Saint Dionysios of Zakynthos (1)

St. Dionysios of Zakynthos (Feast Day - December 17)

by Theoharis Provatakis

St. Dionysios was born in 1547 at the village of Aigialos on the island of Zakynthos. He was descended from the famous Sigouros family and his secular name was Gradenigos or Draganigos Sigouros.

When his ancestors arrived on the island, its ruler awarded them lands in the southwest of the island, which they cultivated and where they lived contentedly. A little later the family took part in the Venetian wars against the Turks, with the result that the Venetian Senate not only recognized the award of the lands which they held, but also inscribed their name in the register of the aristocracy. The majority of the members of the family became Orthodox and were notable for their profound faith and the integrity of their convictions. Among these noble fighters were the ancestors of the Saint. His parents were called Mokios Sigouros and Pavlina Valvi. There were three children of their marriage: Draganigos (the future saint), Constantine and Sigoura. All three were brought up in the atmosphere of an Orthodox family and the principles and teaching of the Orthodox Church were instilled into them. All three of them were ever ready to do good and their lives were exemplary, as was their constant championing of the Christian cause.

The Childhood and Education of the Saint

According to a tradition, passed down from generation to generation among the people of Zakynthos, the Saint had St. Gerasimos as his godfather. His parents began his education and cultivated in him a sense of the works of God.

In a contract of 27 October 1557, which used to be kept in the Historical Archives of Zakynthos, but which was unfrotunately destroyed by a fire in 1953, the Saint's father engaged the learned teacher Kairophylas, who undertook to teach the ten-year old "the letters of the Church, that is, hymns, the prayer services, the Psalter, the Epistles and Scripture".

This elementary education was later followed by more extensive studies under pious and learned tutors. It does not, however, appear that the Saint went very far from his native Zakynthos. Perhaps he sat at the feet of the distinguished theologians who travelled about Europe and stopped off at Zakynthos. Be that as it may, he learned Ancient Greek, Latin and even Italian very well, though his principle studies were in Holy Scripture, the Fathers of the Church and "classical" Theology. It may be concluded from one of his letters that he wrote commentaries on the works of Gregory the Theologian.

Withdrawal From the World

As the Saint grew up he became increasingly spiritually attached to the immortal truths of the Christian religion. The affairs of this world meant nothing to him and nothing was capable of deflecting him from the way of God. Neither the nobility of his birth nor great riches nor the glory and honor of office could distract him. He was very strict with himself and very indulgent towards the shortcomings of others. His great zeal for the Kingdom of God lead him quickly and steadily to eternal truths.

At the age of 21 he severed all connections with the world and retired to the monastery on the Strofades islands, which lie south of Zakynthos. It appears he already lost his parents and for that reason he bestowed all his property to his brother Constantine, laying on him the responsibility of providing their sister Sigoura with a dowry in accordance with the customs of the island.

On his arrival at the monastery, he gave himself to fasting and vigils and devoted many hours to prayer. He studied the Scriptures and the lives of the saints and martyrs of the Faith day and night. Very soon, with his study and prayer, he emerged as a spiritual advisor of great stature, with the result that many of the fathers of the monastery, older than himself, sought him and endeavored to imitate him. He became a monk a little later, taking the name Daniel. His fame as a good spiritual father spread rapidly throughout the island, with the result that the community of Zakynthos, out of regard for his personality, offered him the Monastery of Panagia Anaphonitria. As soon as he arrived there, the Saint reorganized the monastery, making out of it an important training ground for the monastic life.

Strofades Monastery

Priest and Bishop

Now that he was a monk, Daniel continued to work night and day, in strict conformity with the precepts of Holy Scripture. One year later, the Bishop of Kefallonia and Zakynthos, Philotheos, in appreciation of his work, ordained him a priest, in spite of Daniel's objections that he considered the office of a priest to be a great one and beyond his capabilities. Some time later, in 1557, he set off to Piraeus, intending to go to the Holy Land, to pray at the scenes of our Lord's life and to seek His assistance in his difficult task. On his way through Athens he visited the Archbishop of Athens Nicanor to seek his blessing. As a result of their conversations, the Archbishop formed such a high opinion of the Saint that he offered him, and finally persuaded him to accept, the vacant bishopric of Aegina, which was then within the jurisdiction of the See of Athens. When the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah, heard of this decision of the Archbishop of Athens, he readily assented and gave permission for him to be consecrated. Thus the monk Daniel was consecrated Bishop of Aegina and took the name of Dionysios in honor of St. Dionysios the Areopagite. His consecration took place in the Church of St. Eleutherios, which is near the present Cathedral of Athens. Following his consecration, the Saint left for Aegina, to take up his new duties.

The Orthodox of Aegina and the Saint

Upon his arrival to Aegina the new Bishop was received with joy by the inhabitants, headed by the clergy. He began immediately his work of renewal. Tireless in carrying out his duties, he worked with exactness and conscientiousness. His way of life was ascetic and he labored day and night. Wherever there was a problem, a difficulty, poverty or rejoicing, the Saint was present. He was the protector of the faithful on Aegina and the champion of Orthodoxy. The poor and destitute turned to him, orphans and widows looked to him, and even the rich and the shipowners sought his company daily in order to listen to his wise advice. He, in his turn, rejoiced with those who rejoiced and wept with those who wept. Even today there is a stone seat preserved in the old Cathedral a few kilometers outside Perachora on the island which is called by the inhabitants "the throne of the Saint". It was from this that he preached and instructed his flock with apostolic simplicity. Gradually the fame of this holy man spread not only to the neighboring islands, but further afield. There was a constant stream of admirers from Athens, Megara, Salamis, Poros and other places arriving to hear him and to have the opportunity of seeing and marvelling at this exemplary prelate.

The Saint's Second Sight

Among other gifts of the Saint was that of second sight. Once, when he was hearing the Confession of the hieromonk Pankratios, the latter concealed a sin from him and the Saint reminded him of it with the words: "Do you not remember when you were celebrating the Eucharist, that you let fall some fragment of the Host, because you were not showing sufficient care?" The hieromonk Pankratios was astonished at this revelation on the part of the Saint and with tears of repentance confessed that he was guilty of this serious lapse in his priestly duties and sought forgiveness. The Saint counseled him to approach the Heavenly King with reverence, fear and trembling, since the angels themselves cannot look upon him.

The Resignation of the Saint

In 1579 St. Dionysios resigned from his office as Bishop of Aegina and returned to Zakynthos. The reason for this was that he was afraid lest the praises of men, which had raised him to such heights, should plunge him down to the abyss of vanity. This fear lead him to resign from his episcopal throne, much to the distress of the people of Aegina, who thus lost their spiritual father. The Saint, however, reassured them and took care to provide them a successor.

The people of Zakynthos were glad to welcome him back. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah, now appointed him suffragan Bishop of Zakynthos and President of the Community. Here also the Saint went to work immediately. He ordained clergy, presided at feasts, services, funerals, memorial services, etc. He accepted money from no one, with the result that the interests of the Bishop of Kefallonia were adversely affected. Some of the latter's fellow-islanders went to Venice and complained about Dionysios to the Doge, alleging that he was interfering in another's jurisdiction. As a result of these complaints, the Doge of Venice, Nicholas Daponte, sent orders in 1581 to the Provisore of Zakynthos, Contarino, that "the Very Reverend Dionysios Sigouros shall abstain from any ecclesiastical function falling within the jurisdiction of Kefallonia and Zakynthos, rendering up to the Bishop...whatever of his jurisdiction he has usurped."

Dionysios, in spite of the fact he had been appointed by the Patriarch, announced his resignation and thus scandal and quareling were avoided. However, the love and respect of the people of Zakynthos for him was such that the next year he was elected parish priest of the Church of St. Nicholas.


The Saint Shelter's His Brother's Murderer

There was at this period, as confirmed by the records of the Republic of Venice, a deadly enmity between the Mondinos and the Sigouros families. The efforts of the Saint to effect a reconciliation had been in vain. Things had reached a point where murders had been committed and the population was divided into two factions.

The incidents between the two families continued to the point where in one of them the Saint's brother, Constantine, was killed. The murderer, in despair, sought refuge in the Anaphonitria Monastery, without knowing that the Abbot was the brother of his victim. In reply to the Abbot's questioning, he admitted the murder and told him that Sigouros' relatives were pursuing him. Dionysios was plunged into the most profound sorrow, both as a man and as the brother of the murderer's victim. His grief was all the greater because Constantine had been his only brother. However, he said nothing of all this to the murderer, asking him only, in a fatherly way: "Tell me, what wrong had that noble man done to you that you should unjustly slay him?"

