Categories
Commentary

The Archbishop Angers Greece and Cyprus

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America has angered the governments of Greece and Cyprus by meeting with Turkish President Erdogan at the “Turkevi Center” which is where the Turkish mission to the United Nations will soon be located. Both the governments of Greece and Cyprus are rightfully angry over this meeting. There are several things to be said about this new development within the greater contexts of what has transpired over the past three years.

1) It has always been a mistake for the Greek government to view the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese as a lobby for Hellenic issues. The Church has a spiritual mission and should be focused on that. Greece should have followed the examples of other governments who have established successful lobbies in Washington by leaving these matters to secular organizations. It has been a horrendous mistake to believe that the Greek Archdiocese which has proven to be so ineffective in spiritual matters, could possibly be of any use on matters pertaining to Greece and Cyprus.

2) The Greek government should have noticed that the present Archbishop is a Turkish citizen which creates a conflict of interest. A Turkish citizen can not possibly be entrusted with supporting Greece and Cyprus.

3) The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has been mired in one scandal after another over the past several years. The influence of the Archdiocese (and by extension, the Ecumenical Patriarchate) should not have been permitted to expand its influence over the formerly free Church of Greece. I say formerly free Church of Greece because since 2019, the holy synod of Athens has come under the influence of the State Department with the approval of Patriarch Bartholomew and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

It is well known that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled to Athens in the fall of 2019 to persuade Archbishop Ieronymos and his synod to recognize the false “church” of Ukraine and its pseudo bishops. When the synod of Athens established communion with a group of laymen dressing as bishops who have been either anathematized or who have never been legitimately ordained or consecrated, the freedom of the Orthodox Church of Greece came to an end.

American “Ambassador” to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt has openly intervened in the affairs of the Church of Greece and in the affairs of the Holy Mountain of Athos. The Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese have long since been compromised but the Church of Greece’s failure to defend the sacred canons and Orthodox ecclesiology in the face of American secular interference in Church affairs is a tragedy that deprived the Greek speaking Orthodox world of freedom. The Greek government should have been aware of and should prevented American officials from interfering in Church affairs since such interference was likewise a violation of the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic.

4) The Ecumenical Patriarchate plunged the whole of the Eastern Orthodox Church into a major crisis that could result in a full blown schism as a result of both its invasion of the territory of Ukraine (itself the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which enjoys an autonomous status under the mother Church of Russia) and the distortion of Orthodox ecclesiology that has been formulated by Archbishop Elphidophoros with the approval of Patriarch Bartholomew. As noted above, secular political interests of the United States have contributed to the schism because Washington views the Orthodox Church as a weapon in the new Cold War being directed against Russia. The Greek speaking Churches of Constantinople and Greece have come under the unnatural and unwanted influence of secular political interests.

5) The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria has evidently succumbed to pressure from Constantinople to establish communion with the false “church” of Ukraine. Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria was once a supporter of the canonical Church of Ukraine but dramatically reversed his stance. Likewise, Archbishop Chrysostom of Cyprus who previously organized the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem in an effort to end the schism ended up recognizing the false “church” in Ukraine

Will the Greek and Cypriot governments take notice of what has been happening in the affairs of their “autocephalous” Churches? Most recently, the destructive interference of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the affairs of the Greek Church has resulted in division and possible schism within the Church of Cyprus. Archbishop Chrysostom of Cyprus recognized the false “church” of Ukraine without discussing the matter with the synod of the Church of Cyprus. This enraged at least four Metropolitans who reacted harshly.

As with the Church of Cyprus, Patriarch Bartholomew’s support for the fake “church” in Ukraine has led to division in the Church of Greece as pious Metropolitans, priests, and theologians have expressed bitter opposition to the actions of both the synods of Constantinople and Athens. The entire Ukrainian affair has brought nothing but destruction and misery to Orthodoxy and threatens to bring about a permanent and irreversible schism.

