Where’s the clerical consistency? – part 1

“If a man is passionate or mean, or conceited or boastful, or anything else of the kind, it [the priesthood] unveils all his shortcomings and speedily lays them bare.”

St. John Chrysostom

Note: The following essay is part-parody of the blog post "Open Letter: OCA priest participates in Trump riot, reported to FBI" and part-call-to-action, since the information recorded here is absolutely true and should be challenged. My critique is meant to not only elucidate the partisan and peremptory suspension of Father Mark Hodges (more about his story in part 2), while also ridiculing the one-sided system from whence it came.

An observant reader has informed us here at Dissident Mama that there is a shocking double-standard in the policing of clergy in the Orthodox Church in America. To keep him/her safe from the very real and present danger of death threats in today’s sociopolitical climate, we are publishing his/her social-media research anonymously.

This fellow Orthodox believer has shared with us for dissemination to our readers around the planet evidence that while conservative priests are held to account for woke wrongs, left-wing priests are allowed to communicate without impunity highly partisan political rhetoric.

Yet, this is in direct opposition to the OCA’s social media guidelines for clergy: “Clergy should refrain from making political statements, joining political groups, or ‘becoming fans’ of particular political candidates or political causes on social network sites.”

And what’s more troubling is that the proof seems to suggest that the biggest benefactor of this glaring inequity is the Right Reverend Christopher Calin, an archimandrite (the highest rank of the priesthood and only one step below bishop) and dean of the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection in New York City.

How is this not a political statement?

Is this not becoming a fan of both a particular political candidate and a particular political cause (note rainbow splatters which certainly don’t mean God’s promise to Noah in this context)?

A political statement but at least it’s urging prayer.

Not sure if he’s a member of this activism group, but it sure is a political statement.

Political and petulant – the telltale sign of a progressive.

Defending the BLM-Antifa riots and perpetuating the “Trump is Hitler” narrative by co-opting holocaust language.

Apparently, Trump is a “coward” for closing down one public square only after BLM-Antifa mobs burned a historic church and vandalized monuments, while Biden puts all of DC on lockdown. But maybe the good father laments DC now truly looking like “a militarized zone.”

Oh well, I guess not. Funny how 7 months and a new president makes all the difference to a political priest. Like San Fran Nan says, “our Executive Branch cowers in fear of protesters who are crying out for justice.” So much so that many of the pissed-off patriots who took part in the Jan. 6 protest are facing literal sedition charges and up to 20 years in prison. Perhaps the archimandrite’s prayers have been answered.

Comparing the DC protest to 9/11 really is duplicitous and unbecoming of any person who claims to be “intellectually curious.”

Anti-whiteness rears its head and empathy is nowhere to be found. All caps is the hallmark of a prideful man who aims to deflect.

Funny that even though Calin’s own essay simply called “Statement” (found on his parish’s About Us page) says, “We oppose any actions or laws limiting liberty, justice, the right of self-determination, freedom of speech, and civil rights throughout the world,” he obviously does not hold firm to those stated beliefs.

Pre-Trump Nazi fetish + a “Forward” meme + castigating the Gadsden Flag and Battle Flag as racist = one woke priest. Ain’t nothin’ more political than that.

More from his parish website statement, “We pray for peaceful coexistence of all nations and peoples in the unity of the Holy Spirit and as the logical extension of our incarnational theology.” Yeah, calling 71 million American voters “white supremacist” probably isn’t a good start. Oh yeah, and did I mention that that’s a political statement?

Just in case you missed it, social-justice warriors: Call anyone you disagree with a Nazi. Got it? Seems to be right in line with his parish’s “About Tolerance” section, which features a quote from Lutheran, philosopher, and social-liberalism advocate Karl Popper: “We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.”

Wearing a mask outdoors? Check. Virtue-signaling selfie? Check. Uninformed, misinformed, and intellectually incurious? You know it.

Nothing to see here, folks. Just a priest normalizing the violent riots that raged for six months and were the most costly in US history, and even featured the destruction of government buildings. Gasp, you don’t say?! I thought only conservatives “stormed” those sacred places.

I have not nor have I ever agreed to the social contract, which places authority of the godless state over the individual. That’s a progressive paradigm, Father. Have you ever stopped to think that the DC protesters were just rising up and speaking out against the “last vestiges” of the sick and sinister system in which you put so much faith?