The Saint, when he had shed tears for the cruel loss of his brother, gave the murderer food and water and spoke to him in an effort to induce him to repent of this grave crime and so escape eternal punishment. Then the Saint lead him out of the Monastery and down to the seashore. There he provided him with the necessary supplies, giving him money and food, and put him on a boat for the Peloponnese. Thus the Saint rescued the murderer of his own brother, demonstrating at the same time his own great forbearance.

The Death of the Saint

The days passed, the years rolled by and the Saint tirelessly continued his work for the good of souls. He was the protector of the Orthodox and the champion of Orthodoxy. At a great age - for those days - he perceived that the time of his departure was at hand. He summoned his followers and revealed to them that he was soon to leave them for the next world. Thus, calm and serene, he rendered up his soul on 17 December 1622, at the age of 75. He left all that he had to the Monastery. His last wish was that he should be buried in the Church of St. George on the Strofades islands, where he had been a monk. His wish was carried out.


Three years later, when the remains were to be disinterred, they found the whole of his body incorrupt, exhuding the odor of sanctity. For this reason they placed the body in a coffin and afterwards upright on the bishop's throne. The historian of the period, Ferrari, notes that, "I saw the sacred relics on the episcopal throne, intact, apart from the teeth and the tip of the nose".

Although he had not yet been officially proclaimed a saint by the Church, the faithful honored him as such, as a result of the miracles performed daily at the behest of those who had recourse to him with faith. His many miracles established his position in the hearts of the Orthodox, with the result that he was later officially canonized by the Orthodox Church by a decree by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1703, signed by ten synodical bishops.

Procession in Zakyntho
Procession in Aegina


Apolytikion in the First Tone
The offspring of Zakynthos and bishop of Aegina, protector of Strophades Monastery, Saint Dionysios, O faithful, let us all with one accord now honor and sincerely cry to him: "By your fervant prayers save us who are observing your mem'ry and who cry to you: Glory to Christ who glorified you; glory to Him who made you marvelous; glory to Him who gave you to us as a sleepless advocate."

Kontakion in the Third Tone
On this day doth Zakynthos call all the faithful together, rousing them to offer praise in songs and hymns of thanksgiving to our great and fervent helper in needs and sorrows, who doth swiftly rescue them that are caught in perils. And she honoureth him, crying: O Dionysius, boast of the faithful, rejoice!


Part Two - The Miracles of Saint Dionysios of Zakynthos

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Europe's Religion Delusion

According to the European Court of Human Rights, it is fine for government schools to expel students for wearing religiously mandated clothing.

DECEMBER 11, 2009
By LUKE GOODRICH
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Three children walk into a European state school—a Muslim, a Sikh, and an atheist. The Muslim and the Sikh are expelled because they wear religious clothing: a headscarf for the Muslim girl, and a turban for the Sikh boy. The atheist is welcomed into the school, but feels uncomfortable because her classroom has a crucifix on the wall. Whose religious freedom has been violated?

If you said the Muslim and the Sikh, you are wrong—at least according to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court recently shocked Europe by striking down an Italian law that put a crucifix on the wall of every state classroom. (Lautsi v. Italy) According to the Court, the presence of a crucifix interfered with students' right to choose their own religion (or nonreligion).

Just four months ago, however, the same Court upheld a French law that forbids children from wearing any religious symbols in French government schools. (J. Singh v. France) Under that law, 14-year-old Jasvir Singh, a devout Sikh, was expelled from school for wearing a keski—a small, cloth under-turban similar to the Jewish yarmulke. He was forced to complete his schooling at a more tolerant Catholic school.

Similarly, just a few years ago, the Court upheld a Turkish university's ban on wearing the Islamic headscarf. (Şahin v. Turkey) Under the ban, Leyla Şahin, a devout Turkish Muslim, was prohibited from taking her exams or enrolling in additional classes; she was forced to move to Austria to finish her medical studies.

In short, according to the European Court of Human Rights—which, by international treaty, has binding authority on human rights issues over all 47 countries in the Council of Europe—it is fine for government schools to expel students for wearing religiously mandated clothing; but if the school instead welcomes all children while displaying a crucifix on the wall, it violates the freedom of religion and belief.

The inconsistency of these decisions is fairly obvious. The more interesting question is, What drives the Court's inconsistency?

The common theme in these cases is that the Court views religious expression as a threat to a free, democratic society. In the Turkish Muslim case, the Court justified the headscarf ban on the ground that it was necessary to protect the public order and the freedom of others. Specifically, allowing a student to wear a headscarf would threaten Turkey's commitment to secularism, make other students uncomfortable, and undermine the principle of gender equality. The same arguments (minus gender equality) justified the French ban on the Sikh keski.

Similarly, in the Italian crucifix case, the Court rejected the notion, advanced by Italy, that the crucifix was a symbol of Italian history, identity, and culture and thus furthered the principles of equality, liberty, and tolerance. Rather, in the Court's view, the presence of a crucifix in a state classroom would be "disturbing" to atheists and religious minorities.

In short, the Court views religious expression not primarily as a social good, but as a threat to democratic society—a source of division, oppression, and conflict. States are fully justified in pursuing an aggressive program of secularism because secularism is, in the Court's words, "the guarantor of democratic values," "the meeting point of liberty and equality," and a bulwark against "external pressure from extremist movements." Similarly, any attempts by the government (such as Italy) to acknowledge the value of religion—as a fundamental aspect of human history, identity, and culture, and a force for equality, liberty, and tolerance—are inherently suspect.

The view of religion as a threat is, of course, common. "New atheists," such as Richard Dawkins, are one manifestation of that view; he dubs the Catholic Church a "disgusting institution," one of the "greatest force[s] for evil in the world." But new atheists are not the only ones. Others cite a history of religious wars, Muslim oppression of women, or Christian skepticism of science as proving the dangers of religion. Backwards, superstitious, and bigoted, a threat to science and progress: religion is a divisive, intolerant force that governments should tame.

There are two possible responses to this view. One is to attack the premise, arguing that, no, religion really is a force for social good. Religion motivated 19th century abolitionists; religion gave us Mother Teresa; religion permeates the Louvre.

But might there be reasons to protect religious freedom even assuming religion is harmful? I offer three. First, a practical one: suppressing religion may exacerbate the very problems it is designed to solve. History shows that religion does not disappear when governments try to suppress it. It goes underground, sometimes erupting more violently than if it were not suppressed.

Second, empowering governments to deem religion harmful, and therefore suppress it, opens the door to tyranny. Freedom of religion and freedom of expression are inextricably linked. If the government can deem religion harmful and suppress it in the name of public order, it can do the same to other ideas. It is no coincidence that many of the 20th century's most tyrannical governments—Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia—made suppression of religion a centerpiece of their administration.

Finally, suppressing religion—even when done in the name of freedom and equality—strikes at the heart of human dignity, which is the foundation of all human rights. Every human being is born with a "religious" impulse—the urge to seek truth, to embrace the truth as one finds it, and to order one's life accordingly. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, "All human beings are born free" and are "endowed with reason and conscience." Absent a serious threat of violence or imminent harm, suppressing religion interferes with people's ability to be fully human, to seek and embrace the truth as they understand it.

A serious commitment to human rights requires governments to respect the religious impulse—even if much of society thinks religious beliefs are wrong, silly, or even harmful. If the European Court of Human Rights cannot get past its fear of religion, its jurisprudence will only become more incoherent, and all human rights more fragile.

Mr. Goodrich is the Deputy National Litigation Director for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund has represented Anglicans, Agnostics, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians, among others, in lawsuits in the United States and around the world.

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Why We're Fascinated by the Paranormal, Masonic Myths and Secret Societies

December 15, 2009
Anneli Rufus
AlterNet

This is hardly the first time in history that people have suddenly started spouting prophecies and speaking with the dead. These fads come in waves, usually fostered in the wake of unbearable tragedy. What else to do about earthquakes, floods, epidemics, dictators and wars than wonder which demon or deity devised this living hell and why, and what sacrifice or sorcery might make it stop? It is always fear and despair that sets us on this train of thought. During a gold rush or when we've just been given a clean bill of health, we need not believe in magic.

