Apocalyptic, Aggrievement Evangelicalism Has Infiltrated Eastern Orthodoxy

Why I'm anxious about my past coming to ruin my present.

Konstanin Korobov, “Agnus”

I was raised Catholic, in Southern California, during the 1990s. You might remember that, around this time, the nation was fresh out of the Satanic Panic (did it really end?), and most practicing American Catholics had, at the height of that panic, become aware of the (second?) major Catholic sex-abuse scandal. My mother, observant but not intellectually engaged with Catholicism, was disturbed on both counts, and the family uprooted themselves from Roman jurisdiction, entering into the Calvary Chapel chain of non-denominational churches.

I was about ten years old when this major shift in my family’s religious life took place. Already, however, the aesthetic, moral and theological virtues of Catholicism had made an impression on me: I still remember being drawn in by the Stations of the Cross, carved in relief. I would gaze at these during the mass, and can visualize those images even now. Something about these relief carvings spoke to me, even as a child, though I could not fully process what was encountered. Likewise, my parents could not understand the significance and high-stakes nature of their departure from the Catholic Church, or what its consequences would be for their children.

Each Sunday morning, from ages ten to eighteen, was uncomfortable, surreal, and painful. Attempts to make friends, to listen intently to the sermon, to force myself to ‘like’ the music of Now That’s What I Call Worship! were never successful. I felt like an alien, and by twelve had become agnostic. I had not become agnostic because of reasoning or argument. Rather, agnosticism felt a natural place to settle, because Christ was not made present in our Churches. He was, for all I could tell, a fictional archetype of virtue, rather than a historical figure. Jesus was like Gandalf, and offered little more than the wizard. (The fascination with Tolkien in the circles I describe below is something that still puzzles me, in that he is often treated as the author of a new gospel.) Nor did the numerous Bible studies, purity clubs, and evangelical social groups connect me with Christ.

What was real, unfortunately, was the Apocalypse of John. I heard more apocalyptic preaching over Revelation in my pre-teen years than I have heard in the last decade. Bound up with this apocalypticism was an entire paradigm--a set of concepts, values, beliefs and imperatives--which I will call “Apocalyptic-Aggrievement-Evangelicalism” (AAE, for short). Think of a paradigm as a theory of the world so ingrained into a group’s cultural consciousness that it becomes a “map” of the world for them, a set of glasses coloring their interpretations of experience. Paradigms are not ordinarily able to be written down in an official document, or even a series of documents. Neither are they reducible to individual doctrinal details, but are living realities, ‘mega-theories,’ only able to be taken on gradually, internalized over time. One must be surrounded by others who have already taken on the paradigm, saturated by their thought, taught, organically, to see the world as they do. (I have a significant number of writings on the process of moral and theological paradigm shift, and Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou’s book, Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Mind, is an excellent work on these sorts of issues.)

In the AAE paradigm, political, culture-war issues were fused with shallow, a-historical readings of the New Testament. There could be, on this way of seeing the world, no differentiation between the mark of the beast and barcodes, between American political struggle and the end-times persecution of God’s people. At its heart, this paradigm centers on the core ideas of religious persecution, the imminent return of Christ, and an identification of ‘the American left’ with the forces of evil. This lens through which those around me were seeing the world impressed itself upon my family.

(For the record, AAE (and other fundamentalist paradigms) is not associated with any single tradition, and is not necessarily representative of the official views of any tradition or institution. Still, some traditions and institutions are more typified by AAE than others, and it can come to characterize the nature of certain movements and groups. Evangelicalism proper is not necessarily AAE, though it has, in my experience, been trending in that direction.)

The result was that, at eleven, I gave most of my favorite toys to the other children in the neighborhood, an expression of a deep hopelessness about the state of the world. What was the point of play, of learning, of growing, of continuing to live, if it was all to end so shortly? What was the point of forming friendships if, around every corner, there lurked an evil liberal (a title synonymous with ‘anti-Christian’) trying to deceive me into losing my faith? Why should I go to college, if they would only undermine my faith? I was suspicious of everyone: other ‘liberal’ Christians were my enemy, those who disagreed with us politically were faithless, the scientific community was promoting mass delusion (read: vaccines and evolutionary biology).

