violence against Russian Orthodox parishes. It’s hard to see how she would not be somewhat responsible if, God forbid, violence is carried out against Orthodox Christians in Texas as a result of her narrative.
May the Lord have mercy on her, and bring her to repentance.
She goes so far as to write off a legitimate threat made against Fr. John’s parish in 2020 – which occurred after four years of “Russiagate.”
She – like many of these radicals – makes the slanderous assertion that ROCOR reunited with the Patriarchate “at Vladimir Putin’s request,” which is patently absurd. ROCOR has no ties to the Russian state, nor does the Kremlin have any control over the Russian Church Abroad, and never has. She writes off the tremendous work which ROCOR and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) did to help the US Govt. in its ideological battle against the Bolsheviks.
They continue to lie about ROCOR and say how our hierarchy has “been silent” about the war in Ukraine, even accusing them of being Russian agents. But as Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe notes, we are a self-governing Church and always have been – just as the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Our hierarchy has continuously denounced the war (and all war for that matter) and moved mountains to aid the suffering Church in Ukraine.
Clearly, she wanted to play on the Russophobia which has emerged over the last several years, as she and her allies have done repeatedly.
Fordham University and the subversion of the Orthodox Church
As mentioned above, Meagan is affiliated with a larger group of subversives (often called Fordhamites) who wish to fundamentally change the Church’s doctrines. These people are not necessarily part of a vast coordinated effort, to be clear. But they are in the same circles, pushing the same narratives, and working towards the same outcomes. I’ll let the reader decide.
Their agenda includes establishing a female priesthood and whitewashing the immovable Law of God regarding sodomy and “same sex unions.”
They feel the chief obstacles to this goal are:
- ROCOR, as the Russian Church has always been the most traditional and zealous local Church. This has been well known and well attested to by Western theologians and academics for several hundred years.
- The growth of Orthodoxy in the South. The South, as the most religious and traditionally minded section of the American population, is ready to be evangelized, and Ludwell is at the forefront of this mission hand and hand with ROCOR – and has been for a couple decades. They are terrified by this, especially if the Church that evangelizes the South is primarily the Russian Church.
This group is largely centered on a group of academics at Fordham University (and their publication Public Orthodoxy) and the St. Phoebe Center who are active primarily in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese (GOARCH), and to a much lesser extent in Antiochan Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).7 Meagan Saliashvili has joined the ranks of people like “Sister Vassa,” Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Carrie Frost, Aristotle Papanikolaou, George Demacopoulos, and others.
Unfortunately they are given a great deal of support by Archbishop Elpidophoros – the leader of GOARCH who advocates for abortion and recently flew to Greece to baptize the adopted baby of a gay couple in a cathedral which he was allowed to use by deception, one of many actions scandalizing Orthodox Christians across the globe. This has given them the shred of legitimacy they need and allows them to obtain big money from CIA and State Dept. linked foundations – the Greek Church in America has been a key asset of US intelligence since Truman and the CIA helped to enthrone Athenagoras the Patriarch of Constantinople.
An Unholy Alliance
These organizations (ex. Fordham, Public Orthodoxy, St. Phoebe Center) receive large donations from CIA & State Dept affiliated foundations, the same foundations which were instrumental in subverting mainline protestant seminaries in the twentieth century. There’s an expectation that they will assist US intelligence in implementing the neo-liberal agenda domestically in foreign affairs. This is part of the United States Doctrinal Warfare program, which we have spoken on before both in Ukraine: The Road to War Part One and The Other Ukraine War.
For the Globalist LGBTQP+ agenda to fully seep into the Orthodox nations of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean – some of whom are already in NATO – they must undermine the Church’s teachings on both sides of the Atlantic.
Aug. 28. 2022: Thousands of Orthodox Serbs protest in opposition to EuroPride parade in Belgrade. [Credit: Reuters/Zorana Jevtic]
The Russian Church has always been the most conservative of the local Churches. Even Western theologians interacting with the various churches have openly stated this for several hundred years now. It is also the largest local church by far.
