Orthodox Reflections

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

Most people who have found Orthodox Catholicism, in my 30 years’ worth of experience, have done so for deeply personal reasons. The wife was raised Catholic, the husband was Protestant, and they needed a way to meet somewhere in the middle. He couldn’t accept celibate priests and the Papacy, she couldn’t do praise bands and fog machines. He learns to love liturgical worship. She learns how to be Catholic without a centralized bureaucracy. They both grow together to appreciate the deep spiritual life within Orthodoxy. A young person (male or female) is looking for traditional, historic Christianity. Something to cling to while the entire world seems to be flipping upside down. A Roman Catholic family finally hits a wall with one issue or another in the Roman Church, and decides to visit Divine Liturgy out of sheer desperation. A New Ager decides to investigate Christian mysticism, and finds the mystical tradition of the Orthodox Church. An art student is disillusioned with the horrible aesthetics of modern life. She comes to visit a parish just to check out the iconography for positive inspiration, then never leaves. History and theology nerds suddenly discover that their Protestantism offers more questions than answers. They start reading the Church Fathers, consuming online content, and then suddenly appear at liturgy eager to learn everything at once. Disillusioned parents visit a Divine Liturgy, only to discover that their young children are expected to worship with the congregation. There is no “kids’ church” with video games and juice boxes. Just God. Practical types go looking for a disciplined life in Christ they can understand, and find it in Orthodoxy. What critics of Orthodoxy call “rules,” they come to call “guidelines for living in union with God.”

Many, many reasons. Superficially anyway. Underneath everyone has the same reason. We are sick with sin, and searching for a way to transform our broken lives through Christ. The things we told ourselves we were looking for were the symptoms, not the disease. The disease is alienation from God, and the Church has the cure. Those who stay in Orthodoxy do so because they found God in His Church – a loving, supportive community of believers.

In real life, I have never once met a person who came to Orthodoxy to transform American society. Their own soul? Sure. But anyone looking to change or control others is on the wrong path. If anyone didn’t know that at the beginning of his journey into the Church, he will learn that soon enough. “Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved,” said the great Russian saint, Seraphim of Sarov. People come to God because we show Him to them in our own lives.

Grace is infectious. The more Christians who acquire the Holy Spirit, the more people are drawn to the Church – the Body of Christ. St. Seraphim explained how this is done, not in a grandiose way, but through daily ascetism:

You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives.

 

All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other…instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace.

 

Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult, and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil.

So Orthodox parishes, when functioning properly, are local bodies of believers struggling to grow in the Image of God, even as they are already created in His Likeness. Seems harmless enough upon first examination. Just a bunch of people praying, kissing icons, and working on their own spiritual lives. No more threatening than an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or a self-help group.

But upon closer examination, you quickly realize that Orthodoxy is actually a mortal threat to extremely powerful interests in American society. There is a lot riding on keeping Americans spiritually sick. The Porn industry, the Pharma Complex, the Gaming industry, gambling, political parties and ideologies, the “Pride” movement, drugs, Protestant megachurch empires, Social Media companies, entertainment, predatory capitalism, usury, the Divorce Industrial Complex, the Military Industrial Complex, Zionism – multiple trillion dollar industries and social movements depend on Americans being depressed, stressed, isolated, and desperate. For them, the growth of successful Orthodox communities represents a potentially existential threat.

Whether we mean to or not, Orthodox Christians threaten a very profitable status quo, and we need to understand what that entails. There is a famous quote outlining the classic stages of what happens when you challenge the status quo (often misattributed to Ghandi, but really coined by an American trade unionist): “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Stage 1 of Ignore is long over. When I converted to Orthodox Catholicism in the late 90’s, I was the only catechumen that entire year in a parish of over 250 families. Ponder that for a moment. A very large parish, by American Orthodox standards, and I was the only convert the entire year. A couple years later, I went to work for what was then a “major” Orthodox online media ministry. We were thrilled to get a small fraction of the views each month that Fr. Josiah Trenham gets on a single YouTube short. When I told people I was Orthodox, they assumed I was Jewish.

Back then, we referred to Orthodoxy as America’s best kept secret. Because it was. Almost Top Secret, to be honest. In those days, it would have been nice to be attacked, because then at least we would know someone was listening. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, trying to spread awareness of Orthodox Catholicism felt like screaming into a void.

