Orthodox Reflections

The recent Republican National Convention was a highly stage-managed production. Winning an election, and validating certain outsized egos, were the only real goals. A shallow thing to watch to be sure. Even so, despite its contrived nature, the show did manage to teach three major spiritual lessons Orthodox Christians would do well to learn.

1) Protestants are ready for Veneration

Low church Protestants routinely attack Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism for that matter, as being “idolatrous”.  Icons are said to be idols that we Orthodox worship. We are also accused of worshipping the saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and even the relics of saints. At the heart of all this vitriol is an intentional misunderstanding of the difference between “worship”, which belongs only to God, and “veneration”, which can be extended to icons, saints, the Mother of God, angels, etc.

We have been very clear about our definition of these terms:

Veneration (gr. doulia) is a way to show great respect and love for the holy. It is to treat something or someone with reverence, deep respect, and honor. Veneration is distinct from worship (gr. latreia), for worship is a total giving over of the self to be united with God, while veneration is showing delight for what God has done. There can be confusion because one may venerate what one worships as well as venerate others. Veneration is part of worship to the Orthodox faithful, but they show love and respect to more than the God they worship.

Despite that, many Protestants have continued to attack Orthodox practice, routinely claiming that kissing an icon (for example) is absolutely worship of an idol. They insist that there is no difference, and can be no difference, between worship and veneration. Going forward, that will be a stance they will find hard to take.

Thank you, Donald Trump.

Former Fire Chief Corey Comperatore died during the Trump assassination attempt. He used his body as a shield to protect his wife and daughter from bullets. By all accounts, he was a good man who died protecting those he loved. Such a man is worthy of veneration. Which is exactly what Donald Trump did.

Trump spoke about Comperatore in glowing terms. As the man was dead, he was represented on stage at the RNC by his fire uniform. To show his profound respect for the life of this public servant, Trump kissed Comperatore’s helmet.

A large portion of those present at the RNC are Evangelicals. TV shots of the crowd during Trump’s tribute showed a lot of emotional faces,  many even streaked with tears. Would the speech have had the same emotional impact without a visual representation of Comperatore? Or without the physical veneration of his helmet by President Trump?

Absolutely not. The physical presence of the hero of the moment was needed for everyone to have a connection to him and his actions. Humans need to see, to touch, and to experience. It is how God made us. Which is why the Orthodox venerate what God has made, but worship only the Creator.

Not one Evangelical has criticized Trump for idolatry. Not one Evangelical has said that somehow Trump was “worshipping” Comperatore. On the stage at the RNC, Trump’s actions have given us Orthodox a perfect way to introduce Evangelicals to veneration. We should not let this opportunity slip.

Trump’s actions at the RNC, and Evangelical acceptance of them, will become a fixture of my own apologetics for veneration of created matter (icons, saints, the Theotokos, relics). One can reject all veneration. That is an anti-human stance, but it could be a logically consistent one. What Evangelicals can’t do is pretend that it is licit for a presidential candidate to kiss the helmet of a fallen hero, but idolatry to kiss an icon of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to whom belongs all Honor, Glory, and Worship.

While most people have yet to recognize it, the era of iconoclasm among Evangelicals is drawing to a close. The Internet damaged iconoclasm. It introduced a visually rich medium in which even Evangelicals rely on images to communicate. The Internet also put Christian History, art, and architecture at everyone’s finger tips, exposing Evangelicalism for the modern, empty heresy that it is.

Now along comes Trump to finish off iconoclasm, without even realizing it.

2) Boldly Proclaim the True God Everywhere and at all Times

Every Eastern Rite Orthodox Divine Liturgy begins, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages.”

In our morning and evening prayer rules, our prayer books tell us to begin with, “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Eastern Rite Orthodox Divine Liturgies end with, “May He Who rose from the dead, Christ our true God, through the intercessions of His all-pure and all-immaculate holy Mother; the power of the precious and life-giving Cross; the protection of the honorable, bodiless powers of heaven; the supplications of the honorable, glorious prophet and forerunner John the Baptist; of the holy, glorious, and praiseworthy apostles; ”

Our prayer books give us morning and evening closing prayers that are simplified versions of that text, and which are preceded by, “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

The ignorant often say that Muslims, Jews, and Christians worship the same God. This is entirely wrong. The Christian God is One God eternally existing in Three Divine Persons. The Father is God. The Son is God.  The Holy Ghost is God. We are assured by scripture that before the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. There are individual Orthodox prayers, used in the context of divine services or individual prayer rules, that do not explicitly reference the Holy Trinity or Jesus. However, it sounds quite strange when an Orthodox Christian, especially a hierarch, gives an official invocation at an event that does not contain a reference to the Holy Trinity, or at least to Christ at a bare minimum. It is just not how Orthodox normally pray.

Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese offered an invocation at the Republican National Convention that was very “unorthodox”. The Archbishop offered a prayer that began, “Almighty and eternal God” and concluded with, “so that in prosperity and tranquility we can worship You, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of the Universe, and be the blessed people whose God is the Lord.” Where was Christ, Our Redeemer? Where is the Holy Spirit Who sanctifies us? Where is the Trinity that we worship?

Now this kind of behavior out of Greek Archbishops is not new. Archbishop Demetrios also omitted any reference to either Christ or the Trinity in his RNC prayer in 2016. His Eminence did the same thing at the national prayer service following 9/11. Other hierarchs, particularly Greek ones, have done similar prayers at other events, particularly ecumenical engagements.

But this time, something was different. This time, lots of Orthodox Christians noticed the unusual nature of the prayer, and expressed their rejection of it. One Orthodox priest on X referred to the prayer as “Unitarian”. Orthodoxy in America is not only growing, but is becoming more traditional as it does. Overall, Orthodox Christians are less worried about “fitting in” and more worried about spreading the Gospel. Timid actions by Orthodox bishops, which would have once slipped past unnoticed, are now actively denounced. The young men flocking to our parishes want leaders who boldly proclaim the Apostolic Faith everywhere and at all times. They want to follow warriors for Christ, not administrators who keep out of trouble by going along to get along.

St. Paul preaching in the market place in Athens

Not that there weren’t defenders of Elpidophoros. Some pointed out that this was not an Orthodox gathering, so a generic prayer shorn of Orthodox wording was perfectly fine. Few are buying that reasoning. Especially since other Christian leaders did explicitly reference Christ. Roman Catholic Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki ended his prayer:

“In the words of George Washington: “Almighty God, keep the United States of America in your holy protection and incline the hearts of the citizens to a brotherly affection and love for one another,” through Jesus Christ, our Lord. “

African American pastor Lorenzo Sewell boldly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ. The video is worth watching, and comparing to the prayer given by Elidophoros. Why would a random Protestant pastor be so much bolder in proclaiming Christ than a successor of the Apostles? Non-Christians at the RNC were not at all shy about proclaiming the “truth” of their faith as they see it. Republican Attorney Harmeet Dhillon offered a Sikh prayer which included the statement, “Dear Waheguru, our one true God.” 

The RNC was not a Sikh worship service. Yet, Dhillon felt absolutely no hesitation in praying to her deity by name. She could have edited her prayer to be more “inclusive” and “less offensive”, but she did nothing of the kind. She said the prayer in its entirety, including the parts that Christians find utterly blasphemous. No one stopped her. No one walked out.

It seems that religious timidity, at such meetings as the RNC, is reserved for the Greek Orthodox only.

As already noted, this behavior out of Greek Orthodox hierarchs in America is not new. Why does it happen? Only God knows for sure, but we can reasonably speculate on some possible causes. We know that there are Orthodox hierarchs cooperating with the ecumenists among the Global Elite in efforts to unify the world’s religions. Perhaps it is due to historical lessons from the continued Turkish domination of Constantinople, where focusing on Orthodox distinctives can be dangerous, but a generic focus on “God” is less so. Some timid hierarchs may have deep seated aversions to “offending” anyone. Others may fear that if you are “too Orthodox”, you won’t get invited to the good parties anymore.

In the end, it doesn’t matter why. What matters is that such timidity is increasingly rejected by the Orthodox Faithful. Orthodoxy in America is attracting converts in search of the Apostolic Faith, while retaining only those “cradle” Orthodox who are sincere in their desire for union with God. The “culturally” Orthodox are continuing to leave, and are taking their assimilationist “liberalism” with them. Demographics are shifting the Church towards those who demand that Orthodox hierarchs pray in an Orthodox fashion regardless of the time, place, and audience.

3) Electoral Politics are Dangerous for Orthodox Christians

The current American regime is anti-Christian. By that we don’t mean just the Biden-Harris Administration (the president and political appointees), but also the entire National Security State apparatus, whose power is ever more exposed to the general public. Biden has essentially disappeared. Harris is apparently not consulted about the policies of an administration her name is on. Yet, the country stumbles on. The border is still open. The wars are still being funded. The Secretary of Defense is still writing blank checks in support of Israel. The federal government still promotes sexual deviancy and mental illness to children. The Global Elite is still busy impoverishing the working class for its own benefit. Average Americans are increasingly poor, desperate, and looking for hope.