If the anti-Christian agenda is to be successful, then the influence of the co-opted Greek Church – who would be irrelevant if it weren’t for the immense wealth of the Greco-American community and archdiocese- must overtake that of the Russian Church. This is why it was necessary for Constantinople and the State Department to support the Ukrainian Schismatics.
(Meagan herself is clearly in support of this agenda, as we can see from her frequent spreading of misinformation to cover the Zelensky regime’s Stalinesque persecution of the Autocephelous Ukrainian Orthodox Church throughout her journalistic career.)
In doing so, the West was able to undermine one-third of the canonical territory associated with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Constantinople has established parallel jurisdictions in the Baltic states, in the UK (in which half of the Russian Church went under Constantinople), and in South-East Asia. Now they see an opportunity to further undermine the Russian Church Abroad in the United States. This is the reasoning behind GOARCH’s Slavic Vicariate in which they try to lure Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Serbian clergy who have been defrocked or are under some other canonical penalty for all sorts of heinous acts.
It should be noted that this action, and Elpidophoros’ desire to make the defrocked Russian monk Alexander Belyaev a bishop of the Slavic Vicariate, have been universally condemned by the other jurisdictions in the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops.
Over the last several decades the Orthodox Church, traditionally centered in the Northeast, has been shrinking. Meanwhile, Orthodoxy has been expanding ever more quickly in the American South – especially the Russian Church. This is dangerous for the Fordhamite’s mission. If the religiosity and traditional orientation of the South is converted to Orthodoxy in great numbers, it will be near impossible to root it out and implement their perverse agenda.
This what’s behind the emergence of claims that racists, bigots, and other right-wing extremists in the South (in other words, all Southerners outside of Austin, Atlanta, and other major cities) have made an unholy alliance with Putin’s Russia, which is idealized as some “ethnically pure” land of traditional values.
No one actually believes this. Only liberals could be so obtuse.
In order to undermine the Russian Church Abroad and take control of the canonical territories of America, these subversives are trying to associate us with white nationalism, czarism, etc… They see silencing Fr. John as an important step in the dismantling of ROCOR – which is their ultimate goal – opening the way for female priests and the desecration of our temples with “pride” flags.
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The Progressive Agenda
The US Government’s zealous LGBTQP+ missionary efforts are now being directed against the Church, from within the Church herself. As was done to the Anglican, Lutheran, and other mainline denominations, these subversives claim that they don’t want to change the Church’s teaching, they just feel we should be more “charitable,” and “modern.”
But from articles and books claiming that there were same sex unions in Byzantium which were blessed by the Church (always in complete opposition to the actual evidence, of course) to advocating that clergy who were defrocked after leaving their wives for their gay lover be reinstated, it’s abundantly clear that they do in fact want to change the teachings of the Church.
It’s not “charitable” to tell someone that their sin, their illness, is who they are. period. It’s charitable to distinguish them from their sins, to tell them that they too can be healed and inherit eternal life.
And to be clear, I am a Russian Orthodox Christian as well as a conservative political activist. I believe that same sex relations are a sin and that the Church should uphold its teaching and reject same sex unions. However, I do not condemn those suffering with same sex attraction, I do not denounce or look down upon them. My sins are no better and almost certainly more numerous. My best friend, who is like a brother to me and was best man at my wedding, is a “gay” man. In my darkest hour, it was a “gay” friend who took me in, gave me a place to stay, and helped me to get my life back on track.
Both of these men were at my wedding. Fr. John and the many other “radical” Orthodox Christians there treated them with nothing but respect and love as they would anyone else. To be clear, these guys don’t need to announce they’re gay, so it’s not like they just didn’t know.
Clearly then, the Church’s moral teaching isn’t an impediment to being polite and loving towards those struggling with this or any other sin. The Church is open to all who are willing to live a chaste life of repentance, and to claim otherwise only reveals that Meagan and the Fordhamites do not have the mind of the Church.