Now, in the Year of Our Lord 2026? Even small parishes have double-digit attendance at highly diverse catechism classes (all ages, marital statuses, socio-economic levels, faith backgrounds, and ethnicities). The number of inquirers at a given Divine Liturgy can be in the dozens. Many urban parishes, once in danger of closing due to population shifts, have come roaring back to life. New Orthodox missions are popping up all over the country.

Orthodox priests are routinely on major media platforms. Fr. Stephen De Young’s May 2026 appearance on Tucker Carlson was viewed by almost 1 and 1/2 million people. To put that number in context, the estimated number of Orthodox Christians in America is probably around 2 million. The NYT and other major media are doing articles on the growth of Orthodoxy (albeit in a somewhat slanted way most of the time). Candace Owens, a Roman Catholic convert, came back from Russia gushing to her 6 million subscribers about the Orthodox Faith. The Internet is overflowing with Orthodox content.

Even non-Orthodox content creators are doing long form videos on the Orthodox Church. For the past year, I have been routinely watching content on the YouTube Channel Christian Faith Archive, primarily for in-depth coverage on the decline of Christian denominations in America. The insight into the collapse of megachurch empires and Evangelical denominations has been particularly good. Imagine my surprise when, a couple of months ago, the channel suddenly started positively discussing Orthodox Christianity. This episode is about why so many Southern Baptist pastors are converting to Orthodoxy, and the alarm that is causing in the SBC. This is from the show description:

For generations, Southern Baptist churches shaped the spiritual life of the American South. But today, some pastors who spent decades preaching in Baptist pulpits are asking difficult questions about church history, authority, worship, and stability. Many are discovering Orthodoxy through ancient liturgy, the church fathers, online teaching, and the search for a faith that has not shifted with modern culture.

 

This video follows real stories of pastors and believers who made the journey from Baptist and evangelical ministry into Orthodox Christianity. We examine five major reasons behind this movement: the question of authority, the hunger for reverent worship, the influence of Peter Gillquist, the rise of Orthodox voices online, and the institutional crisis inside the Southern Baptist Convention. But this is not simply a story about pastors changing denominations.

 

“For believers, this matters because it reveals a deeper hunger across American Christianity—a hunger for ancient roots, serious discipleship, and worship that feels centered on God rather than entertainment. Scripture reminds us to “ask for the ancient paths” and to seek the Lord with sincere hearts.”

The show below compares and contrasts Orthodox Christian beliefs with those of the Evangelical denominations that many are leaving. This got over 105k views in two weeks. The conclusion is weak, but for a non-Orthodox Christian content creator, he gets many things spot on.

When the non-Orthodox give you that kind of favorable coverage, you know the Holy Spirit is truly moving in America. The secret is no longer secret.

So, queue the backlash because this trend is upsetting to a lot of people. Pay attention to that word – trend. In absolute terms, the number of Orthodox Christians in America is still small. However, for those educated in business principles, which includes the leadership of all Evangelical denominations (which are run along the same lines as any other corporation), today’s trend is tomorrow’s outcome. You are taught in business school to try and change course before you go bankrupt, if possible, not after.

But the powers-that-be in our current American status quo can’t change who they are, or how they make their money and keep their cultural power. They are locked in. So what is left to them in the face of a threatening trend of Orthodox growth?

Attack, attack, attack.

Welcome to Stage 2 of the famous quote which is ridicule. Try to paint the upstarts as clowns hocking a non-viable alternative to the status quo. The whole “Orthodox” thing is just too silly for them to take seriously, so they mock Orthodoxy to convince people to stop paying attention. Below is an example of a Baptist pastor doing just that.

No Sitting Allowed At The Orthodox Church pic.twitter.com/ew7yW7A7Cw

— Baptist Clips (@BaptistClips) June 10, 2026

This is not a serious critique of Orthodoxy. This pastor made huge errors, possibly even unintentionally, about Orthodox beliefs and liturgical practices. He also seems to have completely forgotten that the Apostle Paul used 20 athletic metaphors in his own Epistles to convey the strenuousness of the spiritual journey in pursuit of eternal rewards. Telling young men to skip spiritual discipline in favor of a latte in the church lobby isn’t the flex he thinks it is.

The point of this video wasn’t to explore and debunk Orthodoxy. The point was to mock Orthodoxy, which is something one commonly sees these days from a variety of sources. Orthodoxy is “weird.” Orthodoxy is a “cult.” Orthodox Christians are “zombies.” Orthodox priests are effeminate men in dresses. (Never mind the wives and the frequently large number of children.) Orthodoxy is foreign. Orthodoxy is anti-American, because America is a Protestant nation. Orthodoxy is unbiblical. Orthodoxy is a passing fad. Orthodoxy is shallow and all about “smells and bells.” Orthodoxy is not even “real” Christianity.

