“For all who surround him are ready to smite and overthrow him, not only his enemies and foes, but many of those who pretend to love him.”
— St. John Chrysostom, “On the Priesthood“
Merriam-Webster defines a “double standard” as “a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another.” Well, that precisely describes what is going on in the Orthodox Church in America.
One group of clergy can utter highly political, left-wing shibboleths with nary a peep (which I illustrated in part 1 with the assistance of a discerning Dissident Mama reader), yet when a priest from the other conservative group dares to stand against an injustice, he’s almost immediately canceled.
I agree with David “therealMedWhite” and Luke Kendrat’s recent conversation. They emphatically state that it’s time for laity to unapologetically resist the cultural-Marxist tide sweeping through some American parishes and jurisdictions. In fact, pushing against progressivism’s long march through the institutions is our Christian duty, and it is very much in line with Church history, they say. Now, there’s some Orthodoxy in dialogue for ya!
The two champions for the faith also discuss the suspension of Father Mark Hodges – the fateful event that was the impetus for my last essay – as well as the incendiary blog that helped to bring him down … for now. (At top is the website’s pretext-laden photo montage which ran with their original hit piece on Father Mark.)
What may seem like inside-baseball squabbling among some Orthodox is actually a serious situation because it makes so palatable the contradictory paradigm under which we conservatives and traditionalists (both Christian and otherwise) find ourselves in all quarters of society: there are no rules for leftists but quite draconian and ever-changing rules for everyone else. And if you dare break them, you’ll be scorned a racist insurrectionist, a democracy-crushing conspiracy theorist, a coup-attempting neo-Confederate, or maybe even a seditious Nazi.
That’s why Father Mark made the headlines, everywhere from Fox News, Newsweek, the NY Post and San Francisco Chronicle, to Business Insider, The Hill, the Daily Beast and even even the UK’s Daily Mail. Sure, these Big Media publications may say they’re just disseminating the news that Fr. Hodges was indeed suspended and might face defrocking for attending the Stop the Steal rally in DC.
But the mass coverage also hammers home the “storming of the Capitol” narrative, which is meant to discourage future activism among conservatives, liberty-lovers, and any common-sense people who are fed up with the globohomo regime. It aims to decrease dissent, and increase disavowing and distraction.
The unfolding of Father Mark’s story also undergirds the theme that Christianity is a cult of superstitious and backwards homophobes who just need a good reformin’. I mean, it’s these uneducated and unenlightened haters (just like those mean ol’ white supremacists), who stand in the way of the planet finally attaining utopia. We’d be there already, if it weren’t for the Father Marks of the world.
Plus, many of the articles propagate false information. Shocking, I know. For example, some claim that Metropolitan Tikhon, head of the Orthodox Church in America, had issued a statement condemning the events on January 6. However, that is not what I find in the hierarch’s quite milquetoast pronouncement for peace and unity.
Some sources reported that Father Mark “scrubbed” his Facebook page. But last I checked, this is not the reality. Of course, the insinuation of both of these items is that Hodges is one bad dude.
According to the Christian Post, the priest’s diocese is now denying that Father Mark’s suspension even has anything to do with the protest and is more the “result of various circumstances” that are “part of an internal process.” That’s what we who’ve worked in public relations call “damage control.”
I think it’s safe to say that the abounding double standards are the purported “circumstances.” Father Mark’s outspoken fight for faith, family, and life have simply triggered the pearl-clutchers within the internal process for too long.
Just search “Fr. Mark Hodges” at LifeSiteNews to see the many essays he authored in opposition to the sinister status quo, and you’ll see what I mean. Thus, canning him for the “deadly DC riot” was just a win-win-win: silence his dissidence, appease the LGBT brigade, and buttress the cultural-Marxist mythos.
To me, the even more perilous ramification is that Father Mark’s censure is a blow for the Orthodox Church. Monomakhos puts it well: “I can’t help but wonder how many honest, patriotic American Christians who have been thinking about Orthodoxy are now thinking ‘yeah – no.’” Earnest Christians will be aghast when they realize that it’s not just the Protestants and Catholics who have an evangeleftist problem.
If Orthodoxy goes woke, there is nothing to set it apart from the rest of America’s other withering churches. If it marches in lockstep with the world and the directives of its nihilist puppet masters, what’s the point? Conservatives will flee, seekers will never show up at all, and progressives can only plug the holes in their jurisdiction’s sinking ship for so long. This is both a matter of personal salvation and collective strength for a future Church here in the West. Existential is not too bold a word.
Originally, my final pitch was going to urge readers to contact Archbishop Paul Gassios at [email protected] or 312-202-0420 to insist upon the reinstatement of Father Mark Hodges. But being that Father Paul recently penned a predictable pronouncement against the “sedition and rebellion” that took place at the Capitol protest and has written no such condemnation of BLM-Antifa’s six months of rioting (per a site search of the archbishop’s essays), I wouldn’t hold my breath for a forthcoming reinstatement or even an apology for the rebuked priest.
Whether it’s priests encouraging sin while excoriating and reviling those who resist it, or bishops pushing the vaccine as a “purely medical” and not a spiritual or political issue, wolves abound. So, “we must speak out in defense of the righteous shepherds,” as Father Ioannes Apiarius advised.
It is our job to forthrightly challenge this hypocrisy and support Father Mark, a humble and godly man who prays even for his enemies. After all, it is those good shepherds who will be the ones standing up for us and our children, and against the wiles of the devil in the coming days of increased secular-humanist persecution. These are the selfless acts of true unity and love – the singular standards of our ancient and undying faith.
Source: Dissident Mama – Where’s the clerical consistency? – part 2