This was too much for a young, ignorant, and isolated boy in the suburbs to take. My mental health was in shambles, even at that young age, but no one noticed, for psychology was also a dangerous enterprise, often used by Satan to lead the faithful astray. Mental health issues, as many in Church would later tell me, are simply manifestations of a weak faith. Pair these existential pains with the inability of these AAE groups to connect my family with Christ, and you have the ingredients for a perfectly prepared, hostile atheism or agnosticism. I slipped into, thankfully, a sympathetic agnosticism, only due to the grace of God, and, I think, my remembering the Catholic tradition I had been born and baptized into. (In hindsight, the quarrels between New Atheism and Protestant Christians during the early 21^st century were the product of this dynamic, although this is a post for another day.)

I’ve described all this pain, without mentioning the worst aspects of AAE. I was pulled from full time private school in 2^nd grade, placed into an evangelical homeschool collective in 3^rd grade, and plunged into an isolationist world of Americanized Christianity. My parents hoped to shelter me from vaccination and the supposedly anti-Christian bias of the public school system.

I am not able to fully describe this environment: there is simply too much to tell. It was, in short, hostile to questioning, to intellectual growth, and to the arts. It barred political disagreement, and was unequivocally ‘right-wing,’ with a conspiratorial bent. In the context of September 11th, 2001, this homeschool coalition was also anti-Islamic. I was never taught the theory of evolution in Biology ‘classes,’ I was forced to read revisionist, pro-southern U.S. history books, and deprived of a good education.

The way I am describing my upbringing may conjure images of a fringe cult, or even a fascistic militia group. But this took place in the suburbs of Orange County, California, and these groups looked like everyone else, acted like everyone else, and had upper-middle class jobs requiring a degree of education. The AAE paradigm, especially with its tendency to isolate via homeschooling, was (and still is) entrenched in some of the largest, most “mainstream” churches in Southern California. This was normal. My homeschool group during junior high was associated with Biola University, and in highschool, many of my peers were the children of baptist and non-denominational pastors, elders, and deacons. Not to blame this on the man, but most of the people I knew, and who used their positions of power in very dysfunctional ways, were heavily involved in John MacArthur’s churches. All this to emphasize: what I am describing is not a fringe movement, but a well established paradigm among ordinary, suburban people.

Thankfully, God shines even where the beauty and goodness of the divine light is intentionally kept out. A few teachers working within these “schools” had much more nuanced views, and though I have now left even their paradigms behind, they were instrumental in guiding me back to Christ. Just before the start of junior year of highschool, I was introduced to Theology and Philosophy as part of an apologetics and Biblical survey course. Philosophy dug its claws into me, and I found myself realizing, for the first time, the power, beauty and defensibility of the historic Christian paradigm. I overcame my agnosticism and reconnected with Christ, which prompted a sudden intellectual and moral transformation (though a very incomplete one!). But, I became painfully aware, for the first time, that the church communities around me were not living in accordance with the teachings of the gospels. They were totally oblivious to the long Christian tradition, and intentionally kept anyone who was aware of this history silent. In fact, most were openly hostile towards anything they deemed to be “too Catholic” (which, in reality, was anything diverging from AAE).

This is not an autobiography, so I will summarize: the rest of my late teens were spent in constant conflict, bitter arguments, and being reprimanded not only by my peers, but by leaders within these evangelical churches. And, in my defense, these were not chastisements over bad behavior, but for believing something different. In particular, I was not a young earth creationist, and this, in the words of my highschool’s principal and pastor, made him worry about my faith.

In all this, I became aware of a common, and disturbingly arrogant practice in these groups: the essentializing of opinion into dogma. By this I mean that these groups impulsively declared their own views as the "heart of Christianity;" if one did not share their views on political and social issues, not just theological, this was an indicator of a weak faith. If one diverged from AAE, this was a serious ‘falling away.’ At best, a believer could come to Church, and fellowship, but was always regarded with suspicion, always seen as a ‘divergent troublemaker,’ a ‘hotheaded rebel.’ In their minds, a divergent believer may be technically Christian, but not authentically Christian, since they lack the “heart of Christ.”