This has nothing to do with “hatred” or “charity” and everything to do with these people wanting to pervert the Law of God as Christ commanded, the Apostles preached, the Holy Fathers upheld, and the Martyrs confessed on to death.
They claim that the Church must allow women to serve to remain “relevant” – as if Christ isn’t guiding the Church, as if Christ changes. A female priesthood will not aid the Church in gaining membership. If that were the case, it would’ve helped mainline protestant denominations.
Newsflash: it has not.
Female altar servers in the Roman Church likewise haven’t aided the Catholics in growing their rapidly declining membership. The limited growth they’ve seen has been restricted to the traditional sects within the Papal church. These people are disingenuous, they simply want to establish a female priesthood one step at a time Today its deaconesses, not as they were in the early church, but as a carbon copy of the God ordained Diaconate, tomorrow it’s female priests and bishops. Fr. John has already debunked their narratives, and they despise him for it – so much for being “charitable.”
What Meagan’s Critique reveals about her & the facts about Father John and the Orthodox Church.
As stated above, Meagan doesn’t describe the liturgy as anything more than a mystical meeting of a neo-fascist cult. My readers may notice the extreme difference in how she described the liturgy, compared to how I have described it.
She describes the liturgy not as the mystical transcending of time and space themselves to worship the True God in the presence of and with the Angels and Saints (a real encounter with the God-Man Jesus Christ), but as a political rally with better outfits. Clearly then, this is how she views the Church.
For Meagan – likely a result of her time in the spiritual cemetery of Harvard Divinity – the Church is seemingly just a sociological phenomenon, a strictly human organization oriented towards social policy and social justice. Orthodoxy rejects the social gospel.
True Orthodox Christians see the Church as an eschatological organism. For us, the Church is a hospital in which we all come to be healed. All are welcome to approach the font.
But there’s a catch, you must be willing to be transformed.
Folks in Meagan’s orbit doesn’t want to be transformed, because she thinks she is perfectly well, perfectly healthy; everyone else needs to change because she has it all figured out.
Meagan fails to see the hypocrisy of her complaints about “angry,” “far-right,” young converts “trying the change the faith,” and that she is in fact a young, recent convert, trying to force her political views on the Church.
She has the audacity to paint Fr. John as an extremist on the fringe of the Church, when it is in fact Meagan and the Renovationists who are the fringe extremists.
Let’s not forget that when Ancient Faith Radio did their documentary and livestream on the Orthodox Deaconesses, they held and structured the program for the purpose of discrediting the arguments people in her orbit, such as the St. Phoebe Center, are making. Let’s remember that when Fr. John called in to the program, the founder of AFR and the host of the program were elated that he called, going as far as to say “yes, we need Fr. John’s comments on this.” When his connection was cut, they waited for him to reconnect, and sang his praises saying at the 2:39:05 mark, “Please call again.. We gotta do this Fr. John, we gotta show these people.”
Ancient Faith isn’t known for being a Far-Right, or even overly conservative outlet. And yet, they are flat out against Meagan’s ideology, and carry Fr. John’s homilies – the very homilies she claims are full of far-right political statements and conspiracy theories. They’ve published his book, carry his podcast, and have known him for decades now.
The fact of the matter is that Father John Whiteford is mainstream Orthodoxy. Meagan is the fringe extremist. Meagan, Public Orthodoxy, St. Phoebe Center are the ones trying to alter the Tradition of the Church and the immutable Law of God; not Father John, not ROCOR, not Ludwell.
These are the facts. Because these folks cannot accept the facts (and reject Truth in their hearts) they have attempted to spark controversy in hopes of silencing one of the more prominent defenders of Holy Orthodoxy in America.
I can’t help but note that one of Meagan’s main reasons for attacking Fr. John, is seemingly because one of his parishioners organized the Trad Forum in West Virginia. She attacks Fr. John for having this man as a parishioner, but never even mentions the fact that the Trad Forum was attended by the former First Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), who was a keynote speaker of the event. She ignores that Metropolitan Jonah, one of the highest-ranking clergyman in the English speaking world, was a speaker at the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship Conference in Tobaccoville, NC – where she falsely accuses Fr. John of giving a speech on confederate monuments.