Archbishop Elpidophoros is the author of the infamous assertion that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first without equals”. All the local Orthodox Churches consider the Ecumenical Patriarch to be “first among equals”. All the Orthodox Churches have carefully asserted since the beginning of the Church crisis that Constantinople ranks first in the dyptychs of the Church and maintains a “primacy of honor”.

The supporters of Patriarch Bartholomew are partisans and are colluding in the anti Russian hysteria that has engulfed the western world. In actual fact, the Russians have done nothing to take the first place of honor from Constantinople. The issue at hand has to do with Constantinople’s desire to overthrow the conciliar process and to grab complete and unlimited authority much like the Pope has in the Roman Catholic Church.

Both Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros have dishonored the Greek flag by committing their ecclesiastical crimes in the name of Hellenism. Patriarch Bartholomew who in his thirty years as Patriarch has never condemned the Turkish occupation of Cyprus or the destruction of over five hundred Churches and Monasteries by the Turkish army has suddenly become the spokesman of Greeks everywhere. Patriarch Bartholomew fancies himself as the Greek “ethnarch” but compared to Greek bishops such as the late Archbishop Christodoulos of blessed memory he falls short.

The governments of Greece and Cyprus (along with Greeks everywhere) have failed to be cognizant of how truly obscene the alliance between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese with the State Department truly is. After the 1955 pogroms in Constantinople which ushered in the final phase of the destruction of Greek Orthodoxy in Constantinople and Asia Minor, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles refused to condemn the Turkish government for the violence directed at the community that made up the flock of the Church of Constantinople and their Monasteries and Churches.

The American government was completely indifferent to the destruction of Greek Orthodoxy in Constantinople. In the subsequent decades, American foreign policy has

1) Assisted the Turkish invasions of Cyprus in 1974 where 200,000 Orthodox Greeks were ethnically cleansed and where Churches and Monasteries were converted into Mosques or destroyed,

2) Bombed Orthodox Serbia over a three month period and gave Kosovo to the Muslims which led to the ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Serbs and the destruction of countless Churches and Monasteries,

3) Invaded Iraq and attempted to overthrow the government of Syria. The Christians of Iraq were decimated in a genocide that occurred after the overthrow of the old regime in Iraq (terrible as that was). The Christians of Syria were nearly destroyed in a genocidal campaign waged by jihadists that American policy unleashed. It was the intervention of Orthodox Russia that saved the Christians of Syria from extermination and saved Syria from being either a failed state, or a jihadist state.

4) The United States (with the exception of the Trump administration) has been provoking Orthodox Russia by overthrowing a government in Ukraine that was friendly to the Russians and replacing it with an anti Russian government.

In conclusion, the Greek and Cypriot governments should recognize that Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros do not act as if they are in service to the holy traditions and teachings of the Orthodox Church. They are espousing an ecclesiology foreign to Orthodoxy and have destabilized the universal Orthodox Church. They have also been making the Greek speaking Churches accomplices in the persecution of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians who are the targets of violence and persecution by persons unbaptized who masquerade as Orthodox Christians and receive the support of the synod of the Church of Constantinople.

At the present time, Cyprus faces an existential threat from Turkey. Turkey has also claimed islands that belong to Greece through international treaties as belonging to Ankara. Hopefully, Athens and Nicosia will recognize that Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros are working against both Orthodoxy and the interests of Greece and Cyprus.

Categories
Published commentaries

Black September

OPINIONS – GUEST VIEWPOINTS

Black September

The National Herald

Turkish mob attacking Greek property in Constantinople.
9/19/2021By Theodore Karakostas     

The dark anniversary of September 6 commemorated the anti-Greek and anti-Christian pogroms that were directed against the Greek Orthodox community of Constantinople in 1955. On that night, the Turkish government organized riots against Christian Greeks in order to further its claims to the island of Cyprus. The previous April, the Greeks of Cyprus who made up eighty percent of the population in Cyprus rose up against

British rule and began the fight for ‘Enosis’ (Union) with Greece. The British responded not only by imposing policies of repression against the Greeks, but actively encouraged Turkey to put forward claims to Cyprus despite Ankara’s having renounced claims to Cyprus in 1923 at the Lausanne Peace Conference. 

