Tucker Carlson is departing from Fox News. The reasons are unclear but this is very bad for American democracy and for the opposition to the Biden administration. Tucker Carlson was a voice of reason in a news media dominated by the fringe left.
Tucker Carlson was one of the real anti war voices in America. He routinely pointed out the dangers of a war between the United States and Russia over Ukraine. He repeatedly attacked the neoconservatives such as John Bolton, Bill Kristol, and Max Boot.
Carlson pointed out that Vladimir Zelensky was not the hero the media made him out to be. Carlson on more than one occasion reported on the repression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the regime in Kiev. Carlson is very good journalist.
It really is a tragedy that Tucker Carlson could lose his voice while the morons of “the View” can stay on air staying stupid things. Most recently an actress I have never heard of was on “the View” comparing Christians in America to the Taliban. Christians are compared to the Taliban because they oppose trans ideology being imposed on children.
The “View” and others in the media have taken a hawkish stance on Russia. Stupid people who have no idea what could happen if the war in Ukraine spirals out of control. One of the few responsible and intelligent voices in the media is now gone.
This is a serious blow to democracy and the opposition to Joe Biden’s sinister policies.
The aggressive trans movement has finally provoked a backlash from mainstream America. The beer company Anheuser-Busch displayed the picture of a notorious trans activist on their beers while the vice President of said company insulted long time customers. The welcome result has been the immediate cessation of beer sales by angry customers.
Enough is enough. Ordinary people are sick of the woke agenda, and the trans movement in particular. American outrage at this aggressive in your face activism is overdue. This should send a message to other corporations to stop promoting trans ideology.
One thing though. Anheuser-Busch is not the worst offender. Last August, National Review published an article highlighting Major League Baseball’s support for the trans cause. This hurts for me because I am a lifelong baseball fan.
According to National Review, at least twenty teams have provided funds to groups supporting “child gender transitions”. This is horrifying and appalling. MLB needs to be held accountable in the same way as Anheuser-Busch.
Trans activists are claiming as of late to be victims of genocide. This is yet more evidence that this is a movement of lunatics. The trans activists are angry that Republicans are passing laws protecting children.
For example, there are cases in schools where teachers have referred to students with names of the opposite sex and encouraged them to use restrooms of the opposite sex. This has been done without telling the parents of these students. The Republican laws are aimed at protecting the rights of parents from aggressive teachers that are actively grooming children for the trans cause.
For the lunatic left, this constitutes genocide. Never mind that the undermining of the family has been a policy of every dictatorship ranging from Hitler’s dictatorship to the Soviet Union. America has woken up and hopefully will not go back to sleep.
FILE – Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Epiphaniy officiates at a historic Divine Liturgy for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Christ at the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos in the Lavra of Kyiv. (Photo Autocephalous Church of Ukraine)
The violation of religious freedom is simultaneously a violation of democratic norms and procedures. The protection of all all communities regardless of religion or ethnicity is mandatory if a country is to be considered democratic. After the 9/11 attacks, the United States made sure that American Muslims would be protected following the mass slaughter of Americans. Democracies protect individuals and communities that have nothing to do with the actions of a small number of radicals and extremists.
Governments that target entire communities are fascist or authoritarian at the very least. For example, Nazi Germany targeted the Jewish community for persecution that subsequently evolved into the Holocaust. Turkish leaders under the Young Turks and Mustafa Kemal targeted Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian Christians for genocide. The Turkish government in September 1955 organized a campaign of hatred against the Greek Orthodox of Constantinople and encouraged angry mobs to physically assault (and murder) Greeks and to destroy their homes, businesses, and Churches.