The subtext of such mockery is: “You can’t possibly be stupid enough to want to join those misfit crazy people.”

Such shallow attacks will undoubtedly continue, but they won’t work any better in the future than they have in the past.  Which is why we can expect more and more to move into Stage 3 The Real Fight.

Awareness of Orthodoxy will continue to spread. Ignoring it won’t make it go away. Mocking Orthodoxy will prove fruitless. Americans will keep showing up anyway. Stronger measures will be necessary. For Stage 3, we can expect more in-depth critiques of Orthodoxy that appear scholarly and authoritative. “Experts” with credentials will show up to explain the deficiencies of Holy Orthodoxy. Books will be written. Seminars will be held. Sunday school curriculum will be updated to include anti-Orthodox polemics.

Opposition won’t be confined to just Evangelical churches. Orthodox community life is a threat to many “mainstream” business models, not just the overtly religious ones. There will be thinktank pieces, documentaries, and podcast channels underwritten by foundations whose funds stem from socially destructive businesses and entrepreneurs. The good news? For the Holy Spirit, there is no such thing as bad press. So all of that is only going to increase awareness and drive more people to the parish doors.

When overt attacks fail, expect even more trouble to arise from within the Orthodox Church herself. Modern man has learned that if you can’t beat them, buy them and control them. Unfortunately, the Orthodox Church Militant is composed of sinners, some of whom worship the god Mammon more than they do the Holy Trinity.

Examples of this abound. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and his agent in the U.S. Archbishop Elpidophoros, are paid assets of the U.S. Deep State and its billionaire masters. A fact that is well on its way to producing a full scale rebellion within the Greek Archdiocese of America.

The business school model of religion has already visibly failed in Protestantism. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, a hospital for sick souls. No amount of money paid to corrupt hierarchs, scholars, administrators, and nominally Orthodox politicians will ever change the nature of the Church. But it can make life extremely difficult, and the turmoil is an unfortunate, public distraction from our true mission as Orthodox Christians. 

Other Orthodox bishops have fallen into that same trap, either through avarice or potential blackmail over personal corruption. They sow division among the faithful on a regular basis, leading to physical as well as spiritual harms. The ecclesiastical fights over the persecution of the canonical Church in Ukraine have created problems on multiple continents.

Multiple academics and “Orthodox” organizations are in on the grift. We have the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham continuously pushing for “updates” to Orthodoxy including female ordination, LGBTQ acceptance, liturgical changes to address “antisemitism,” and ecumenism. The St. Phoebe Center exists to push female ordination. There are many more examples.

If the anti-Orthodox movement can fund Progressives to cause internal strife, they can also incrementally hook legitimate Orthodox institutions through donations. For example, Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) received a $36,300 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. (which describes itself as “conservatively progressive”) to “help” strengthen preaching at Orthodox Christian parishes in North America. Just one example. There are many more. Money buys a seat at the table, and is a well-established method of changing organizations over time. Foundation money is poison.

Enemies of Orthodoxy can also fund nominal “conservatives” to cause havoc. The Southern Poverty Law Center funded so-called “right-wing” groups, to which it was ostensibly opposed, to generate fundraising and legislative opportunities:

Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America

The SPLC funded whackadoodle groups which it then, in cooperation with its media allies, used as examples to paint even dissenting moderates as dangerous extremists.

If you can’t beat ’em, or co-opt ’em, then discredit ’em for your own benefit. If we suddenly get “Orthodox” influencers who are ideologically extremist in the political sense – watch for where their money comes from. Don’t give them any credibility whatsoever. Not all who profess Christ with their lips are near to Him in their hearts.

If all that fails, of course, then the Epstein Class always has pure force. All Orthodox jurisdictions have so-called “foreign” ties, even if autocephalous or self-governing. Many parishes within those jurisdictions have immigrant populations. Therefore, the U.S. National Security State could easily be activated to harass Orthodox parishes and jurisdictions on “national security” grounds. Such harassment can include debanking, removal of Websites, removal from Social Media, deportation, removal of non-profit status, surveillance, loss of jobs and access to contracts, suppression of free speech, prosecution, and more.