Today, I still feel the consequences of this upbringing. My anger has subsided, but I do not know if, in this life, I will ever be able to integrate into a Church setting without shutting all other congregants out of my heart. I am constantly anxious of being led astray, and compulsively check myself for errors that indicate a lack of faith. Doubts rack my mind, and I constantly struggle with cynicism and hatred of others.

I drifted after graduating highschool, pursued graduate studies in Philosophy as a means to serve God, and, through these studies (and divine intervention), eventually came to embrace Eastern Orthodoxy. I had found, for the first time, a tradition that felt like home. The Cappadocian Fathers, particularly the emotionally volatile Gregory Nazianzen, felt like a close friend. Athanasius, with his vision of salvation as ontological healing, spoke directly to me. Augustine, struggling with heresy and dim reflections of Christian truth, consoled me. And the paradigmatic emphasis on pankalia (the view that all beings, all of creation, are intrinsically valuable/good), essential to Christianity but essentially forgotten by the protestant west, was rejuvenating. I felt that the Eastern Orthodox Tradition had itself preserved a robust paradigm, a way of seeing the world that, as Roger Scruton says, returned the world to me, and me to it.¹ Pankalia, again the view that all of creation, all being, is derived from God and thus good, is the center of this paradigm. Under this paradigm, the entirety of human nature is embraced as an organic whole. The human being is seen, now, as a very special, holy creature, with its own functions and set of activities: political activity, aesthetic activity, scholarship, and even play--all of these find their place in the Orthodox paradigm, and all are, used properly, beautiful expressions of humanity, participation in the divine energeia. I was shattered, broken, humbled, and then given the gift of being elevated to see the beauty of this tradition, to see the world through this lens, however incompletely.²

How different this is from Apocalyptic-Aggrievement-Evangelicalism. I became a catechumen. As I pursued an M.A. in Philosophy, I started to broaden my perspective, attempting to synthesize my Anglo-American, analytical training with patristic theology. And then, this honeymoon phase abruptly ended. As I became involved in my local parish, and got to know not only the clergy, but my fellow parishioners, I was shocked. Most of my fellow parishioners were protestant converts. AAE had become entrenched among them, a hangover from their previous sectarian affiliations.

These converts were my friends, and I, despite having major disagreements with them on politics, ate with them, prayed with them, and bonded with them. I tried my best to keep my heart open and to withhold judgement. Then the pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, hit. Suddenly, our friends turned against us, and our opinions were no longer tolerated. Chrismation was withheld, at least in part due to our political beliefs. I was berated and threatened by one parishioner, with no support. Despite being in a high-risk category for COVID-19, my parish largely refused to mask, and I was made to feel like I was sinning by staying home. Our newfound home was destroyed by the family which had adopted us. AAE had made its way even into our Orthodox community. Once again, my heart snapped shut, and it has yet to fully open.

This is the reality. AAE is not a purely protestant or evangelical movement. It is, instead, its own organism, hatching in fundamentalist, politically conservative protestant circles, but reproducing by following converts into new sects. It’s power to latch onto new hosts is, in part, due to its cultic aspects:

Our people are persecuted because their people don’t understand the truth; we have secret wisdom only we can give you, if only you conform. Do not be surprised when people hate you--they are simply unaware of the invisible conspiracy all around us! Other believers might disagree with us, but it is because they are compromising with evil! The homofascists are coming to get you, to take away your gendered language and indoctrinate your children! Quick, let us form new communes, and shelter our young from the influences of their culture! The end of “Western Culture” is drawing near, and, no, it is not because of its own evils, but because of outside invaders, the gays, the democrats, the liberals, the wolves in sheep’s clothing! Our young men are being “bimbofied,” or “feminized.” Soon, they will come for our Churches, they will seek to kill us, or, at the very least, banish our kind from society…