Between 1994 and 2011 there were at least half a dozen terrorist attacks or assassination attempts against the Ecumenical Patriarch because Turkish officials accused the Patriarch of conspiring against Turkey. All the above comes to mind in the midst of the chaos that is taking place in Kiev, Ukraine. The Monastery of the Great Lavra in Kiev has been standing for over one thousand years and has belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. There is a schismatic sect that calls itself the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ that is backed by the authorities and is attempting under the cover of law to expel the monks who reside their despite the fact that the monks have done nothing wrong.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the spiritual leadership of Metropolitan Onuphry has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war. The Church has been working to provide relief for all citizens. Despite this condemnation, the Church has been demonized by various politicians. Over the past several years, Churches have been seized by supporters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and legislation has been introduced that would force the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to change its name simply because it is under the ‘omophorion’ or spiritual authority of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Now, the question of being under the spiritual authority of a Church in a hostile land is not an unfamiliar one for those of us who are Greek Orthodox. Those of us in America, Australia, and parts of Greece, such as Crete and Mount Athos are under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is located in Turkey. Turkey is hostile to Greece and has been threatening to invade the Greek islands. This has not led the Greek government to hysterically overreact by confusing the spiritual center of Greek Orthodoxy (Constantinople) with the evil ambitions and ideology of the present Turkish regime.
Roman Catholics throughout the world are under the spiritual authority of the Pope of Rome. From 1922 until 1943, Italy was a fascist dictatorship under the authority of Benito Mussolini. From 1943 until 1945, Rome was under Nazi occupation. No governments around the world questioned the loyalty of Roman Catholics because the Papacy was located in a city ruled by Fascists and Nazis.
So, it is preposterous and absurd, as well as immoral, for the Ukrainian government to attempt to outlaw the Ukrainian Orthodox Church simply on the grounds that it is under the omophorion of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Monastery of the Great Lavra in Kiev has enormous spiritual significance for both Ukrainians and Russians. It is for Ukrainians and Russians what Aghia Sophia of Constantinople is for Greeks. We Greeks know and feel the pain of what has been done to Aghia Sophia over the past three years as it has been converted again into a mosque. The monks of the Great Lavra in Ukraine are peaceful and the synod under Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev have made very clear their condemnation of the Russian invasion. The suffering Ukrainian Church has reacted to the persecution of the last several years with peaceful and prayerful resistance (the persecution began long before the invasion).
The monks of the Great Lavra of Kiev are humble and peaceful. They have done nothing to harm their country, but they have been maligned and slandered.
The international silence in response to their government’s plans to expel them is disturbing. The intrusion of politics into the spiritual life of Orthodoxy is deplorable. Democratic governments behave in the manner of the United States after the 9/11 attacks. They protect all citizens, especially communities that may be vulnerable.
The Ukrainian government is sponsoring legislation against, and inciting hatred against a religious community. Is this not what a country like Turkey has done in the past against the Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Jewish communities? No community anywhere should be targeted merely because of where it chooses to worship. This is discrimination and persecution – and an affront to democracy which protects freedom of worship and civil rights for all.
Last November, a Turkish Admiral demanded a crackdown on the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Admiral was seeking to revive allegations by Turkish ultranationalists and jihadists in previous years that the Patriarchate’s diplomatic activities were directed against Turkey. This should be a serious concern considering how low Patriarch Bartholomew’s reputation in Orthodoxy has sunk.
The US Commission on international religious freedom for 2022 has a section on Turkey. It mentions the closure of Halki but not Hagia Sophia of Constantinople or the Churches of occupied Cyprus. The State Department has been documenting Halki for decades.
At the present, Ukrainian officials are cracking down hard on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Bishops are being arrested and Churchgoers attending the legitimate Churches are being harassed by mobs. Patriarch Bartholomew is complicit in the persecution of the Ukrainian Church which is why his problems in Turkey are bound to fall on deaf ears in the Orthodox world.
In Christianity, the door is always open for repentance. Patriarch Bartholomew can do the right thing. He needs to abandon his claims to Ukraine and disavow all he had done in Ukraine over the past five years. Otherwise, he is going to bring about the Patriarchate’s demise.
On Monday April 10, one of the Saints that is commemorated on the calendar of the Orthodox Church is Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople. Patriarch Gregory served as Ecumenical Patriarch on at least three different occasions. He was deposed the first two times, but his last tenure on the Patriarchal throne ended with his execution.