The British actively encouraged Turkey to organize demonstrations opposing the Greek liberation of Cyprus. This resulted in the Turkish government bringing in criminal elements from Anatolia to carry out a campaign of violence against the Greek community. The Governmentof Prime Minister Adnan Menderes had already been inciting the Turkish population by commemorating and celebrating the Turkish ‘victory’over the Greeks in September 1922 when the armies of Mustafa Kemal conquered the Christian city of Smyrna and commenced a massacre without mercy of the Greek and Armenian Christian inhabitants of the city. 

In Thessaloniki, Turkish agents provocateur bombed the museum which had been established on the site where the murderous Mustafa Kemal was born in 1881. The house where the Turkish dictator was born was ceded to the Turkish consulate by the Mayor of Thessaloniki in 1937 in a gesture of ‘friendship’. During the period of Turkish history when the ideas of Mustafa Kemal had supplanted Islam as the official ideology, Kemal resembled a sort of pagan god rather than a mere national hero. 

The Turks bombed Kemal’s house in Thessaloniki in order to incite the Turkish population of Constantinople.

Turkish officials doctored photographs of the house before the bombing even took place in order to be ready to incite the pogroms. The pogroms began around six PM and Greek homes and businesses were marked with crosses to indicate these were sites to be attacked. Greek private property along with churches and monasteries and cemeteries were destroyed. Churches and monasteries were desecrated in unspeakable ways and the Balukli cemetery where the Ecumenical Patriarchs are buried was vandalized, as were the bones of the Patriarchs themselves.

Dozens of Greeks were murdered in cold blood. A ninety-year-old priest named Chrysanthos Mannas was doused with gasoline and burned alive. Women were raped and men were beaten unmercifully. Bishops and priests were targeted for humiliation and abuse. One bishop died from the injuries he sustained from a beating he endured.

Photographs of the horrors were taken by Demetrios Kaloumenos, the Patriarchal photographer who later published them in a book titled The Crucifixion of Christianity. The late scholar Spyros Vryonis dedicated his masterpiece The Mechanism of Catastrophe to Mr. Kaloumenos. This latter book was published in 2005 and stands as the supreme work on the pogroms in the English language and was the product of fourteen years of research and work. 

The significance of the pogroms today can be seen within the overall history of Hellenism that preceded these events and by events as they are playing out today.

In September 1922, the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks which had begun in 1914 were completed. The western powers had their warships at the harbor of Smyrna but refused to intervene. 

In 1955, the same policies of appeasement by the West were in place. The British, as has been mentioned, struck a double blow against the 

Greeks of Constantinople and Cyprus. The British created conflict in Cyprus by encouraging Turkish expansionist and aggressive claims to the island, and encouraged Turkish policies that resulted in the destruction to the Greek Orthodox community of Constantinople.

Today, Greece and Cyprus find themselves isolated once again as NATO and Europe remain indifferent to the expansionist claims of Turkey against both these Hellenic Republics.

Whereas the policies of the British created the climate in which the pogroms could occur, the Americans protected the evil of the Turks in the aftermath. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles sent identical letters to Greek Prime Minister Alexander Papagos and Turkish 

Prime Minister Menderes (the organizer of the pogroms) asking them to solve their “differences”. No condemnation of the Turks was forthcoming and pressure was exerted on Greece to drop the issue. NATO not only refused to condemn Turkey, but showed no support for Greek army officers that were serving with NATO in Smyrna and were assaulted by the Turks. 

September 6 was a very black day in Hellenic and Orthodox Christian history. Unfortunately, important lessons have remained unlearned by all. 

Greece is still heavily dependent on the unfriendly alliance of NATO. Turkey has undergone a transformation and has returned to its Ottoman roots by returning to Islam. The conversion of Aghia Sophia into a mosque symbolizes this return. 