If it’s hard to read, it’s because the left can’t meme. If it’s hard to stomach, it’s because anti-whiteness is a devilish ideology.

But, but, but I thought that Calin celebrated “deadly force … arrest and ruin” and violating the civil rights of intolerants?

Yep, “immigrant rights” (i.e. open borders) is purely political. Then again, even the OCA’s Met. Tikhon and other bishops twist their spiritual tongues when it meets their worldly needs.

C’mon. At this point are you shocked in the least that he sides with the schismatics in Ukraine over the Russian Orthodox Church?

Sure, this frame was added after a shooting, but still. At the very least, it’s an ecumenical virtue-signal. At worst, he’s undergirding the archetype.

And speaking of ecumenism …

It’s telling that he shares a post by a controversial lefty bishop who denigrates traditionalist Christian clergy as Muslims.

Aha, now we’re getting at the heart of the matter. So, Calin hates official church teaching on homosexuality as inherently sinful, as does the website that ran the open letter. In fact, its irksome editor sees sodomy as a holy war and, thus, a conservative priest’s suspension as a “small victory for LGBTQ Orthodox Christians.”

More predictable political platitudes. Hey, why don’t we just scrap it all and fight against homophobia with this nifty Orthodox calendar?!

Honoring pederast Harvey Milk.

Repentance is anathema to the rainbow mafia. I mean, why struggle against your sin when you can just celebrate it? So the thinking goes: Homosexuality and all its deviant behaviors is not a sin, but “transphobia” is. The equity and inclusion overfloweth.

Wow, those are some sturdy and scientific facts there, Father. Just as LGBT activists play loose with the self-fulfilling prophecy numbers of trans suicide, the implication here is that church doctrine kills people. If only Orthodox Christians would be nicer.

“While we don’t engage fools in their folly, we must warn the Church about them.”

Fr. Ioannes Apiarius

We at Dissident Mama are “chilled to the bone” that the OCA attracts the sorts of followers, like fellow-traveler Father Joshua Coolman. Below he displays a quote from the “progressive Christian theologian,” who encouraged young girls and women to surrender their purity rings so that they could be melted down and made into a vagina sculpture that was presented to longtime feminist Gloria Steinem. Father Coolman might be well advised to be more circumspect concerning with whom he makes common cause.

Were it not for our concerned reader who has brought these images to our attention, we might not be wise to the insurrectionists in our midst. “I did not do so out of political, social, or spiritual spite,” he/she explained.

Had it not been for his/her brave handiwork, we might be lulled into complacence by outwards appearances. “I did it out of civic responsibility,” he/she added.

Or because we faithful are always seeking unity to strengthen the Church, we might turn a blind eye to the revolutionary spirit brewing in some of our jurisdictions.

Perhaps some cassock-donned wolves, who are purposefully identifiable as Orthodox priests and representatives of the Orthodox Church, are attempting a siege – a kind of cucked coup within the OCA and beyond.

Father Juvenaly also happens to be an OCA archimandrite and the admin for the Facebook group Progressive Orthodox Christianity, where all the juicy left-wing politics is unabashedly on display.

Concerned citizens at Monomahkos and Orthodoxy Today have already in years past pointed out that Calin’s public figure page on Facebook contains nothing of spiritual edification for Orthodox faithful, but rather a steady stream of left-wing conspiracy theories, election denialism, anti-Trumpism, anti-whiteness, and promotion of the rallies where domestic terrorist groups incited insurrections against law-abiding citizens. Yet, these condemnations have fallen on deaf ears.

Unfortunately, the woke priest’s actions cannot be reported to the FBI, since the government agency has not requested information on him/her because all of his/her beliefs fall right inline with the federal regime.

So, we pray that the stark inconsistencies, the abetting of violence and sin, and the hurt will end in our jurisdictions, and in our Church. Like Saint Ambrose opined, “Not only for every idle word must man give an account, but for every idle silence.”

Please contact the Most Reverend Michael Dahulich at [email protected] or (914) 779-6580 to register your concerns. You need not be part of the OCA’s Diocese of New York and New Jersey, or even Orthodox to write or phone him. We are deeply hopeful that His Eminence will recognize the gravity of the situation and swiftly suspend Calin and his collaborators.

Be sure to keep an eye out the forthcoming part 2.

Source: Dissident Mama – Where’s the clerical consistency? – part 1

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