This may sound like an exaggeration, a straw-man of my fellow Christians. I assure you, it is not. I have heard, from the mouths of both powerful and powerless Orthodox, all of these things. In fact, many of these insane assertions are quotations or paraphrases of popular Orthodox writers. I hate to name names, but the “homofascist” line is from Fr. Josiah Trenham of Patristic Nectar Productions. Fr. Josiah has, sadly, even caught the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center for encouraging hate speech.³ Rod Dreher, a widely celebrated, and widely platformed, convert to Orthodoxy has spilled much ink on the issue of forced feminization of young men, as he calls it, “bimbofication.”⁴ Beyond this, Dreher has also called transgender people ‘monsters,’ and encourages a withdrawal from society in his The Benedict Option. Yet even reasonable, moderate, and otherwise very respectable Orthodox venues platform him, as if his work is worthy of serious engagement. These are just two examples, the loudest voices, and their wrath is primarily focused on LGBTQ+ issues. There are, sadly, many more instances of Orthodox ‘influencers’ spreading the AAE paradigm. Strangely, these AAE figures also tend to be partnered with secular political figures like Jordan Peterson, who present a shallow reading of Philosophy and Theology. It is common now to encounter significant pushback from American Orthodox converts on ecological/environmental issues; typical talking points of the evangelical-fundamentalist communities crop up often: “we are meant to use up the Earth! God will fix it!,” “animals don’t have souls, and don’t have rights!,” “we are meant to dominate the Earth, to subdue it!”

What is even more disturbing is that these influential figures have intentionally spread this mindset, and, in subtle ways, have essentialized it as “the true heart of Orthodoxy.” If you spend any time in Online-Orthodox spaces, you will hear that phrase thrown around quite a bit. “Position P is at the heart of Orthodoxy,” “How can you compromise the heart of Orthodoxy?,” “This is essential to the Orthodox mind!”, etc. The paradigm of AAE, with its wicked, essentializing compulsions, has infiltrated the Orthodox Church. I often find catechumens, under the influence of these sorts of figures, engaging in this essentializing behavior. There seems to be no awareness of the nuances of Orthodox teaching, no recognition of the complexities and spectrum of Orthodox Theology. Snappy catch-phrases, meant to sum up a theological position, are made in dogmatic statements, as if they had been ratified at an Ecumenical Council.

One more way in which these figures, and this movement, is harmful: currently, in online theological spaces, there is a significant number of people engaging in ecumenical dialogue. Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox are furthering understanding and Christian unity in beautiful ways. However, because the online Orthodox community is primarily dominated by those under an AAE paradigm, particularly young men looking to argue, the Orthodox side of things is, at best, abrasive. But abrasiveness is not the worst of it. Some recent converts have set themselves up as teachers of the Orthodox Tradition, and have amassed large followings. They pull in priests who largely agree with them, and influence otherwise reasonable and loving clergy. The outward facing image of Orthodoxy during these dialogues is thus distorted: the public only sees the AAE, convert-heavy version of Orthodoxy. One egregious example is that, in a recent series of interviews, one popular Orthodox Youtuber declared, with total sincerity, that his Baptist interlocutor was a schismatic, and that schismatics are damned to hell. This Youtuber did not think to nuance his claims, and appeared to have total confidence in these matters. As a result, the Baptist interviewer then used this comment, and still continues to use this comment, as an accurate representation of the “official” Orthodox position. Several years have passed, and the Baptist now runs one of the most successful polemical youtube channels. His videos all assume that these sorts of Orthodox speak for the entire tradition, and he has convinced many people to stay away from us. I have tried to gently push back on both parties with no results. It is sad to see this happen.

It is hard to analyze such a broad movement, such a broad subculture within Orthodoxy, with any precision. The figures I mentioned above, if made to read this article, would most likely deny what I have said as an unfair characterization. And of course they might not even understand what they are doing! Fr. Josiah has, in my view, very many admirable qualities, and is one of the few Orthodox who pushes the laity to renounce material wealth and live as Christians ought. But paradigms can be nasty things, they do not yield to simple analysis, and do not necessarily reside, in complete form, within those who spread them. Paradigms are social constructs, they are preserved and developed in communities, in a cultural context. These sorts of figures, unintentionally or not, are presenting the Orthodox Tradition in a certain light, and that presentation, interacting with the depravity of our contemporary culture, is birthing a new fusion of AAE and Orthodoxy. Given that there has been a large influx of American converts to Eastern Orthodoxy,⁵ the AAE paradigm has many vectors.