The Ecumenical Patriarchate, which lost much of its flock after the pogroms and which would lose even more after 1964 is today cooperating with the State Department against the Russian Orthodox Church. Cooperating with State Department officials whose predecessors refused to condemn or criticize the ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Greeks from Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos after 1955. 

Categories
political

Europe Sliding Further Toward Authoritarianism

The European Union has threatened to withhold $950 billion for covid relief from Hungary because the democratically elected government in Budapest has passed laws forbidding gay and transgender propaganda from being taught to school children. This is demonstrative of the power of the LGBT movement which seeks to impose itself on other people’s children. The Hungarian government is entirely right to resist the unreasonable demands of the European Union.

Some are advocating that Roman Catholic Hungary (and Catholic Poland) should be expelled from the European Union. Over the short term, it might be painful for Budapest and Warsaw to go it alone. Over the long term however these countries will find that it is to their benefit to regain their independence and to ensure that their Christian heritage remains strong.

If only Greece had a leader like Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban. Back in 2000, Archbishop Christodoulos organized huge rallies to protest the demands of the European Union that religion be removed from identity cards. In the decades since, Greece has legalized gay marriage and accepted transgender identity.

The European Union should be abolished. Membership in this pagan union will lead to the spiritual devastation of all member nations and the destruction of their independence and sovereignty. Hopefully, Hungary and Poland will fight.

Categories
faith

Remembering the Turkish Krystaalnacht

Today is the anniversary of the anti Greek-Christian pogroms that took place in Constantinople in 1955. The Turkish government conducted a terror campaign against the 100,000 or so Christian Greeks that were still living in Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos. The motivations for the pogroms emanated from Turkey’s expansionist claims to Cyprus.

In April of 1955, the Greeks of Cyprus revolted against British rule and sought to achieve “enosis” with Greece. The struggle in Cyprus was against the British, not the Turks. The British encouraged Turkey to put fourth claims on Cyprus in order to undermine Greece.

The British also encouraged demonstrations in Turkey to express Turkish feelings for Cyprus. These demonstrations were to lead to the vicious pogroms against Orthodox Greeks in Constantinople. The Turkish government of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes brought in criminal elements from Anatolia and encouraged them to target the Greeks.

Greek homes, Churches, and businesses had crosses painted on them so the thugs would know their targets. The pretext for the terror campaign was the bombing of Mustafa Kemal’s home in Thessaloniki. In reality, the Turks bombed Kemal’s home (which is ajar to the Turkish consulate) and had earlier doctored photographs of the bombing to be carried out so as to be able to quickly incite angry mobs to violence.

The Turkish police were ordered to stand down. The mobs murdered, raped, and tortured. A ninety year old priest named Chrysanthos Mannas was doused with gasoline and burned alive. An elderly Greek woman went insane after being raped. All the property of the Greeks was destroyed in a single night.

At Smyrna, Greek Army officers serving NATO were beaten and neither NATO nor any members of NATO condemned the assaults on their colleagues. In the aftermath of the pogroms, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wrote an offensive letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexander Papagos asking Greece to drop the matter in favor of NATO solidarity. No condemnation of Turkey or threats for Turkey to improve its human rights record.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate lost much of its remaining flock in the days following the pogroms. Now it must be said that the State Department refused to condemn the devastation agains the flock of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at this time. That should bring the present collaboration of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the State Department in a common anti Russian campaign into greater focus.

In 1955, NATO and the west valued Turkey as a counter to the Soviet Union. Today, Turkey collaborates with ISIS and Al Quada, and NATO refuses to support Greece against the encroachments of its territory by Turkey.

What exactly has changed since 1955?

Categories
books

The Life And Death Of The Terrorist

The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden

by Peter Bergen

Simon and Schuster. 2021

Peter Bergen is a genuine expert on the middle east and Islamic terrorism. His new book about Bin Laden makes for excellent reading. This is comparable to Youssef Bodansky’s pre-9/11 biography about Bid Laden that was called “Bin Laden The Man Who Declared War On America”.

There is a good deal of information about Bin Laden’s life, his religious views, and politics that motivated him to become the world’s most notorious terrorist. There is interesting background about his family who were actually secular people. A family picture featuring his brothers and sisters shows the girls without any head coverings.