In the Black Death-ridden Middle Ages, chilled and starved by a climate shift now known as the Little Ice Age, Europe became obsessed with the body parts of saints. Crystal-encased, gem-bedecked bones and hanks of hair and half-mummified fingers, heads and hearts were credited with curative powers. Pilgrims packed cathedrals housing so-called holy relics, sometimes trampling the sick and weak during stampedes. Centuries later, the occult became the next big thing again as World War I and the 1918 flu epidemic found seances filling entire auditoriums around the world. Yet another paranormal paroxysm crested in the early 1970s: Think Watergate, Vietnam and the post-'60s awareness—a tragedy for some—that nothing would ever be the same again.

And now: Twin Towers. Financial collapse. War. Flood. The H1N1 virus is our plague.

Or is it? "In recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation," as he put it, Barack Obama declared a national state of emergency on October 23. This declaration allows the federal government to waive certain requirements regarding prevention and treatment procedures because "the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities," Obama said.

But the folks at AntichristIdentity.com would probably say this is just his latest step in "progressing the Antichrist system that is gathering pace after the recent world economic upheaval"—a system that "implicates not only Barack Obama but also Javier Solana of the European Union, Prince Charles of Wales, Queen Beatrix of Netherlands and Prince Hassan of Jordan," a "power bloc" that "will drive the Antichrist world government." The folks at BeastObama.com call it "amazing stuff going on here, right before our eyes ... and it fits the pattern set out in Revelation 13."

Every paranormal paroxysm involves politics. That's only natural. We cannot help but brood about whomever rules the world. Is their might the result of keen diplomacy—or sigils chiseled into halls-of-power floors? Who's really in that entourage? We cannot help but wonder as, joking-but-not-quite-joking, we doodle cartoons of George W. Bush with devil horns.

It's all about control, as that's what wizards, angels, demons, gods and elected officials wield. Is it such a long leap from superpower to supernatural?

Rumors of a secret cabal plotting to create a New World Order have been swirling almost ever since the Old World Order began. The nature of these shady puppeteers depends on who's doing the worrying. Jews have been evergreen suspects, whether it's the Elders of Zion or my penniless ancestors slogging through the Polish mud. Secret societies such as the Knights Templar and Freemasons stoke automatic fear: What are they doing in there?

As initiated members of a nondenominational, multiracial, all-male society whose origins are veiled in mystery but was probably founded in the late 16th century, Freemasons base their symbology on the tools of traditional stonemasons and allude, in their top-secret, tell-no-tales rituals, to the building of the Temple of Solomon. They wear lambskin aprons and do things with compasses, and they've been blamed for darn near everything. The Vatican officially condemned the brotherhood in 1738 for being "as political as they were religious," writes Jay Kinney in The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth About the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry (HarperOne, 2009). And even though George Washington, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin were all Masons (lending support to rumors that the Boston Tea Party was a Masonic plot), America's first third party was the Anti-Masonic Party. It was founded in 1826 and four years later, Kinney tells us, 124 different anti-Masonic newspapers were thriving.

Like others before and after him, Adolf Hitler believed that Freemasonry was a Zionist front. Railing against "the international world Jew" in Mein Kampf, he conjectured that "to strengthen his political position ... the governing circles and the higher strata of the political and economic bourgeoisie are brought into his nets by the strings of Freemasonry. ... The prohibition of Masonic secret societies," Hitler predicted, would silence "the hissing of the Jewish world hydra."

Article 22 of the Hamas Covenant repeats the Jewish/Mason claim, and then some: "With their money, they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies." Other conspiracy theorists charge the Masons with faking the moon landing, worshiping Satan and assassinating JFK.

"Within the thriving subculture of present-day born-again Christianity," writes Kinney, a longtime Gnosis magazine editor and 32nd-degree Knight Commander Court of Honor in Freemasonry's Scottish Rite, "anti-Masonic books are a mainstay," thanks to evangelists such as Pat Robertson, who has called the brotherhood "a mystery religion designed to replace the old Christian world order of Europe and America." Kinney mocks those "legions of anti-Masons, most of them superstitious believers in the occult as a demon-infested quagmire," who "shiver dramatically as they hawk their books and videos." He also notes that British conspiracy theorist David Icke, the most famous proponent of the reptilian concept, posts material at his Web site alleging that "there are secret tunnels beneath every Masonic lodge to facilitate reptilian rendezvous." Yet Kinney insists that Freemasonry's origins were neither alien nor occult: "Rather, it seems to have been an attempt to create a nucleus of men of goodwill, over and above fractious religious conflicts, using the motifs and symbols of temple building as working tools both for the deepening of the individual soul and for building an archetypal temple to the Most High in the collective imagination of humanity."

Okay, but what are they doing in there? And are they or are they not intertwined with the Illuminati, a soooopersecret club founded in Germany in 1776 and modeled on the Masons but which Kinney claims disbanded in the 1780s but which conspiracy theorists insist still thrives, boasting such members as Barack Obama and both Bushes. "All this chaos, genocide, ethnic cleansing and the overall disasters have a genuine purpose," we read at Illuminati-News.com:

"It is all very carefully planned by a few people, mostly men, behind the scenes, high up in the society. ... These people on top, who basically are of Royal Bloodlines, is currently working on reducing the world population in order to easier maintain their control. ... So who are those people I am talking about? They are basically 13 super wealthy families and their off-shoots, with the European Nobility on top, and their fellow travelers are the International Bankers. Their bloodlines go back in time—way back to old Babylon and further."

As for UFOs: "The sightings, abductions and encounters are so numerous that we can't ignore them and say that the whole thing is just imagination. That would be stupid. The phenomenon does exist, but the questions are: what is it and what is the agenda?"

Such questions are now bingo-night and soccer-mom staples, thanks mainly to The X-Files and Dan Brown, whose record-breaking thrillers feature history's most prominent Western artists, scientists, religious figures and rulers enacting sinister global plots as ancient brotherhoods guard mysteries that might just end or save the world. Brown's book Angels and Demons dangled the notion that the eye-in-the-pyramid on the U.S. dollar was the work of the Illuminati. The Da Vinci Code featured a royal line sired by Jesus Christ. Subterranean Masonic structures beneath Washington D.C. figure in this fall's The Lost Symbol. By making paranoia part of pop culture, Brown has earned a fortune. Then again, maybe he belongs to a secret cabal.

It all comes down to: Who knows what, how do they know it and what will they do with what they know? In this information age, it's not such a stretch from Patriot Act surveillance to the possibility of government programs testing and using telepathy, clairvoyance and hypnosis. Now a major motion picture starring George Clooney, The Men Who Stare at Goats is based on British journalist Jon Ronson's allegedly nonfiction 2005 book of the same name, which explores exactly such a program. Instituted in the U.S. military in 1979, the First Earth Battalion comprised psychic soldiers trained to read minds, make themselves invisible, kill living things just by gazing at them, and walk through walls: "General Stubblebine is confounded by his continual failure to walk through his wall," Ronson writes, describing a scene that he claims took place in Fort Bragg, North Carolina during the Cold War summer of 1983. "What's wrong with him that he can't do it? Maybe there is simply too much in his in-tray for him to give it the requisite level of concentration. There is no doubt in his mind that the ability to pass through objects will one day be a common tool in the intelligence-gathering arsenal. And, when that happens ... who would want to screw around with an army that could do that?"

But by 1983, the psychic cold war was already at least two decades old. Created by the CIA and the Defense Department in a desperate struggle to keep pace with mind-control advances in the USSR, the U.S. government's secret psychic-spy program went by many different names throughout the second half of the 20th century, including Scanate, Sun Streak, Grill Flame, Center Lane and Stargate. According to recently declassified documents, it was employed in searches for terrorists, Soviet missile-storage facilities, and moles but was ended by then-CIA director John Deutch in 1995.

Think of all the money and lives governments could save if they just hired psychics to find stuff. That's what happens in C.S. Graham's new psychic-cold-war thriller The Solomon Effect, whose heroine is a hot, honey-haired young Iraq War veteran whose telepathic talents help the CIA hunt for a hidden weapon that unidentified terrorists plan to use in an imminent attack. Although by closing her eyes and entering her "remote-viewing zone" Naval Ensign October Guinness can see where the weapon is but not what it is or who plans to use it, we learn rather quickly that the terrorists are a wildly rich Miami pharmaceutical magnate and a fundamentalist Christian U.S. Army general who share a loathing for Arabs and Jews and have devised a diabolical scheme for eliminating both: "In the end, the world would be a better place. No more endless Middle East crises. No more suicide bombers. No more money-grubbing Jews, siphoning off billions in foreign aid, competing with American arms manufacturers, and wreaking havoc on the world financial scene ... The country was flushing itself down the toilet, wasting billions and billions of dollars every month for -- what? To wipe the noses of a bunch of ungrateful ragheads in Afghanistan and Iraq? To prop up Israel? Why?"