So it is understandable that many Christians, Orthodox and heterodox alike, would be anxious to see Trump elected in the hope his administration would alleviate at least some of our most pressing problems. Unfortunately, Trump and the party he leads can’t be trusted to deliver any relief to suffering Christians. In fact, we could end up in even worse shape under Trump than under Kamala. Let us not forget that Mike Pompeo, one of the chief architects of the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was featured at the RNC. He might even be back in office in a Trump II Administration.

Trump and the Republican Party are using Christians’ desire to rid ourselves of the Satanic regime in Washington. They believe we have no choice but to vote for them, and so are free to play us for suckers. If you listened to the “inclusive” language at the RNC, this couldn’t be more clear. You heard many appeals to LGBTQ voters. You heard absolute allegiance pledged to Israel, even to the point of advocating our participation in a regional Middle Eastern war. A war that could easily end in WWIII, but even if contained, would destroy the remaining Middle Eastern Christian communities. You heard many calls to combat “antisemitism”, which even Red States increasingly define as any criticism of Israel, Judaism, or anyone even of remotely Jewish descent. Orthodox Christian teaching, by this standard, is virulently “antisemitic”. You heard foreign policy hawks babble on about the need to confront Russia, to continue the slaughter of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, and to expand our conflict with China.

Mentioned earlier was the prayer from the main stage of the RNC to a demon. That was bad enough on its own, but the RNC also treated us to a speech from Amber Rose. She is an “Only Fans” model, organizer of the “Slutwalk”, some time endorser of Satanism, and a purveyor of Satanic imagery on social media.

Trump and the Republicans are trying to build a broad, “inclusive” coalition. This is easy for Trump, as he has almost no core personal values. Vance, a perfectly scripted avatar for the more “conservative” venture capitalists among the Elite, seems equally bereft of any fixed principles. In exchange for votes, they are willing to compromise on pretty much everything except allegiance to Israel, implacable hostility to Russia, and massive budgets for the National Security State. Those policies are non-negotiable. Everything else is on the table. Political opportunism at its finest.

Their few “core” policies alone are enough to put Orthodox Christians on a collision course  with a potential Trump II Administration. If Trump’s party goes Woke on social issues, things could get really hairy. It is very easy to visualize the Republican wing of the American Uni-party demanding that we accept the truly unacceptable. Not that things would be any better under Kamala. The situation for us under her cackling rule may be infinitely worse. It is difficult to know.

Regardless of whether the source of Christian persecution is nominally from the “Right” or the “Left”,  it is not really our biggest spiritual threat. Persecution actually builds strong Christians. As Tertullian reminded us, the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. Tens of millions of Christians are suffering for Christ right now around the world. Perhaps it is just our turn.

In truth, the biggest spiritual threat to us as Orthodox Christians is the temptation to compromise our Faith for a “seat at the table”. Out of a desire to do good, or at least support a lesser form of evil, will we turn a blind eye to the glaring issues with the Trump Republican Party? Will we make excuses when Trump and his cronies do the inexcusable? Will we soft pedal, gloss over, or even subtly change Orthodox teaching out of a desire to “keep the coalition” together?

An open enemy is better than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The open enemy you see coming. You prepare. You dig in. You are ready. But the wolf in sheep’s clothing takes you unawares. You follow him willingly to your own destruction. You cheer him on while he devours you.

An enemy can imprison you. An enemy can silence you. An enemy can even kill you. But the wolf can persuade you to voluntarily betray Christ for the “greater good”.

The Republican Party of Trump could easily turn on us Orthodox Christians. We must be prepared.

Metropolitan Onuphry is the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He and his Church are facing severe persecution at the hands of the Kiev Regime, originally engineered by Mike Pompeo on behalf of the Trump Administration. In cooperation with the Patriarch of Constantinople, of course. Since His Eminence is renowned for his holiness and his discernment, we Orthodox Americans would do well to remember what he has said concerning politics and politicians:

“Politicians want us to forget about eternity and the salvation of our soul. They want us to be always preoccupied with endless political squabbles. But in any case, the end thereof is a disgrace, as in politics they cry ‘Hosana!’ to you one day and the next day it is ‘Crucify him!’ Political systems come and go, whereas God’s truth is changeless and eternal. They want the Church to change, but the Church never changes because God’s truth is changeless.”

—Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev

Amen.

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