Bergen reveals that Bin Laden overestimated the abilities of his jihadists in the Afghani war against the Soviet Union. Bergen says the expulsion of the Soviet Union resulted from American support. Bin Laden believed that his group was instrumental in defeating the Soviets, and believed Al Quada (formed in Afghanistan in 1988) would defeat the United States as well.

Bin Laden was responsible for terror attacks against the United States in Somalia in 1993. He was responsible for bombing the American barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996. He and Al Quada were also responsible for the bombing of two American embassies in Africa in 1998.

Despite this growing campaign of terror the Clinton administration in 1996 turned down an offer from the Sudanese government (where Bin Laden was living at the time) to turn him over to Washington. The Clinton administration believed they had no legal basis for taking the proven murderer and terrorist into custody.

But the Clinton administration was not alone in screwing up. The Bush administration which took office in January 2001 did not consider Bin Laden a high priority. Bergen reveals the Bush administration was obsessed with invading Iraq. Assistant Secretary of Defense did not understand why the US should have been interested in one man.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others worked to find a connection between Al Quada and Iraq. One of the most appalling failures of the Bush administration was in failing to kill Bin Laden in Tora Bora near the end of 2001. Bergen says the US failed to send more troops to ensure the death of the mass murderer. Bin Laden got away but Al Quada was at least decimated.

Until 2003, when the overthrow of the Iraqi government after the invasion that was ordered by the Bush administration gave Bin Laden’s group the opportunity to rebuild itself. The failures of both the Clinton and Bush administrations should be recalled today at a time when the Biden administration has blundered in Afghanistan.

Taken in context, screwing up the fight against terrorists seems to be the rule and not the exception. The Clinton administration permitted Bin Laden and Al Quada to grow in strength. I remember those days vividly as we were all preoccupied with Bill Clinton’s sexual proclivities with Monica.

The Bush administration failed to kill Bin Laden and then decided to go nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq. If there is anything the Bush and Clinton administrations had in common is that their cabinets all believed their own bullshit and propaganda. The Biden administration is more realistic in its rhetoric regarding Afghanistan but stupidly withdrew from Afghanistan in a way that permitted the Taliban to secure an unconditional victory.

The Obama administration’s success in tracking down and killing Bin Laden is recounted here. It is an instance when the Obama administration performed very well. This book is an excellent and informative read about the life of one of the world’s most evil terrorists.

Categories
political

Taking In Refugees Is The Price Of Empire

If the United States wants to be an empire, taking in refugees is the price to be paid. It should be kept in mind that Afghan refugees are human beings and President Joe Biden bears the responsibility for this particular humanitarian crisis but the interventionists in both political parties have more indirect responsibility because of their support for foreign wars. All political factions in the US are being enormously hypocritical here.

Greece was compelled to take in refugees from Syria despite the fact that Athens did not participated in any wars against Syria or any other country. Those who support the wars have the responsibility to take in the refugees. Western European countries supported the war in Syria to overthrow the Asaad government but refused to help Athens when the Greeks were having trouble with the huge number of refugees.

Pro war policies have led to the destruction of countries and societies. Afghanistan is rather complicated because of the fact that Kabul hosted Al Quada before, during, and after the 9/11 attacks. The wars in Iraq and Syria and the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011 led to humanitarian crises and the flow of refugees. Regime change necessitates taking responsibility.

Talk radio which is a bastion of stupidity and racism (I remember a local talk show host making anti Greek remarks during the economic crisis in Greece) rejects the idea of accepting refugees for humanitarian reasons. The logical conclusion to all this is stop waging wars and creating the conditions that create refugees. Let’s keep in mind that their are hawks in both political parties pushing for a war with Iran and are also taking an aggressive line against Russia.

It is likely that the hawks in both political parties are not going to take the proper lessons that result from trying to be an empire. The refugee crisis will end when the US wars end. Syria is an example of Washington’s insane war making policies.