I am going to speculate a bit on why I think the AAE paradigm is so powerful, especially for young, white, American men. It is not because there is a crisis, as Rod Dreher might say, of masculinity, but a crisis of meaning. The modern, reductive worldview of mechanical physicalism, paired with a technological consumerism, has isolated us; not only has it destroyed our sense of community, but it's alienated the average American from meaningful labor. Not merely physical labor, but intellectual and spiritual labor. There is little money to be made in pursuits outside of robotic, data entry positions. Even those working sales and customer service now spend their days executing algorithmic tasks. In order to survive, Americans must spend most of their waking hours in isolation, frittering away their days on meaningless, unstimulating tasks. Even to find low paying but stable jobs, a young person must be willing to relocate, to divorce themselves from their local communities, and start over somewhere new. In their free time, people are exhausted, and simply do not have the hours of leisure required to pursue meaning. At the same time, the reductionist paradigm of pop-philosophy has reduced art to a mere tool of self-expression and emotional exploration, both with almost no ability to console or edify. The overabundance of information cripples the curious, and discourages further intellectual growth; it pushes many in the wrong direction, and even the most kind hearted, open minded internet user can fall down dangerous rabbit holes. Universities and public education are failing to equip people with the conceptual tools for seeking meaning, yet cripple their students with lifelong debts. And, of course, most Churches are Sunday-morning havens, not realities under which a young person can live, work, and find meaning. People are craving something more, craving to break free from the nihilistic landscape of the 21st century, but have little ability to do so themselves. They have no institutions to turn to. This, I think, is the population most vulnerable to becoming vectors for AAE.

In come figures like Jordan Peterson, Fr. Josiah Trenham (whom I have much respect for), and Rod Dreher, projecting a confidence, and offering a return to the “old ways.” Particularly for Peterson and Trenham, their followers, both online and in person, treat them as substitute fathers, and look to them for advice on how to make their lives more bearable. Jordan Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life, is subtitled, An Antidote to Chaos. Orthodoxy, with its beautiful liturgical cycle, offers structure for the individual, and places that individual within a community of people (supposedly) following the same rules. Not only does it offer an earthly community, but a rich heavenly host, promising a connection with not only supernatural beings, but God Himself, who loves and endorses our lives, activities and talents as valuable (even when the world does not). Many catechumens and converts seek rigorist spiritual fathers who encourage, or at least do not discourage, approaching the fasting periods as monastics might. Orthodoxy, then, can provide structure, a sense of community/connectedness, and a sense of eternal significance. These attractive features of Orthodoxy, taken together with the AAE’s promise of hidden knowledge, spiritual (or physical) warfare, and a sense of aggrievement (i.e. a persecution complex) is a powerful antidote to feelings of isolation and meaninglessness.

What I have described above should, for the historically and theologically educated, shock us. I hope it does. The Orthodox paradigm, with pankalia at its heart, is in danger of being distorted by those who have (rightly) clung to its outer trappings as an antidote to the chaos of their lives. These victims of modernity need a hospital, but instead find themselves running the hospitals, before being treated themselves. I do not wish to make the case for my political views here, but I can, without engendering needless controversy, point out that the American, AAE infused Eastern Orthodoxy does not, and cannot rightly claim to, speak for the entire tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, for instance, works for ecological justice, and sees this as part of the Orthodox vocation. But we need not even consider contemporary leaders in Orthodoxy to see that the AAE-Orthodox fusion cannot make claims to be the “heart of Orthodoxy.” Examine the status of women in the lives and work of the Cappadocian Fathers;⁶ inquire into the views of the fathers, and the Hebrew Prophets, on usury;⁷ explore the stance of the fathers towards non-believers and pagans; get to know the personalities of the fathers, as they shine through in their writings, and calibrate your own sense of ‘masculinity’ by using them as a reference; calibrate your own sense of anger to the recognition that all, even supposedly inert clumps of matter, are beautiful, valuable creations of God. If all this was done--if the theological and historical paradigm of Orthodoxy was internalized, and not just its outer trappings--we would quickly be able to recognize that the AAE crowd does not exhaustively, or even substantively, speak for the Orthodox, much less Christian, tradition.

Despite knowing all this, my heart remains shut. Every time I go to Church, I am anxious, and evade any sort of substantive discussions. When asked to get involved, I run, and even feel compelled to hide my true convictions from my brothers and sisters. At the same time, I struggle with constant irrational guilt, feeling as though this is all my fault. If the best exemplars of Orthodoxy had not been impressed upon me first, the situation on the ground would have driven me away, back into a totally isolated spiritual life. And what about those who have not seen the best of our tradition up front? What of those without the leisure to find constant communion with the saints through our literary tradition?

I am nervous that my newfound home may be so fundamentally transformed that I cannot be at peace in it. I left behind the protestant, evangelical world, in part because AAE had become predominant, and was deepening my alienation from God, only to find that it has infiltrated Orthodoxy as well. I close only with a hopeful warning, grounded in my own experience: the isolationist, radical tendencies of American Christians will only lead to more suffering. Children placed into homeschools for the wrong reasons, and without the supervision of experienced educators, will suffer as I did. And, in the end, this desire to shield our children from the wicked influences of the surrounding culture will undermine itself: an isolationist, conspiratorial approach to life leads to agnosticism and despair, since the education they receive will only be as good as their educators, who, Christian or not, are themselves products of the fickle and nihilistic world of modernity. Attempts to shelter my sister and I only pushed us further into mental and spiritual dysfunction; by depriving us of critical, well informed engagement with non-Christian, non-evangelical sources, and by withholding a solid scientific and historical education from us, we fell into deep confusion, skepticism, and despair. We could not locate our place in the world, or even along the historical timeline. Most of the children we were raised with grew into apathetic agnostics, antagonistic atheists, or isolationist Christians, hostile towards anyone they seem to be "different" (that includes us "Catholics without a Pope”). Deep mistrust of religious institutions and traditions unites these three outcomes. How can this be good for Orthodoxy?

UPDATE (02/20/2025)

I have received from pushback on my assessment of Rod Dreher. This has happened multiple times in person, and online. I think this is due to Dreher having two faces—the nice Christian man in his books, and the reactionary fear-mongering transphobe in his American Conservative articles. Most Orthodox I know only know him as the former. But my complaint about his latter half is justified. Please read the articles I link.

Overall, I lump Dreher in with the AAE mindset because his political commentary has several flaws. First, I provide links to multiple articles in this post where Rod Dreher calls trans people horrible, dehumanizing names and focuses on crude sexual deviancy as if it represents entire groups of people.

Second, he stirs up reactionary tendencies in people in two ways: by lumping all the ideas he doesn’t like into one category—progressives” or “the left”— and then proceeds to give people the impression that the progressives are intentionally attacking us. He is an expert at stirring up anger and reactionary tendencies in people by pretending that certain issues are bigger than they are. He makes parents scared of the outside world. THE PROGRESSIVES ARE COMING TO TURN YOUR KIDS TRANS! This irrationally poisons the well against anyone our culture perceives as “liberal,” myself included. He also poisons the well against entire genres of study, like Critical Race Theory.

Third, Dreher sees what is happening in culture as a corrupting force we must fight, rather than as a disorder to be lovingly healed. He emphasizing “judgement” and “turning out back on” the culture, rather than lovingly healing it. He attributes far too much weight to certain things like pornography as causes of some of our cultural ills. He says that porn use is leading to CIVILIZATIONAL COLLAPSE and is brainwashing boys into becoming trans. The left is “totalitarian” (but not the right?) according to Dreher. They are forcing beliefs on our children. (“Creating Monsters and Summoning Demons.”) He says,

As with Critical Race Theory fanaticism, these woke maniacs working their ideological sorcery to transform society according to their malignant ideologies are creating monsters and summoning demons. I’m speaking both literally and figuratively. (“Creating Monsters and Summoning Demons.”)

Dreher also platforms and seems to endorse someone who says that public school teachers peddle “LGBTQ pornography” in the classroom. (“The Coming Storm Over Trans ‘Tuskegee Experiment’”) He says in this post,

There will be no justice until every damn doctor, hospital, and medical association responsible for this atrocity has been sued into the ground, and some of them imprisoned. Forgiveness? Yes, in time (though that's easy for me to say, as I have not suffered what this father has suffered) -- but only after full lustration, only after Nuremberg-like tribunals, only after the trials, only after utter and complete shame shattering all the luminaries and the institutions -- including the Democratic Party, the TV networks, the major newspapers -- which brought this evil onto the lives of American children and their families.

He pretty much asserts that the forces pushing people to be trans are demonic, though he softens this by saying that it is ideological possession. ( “This Diabolical Moment.” )

These three tendencies of Dreher combine to create a vision of the modern world that deludes Christians into thinking that they are a small minority under siege (they are neither). It obscures the true causes of many of our woes and distracts us from addressing them (corporate greed, materialism, overconsumption, lack of love, lack of education, lack of culture, I could go on…). And it is written with such confidence that uninformed readers begin to think that this way of thinking is “common sense.” This can be used by dangerous people to do dangerous things, and it already has been. And why shouldn’t it? If we truly believe that our religion, moral code, civilization and children are under threat because of progressive agendas, then shouldn’t we do something drastic?

In fact, Dreher, in one article I link, says of pedophiles,

I would as soon see these men beaten on the public square to within an inch of their lives as I would look at them. I sent a link to that story last night to a US Senator I know, and asked him to read it. He responded and said he would. We have to get something going. (“Internet Porn & Civilization”)

Is this the Christian POV?

The point is, that I do not want his way of thinking to become associated with and dogmatic within Orthodoxy. Priests and Orthodox faithful will be held to account for who they platform, and how they tarnish or enhance the image of the Church.

1. Scruton’s views on this are most clearly put forward in two documentaries: “Why Beauty Matters” and “Of Beauty and Consolation.” These are a bit hard to locate online these days.

2. “When I first knew you, you lifted me up, so that I might see that there was something to be seen, though I was not yet fit to see it. And you beat back the weakness of my sight, shining forth upon me your dazzling beams of light, and I trembled with love and fear.” (Augustine. Confessions , 7.10.16)

3. “World Congress of Families.” Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed February 16, 2022. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/world-congress-families.

4. Dreher’s relevant articles:

Dreher, Rod. “Creating Monsters & Summoning Demons.” The American Conservative, May 24, 2021. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/wokeness-creating-monsters-summoning-demons/.

Dreher, Rod. “Internet Porn & Civilization.” The American Conservative, December 17, 2019. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/internet-pornography-and-civilization/.

Dreher, Rod. “Andrea Long Chu's Fake Vagina.” The American Conservative, November 13, 2019. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/meaning-of-andrea-long-chu-fake-vagina/

Dreher, Rod. “The Coming Storm Over Trans ‘Tuskegee Experiment’ “ Transhttps://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-coming-storm-over-trans-tuskegee-experiment/

Dreher, Rod. “This Diabolical Moment".” https://www.theamericanconservative.com/this-diabolical-moment-cbdc-transgender/

5. According to one report, around half the Orthodox in the U.S. are now converts: (Pitts, Jonathan M. “Conversions Gradually Transforming Orthodox Christianity.” baltimoresun.com, June 24, 2017. https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-non-greek-greek-orthodox-priest-20170624-story.html.)

6. Meredith, Anthony. The Cappadocians. SVP, 1997.

7. Maloney, Robert P. “The Teaching of the Fathers on Usury: An Historical Study on the Development of Christian Thinking.” Vigiliae Christianae 27, no. 4 (1973): 241–65.