Concentrate, Ensign Guinness. Concentrate.

Deflecting a skeptic, one government official in the novel asserts, "Remote viewing is not woo-woo. It's science."

And science changes everything. A key feature of our current paranormal paroxysm is the fact that science and technology play such a prominent role in it, from YouTube videos allegedly capturing ghosts and guardian angels to music recorded at certain frequencies said to induce instant trance states and miraculously "repair" DNA. Ghosthunters use highly sensitive devices called electronic-voice phenomena—or EVP—machines. Quantum physics is invoked to explain everything from premonitions to astral projection.

In her angry new book Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (Metropolitan, 2009), Barbara Ehrenreich describes how she encountered this psychic/science convergence while undergoing chemotherapy, when self-help gurus and fellow cancer patients kept exhorting her to smile. Positive thinking boosts the immune system, went the claim for which Ehrenreich, who holds a Ph.D in cell biology, could find no scientific proof. Visualizing microscopic crusades in which squealing cancer cells are slaughtered follows the same procedure as spells I used to find in paperbacks and perform after school in seventh grade: Burn red candles for love and green for cash, picture kisses and coins and wish.

It's the exact same easy-come thesis that made a worldwide movement out of Rhonda Byrne's 2007 megabestselling book The Secret. Courting what Byrne calls the Law of Attraction—and which she claims, surprise surprise, functions via quantum physics—millions now believe that their mere thoughts affect material reality and that if they want something intensely enough, they'll "attract" it. They post thousands of "mind movies" at YouTube featuring footage of mansions and Corvettes with captions reading "This is my house" and "This is my car." These captions aren't true, but ... wish.

The socially accepted version of this process is called prayer. Bemused and horrified, Ehrenreich observed "pastorpreneurs" preaching the "prosperity gospel," in which God "manifests" goodies if you ask. Centimillionaire televangelist Joyce Meyer, whose private jet and $23,000 marble toilet spurred Republican Senator Chuck Grassley to launch an investigation into her wealth in 2007, explains the gospel thusly: "God wants to give us nice things." Bye-bye, Calvinist ethic, in which God rewards hard work.

The number of megachurches in this country doubled to 1,210 betwen 2001 and 2006, boasting a combined congregation of nearly 4.4 million, Ehrenreich reports. Three of the biggest four tout the prosperity gospel. That's a hefty voting bloc. Its members worship a candy-man God who showers them with riches. A large but almost entirely separate faction at the far end of the spectrum swore allegiance last year to a presidential candidate who more or less promised to shower his voters with riches. At least in the early months, photographers loved to snap Obama with what looks like a halo: a trick of the light sometimes, or his head ringed just so by his campaign logo or the presidential seal. Children sang virtual Obama hymns. These are scenes from an adulation not entirely secular and unlike any ever seen in U.S. politics before.

Adversaries they are, but both blocs harbor the same hilariously obvious spirituality: Our dear leader makes us rich just because we want him to. One faction calls it grace. The other calls it human rights. Each faction mocks and fears the other's form of worship and the other's entity. Liberal children wake screaming from nightmares featuring the Christian Right. Megachurch kids dream fitfully of a fallen angel who steals through taxation what God manifests.

"The dicey subprime and Alt-A categories of mortgages had expanded to 40 percent of total mortgages" in 2006, Ehrenreich notes, "many of them requiring little or no income documentation or down payment." To "buy" a home under such conditions is to believe in magic. We display this belief every day, as even credit cards are wands granting us things we want with money we don't have.

But the susceptible among us trusted mortgage brokers just as the susceptible among our ancestors trusted soothsayers and snake-oil salesmen and voices in their heads they thought belonged to spirits of the dead. The rise of truthiness renders it ever harder to draw lines between science, psychology, spirituality, and lies. We find ourselves despairing as Ehrenreich did at a convention watching "life coaches" make outrageous claims about the transformative power of mental "vibrations" and the Law of Attraction and subatomic particles.

"Maybe I should have been impressed," she muses, "that these positive thinkers bothered to appeal to science at all ... in however degraded a form. To base a belief or worldview on science or what passes for science is to reach out to the nonbelievers and the uninitiated. ... The alternative is to base one's worldview on revelation or mystical insight, and these are things that cannot be reliably shared."

And as we panic over healthcare, job loss and war in this funhouse of the proven and unproven, ascribing otherworldly powers to those who control us lets us off the hook. If they became this strong, this devious, this cruel by paranormal means, then heck: The world's in bad shape not because I voted wrong or didn't vote at all or wasn't a good enough activist. The world's in bad shape because our rulers are aliens or possess divine DNA or intone incantations under the full moon. In other words, it's not my fault.


Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, most recently The Scavenger's Manifesto (Tarcher Press, 2009). Read more of Anneli's writings on scavenging at scavenging.wordpress.com.

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ClimateGate Round-Up

Round-up of some recent noteworthy articles on ClimateGate:

Henninger on ClimateGate
Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal has a superb overview of the deeper implications of the global warming fraud. He understands what this catastrophe means for science. As Henninger points out, global warming science has for a couple of decades been the public face of science, hyped and sold as a commodity indispensable to humanity's survival. As it is revealed as a fraud, the public reassessment of science will shake science to its foundations. His thoughts on the encroachment of post-modernism on science are fascinating.

George Will and David Limbaugh on ClimateGate
George Will has an essay on the recently affirmed scientific misconduct and fraud in the climate science industry. Will has run afoul of climate alarmists in the past by questioning their "consensus" science and their utter intolerance for dissent (bonus question: in what other area of science do ideologically motivated scientists behave this way?). The warmists have viciously attacked him. Now that the evidence from the emerging CRU scandal is proving Will right, he pens a fine essay. His insight into the political and economic machinations of corrupt science is particularly acute. David Limbaugh, meanwhile, has an excellent essay on ClimateGate at Human Events.

Christopher Booker: "Climategate reveals the most influential tree in the world"
There is a fascinating essay by journalist Christopher Booker, in which Booker explains the details of the tree-ring data manipulations in the Climategate scandal.

Mark Steyn on ClimateGate: "the First Church of the Settled Scientist"
Mark Steyn--the best essayist on earth--has a characteristically superb take on ClimateGate.

Frank J on Climate Scientists: "Not Another Krypton on Our Watch..."
Frank J, author of the immortal Nuke the Moon post on IMAO, has penned a delightful character study of scientists convinced of their indispensability in defending mankind from scientific untruth.

The Clearest Explanation of the Decline They Hid
Marc Sheppard at American Thinker has a detailed but very clear explanation of what the climate scientists "hid" when they "hid the decline." It wasn't the recent warming trend since 1998; it was something much more important, and it was something that, if not hidden, would unravel the anthropogenic global warming theory in short order. This puts the lie to Nature's editorial claiming that ClimateGate doesn't invalidate "the large body of global warming science." There is nothing left of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis if this "inconvenient" aspect of the data isn't hidden. And of course, this Scientific Scam of the Century was perpetrated in Nature itself, with the editors' apparent acquiescence.

Who Knew That the University of Minnesota Morris was the Epicenter of Greenhouse Gasses?
Cornelius Hunter has a post in which he has tracked down the primary forcing factor in atmospheric heating. It seems that we Darwin skeptics have really been fighting global warming for the past couple of years. Maybe there's a Nobel Prize in this...

New Ice Age
In the annals of perpetual science fraud, the New Ice Age of the 1970s sometimes gets overlooked (it's dwarfed by so many other frauds perpetrated in the name of "consensus science"). But science ideologues and alarmists have been busy since the mid-19th century trying, with varying degrees of success, to impose their agendas on our society. Gary Sutton of Forbes has a nice review of the science-hoax of the 1970s that promised a climate catastrophe, if we didn't listen to the scientists.

Climate Conference Leaves Big Carbon Footprint
If they fail to reach a climate deal in Copenhagen, world leaders flying in their private jets and huddling in five-star hotels will have little to show for their efforts beyond a big, fat carbon footprint. Read the report from Sphere here.

Climategate goes SERIAL
Climategate just got much, much bigger. And all thanks to the Russians who, with perfect timing, dropped this bombshell just as the world’s leaders are gathering in Copenhagen to discuss ways of carbon-taxing us all back to the dark ages.

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Story About Jesus Drawing Reportedly Exaggerated

December 16 2009
by Tom Henderson
ParentDish

Although reporters regionally and nationally jumped on a story about a 9-year-old boy supposedly suspended for drawing a stick-figure Jesus on the cross, it now appears the tale was overblown.

Contrary to news reports -- including a story on ParentDish -- the boy was never suspended. He and his classmates at Maxham Elementary School in Taunton, Mass. (40 miles south of Boston), were never given an assignment to draw pictures that reminded them of Christmas.

The Boston Globe reports much of that information came from the boy's father, Chester Johnson. The father granted interviews to reporters from Boston to Providence and beyond yesterday and apparently exaggerated the story while demanding money from school district.

"They can't mess with our religion," he told reporters. "They owe us a small lump sum for this."

The story that the boy was suspended appeared originally in the Taunton Daily Gazette. School Superintendent Julie Hackett tells the Globe that it -- and subsequent news reports -- were based on interviews with the father before all the facts were investigated. As a result, she says, the stories were rife with inaccuracies.

"The report is totally inaccurate," Hackett tells the Globe. "The inaccuracies in the original media story have resulted in a great deal of criticism and scrutiny of the system that is unwarranted."

Hackett tells the Globe the boy didn't draw the picture for class. She says it's unclear when and where he drew it. A teacher reportedly discovered it at school Dec. 2. The picture depicts a dead Jesus bleeding on the cross.

The boy identified himself as Jesus in the drawing, the superintendent tells the paper. That's why, she says, the drawing raised concern and the boy was psychologically evaluated.

Based on the story in the Taunton Gazette, Mayor Charles Crowley asked Hackett to apologize to the boy's parents. Now the Globe reports he backs up the superintendent.

"Dr. Hackett has far more of the facts than I do, and now I understand that the report was not accurate," he tells the newspaper. "Based on her account, I stand behind my superintendent. She is in possession of the facts."

Hackett blames the Taunton Gazette, telling the Globe the local paper published the story based on interviews with Johnson before giving district officials time to investigate the allegations.

Reporters across the country quickly jumped on board.

"The approach that is often taken is that an editorial or article in the local newspaper is completely inaccurate, but it gets published before anyone checks the facts," she tells the Globe.

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St. Basil Dispels the Idea of an Environmental Crisis

[We know that today philosophical naturalism interprets the scientific data, and this causes the world to interpret certain scientific data to foretell a present and future environmental crisis. However, St. Basil dispels this pessimistic doomsday attitude by showing that the crisis is not in the environment, but within ourselves. God's providential care for His creation still exists, and whatever befalls us is meant for our repentance and our own transformation. Without such an attitude, we may as well be atheists and alarmists allowing such opportunities of self-refinement to pass us by.

The following is taken from St Basil the Great's sermon "In Time of Famine and Drought," which is included in the recently published St Basil the Great: On Social Justice (SVS 2009). - J.S.]

"And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied, because you did not return to Me, says the Lord." - Amos 4:7-8

We should learn, then, that it is because we have turned away from the Lord and discarded His ways that God has inflicted these wounds upon us. He does not seek to destroy us, but rather endeavors to turn us back to the right way, just as good parents who care for their children are stern and rebuke them when they do wrong, not because they wish them harm, but rather desiring to lead them from childish negligence and the sins of youth to mature attentiveness.

See, now, how the multitude of our sins has altered the course of the year and changed the character of the seasons, producing these unusual temperatures. The winter did not produce alternating wetness and dryness as usual, but rather kept all its moisture frozen into ice, and so passed with no sign of snow or rain. The spring, moreover, showed only one side of its nature, namely warmth, but without any corresponding share of wetness. Scorching heat and biting frost, exceeding their boundaries in an unprecedented way, conspired to wreak damage upon human beings, even depriving them of life itself. What, then, is the cause of this disorder, this confusion? What brought about this change in the nature of the seasons? Let us investigate this question as those who have intelligence; as rational beings let us reason. Has the One who governs all ceased to exist? Or has the Master Artisan forgotten His providential care? Has He been stripped of His power and authority? Or, if He still possesses His might and retains His dominion, has He lapsed into callousness and turned His great goodness and providence into misanthropy?

A wise person would not say this. Rather, the reason why our needs are not provided for as usual is plain and obvious: we do not share what we receive with others. We praise beneficence, while we deprive the needy of it. When we were slaves, we were set free, yet we feel no compassion for our fellow slaves. When we were hungry, we were fed, yet we neglect the needy. Though we have a God who is generous and lacks nothing, we have become grudging and unsociable to the poor. Our sheep give birth to many lambs, yet there are more people who go about naked than there are shorn sheep. Our storehouses groan with plenty, yet we have no mercy on those who groan with want. For this reason we are threatened with righteous judgment. This is why God does not open his hand: because we have closed up our hearts towards our brothers and sisters. This is why the fields are arid: because love has dried up....

When you see that God does not provide as usual, you should think in this way: does not God have the power to grant us food? How could it be otherwise? He is the Lord of heaven and earth, the wise Steward of times and seasons. God set the boundaries of the seasons as they wax and wane, giving way to another like a well-ordered dance, so that the diversity of our needs might be satisfied by their endless variety. Thus, we see the rainfall accrues during its proper season, while afterward the earth receives warmth and coldness in appropriate mixture throughout the course of the year. We even need a certain period of dryness. We know, then, that God is powerful. Since His might is thus evident and undisputed, is He perhaps deficient in goodness? But neither can this notion stand. If God were not good, what necessity could have persuaded Him to create human beings in the first place? Who could have compelled the Creator unwillingly to take dust and fashion such beauty from dirt? Who could have prevailed upon Him to grant reason to human beings, as it were, out of necessity, so that thus impelled they might receive instruction in the arts, and learn to philosophize about the celestial realms, which cannot be apprehended through the senses?

If you think in this way, you will discover that God's goodness is still present and has not abandoned us even now. Otherwise, tell me, what would prevent there befalling us not a mere drought, but utter conflagration? What would prevent the sun from altering its usual course, drawing near to the terrestrial bodies and consuming in a moment all that we see? What would prevent fire from raining down from heaven, like that which punished the sinners of old? (Gen. 19:1-29). Come to your senses, people! Do not behave like foolish children, who smash their teachers writing tablets when they are rebuked, or rip apart their father's garments when he sends them away from the table to teach them a lesson, or scratch their own mother's face with their fingernails. Storms at sea test the mettle of the ship's captain, just as the arena does the athlete, the battle line the soldier, calamity the magnanimous, the times of trial the Christian. Sorrows try the soul as fire does gold.

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Elder Paisios on Global Warming and the Environmental Crisis

"The only constant in nature is change." - Heraclitus

[Can scientists save the world from an environmental crisis? Is global warming an issue about the rich getting richer? Are alarmist attitudes justifiable for Christians? Have global warming alarmists lost faith in the providence of God? Can the corruption of nature by man be healed by further technological progress or will this bring more harm?

Elder Paisios gave some insight on these questions that all Christians should give serious consideration. - J.S.]

"In wisdom hast Thou made them all." - Ps. 104:24

Civilization is a good thing, but in order to be beneficial the soul must also be "civilized". Otherwise, we are in for total disaster. Saint Cosmas (Aitolos) said: "Evil will come from those who are educated." Despite the fact that science has advanced so much and made tremendous progress, when it tries to help people it often ends up harming them, unintentionally. God allows man to do whatever he wants. But when we don't listen to Him, we end up in disaster. The very things we create destroy us.

What have we achieved in this century with our civilization? We have driven people mad and have polluted the atmosphere and the environment. When the wheel leaves its axis, it spins aimlessly out of control. Similarly, when people stray from God's harmony, they are tormented. In the past, people suffered from wars; today they suffer from civilization. Then war made them leave the cities and go to the villages where they lived off a small field. Now they will abandon the cities on account of civilization, because they can no longer live in them. In the past wars brought about death, now it is civilization that brings about diseases.

When science is used indiscriminately, thousands of lives are ruined.

- Geronda, what's going to happen with the ozone?

- We must show a little bit of patience until the scientists go up there with five kilos of putty and plug the hole up!! Yes, let them go up to plug the holes, and they will realize that God has made everything to be good, to be in perfect harmony, and perhaps then they will say to the Lord, "Have mercy on us, we did not do things right." Let's pray that the hole, which has been opened in the atmosphere, will be closed. Indeed, a bowl full of the wrath of God (Rev. 15:7) is now open in the sky and is causing trees and plants to wilt and dry up. But God could do away with this problem.

And now look at how cunning some people are! In order to get money out of the very wealthy, they spread the rumour that a hole has opened in the atmosphere and the world will vanish. The only way to save the world is for scientists to dig deep into the earth and avoid the sun. Of course, this cannot happen. And so they change their story and make another claim that facilities will be built on the moon - restaurants, hotels, housing - and people will go there. And they are even taking down payments to secure a spot! The whole thing is a lie! There's nothing up on the moon. Human beings cannot live there. Only a few people went there, in a capsule, and came back. And there are some people who believe this nonsense and pay money for it.

- Geronda, many people worry about air pollution.

- This is why they must put pressure on factory owners to place anti-pollution devices and save people from all this smog. Instead of bribing members of parliament to take care of their interests, they should pay a little more money to install anti-pollution equipment in their factories. In the old days, there was no smog, no contamination like we have today. Today everything is polluted and people take that to be progress. How could this ever be considered progress, when they are destroying human beings? You go out of your house, and the air smells of fumes. As soon as you open the window, the smog comes in and sticks to your skin. Even when you wash your hands, you cannot get rid of it because it is not something pure. Smoke from a fireplace is exhaled by our lungs when we cough, but smog will not be exhaled because it contains oils and gets stuck there...Spraying disinfectants is poisonous too....

- But Geronda, dacus [an insect] is harmful to the olive trees.

- Pray with a komboschini [prayer rope] for the dacus to leave the trees. Do not just rely on spraying; try praying; put some Christ in your work. We are making an effort to do things right as if we lived in the world, and it does not even cross our mind that we who live the monastic life must be concerned with the other world. We should not try to compete with those who live in the world. Where is Christ? What have we done with Him? I am not saying that you shouldn't spray at all; but just keep in mind that others are still experimenting testing chemicals and so on. And when you must spray you should always wear masks. It is better to have some fruit afflicted by dacus than to try and spray everything in sight. Try and cut down on the number of sprayings. Instead of spraying everything, try praying with devotion. Read the first Psalm [St. Arsenios the Cappadocian prescribed this] and sprinkle some Holy Water on the trees. When you live correctly, you will get the rain you need and the caterpillars will die. God will provide for you. You need to have devotion and trust in God.

Source: With Pain and Love For Contemporary Man, vol. 1, Part One, Chapter Two.

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Metropolitan Hierotheos on the Current Dialogue With Rome

Our Church's Participation in the Dialogue Between the Orthodox Church and Papism

by Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlassios, Hierotheros Vlachos

(This statment was an intervention by His Eminence addressed to the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece, which was recorded in the Minutes of the Synod.)

The matter of our Church's participation in the dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the "Roman Catholic Church" - but more so the manner in which She is participating - is a huge one; therefore I shall limit myself here, to only briefly presenting a few views on the issue.

1. It is necessary for the dialogue to take place, but it should be with the necessary theological, ecclesiological and canonical prerequisites. In other words, the Church should not, in the name of the dialogue, deny Her theology, Her ecclesiology and Her canonical law.

2. Although there may be issues that are still pending (as is the issue of Unia), as well as other, basic theological issues (as is the teaching of "actus purus" which clearly affects Papism's overall theology - the "filioque" - and ecclesiology) - nevertheless, the matter of associating the primacy with conciliarity can be discussed, given that this was a basic issue that had preoccupied the first millennium.

It is my view, that the gradual severing of Old Rome from the Patriarchates of the East had begun with the issue of the Pope's primacy in the Church, and at a later stage with the Frankish imposition of the "filioque" in the theology of Old Rome. In other words, the Pope could never reconcile himself with the distinction of equal honour that had been rendered to the Bishop of New Rome by the Fourth Ecumenical Council.

3. Even though the dialogue on the association between conciliarity and primacy is important, and it is regarded that they should move on to other issues through this prism, nevertheless, there are certain problems which need to be pointed out.

First: The way that our Church is participating in the dialogue is not appropriate. It is taking place with the utmost secrecy. The texts, which have been endorsed by the meetings so far (Munich, Bari, New Balamon, Ravenna) and by the representatives of our Church, are problematic. There has never been any discussion whatsoever in the Hierarchy as to the stance that our delegates should take in these meetings, and furthermore, those texts have never been discussed in the Hierarchy, even after being endorsed. Therefore, the Conciliar polity in this instance is not being observed. We Hierarchs who are the expressers and the guardians of the Faith have been marginalized - left "in the dark".

Second: The statements made by the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic representatives are evidence of this problematic status, because they are merely proving that there is indeed an endeavour to bring on the "union of Churches" in a not-so-clear manner. These statements are available, should it become necessary to quote them.

Third: During the first millennium, the Orthodox Church had confronted the issue of an honorary recognition of the Pope of Rome. This occurred during the Council at the time of Photius the Great (879-880 A.D.), which, by many Orthodox, is regarded as the Eighth Ecumenical Synod. These two kinds of ecclesiology - that is, of Papism and of the Orthodox Church - had been put forth during this Council. Patriarch Photius had acknowledged a primacy of honour for the Pope, but only within the Orthodox ecclesiological framework: ie, that the Pope has a primacy of honour within the Church, and that he cannot be placed above the Church. Therefore, in the discussion pertaining to the primacy of the Pope, the decision of this Council should be taken seriously into account.

Of course during this Council the matter of the "filioque" was also discussed, along with the matter of the primacy; therefore, when we discuss the matter of primacy today, we should look at it from within the prism of honorary primacy, as we should in the case of the "filioque".

Fourth: Whereas in the Orthodox Church the administrative system is Conciliar, in the "Roman Catholic Church" the administrative system is "Pope-centered". This was made abundantly clear in the decisions of the Vatican II Synod and in other synodal texts, in which it is asserted that the Pope is the "leader of the college of Bishops", the "rock of the Church", the "eternal and visible principle and foundation of unity, who unites the bishops between them, as well as the multitude of the faithful", the "representative of Christ and the Shepherd of the entire Church, who has full, supreme and universal authority in the Church, which he is always free to exercise". One other claim in Papism's ecclesiology that should be underlined is that "there cannot be an Ecumenical Synod, if it is not validated, or at least if not accepted, by the successor of Peter".

Therefore, this Pope-centered perception and the Pope's predominance - even above the Ecumenical Synods themselves - negates synodicity, thus constituting another ecclesiology altogether. The Papist claim therefore, that the Churches (that is, the Orthodox ones) that do not acknowledge the Pope as their head are "deficient" - that is, that they are lacking, cannot be accepted.

Fifth: Despite its many important points indicating how the primacy of the Pope functioned during the first millennium, nevertheless, in the draft of the document that is to be discussed in Cyprus in October, there was no mention of the association between the Pope's primacy and the Ecumenical Councils.

A document that does not possess a clarity of thought cannot prevail, nor help those who have broken away to be reincorporated into the Catholic Church.

Sixth: It is a fact, that the Pope's basic problem is that he has never in essence accepted the 28th Canon of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, which gave equal honor to the Church of New Rome, and the right to ordain Bishops in barbarian lands. This disdain is also proven by the fact that the Pope himself was never present in any Ecumenical Synod - only his representatives.

Seventh: When one studies the documents of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches, one will notice that they may agree on the continuation of the dialogue, however, they also place clear-cut prerequisites, such as -for example- the outright condemnation of Unia, and, through the issue of the primacy, continue with the dialogue on other essential theological issues.

Eighth: The Patriarchate of Moscow had departed from the Meeting in Ravenna - the reason being the presence of the Archbishop of Estonia - and consequently did not endorse that Meeting's document, just as the Patriarchate of Georgia did not endorse it. It is necessary to seek out the decisions of the other Orthodox Churches on the Ravenna Document.

Following all the above, it is my suggestion that directions be given to our representatives, pursuant to a discussion and decision by the Hierarchy, as to what they are to support during the dialogue, and to discuss the issue with the Hierarchy, after the endorsement of the Documents.

At the same time, it should be declared explicitly, that if our representatives endorse a text that is outside the guidelines that will be given to them by the Church, then that text is not to be considered binding by our Church.

Source: Article published in the newspaper "ORTHODOX PRESS" 11/27/2009

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The Aerial Toll-Houses by Fr. Thomas Hopko

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The Heresy of Pusillanimity

Pusillanimity, a virtually obsolete word, is the name of a heresy rampant in the world today. Most people have never heard of it, but it has some important thought elements which make it useful in pursuing the spiritual life. Therefore, Orthodox Christians should consider it carefully. Pusillanimity denotes spiritual cowardice, lack of “manly” strength, spiritual inertia, a certain diminution of faith and trust in God. Before we clarify the nature of this heresy, let us examine the background of its applicability to today’s social and religious environment.

A recent forum called Global Fashion: American Commercial Culture in the World sponsored by the Center for Arts and Culture met on November 3, 1999. A participant named Todd Gitlin of New York University advanced the proposition that the United States is exporting “revolutionary values” around the world. He described it as “a brash culture that knows no boundaries.”

The world seems to be demanding whatever the American culture has to offer, good, bad, or indifferent, but it is also protesting against some elements of it. We know, for example, that Moslem fundamentalists call America “the Great Satan” for reasons that should be obvious. People abroad who are resisting American culture feel that American culture is like a typhoon, a force that is not only unavoidable, but also terribly destructive.

American culture’s current effect on foreign languages and therefore on ideas, mores, and attitudes is phenomenal. But it’s not just the whole secular world that has been influenced by American popular culture. The Orthodox world and we Orthodox faithful ourselves have also been affected by it. Radio, television, the movies, newspapers and magazines have gradually conditioned the mind and hearts of people everywhere to sensationalism, commercialism, secularism, materialism, and to what amounts to paganism.

If we have personally experienced a true spiritual conversion sometime in our life, and are struggling against our passions, we are aware that these harmful spiritual effects are a serious problem in our spiritual life, and that to remain true to our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ we must take vigilant measures to minimize those effects in our life. The struggle of a truly converted Orthodox Christian will be in large part a struggle against the American secular world and its value system.

At this point we must observe that Holy Baptism alone does not magically bring about a total conversion. It gives us the grace and spiritual strength necessary to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in making a full conversion, but the eventual outcome depends on whether we individually choose to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we may say that in any given Orthodox community there will be those who have been converted, those who are being converted, and those who have not yet begun to be converted. People baptized as babies, for example, must sooner or later undergo voluntary conversion in cooperation with the Holy Spirit if they are to become truly Orthodox.

Among the effects of American popular culture is the tendency to give in to this state which we are calling pusillanimity, that is, to spiritual cowardice or a lack of spiritual courage. Those Orthodox patriarchs, hierarchs, priests, and people who believe that in our day it is impossible to arrive at the height of virtue achieved by the saints of old are on dangerous spiritual ground. If they teach this, they are heretics and we must avoid them.

At least one chief hierarch of an American Orthodox jurisdiction, for example, has said publicly that Americans will not tolerate long services. (It is true, of course, that some Americans will not tolerate long services, but can that reasonably be said of all? Look at us!) Therefore, rather than attempting to teach and encourage personal self-discipline, endurance, and spiritual strength-building, this hierarch prescribes a limit of 45 minutes on the Divine Liturgy. That policy requires that the Liturgy and Homily be shortened, greatly reducing the educative powers of the Liturgy and the preaching. This robs the faithful who don’t understand they are being robbed. This conditions the laity to demand one compromise of Orthodox practice after another, causing great detriment to the integrity of Orthodoxy.

The heresy of pusillanimity proposes that since we are not living in the time of the apostles, and are not in the immediate physical presence of the Saviour, it is impossible for us to become holy in the way the apostles were holy. It is impossible for us to pray and fast and attend services the way the early Christians and great saints of later centuries did. It is said that only the destitute and starving poor actually fast today, and that only out of necessity. That only the old babushkas and yayas really spend time praying. Therefore, it is argued, the Church should abandon or greatly restrict the Orthodox fasts and the numbers and length of the services for the vast majority of people. And since only monks, generally unmarried and unskilled in business and management, are allowed by the Canons to become bishops, the Church must remove the restriction against the episcopal ordination of married men. They say the Church has to get the “best educated” men in the episcopate.

Arguments such as these accommodate the spiritual weaknesses of pusillanimous Orthodox clergy and laity alike. Already widowers and unmarried men are being chosen bishops in New Calendar jurisdictions who have never spent more than a few hours in a monastery, but are tonsured as monks pro forma in a great big hurry. Soon some secularized Orthodox women can be expected to start clamoring for the priesthood and the episcopate. These are or will be violations of the Holy Canons and blasphemies against the Holy Spirit. The next thing you will see is agitation for an “ecumenical council” to add Canons which will nullify the Canons of past centuries. No true Ecumenical Council had ever abrogated the Canons of previous ecumenical councils, and never will.

Why is pusillanimity a heresy? It is a heresy because it denies the continuous and continuing presence and operation of the Holy Spirit in the Church. It minimizes the Holy Spirit, and minimizes Jesus Christ Who sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church to keep it from error. Pusillanimity is the belief that one cannot obey the Gospel as did people of old. It is the claim that there are no spiritual fathers left in the world today. It is the belief that the Church of Christ has not yet been established, but awaits the concurrence of world religions, many of which deny the divinity of Christ and other basic Orthodox dogmas.

St. Symeon the New Theologian who lived in the last half of the tenth and into the first decades of the eleventh century did much to expose this heresy. His times were much like ours. Many people had become dissatisfied with what the Church had become. It is worthy of note that the beginning of the second millennium occurred during St. Symeon’s time. The West especially was wracked with religious dissent. The so-called Great Schism occurred shortly after St. Symeon’s repose. Out of the religious confusion the West developed scholasticism which in turn resurrected the philosophy of the pagan Greeks. It wanted to “save” the Church by turning back, not to Christ, but to the pagan, Aristotle. Scholasticism pushed Western Christianity in a direction away from the early Church and away from the Holy Fathers. Out of it grew the Roman Catholic Church and its papal monarchy which has proceeded on an increasingly rationalistic and innovative course. It is noteworthy, however, that the philosophical basis of Roman Catholicism has begun to break down at this, the end of the twentieth century.

The Eastern Orthodox Church was also tempted to move toward a Byzantine form of scholasticism in imitation of the West. For a time, two opposing theologies faced each other in Byzantium. One was abstract and philosophical like Western Scholasticism. The other, championed by St. Symeon, strove to restore theology to its pristine form as “wisdom infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul after its thorough purification through rigorous asceticism and a state of constant repentance.” St. Symeon was so successful in defeating Scholastic tendencies among Orthodox theologians of his time, that the Church designated him as one of only three men titled Theologians: St. John the Theologian, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. Symeon the New Theologian.

It is very important for Orthodox people to know that this wandering away from True Orthodox theology has occurred again and again in history. Again and again someone gets the idea that the Church is out of step, too old-fashioned, and needs to be “saved from oblivion” by being brought into harmony with contemporary life. This idea prevailed several times in Russia. Russian seminarians started to go to the West where they picked up scholastic ideas and brought them home. Russian Orthodox Seminaries started to teach Western theology as though it were Orthodox, and they came to be unfamiliar with the Tradition of Orthodox spirituality. St. Paisius Velichkovsky rescued the Russian Church at one point. Finally along came the Communist state, and weak, pusillanimous churchmen felt they had to compromise with the state to “save” the Church. The Church became in effect an arm of the Communist government. Sanctity in Russia had to go underground into the Catacomb Church where it still, alone, may be found.

When Greece finally achieved independence from the Turks, Greek hierarchs started to fraternize with the Anglicans and to send theological students to Western Europe where they absorbed Roman Catholic theology. The result was adoption of the New Calendar and growing accommodation to the Western world and its theological errors. It is only in our time that the Greek Church is beginning to recover from this Western Captivity under such people as Father John Romanides of America and Greece and Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos of Greece.

There is never anything that man can do to save the Church. Only the Lord can save the Church. And we ask it in a hymn at the end of every Divine Liturgy. What we can do is remain faithful to His word and to the Holy Spirit who operates in the Church through the Holy Mysteries. We can struggle by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to cooperate with the Holy Spirit by holding fast to the traditions of Holy Orthodoxy.

From MANNA: The Homilies of Father John F. Bockman, Archpriest, Saint Nectarios Press, Seattle, 2005. Available at http://www.sspp-tucson.org/bookstore.html.

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Drawing of Jesus Gets Second-Grader Kicked Out of Class

[I wonder who really needs a psychological evaluation in this case. - J.S.]

WHDH
December 16, 2009

For video newscast, see here.

TAUNTON, Mass. -- A local second-grader was sent home from a Taunton school for drawing what he thought was a holiday picture.

The 8-year old Maxham Elementary School student created a stick figure of Jesus on a cross. The boy placed the letter X over each of Jesus’ eyes to indicate he was dead.

"I was very disappointed in the school system when they did that," said Chester Johnson, the boy's father.