Syria was a secular country and was the last country in the Middle East where Christians were secure. America is not a Christian country but that is a topic for another time. The Asaad regime was an authoritarian one but one where regular people could at least have something of a normal life.

When the rebellion erupted a decade ago in Syria, the Obama administration (and the neocons) demanded an American intervention. One of the more controversial aspects of the Syrian war was the use of poison gas. The stupid in America and Europe were horrified about the use of poison gas. The reality is that wars produce crimes against humanity and atrocities by all sides.

Syria nearly became a failed state. The Russian determination to save the Assad regime is a credit to Russia. President Donald Trump’s cutting off the jihadist linked terrorists in Syria also deserves credit.

Patrick Buchanan wrote a great book back in 1999 entitled, “A Republic, Not an Empire”. The book deserves to be read by serious minded people. America was founded to be a Republic. As long as the liberals and neocons want America to be an Empire more refugees will be created.

If there is anything the Afghanistan situation should be teaching America, it is to avoid future wars. Unfortunately, the pro war elements in both parties and the think tanks have their eyes on Russia and Iran.

Categories
political

What do Republicans and Democrats Have in Common-Russophobia

The Trump years were good for many reasons but chief among them from an Orthodox Christian standpoint was the fact that Trump wanted better relations with Russia. Unfortunately, the Democrats blocked his administration from working with the Russians in matters of common interest. The neocons are working overtime to promote hysteria in the aftermath of Biden’s stupidity.

Commentators on FOX News, talk radio, and neocon publications such as National Review have been warning about the evil Russians and the “fascist” Putin. The anti Russian hysteria that the Democrats carried for four years is being taken up by the neocons in the Republican Party. The Republicans were good for a while serving as an opposition to the Marxist lunatics in the Democratic Party.

While the Republicans are on target on cultural issues, the rising anti Russian and pro war sentiments are problematic and one has to wonder if the Republicans are reverting away from Trump’s policies to the Bush-Cheney policies. Time will tell, but from an Orthodox Christian standpoint Russophobia is a threat to all of Orthodoxy (Greece and Cyprus included).

The neocons were never entirely dislodged from the Republican Party. They even served in the Trump administration. Mike Pompeo, an otherwise good Secretary of State stuck his noise in Orthodox Church affairs by asking the Church of Greece to recognize the Ukrainian schismatic entity. Washington wants to ensure that Greece remains under Washington’s influence and wants Greece to be anti Russian.

“Ambassador” Geoffrey Pyatt contributed to the chaos with his own meddling in Orthodox Church affairs by backing Patriarch Bartholomew’s actions in recognizing a schismatic entity in Ukraine. The anti Russian policies of Washington are likely to make Washington tilt toward Turkey in the event of a Greek-Turkish war.

When the British Empire was anti Russian in previous centuries, London backed the Ottoman Empire. As long as NATO exists, Turkey will get preferential treatment over Greece. Athens appealed to NATO to restrain Turkey in its aggressive actions against Athens and Nicosia, and NATO refused to do so.

The lamentation from so many “conservatives” for the possible demise of the anti Orthodox NATO is sickening. NATO member Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 and has never left. NATO bombed Serbia and took Kosovo from that Orthodox nation. NATO instigated the brief war that occurred in Ukraine 2014 by trying to absorb Ukraine and move to the Russian border.

Make no mistake about it, NATO is a threat to Orthodox countries. Good riddance to this nefarious alliance. And good riddance to the Russophobes of both political parties.

Categories
faith

The Ecumenical Patriarch Visits Ukraine

Under normal circumstances the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch to Ukraine would be a wonderful thing. Over a thousand years ago, Kiev which was the center of Russia was converted to Christianity by the Great Church of Constantinople. Circumstances are not normal however and so the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to Ukraine is one of controversy rather than a display of Orthodox unity.

Patriarch Bartholomew was invited to visit Ukraine on the thirtieth anniversary of that country’s independence by President Vladimir Zelensky. The Patriarch met with the fake bishop Epithany Dimenko and the false bishops and clerics. The Patriarch completely avoided the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its legitimate synod and faithful.