There are already American politicians, government officials, and journalists laying the groundwork for this. Representative Dan Bacon, in the aftermath of an American pan-Orthodox delegation visit to Washington in protest of the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, went on X to criticize the Russian Orthodox Church. This was a blatant attempt to link American Orthodox Christians to what the U.S. Government perceives as a hostile foreign power. He is not the first to do so. He will not be the last.

The current trend towards suppression of anti-Zionist / antisemitic speech is also particularly dangerous for Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Church officially teaches that she is the Israel of God. Our Church is also indissolubly linked to Palestinian Christians, Lebanese Christians and Syrian Christians. All of whom have suffered at the hands of Zionist Israel. While others stand silent, Orthodox Christians are compelled to speak out loudly on their behalf. This is deeply embarrassing for a U.S. ruling class dedicated to portraying Israel as our “strongest ally,” and the only “pro-Christian” liberal democracy in the Middle East. The Zionists would dearly love to shut us up. At least 38 American states have officially adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism into state law or policy – a definition that forbids criticism of Israel and Zionism. As Fr. Josiah Trenham explains in this appearance on Tucker Carlson, Zionism is incompatible with Orthodoxy. (Orthodox Reflections has said exactly the same thing.) If things progress along these lines much further, just proclaiming traditional Orthodox teaching could easily land us in legal troubles in the future.

All of the above are areas of concern over which we should be watchful, prayerful, and as pro-active as possible. However, keep something in mind. The goal of everything mentioned above is to disrupt Orthodox communities. Do not let your reactions make your enemies’ job easier for them. When in doubt, pray more while focusing less on “organizing” or “responding” and more on strengthening your own parish. Your neighbors need your attention far more than people on Social Media.

So that brings us to Stage 4 – Acceptance and Victory. Are we Orthodox going to eventually be accepted as “mainstream” Americans the same as Evangelicals are today? Are we going to baptize millions and transform American culture, the way prior missionary efforts transformed the Roman Empire, Georgia, Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria, etc.?

I have absolutely no clue. In fact, I’m not even concerned about it. Whatever good Orthodoxy does at the macro level will only happen as a result of what good we do at the micro level – within our own parishes, our own souls, and our own families. If societal change is our primary goal, then we will surely fail. There is no way to use Orthodoxy to somehow “astroturf” a Christian revival that has no reality on the ground. Trying to do so would end up making American Orthodoxy just as fake as the megachurch phenomenon, which exploded on the scene in the 1980’s only to disintegrate before our eyes in the 2020’s.

Now, on the other hand, the individuals who are saying that the Orthodox Church will “never” have an impact on our society and culture are too pessimistic. Massive spiritual changes often happen relatively quickly, when measured against 2,000 years of total Church history. The Orthodox Church went from approximately 1,000 believers in 33 A.D. to 10% of the Roman Empire by 300 A.D. Our Christian forebears did that without a single Instagram post. In 1870, the Baptists and the Methodists were duking it out for domination of the American South. The Presbyterians were in a distant third place. Fast forward to 2026, Methodism and Presbyterianism are completely out of the picture, having declined into irrelevance. The Southern Baptist Convention is still top dog, but second place population-wise goes to a combination of various Pentecostal denominations that did not even exist in 1870. In fact, the largest of them did not exist until the early part of the 20th Century.

Sometimes changes do happen quite rapidly and unexpectedly. In my lifetime, Honduras switched from a majority Roman Catholic country to a clear majority of Evangelicals. Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico are well on their way to that as well. The most fatal mistake of analysis is assuming that the future will look like the past. It rarely does.

So while we Orthodox have no cause for premature triumphalism, neither do we have cause for any unwarranted pessimism. Rather, what we have is a call to proper Christian action, which is most clearly and articulately voiced by His Eminence Metropolitan Saba:

To witness for Christ is not merely to speak about Him. It is to live in such a way that others encounter Him through your words, actions, and relationships.

 

Choosing to witness for your Lord does not protect you from trials; on the contrary, it places obstacles before you at all times. The evildoer is not pleased with your choice. He always wants to keep you in his grip, while you strive to be in the embrace of your Lord. This spiritual battle, if faced with steadfastness and determination, strengthens you and gives you resilience so that you prevail over everything, and nothing can dominate you. Isn’t that true freedom?

Regardless of what happens, or doesn’t happen, around us – our Orthodox Christian focus must be on Christ and growing in His Image in communion with a real, local community. God will take care of the rest.