He was executed at the gate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the Sunday of Pascha. He was held responsible by the Ottoman Sultan for the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence. Formally, the Patriarch renounced the Greek uprising. Unofficially however, he had known about plans for an uprising but remained silent. He took the position that he could not be formally involved but did nothing to betray the Greek cause either.
After the Greek uprising, a campaign of terror was undertaken against the Greek Orthodox populations of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Thessaloniki. The martyrdom of the Patriarch seemed to have exhausted the rage of the Sultan and the policies against the Greeks in those cities was relaxed. The Patriarch gave his life for the protection of his flock.
His execution angered both the Russian and British governments. The Russians were angry that an Orthodox Patriarch was put to death and the anti Greek terror campaign in the Ottoman Empire hardened Russian attitudes to the Turks. The British recognized that the execution of one of Christendom’s most prominent spiritual leaders was a horrendous crime and could not ignore it.
The Patriarch suffered considerably. Along with several bishops he was hanged. The gate where he was hanged from at the Patriarchate has remained closed up to the present day. A former Mayor of Constantinople that was elected in 1994 named Recep Erdogan had vowed that he would visit the Patriarchate and the gate would be opened just for him. International pressure forced him to back down.
The Patriarch Gregory V was weak and frail. He was hanging for hours before he died. His body was subsequently degraded and dragged through the streets of Constantinople. His body was thrown into the bosporus was eventually found and taken to Odessa where he received an official State funeral at the expense of the Russian Empire. In 1871, the relics of the Patriarch were sent to Athens where they have remained in the Annunciation Cathedral to be venerated by faithful Orthodox Greeks.
Patriarch Gregory V is an example of a spiritual shepherd. His life was lost so his faithful left behind in the Ottoman Empire would be spared. On the one hundredth anniversary of his martyrdom in 1921, the Patriarch Gregory was officially recognized as a Saint by the Greek Orthodox Church. This was when the Greeks were fighting for the liberation of Asia Minor and it was hoped the Greek Army would be inspired by the Saint from Constantinople.
It should be noted that the Russians gave the Patriarch a state funeral. There is no reason why the Ecumenical Patriarchate should not have brotherly spiritual relations with the Russian Church. Greeks and Russians share so much including the Saints. Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V was an Orthodox traditionalist and one of the best Patriarchs to serve in the post Byzantine era. The present occupant of the Ecumenical Patriarchate should emulate his example and his bravery.
In this case, bravery would be to reverse what has been done in Ukraine over the past five years. This necessitates condemning the oppression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Let us remember Patriarch Gregory V! His memory be eternal!
On Monday April 10, one of the Saints that is commemorated on the calendar of the Orthodox Church is Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople. Patriarch Gregory served as Ecumenical Patriarch on at least three different occasions. He was deposed the first two times, but his last tenure on the Patriarchal throne ended with his execution.
He was executed at the gate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the Sunday of Pascha. He was held responsible by the Ottoman Sultan for the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence. Formally, the Patriarch renounced the Greek uprising. Unofficially however, he had known about plans for an uprising but remained silent. He took the position that he could not be formally involved but did nothing to betray the Greek cause either.
After the Greek uprising, a campaign of terror was undertaken against the Greek Orthodox populations of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Thessaloniki. The martyrdom of the Patriarch seemed to have exhausted the rage of the Sultan and the policies against the Greeks in those cities was relaxed. The Patriarch gave his life for the protection of his flock.
His execution angered both the Russian and British governments. The Russians were angry that an Orthodox Patriarch was put to death and the anti Greek terror campaign in the Ottoman Empire hardened Russian attitudes to the Turks. The British recognized that the execution of one of Christendom’smost prominent spiritual leaders was a horrendous crime and could not ignore it.
The Patriarch suffered considerably. Along with several bishops he was hanged. The gate where he was hanged from at the Patriarchate has remained closed up to the present day. A former Mayor of Constantinople that was elected in 1994 named Recep Erdogan had vowed that he would visit the Patriarchate and the gate would be opened just for him. International pressure forced him to back down.
The Patriarch Gregory V was weak and frail. He was hanging for hours before he died. His body was subsequently degraded and dragged through the streets of Constantinople. His body was thrown into the bosporus was eventually found and taken to Odessa where he received an official State funeral at the expense of the Russian Empire. In 1871, the relics of the Patriarch were sent to Athens where they have remained in the Annunciation Cathedral to be venerated by faithful Orthodox Greeks.
Patriarch Gregory V is an example of a spiritual shepherd. His life was lost so his faithful left behind in the Ottoman Empire would be spared. On the one hundredth anniversary of his martyrdom in 1921, the Patriarch Gregory was officially recognized as a Saint by the Greek Orthodox Church. This was when
the Greeks were fighting for the liberation of Asia Minor and it was hoped the Greek Army would be inspired by the Saint from Constantinople.
It should be noted that the Russians gave the Patriarch a state funeral. There is no reason why the Ecumenical Patriarchate should not have brotherly spiritual relations with the Russian Church. Greeks and Russians share so much including the Saints. Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V was an Orthodox traditionalist and one of the best Patriarchs to serve in the post Byzantine era. The present occupant of the Ecumenical Patriarchate should emulate
his example and his bravery.
In this case, bravery would be to reverse what has been done in Ukraine over the past five years. This necessitates condemning the oppression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Let us remember Patriarch Gregory V! His memory be eternal!
Last December, the New Atlantis a conservative magazine wrote about the advances that the right to die has made in Canada. An interview was conducted with a doctor who supports euthanasia. The article can be found here www.the new Atlantis.com/publications/no-other -options.
The doctor interviewed enthusiastically embraces the “right” to die and called it “therapeutic”. The article alarmingly discusses how some people are choosing to terminate their lives because they are unemployed or having financial difficulties. The horrific predictions that conservatives made back in the 1990’s about euthanasia are being fulfilled.
Liberals in favor of euthanasia have said only people who were terminally sick would be permitted to voluntarily end their lives. From a Christian standpoint suicide is always a sin and immoral. The Church emphasizes faith and hope and life because man is created in the image of God. Man is neither an animal to be put down nor a machine to be unplugged.
Canada permits putting desperate and troubled people to death while imprisoning men like Rob Hoagland. Mr. Hoagland is the man that was imprisoned for opposing his fifteen year old daughter’s sex change surgery. These policies are barbaric.
Nazi Germany embraced the policies of euthanasia when it sought to murder the lives of people it considered unfit. These would include the mentally retarded and others considered “useless”. These people were gassed. The euthanasia program became the model for the use of gas in the death camps during the holocaust.
Assisted suicide is inevitably the fulfillment of social Darwinism, the survival of the fittest. Permitting the “suicides” of the weak and the vulnerable is nothing less than murder. This nothing less than the revival of fascism under the guise of liberal democracy.
America and Europe are going down similar paths. In January, Democrats in Minnesota promoted a radical bill promoting abortion throughout pregnancy. This would mean an abortion would be legal in that state for any reason at any time during a woman’s nine month pregnancy.
Social progressivism in this day and age is fascism.
Last December it was reported that Hagia Sophia suffered even more damage. The Imperial Gate under the mosaics of Saints Constantine and Justinian was damaged last year, but in December it was discovered the gate suffered more damage. Hagia Sophia appears to suffer from the ignorance of those responsible for the Great Church’s upkeep.
President Erdogan took Hagia Sophia from the ministry of culture which did a good job preserving the Church, and gave it to the clerics who are completely indifferent to both the Christian origins of Hagia Sophia and the historical significance of the Church. The upcoming Turkish elections will be significant.
Will Hagia Sophia be restored as a museum in a post Erdogan government? This remains to be seen.
My name is Theodore Karakostas and I am a Greek Orthodox Christian. This is not a political letter, but a letter motivated by concerns over religion, democracy, and freedom of conscience. At the present time, the Ukrainian government is attempting to outlaw the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This Church is one of three religious institutions claiming to be an Orthodox Church in that country. The dogmatic and ecclesiological matters are a matter of importance to Orthodox Christians and so I will not delve into this particular matter.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (not to be confused with the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine) has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, the Zelensky government is intent on outlawing the Church and has permitted angry mobs with fascist sympathies to seize Churches in order to give them to the religious institution presently favored by the Kiev government. In a democratic society, the government should not care where people choose to worship and citizens should not be discriminated against or suffer violence because of choices they make in matters of religion.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been persecuted by the Ukrainian authorities long before the Russians invaded. The Ukrainian government has targeted an entire community because of the choices they make in matters of faith. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being targeted because it is under the spiritual leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. The hierarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has condemned the Russian invasion and provided support for all Ukrainians regardless of religious affiliation.
At the present time, the Ukrainian authorities are attempting to seize the Kiev Caves Lavra (a monastic complex) of Kiev which is the holiest site in Ukraine. The government is trying to evict the monks and seminarians even though they have done nothing wrong. Angry mobs have been harassing the monks and ordinary Ukrainians who have shown up at the monastery to show their support for the monastery and the monks. There is nothing political about this, and under no circumstances does concern for the freedom of religion for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have any sort of implications regarding the war.
Roman Catholics throughout the world are under the spiritual authority of the Papacy. This does not make Roman Catholics loyal to the Italian government. As a Greek Orthodox, I am under thespiritual authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople from Turkey, and I have no sympathies for the Turkish government. The Ukrainian government is violating the right to religious freedom for millions of Ukrainians. American taxpayers are subsidizing the government of Ukraine.
The American government must demand that the government in Kiev cease and desist from interfering in the religious lives of its citizens. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church must be granted the same rights and recognitions that other religious institutions in Ukraine enjoy.
Letter to the Editor: On the Orthodox Church in Ukraine
April 5, 2023
The National Herald
(Photo: TNH, File)
To the Editor:
The Greek-speaking world has always prided itself on its devotion to the faith of Christ and the Orthodox Church. As such, it is of extreme importance that we must raise our voices to condemn the barbaric persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its most important shrine, that of the Kiev Caves Lavra. From the strict point of view of canon law and Orthodox ecclesiology the Ukrainian Orthodox synod of Metropolitan Onuphry is the canonical Church of Ukraine. There is a schismatic entity called ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ which lacks canonicity, catholicity, and apostolicity. Its creation is in fact highly irregular and problematic and threatens to destroy Orthodox unity.
From a democratic standpoint, religious freedom and freedom of conscience are extremely important. This means that each individual has the right to follow whatever religion or faith that they like. In Greece for example, individuals may worship within the canonical Church of Greece, or they may worship among the old calendar churches. Or they may attend Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or Muslim services. The point is they have the right to worship as they like.
The Ukrainian government has effectively decided to outlaw the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. These are outright fascist policies that target an entire group of people because they worship within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which was always recognized by all Orthodox Churches (including Constantinople) as the canonical Church of Ukraine until 2018. The decision of individuals to worship within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a basic human right supported by the right to religious freedom and freedom of conscience.
The Ukrainian government has been seeking to evict over two hundred monks from the Kiev Caves Lavra, the holiest site in Ukraine. Kiev reasons that because the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is under the omophorion of the Patriarchate of Moscow there must be some sort of sinister political designs at work. This is like saying that Greek Orthodox in America and those parts of Greece (Crete, the Dodecanese islands, Mount Athos) that are under the Ecumenical Patriarchate must have some secret loyalty to the Turkish government.
Were Roman Catholics around the world disloyal to their own countries when Mussolini was in power, or when Rome was under Nazi occupation? We should remember that the Turkish government has in the past accused the Ecumenical Patriarchate of having political designs and has bestowed a policy of repression upon it.
The Greek speaking Orthodox churches must find their voices and must condemn the oppression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Greek Churches should remember the bravery of martyred Patriarch-Saint Gregory V, Metropolitan Chrysostom of Smyrna, Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, and the late and beloved Archbishop Christodoulos who always spoke out against injustice.