An organized group of laypeople who are part of the legitimate Church sent a “tomos” of their own to Patriarch Bartholomew. This “tomos” is a response to the artificial “tomos” that Patriarch Bartholomew granted to the fake church in Ukraine in 2018. The faithful of the suffering Ukrainian Church wrote in their tomos that they have a love for the Church of Constantinople and the Greeks from whom they received the Christian faith over one thousand years ago.

It is a moving letter that acknowledges past Patriarchs of Constantinople who were solid in the faith. The contents of the tomos include references to the current persecution that the canonical Church is enduring. The faithful of Ukraine also declare that were Patriarch Bartholomew to repent, that they would once again accept the Patriarch of Constantinople as “first among equals” in Orthodoxy.

Ukrainian faithful came out in huge crowds to express support for the canonical Metropolitan Onuphry and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Many of them wished to see Patriarch Bartholomew to tell him of the suffering they have been enduring because of the persecution directed against them by the fake church under the fake bishops. To his discredit, Patriarch Bartholomew completely avoided them.

With the passing of time, Constantinople’s position in Orthodoxy will continue to decline. Sooner or later, the Orthodox Churches will declare anathemas against the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Perhaps against the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Church of Greece as well.

Pious Orthodox Christians do not want this. Patriarch Bartholomew on the other hand is completely indifferent to the destruction and chaos he has caused. The time is coming when the Patriarch will have to make a choice. Either repent or be excommunicated from the Orthodox Church.

Categories
cinema

The Cruel Rule Of The Taliban

The film entitled “Osama” by Director Siddiq Barmak was the first film to be made in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001. The film very effectively depicts the horror of Taliban rule and its cruelty to women and girls. I watched this film on DVD when it was originally released and I thought it was worth revisiting considering everything that is happening now.

The story centers on a girl and her mother who is a doctor. The mother cannot work. Her husband and other male relatives are dead. She cannot leave the house without a male relative and must cover herself entirely in a burqa.

The child’s grandmother gets the decision to cut the girl’s hair and to disguise her as a boy so she can go work and earn money for the family to survive. Things go badly when a Taliban soldier spots the child and makes her go to a school for boys (as he thinks the child is a boy).

Things go bad for the child and her fate is tragic. Watching this film again with what is happening now leaves one entirely uncertain about what should be done about Afghanistan. After twenty years, the Taliban are back.

Categories
political

Neocons On The Rise

I am not now and have never been a supporter of Joe Biden. I loathe the Democratic Party. But I also happen to loathe the neoconservative warmongers who have found new life in the midst of the chaos of Afghanistan. The neoconservatives have been very carefully exploiting Afghanistan and will no doubt over the long term try to push American foreign policy into a renewed pro war direction.

Neocon Mark Levine in a diatribe regarding the events in Kabul brought up Vladimir Putin and called him a “fascist”. One of the major reasons for my contempt for the Democratic Party has been the anti Russian hysteria of the past five years. Levine sounds like Hillary Clinton who once compared Putin to Hitler. But then neocons by the dozens (if not Levine) supported Hillary’s candidacy for President in 2016.

Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952. During the war, over one million Russians died from starvation during the Nazi siege of the city. Vladimir Putin’s brother died from starvation and two of his uncles were killed in defense of the city. The neocons who call Putin a fascist have conveniently ignored the the glorification in Ukraine of Nazi collaborators and the terror campaigns conducted by Neo-Nazi militias.

The Democrats and the neoconservatives have much in common starting with Russophobia. Other commentators in the media have been bringing up Ukraine and alleged Russian “aggression”. Let it not be forgotten that neoconservative warmongers Geoffrey Pyatt and Victoria Nuland were instrumental in overthrowing the democratic government of Ukraine in 2014. The Russians were not going to have NATO at their border and were not going to permit a stooge government to pursue anti Russian policies right next door.