Instead of coming to the Church and embracing the faith delivered once for all to the saints and allowing the Grace of God to purify and illumine her, Meagan and the others have brought the secular Leftist worldview they picked up in academia into the Church and want the Church to be conformed to the world.
What Meagan considers “Right-Wing Extremism.” [Credit: Facebook]
Orthodoxy and “the right.”
Those the universal Orthodox Church reveres are precisely those Meagan would accuse of “far-right” sympathies. I’m sure Meagan, like many of the wannabe reformer intellectuals, is a fan of Fr. George Florovsky. Does she ignore that Fr. George was a well-known Eurasianist and wrote many articles in support of the movement? And yet these same folks consider Alexander Dugin an “extremist” and “neo-fascist” for his Eurasian sympathies. Why is he a “neofascist” for his beliefs, but not Fr. George Florovsky?
Meagan states that monarchy is an “extremist” ideology. Yet the Church honors dozens and dozens of royal saints and martyrs. They even have their own titles: Right-believing Prince/Princess King/Queen Emperor/Empress, and Royal Passion Bearer, respectively.
Meagan would condemn a number of Saints, men and women glorified not by man, but by God, as “Far-Right.”
Saint John of Kronstadt is a universal saint and great wonder-worker, he was also involved with “reactionary” Monarchist movements in his time. Intellectuals of his time claimed he was “misrepresenting” Orthodoxy – I’ll note that none of them were performing miraculous healings then or now as St. John, none of them have “St.” before their names.
Like Fr. John Whiteford, St. John was slandered by these intellectuals and “reformers.” Orthodox Brotherhoods emerged to defend St. John, his teachings, his love of the Sovereign, and point out the hypocrisy of the Westernized intellectuals.
St. John railed against these “reformers” who would eventually become the heretical Living Church which the Soviets used to brutalize the Russian Church – and whom the Patriarch of Constantinople recognized in an attempt to seize the American and Western European churches.
It seems that history does indeed rhyme, as Fr. John Whiteford is likewise being slandered by intellectuals and “reformers,” who likewise willingly ally themselves with the Constantinople supported Schismatics, this time in the Ukraine – a new Living Church – and some of these folks would gladly align themselves with the state to brutalize the Russian Church.
The Church is Traditional, by definition. The Church is hierarchical, by definition. If Meagan and the Leftists can’t accept them, I’m sure the Anglican Church would welcome them with open arms.
Orthodoxy and Liberalism
A central tenet of these renovationists’ beliefs is that folks like Fr. John are an anomaly, a “fringe right wing” in the Church. But there is no Right and Left wing of the Church, nor is there such thing as “fundamentalists” in the Orthodox Church. You are either Orthodox and follow the teachings of the Church, or you are not and do not. You either attain the phronema of the Holy Fathers or you reject it in favor of Modernism and materialism.
These subversives try to prop up certain intellectuals of the late 19th to mid-20th century as the standard bearers of Orthodoxy and claim them as proof that they are themselves in the mainstream. But the Russian intelligentsia prior to the Revolution had abandoned Orthodoxy in their Western sympathies, and so it should come as no surprise that these men were never the standard bearers of Orthodoxy. That this is the case is confirmed by the testimony of spiritual giants such as the Optina Elders, St. Philaret of Moscow, St. Theophan the Recluse, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, St. Benjamin of Petrograd, and St. John of Kronstadt.
And not only these ecclesial figures – though, they would certainly know better than anyone else – but also prominent Orthodox laymen, literary figures, and intellectuals such as Nikolai Gogol, Feodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Leskov, and the Kireyevsky brothers testify of this.
Gogol was the poster-child of the Russian intelligentsia after publishing his classic, Dead Souls. Then, one day, he found himself in a small village church where the homily of a simple village priest, Fr. Matthew Constantinov, convicted his heart. He became a disciple of St. Macarius of Optina, and his liberal, westernized mind was converted into the age old, traditional Orthodox phronema.
And what happened? He wrote his Correspondence with Friends, in which he spoke at length about his faith, and was discredited and disgraced by the intelligentsia whose darling he was just before. They went so far as to say he has suffered a psychological break.
What does this tell us?
Gogol believed himself to be “orthodox,” before providentially walking into Fr. Matthew’s parish. He was baptized, went to liturgy, and believed in progressive ideas – similar to Meagan and the Fordhamites.
But then, one day, the fullness of Orthodoxy was revealed to him, he professed it no longer merely with his lips, but with the very beating of his heart.
As a result, he was abandoned by those for whom orthodoxy was merely an affiliation, a social organization as the liberals believe it to be. Gogol was grafted into the eschatological organism of the Church, the Body of Christ through which the Holy Spirit guides us to the Father.
Dostoevsky was also the talk of the town when he published his psychological thrillers and hung out with those who hated God and His anointed Tsar – even getting wrapped up in an attempt on the Tsar’s life. But the Tsar, who was himself a true Orthodox Christian, commuted his death sentence, caring for him, his co-conspirators, and their families. The mercy and compassion which the Tsar showed his enemies radically transformed Dostoevsky’s heart, starting him down the path from a liberal and gambling addict to a pious Orthodox Christian who wrote one of the greatest Orthodox novels of all time, edifying the faithful of his time as well as our own.
For Ivan and Peter Kireyevsky, Orthodoxy and the Russian Church were Russia. Tradition was the breath and life of Holy Russia, and they laid the true foundation for an Orthodox, Russian philosophy.
True Orthodox Christianity is radically other than the world, just as our God is radically other. While the intellectuals of St. Petersburg had all but apostatized (even inviting Western faith healers and Pentecostals to come preach in their homes) and embraced Western materialism, the saints, clergy, and simple faithful maintained the faith. They clung to their faith as the apostate intelligentsia and Bolsheviks brutalized them, until they were again freed with the collapse of the Iron Curtain.
Bolsheviks raiding a Church [Credit: Google Images]
Despite this, these Westernized academics of our own time continue to prop up the Westernized academics of former times as the standard bearers, the shining lights of Orthodoxy. They note men like Vladimir Solovyev, Nicholas Berdyaev, Sergius Bulgokov, and (mistakenly) Pavel Florensky. They were always the fringe and were popular only within the upper crust of the intelligentsia who looked down on the piety of the Orthodox faithful from their ivory tower, and wanted to embrace the hyper-rationalism and Scientism of the West. In many cases they were simply heretics masquerading as Orthodox Christians.
Solovyev set out to refute Western ways of thinking and to lay the foundations of an Orthodox, Russian philosophy. Unfortunately, the Sophiology he invented was heretical. Sophiology would be further developed and systematized by Sergius Bulgokov – a council condemned his teaching as heretical. Some have argued that it “wasn’t really heretical,” but he was condemned by no less than St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. His teaching was refuted by Vladimir Lossky and Paul Evdokimov – two of the most brilliant theologians of the twentieth century. Nicholas Berdyaev was a flat out heretic. As Fr. Seraphim Rose reminds us, Bardyaev believed the “stale asceticism” of our faith would be replaced by a charismatic mediumism as all of the world religions were subsumed into a new religion of the future.
Fr. Pavel Florensky flirted with Sophiology in his youth, but later rejected it and called it “a childish interest of [his] youth.” He is often called the Russian Leonardo Divinci, and yet he totally rejected westernization and detested Bulgokov and Berdyaev for their smug intellectualism. He was a devoted disciple of the St. Anatole II of Optina and Elder Isiodore of Gethsemene, and died a New-Martyr of the Bolshevik yoke. His memory is unfortunately tainted by his flirtation with Sophiology, and being widely misinterpreted by those who lack the Orthodox phronema.
Florensky, speaking of the “new religious understanding” of Bulgokov, Beryaev, and the Renovationists:
“they cease to see what is in front of their eyes, which is given to them, and which they do not know and do not understand inwardly; in pursuing everything they are deprived of that which is. If only for a short time a calm sobriety would return to them, then perhaps they would see – these people of false understanding – that they have no solid ground under their feet and that they are speaking sterile words, words which they themselves are beginning to believe.” – St. Pavel Florensky, Pillar and Ground of Truth
I hope Meagan will meditate on these words. I hope she will see the problem with trying to impose a modern liberal mindset on Orthodoxy. I hope she will recognize that the agenda of those she is associated with are not Orthodox.
Conclusion: Birth Pangs
The baseless slander of Fr. John and ROCOR is unacceptable, and all Christians in America need to take a stand here. It may be us today, but it will be you tomorrow – this is especially true for our Catholic friends. We in ROCOR have inherited a prophecy from our forefathers who suffered under the Bolshevik yoke: “Today in Russia, tomorrow in America.” What used to seem like hyperbole and paranoia seems ever more to be an eventuality. These are only the birth pangs of what is to come.
The FBI has already made it abundantly clear that they watch our parishes and clergy; they ignore attacks on our church.
Unfortunately, the War in Ukraine may be only speeding up the timeline in which surveillance turns into full on persecution. When Ukraine surrenders, or if NATO directly involves itself in the hostilities, then the ecclesiastical war in Ukraine will likely come to American shores as hatred and paranoia over anything “Russian” intensifies. We will see an exponential increase in violence against the Russian Orthodox community in America. We will see an exponential increase in surveillance, the planting of “evidence,” arrests of our people, and seizure of our churches.
As one of the more vocal and well-known defenders of the faith in the United States, Fr. John is a prime target for attack. He is well aware of this, and I believe he is willing to go where God wills. But they didn’t just target Father John. They targeted his parishioners, simple laymen and their families who are just trying to be faithful to Christ. “Mysterious persons” are now, right now as you read this, attempting to dox every member of his parish.
This is unacceptable, this is something which should outrage all Christians in America.
It is my sincere hope that once Meagan is finished trying to defend her deplorable actions, she will stop and really think about what she’s done and how it could potentially result in Orthodox Christians getting hurt.
It’s my hope that she will set aside the mindset she came into the Church with and strive to acquire an Orthodox mindset. Conversion is a journey, it takes time, humility, and repentance. That is my hope for Meagan, and I hope you all will join me in putting Meagan Saliashvili on your prayer lists.
Benjamin Dixon is a conservative political operative and commentator from North Carolina. Benjamin is a member of ROCOR. He currently serves as the Veterans Committee Chairman for the Young Republican National Federation. You can follow Ben on Substack at Where the Wasteland Ends.
Has anyone else noticed that every single “journalist” who does a hit piece against the Church has been a leftist college-edumacated woman? Francis X. Rocca – a *man* from the Wall Street Journal- gave us a reasonable article, though as a harvard liberal arts grad you would expect otherwise.
It seems the lady journos in particular have chips on their shoulder about the Church these days. What makes it weirder is that most if not all of them claim to be converts to boot, yet I can’t seem to find the priest(s) that converted them, nor their current parishes.
Apparently there are polls showing women and men becoming radicalized in opposite directions, men to the right and women to the left, with the women swinging far harder left in most countries polled than the men swinging right. It’s an incredibly important phenomenon that needs to be investigated down to its root cause(s), for the sake of reconcilication of the sexes before more drastic things happen.
As a 20-year Orthodox believer and someone with a master’s degree in journalism, I would counsel the clergy to stop talking to reporters. You cannot win.
See how you are put on the defensive and are forced to keep “explaining” the situation? This is in addition to the related problems explained by Mr. Dixon, such as threats against those interviewed. What would the situation look like if Fr. John had not granted an interview and had said thanks but no thanks?
This Texas Monthly article is strike two against priests in the major media in just a couple years. Remember the Sarah Riccardi-Swartz and subsequent NPR/Odette Yousef flap?
Riccardi-Swartz and Saliashvili are Orthodox and you couldn’t even get a fair shake from them. Stop talking to media people, writers, and academics. Ignore them. Let them all shout into the wind.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/nprs-miss-extremist/
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1096741988/orthodox-christian-churches-are-drawing-in-far-right-american-converts
Almost eight years ago, I joined the Eastern Orthodox Church, because I wanted to become Orthodox. If I had wanted to be a liberal, I would have joined a liberal church instead.
I used to go to an Orthodox Church where a subdeacon came out of the closet as an adamantly unrepentant man with a non-chaste gay lifestyle. To the best of my knowledge, he is no longer a part of the Orthodox Church.
Why does anyone join a church with the idea that the church should be transformed into their image, instead of the other way around? They should and must inevitably be disappointed. They must be dealt with in a loving and appropriate way that also protects the sheep, especially those who are the most vulnerable.
Regarding Megan: What immediately came to mind as I read about her here was “Who catechized her and how long was her catechisis? Clearly not long enough. I’m beginning to lean towards the thought that catechisis, for any person inquiring into The Faith, needs to be, at minimum, one year of weekly attendance at Divine Liturgy and Vespers AND weekly classes. Period. Full stop. Any less and the time period is extended.
Regarding Fordham Univ.: While the individuals may not be a coordinated front (which I slightly doubt), each single parish priest who adheres to their thought process does lasting generational damage to the parish they are in.
I’ve witnessed several examples of parishes who have quietly been ‘taught’ this thinking. The rector isolates the parish from Diocesan communications, events, youth programs and feeds the people small spoons full of baloney in homilies and other internal religious education programs. It is subtle and unwittingly damaging.
Good article Mr. Dixon. Keep it up. I thoroughly appreciate this blog and always look forward to publications.
How serious and deep was her catechism is a great question. The panel at the Share the Faith Webinar on successful Orthodox missions in America had a very interesting catechism discussion. It is worth a listen.
https://youtu.be/fz0kTa3bKfc?si=rNFSSm45Cuo0Ze8G
I’m a southerner who recently became a catechumen. Our church is practically full on Sundays. I assume most people interested in Orthodoxy are by nature Conservative. These people will have a hard time getting southern conservatives to accept Marxist ideology.
I think the problem is fairly simple. Stop exemplifying woman who value education over motherhood and virtue (a major major Western trope). And don’t give any authority to lay persons to speak on behalf of Orthodoxy. The Greeks for whatever reason have really fallen prey to this Westerm Liberalism.
You are correct, the problem is simple, the church no longer calls on the name of the Father, they call him LORD or God but never mention his name. YAH shemo (YAH is his name) This is found in the book of Exodus, The Song of Moses (The Song of the SEA) Hebrew version. It is also found in Psalms 68 v.4. We are to proclaim his name, we are to praise his name and the Church does not.
This isn’t an Orthodox Church position, meaning this is outside of the Revelation of God – the Lord, Father Son and Holy Spirit. What you are saying is heterodox, and unknown.
Judaization tends to happen to protestants more then others, who know they need tradition – and we crave tradition, so they fall to these things more then others.
Jesus Christ, is the Lord, YHWH, and is inseperable from the Holy Trinity. He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – fully God, and fully Man – the Theanthropos God-Man. Their is only One Body of Christ, One Church – and its not “invisible” and its not divided – the gates of Hades did not prevail, God is not a liar. True is every word of our Lord and God Jesus Christ.
You believe in Christ, ask for His help, and perhaps these short articles will help you.
https://www.stnektariosmonastery.org/en/jesuschristisgod.html
“Orthodoxy is what Christ taught, the Apostles preached, and the Fathers kept.” -St. Athanasios the Great (+373)
https://ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation/incarnation.ii.html