The second-grader had been asked by his teacher to draw something that reminded him of Christmas.

Johnson says his son likely drew the picture, because the family had recently visited the Christmas exhibit at the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro.

“He got that from there. He seen Jesus on the cross at the La Salette. We explained to him what it was and what it’s about, and he drew what his mind basically told him to draw,” said Johnson. “They don’t want to have the kid in school until he’s evaluated, and I was saying to myself, I don’t see nothing on this picture of violence or anything,” said Johnson.

Still, Johnson complied with the school’s request to have his son undergo a psychological evaluation, which the family paid for out of pocket.

Helene Titelbaum of Community Counseling of Bristol determined that Johnson’s son, “… does not appear to be a threat to himself or others at this time. Therefore, I recommend he return to school as soon as possible.”

Education advocate Toni Saunders argued that the school responded improperly to the boy’s drawing.

“The way that the school responded to what he did and what he drew is wrong, and it really should be corrected. A lot of people should be looking at this and saying what are we doing,” said Saunders.

Johnson’s son has returned to class, but both his father and Saunders are currently trying to get him transferred to another school.

The Taunton school administration has yet to comment on the incident. However, the mayor of Taunton is calling upon the school superintendent to apologize to the family.

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The Illness of Religion

by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

The greatest problem of Western Christianity - and of many Orthodox also – is that they have 'religionized' Christianity and have turned the Church into a religion. In this way, they cultivated fundamentalisms, hatreds, divisions, a magical perception and relationship with God, also a competitive disposition of one towards another, a self-centered view of life, a utilitarian and self-benefiting perception of society, an imaginary interpretation of everything, the sentimental approach to living and generally the opinion that the others comprise – and are - a threat to our existence.

Thus, in these circumstances, the brightly-lit Christmas trees, the sentimental melodies, the moral-building analyses, all criminally conceal existential nakedness and make man a tragic being.

The feast of the Birth of Christ cannot be confined to a few sentimental situations: a festive décor, an intellectual, rationalistic interpretation of events, a moralistic framework; it has a very profound meaning and existential significance. If one remains at an external level, then he is leaving himself hungry and thirsty, deprived of a life of meaning and existential freedom.

The incarnation of Christ was considered and was celebrated by the Fathers of the Church and the worshipping ecclesiastical community as the abolishing of religion and its transformation into a Church. In fact, the memorable father John Romanides had said in the most categorical way that Christ became human, in order to free us of the illness of religion.

The word 'religion' is mention in Homer's epics; it is also used by Herodotus to express the worship and the honor that a person has to offer God. Etymologically, the (Greek) word for 'religion' is derived from the ancient word that implies 'ascend', and therefore, with the term 'religion', the ascent of man towards God is implied. But even the (Greek) word for "human" is etymologically derived from the expression "upwards looking", again implying an ascent.

But, it appears at a first glance, that an ascent presupposes the acceptance of the essence of metaphysics, according to which, a person's soul that has fallen from the immortal and impersonal world of ideas and is encased in a body, has to rid itself of the body [the prison of the soul] and return to the world of ideas. But even the Latin word religio – which is used to denote the word religion – signifies, according to dictionaries, the bond-unity-union of man with God; it also denotes the same fact, i.e., the essence and the content of metaphysics. In fact, it also presupposes – if we seek it in eastern religions – a faceless expression of mankind, since man has to disappear like a drop of water in the ocean of the Supreme Being, and thus eliminating the persona.

As the late Father John Romanides had taught, the term 'religion' implies the relating of the uncreated to the created, and actually the relating of the representations of the uncreated with the notions and the words of human thought, and this kind of relating is of course the foundation of the religion and the worship of idols. Therefore, in this case, the face of God is lost, and so is the person's face; man becomes gravely ill, since his vices and his imagination are cultivated even more; and more than this, we can say that the so-called irreproachable-natural vices (hunger, thirst, etc.) become reproachable vices; causes of social anomalies because of unlimited ambition, unjust craving for acquisition and unleashed debauchery.

It is well-known that Feuerbach at first, then Marx, had said that "religion was the opium of the people". We can accept this viewpoint, that religion – as we see it in the East and in the religionized views of western Christianity – is the opium of the people, since it benumbs the people, it mortifies societies and leads them to such a degree of deactivation, that it becomes exploitable material for the institution of a tyranny that deprives mankind of his unalienable right to freedom.

I would like to submit two characteristic examples of religious expression here below.

The first example comes from the Buddhist religion. We know that according to Buddhism, that which preoccupies mankind is the problem of the pain that originates from the desire to live. Hence, the ultimate goal of the "enlightened" one is the discarding of this passion to live. The mortifying of the desire for life is achieved through a special method called Yoga with its different variations, such as Hatha Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through physical exercises), Karma Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through deeds and ritual acts), Mantra Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through chants and magic syllables), Bhakti Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through the absolute worship of one deity or the Guru himself), Jnana Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through mystical knowledge), Kundalini Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through demonic activities), Tantra Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through unbridled sexual acts). With these methods, man is supposed to attain absolute Nirvana, which is the extinguishing of his existence and the riddance of one' desire for life, the ultimate purpose being the avoidance of Samsara – the recycling of life, or, reincarnation. Thus, the personal Atman is united to the overall Brahma, just like a drop entering the ocean.

It is obvious that in a religious life such as this, there is no personality; man is merely considered a unit, as there is also no such thing as society; no social life is encouraged, since every lifetime is considered a beginning of grief.

The second example originates from the theories of Anselm of Canterbury, a scholastic theologian, who founded a Christian system that prevailed in the West, having in mind the feudal system of organizing society. But the feudal lord had absolute value and honor that could not be violated, because every violation of his honor and every disturbance of the feudal system that was considered a work of God, entailed the punishment of the violator; thus God is the highest form of justice, He has honor, and has instituted order within creation, therefore, the violator must either satisfy God's sense of justice or be punished. Thus, Anselm interpreted the crucifixion sacrifice of Christ, not as an expression of love for mankind, but as the atonement of justice by God the Father. This system, with the assistance of the absolute destination, led to enormous problems in the western world; problems both personal and social, as analyzed by Max Weber in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

These two examples, one from the east and the other from the west, indicate how Feuerbach arrived at his motto "religion is the opium of the people". Naturally, we Orthodox also believe that if we give religion this definition, the metaphysical definition, then it can indeed become the opium of the people, because it will destroy every personal life, eliminate personal freedom, and even disintegrate social life, and turn man from a person into a unit.

Christianity however appeared in the history of mankind as the end of religion, and the experience of the Church. The term "Church" is an ancient Greek term and indicates a community, the congregation of the populace – the municipality – that would solve its problems. Naturally, with the term 'Church' we do not imply something external; we are implying the personal communion of mankind with God and its fellow-man, as seen in the Prophets of the Old Testament, in the Apostles of the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles, where "all those who believed were of one mind, and had everything common to all; they sold the lands and the belongings and shared them amongst everyone, if they had needs... (Acts,2:44-45). We see it in the communities of monks, in the teaching of the major Fathers of the Church and it extends into our time, as seen in the ecclesiastical communities narrated by Papadiamantis and the Memoirs of Makriyannis. And we know full well, from various studies, that both Papadiamantis and Makriyannis were not religious people; they were ecclesiastical, not inspired by western Puritanism, but by the hesychastic-neptic Orthodox tradition.

The greatest problem of western Christianity, and many Orthodox, is that – according to Christos Yannaras – they have religionized Christianity, and transformed the Church into a religion. In this way, they cultivated fundamentalisms, hatreds, divisions, a magical perception and relationship with God, also a competitive disposition of one towards another, a self-centered view of life, a utilitarian and self-benefiting perception of society, an imaginary interpretation of everything, the sentimental approach to living and generally the opinion that the others comprise – and are - a threat to our existence.

Thus, in these circumstances, the brightly-lit Christmas trees, the sentimental melodies, the moral-building analyses, all criminally conceal existential nakedness and make man a tragic being.

If contemporary, speculating people looked for a meaning behind the Birth of Christ, it would be that with His Birth, Christ abolished the illness of religion and transformed it into a living Church – with whatever its authentic meaning entails. This is the need of contemporary man who is suffering from the tragic trinity as Victor Frankl would have said, that is: suffering, guilt and death, inasmuch as he feels his life is a pre-death experience, an existential and eternal death, and not only seeks the experience of pleasure, but perhaps through pleasure, is seeking the survival of existence.

Source: Newspaper "Eleftherotypia" December 23, 2001

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