It is very clear that President Biden has made a horrendous mistake by withdrawing troops all at once from Afghanistan. Joe Biden is clearly a very sick man who shot not have run for President. The man slurs his words and looks awful when he makes public appearances. He needs to step down or Congress should impeach him.

Now, as disastrous as the situation is regarding Afghanistan context is in order. Biden is being universally denounced as if his actions were worse than those of the Bush-Cheney administration which triggered the disastrous Iraq war. It was the neocon influenced Bush-Cheney regime that believed the rest of the world wanted to be like America. Neocons and liberals alike have no understanding of religion, culture, or nationalism.

The goal of going to war in Afghanistan was to smash Al Quada and to punish the Taliban for giving them sanctuary. That goal was achieved early on. It was the Bush administration that deserves blame for the unending war in Afghanistan. The Bush-Cheney government did not win the war in the seven plus years before leaving office and had no exit strategy and left the war for other administrations to conduct.

The Trump administration looks very good in comparison to both the Bush and Biden administrations. The Trump administration did what had to be done to smash ISIS which it properly considered a threat and sought friendly relations with Russia. The Trump administration (with difficulty) also resisted neoconservative demands to go to war with Iran.

The Trump administration correctly sought to withdraw from Afghanistan and was planning to leave in a manner that would have avoided the destruction and misery that the world is now witnessing. Let it be remembered that the liberal media greatly influenced the outcome of the 2020 elections. Liberal media outlets such as National Public Radio and Sixty Minutes openly said that they would not report on the scandals involving Hunter Biden.

The media downplayed early reports of the nursing home deaths of elderly people as a result of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s policies because they did not want Donald Trump to benefit politically in any way. The media has now turned on the sick and elderly Joe Biden who should not be President. The media and the Democrats downplayed concerns about Biden’s declining mental heath because they wanted Donald Trump out of the White House at all costs.

Joe Biden is a sick man and has now demonstrated that he is incapable of making good decisions. Compassion necessitates that he be removed from office immediately and that the media back off should he leave office. The media is largely responsible for his ascension to power and it is hypocritical for them now to pretend to be shocked by his inability to comprehend what is happening.

The main lesson to be learned is that nation building leads to disaster. The neocons would have us believe that all countries irrespective of religion, history, and national interests want to be like America. The neocons fellow travelers the liberals suffer from the same delusions. The war in Iraq, the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011, the intervention in Ukraine, and the subsequent warmongering led to unnecessary human suffering.

The best way to avoid the horror show playing out in Afghanistan in the future is to avoid all unnecessary wars. I am reminded of the hysteria against Syria a few years ago. Liberals and neocons were outraged at atrocities occurring in Syria. A reality check is in order. Atrocities are perpetrated in wars.

War mongers and interventionists need to understand that if they wish to avoid atrocities and massacres they need to stop instigating wars and overthrowing governments that they do not like. It is possible that the Republican Party that Trump rescued is going to be reclaimed by the neocons. It that happens then the Republican Party will be just as evil as the Democratic Party is.

Neoconservatives have joined with liberals over the past several years to demonize Orthodox Russia. At present, the neocons and liberals are demonizing the Roman Catholic nation of Hungary. The Hungarian government has passed a law forbidding the teaching of gay and transgender propaganda to children. Normal people think this law is quite reasonable which affirms that neocons and liberals have estranged themselves from normal people.

Poland has also come under enormous international criticism. The EU has been bullying the Hungarians because of the law forbidding LGBT propaganda to children. The Russians started coming under attack after the women of “pussy riot” were properly jailed for desecrating the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and after blocking the dissemination of gay propaganda in Russian schools.

The neoconservative Geoffrey Pyatt who did so much damage when he served as “Ambassador” to Ukraine is now the defacto Governor of Greece where he serves under the guise of being an Ambassador. Pyatt played a major role in fomenting the schism in Orthodoxy by meddling the affairs of the Greek Church. For the neocons, the Orthodox Church is just another institution to be influenced and controlled.

As the Democrats are pagans, the neoconservatives are atheists. All of them have wrought nothing but misery throughout the world from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan.