We Should Follow Our TRUE Leaders…

______________________________

Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of internet “Sturm und Drang” from relatively unformed sorts. One of the worst was when two well-known konvertsy ganged up on Frank Schaeffer. Mr Schaeffer stated the classic Church teaching on Symphonia, which most konvertsy disregard (and hate). The Church views the state in very positive terms… it doesn’t share the sectarian hatred of government one little bit (note well that the konvertsy NEVER gave up that particular heresy)! Of course, all the usual suspects pilloried Mr Schaeffer (I got my share for sticking up for him). My belief is that he comes in for especial vitriol because he’s a convert, but he doesn’t toe the “konvertsy line”.

Another fave target of the toddlers is Lazar Puhalo. Having met the man, I can say that whatever else is true, he’s genuine, and he gives a shit. That goes a long way in my book. Everyone knows that the konvertsy have a sick absorption with homosexuality. Bishop Lazar had a family member who committed suicide due to pressures from idiots. A Cabinet member wrote me:

He infuriates right-leaning culture warriors when he applies both science and compassion to issues related to sexuality and gender (he had a close relative hounded into suicide over his identity, hence his passion on the subject)… they won’t brook any talk of acceptance or questioning of their “traditional” take on “unnatural” sex.

Kids… what they trot out aren’t doctrines or dogma of the Church… they’re theologoumena, often very controversial ones. Do note that many of them are “spiritual children” of wayward “gurus” such as Seraphim Rose and Gleb Podmoshensky… do note that these paladins founded a “monastery” without real guidance or having real monastic formation. Neither spent time in a real monastery as part of the brotherhood under obedience before “retreating from the world”. That, in itself, isn’t Orthodox in the least. For instance, St Herman was a monk at Valaam before leaving for Alaska… that’s the real way… men and women go out from established houses, after having internalised the ascetic way, and, then, form new houses.

The only wonder is that Platina didn’t go sour earlier. All that we have in the way of records on it are hagiography, not history… worthless puffery, in academic terms. However, I’d commend you to ponder this… Paffso was acridly anti-homosexual, yet, his “spiritual father” was Gleb Podmoshensky, and Manton’s life is like that of Platina. I’d say that we should study the lives of REAL elders such as Serafim Vyritsky, Sampson Sievers, and Zosima Sokur… the latter elder’s gifts bore fruit recently when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich (a spiritual son of Elder Zosima) refused to use unbridled force against the rioters in Kiev. Viktor Fyodorovich proved himself a true son of the Church… by their fruits ye shall know them.

That’s the real world choice on offer… we can follow real elders and receive solid spiritual food, or, we can follow semi-converted charlatans purveying semi-heretical pabulum. I’ve chosen… that means that I’ve also REJECTED. I’ve chosen to follow the path indicated by St Serafim Vyritsky… by Elders Sampson and Zosima… I’ve chosen to reject the path indicated by Seraphim Rose and Gleb Podmoshensky. You can’t choose both… you can have Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, or, you can have the Orthodoxy of the Ages…

Let me leave you with something that I wrote several years ago… it hasn’t lost its savour:

St Serafim [Vyritsky] made TWO sets of prophecies… do remember what prophecy is (as compared to “clairvoyance”, the knowledge of the future). Prophecy tells us what “could” be, if we don’t mend our ways. It’s the “Sign of Jonas”, as Thomas Merton put it so well. Also, all too many take “prophecy” as something “literal”, when it’s more “literary”. Prophecy is much like what Scrooge said to the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, “Tell me that these are the shadows of what could be, and not what will be!” Remember St Jonas in Nineveh… he preached the city’s destruction, but since the Ninevites repented of their sin, the destruction didn’t occur.

Repentance or degeneracy… that’s the choice facing Russia… and us. St Serafim pointed up what could happen in either case. What happens in future is our call… God DID give us Free Will. We’re NOT marionettes manipulated by a Divine Puppeteer… we’re NOT automations following the dictates of a “god” “who has a plan for your life”. We’re free men and women, endowed by their Creator with the OBLIGATION to choose. That’s how much God loves us… He allows us the COMPLETE freedom to choose our fate. That’s scary to so many… that’s why they find either Materialism or Sectarianism comforting… they down Ol’ Scratch’s cheap spiritual vodka in order to blind themselves to Christ’s Reality. However, a hangover ALWAYS follows a toot… and that goes for spiritual drunkenness as well. Ponder that, if you would…

Choose well…

BMD

 

Advertisement

21 October 2012. Franklin Graham Kisses Romney’s Naked Backside at High Noon… Mormonism is No Longer a Cult According to Him

THIS is what Billy Graham truly believes in… his son is a liar and poltroon

______________________________

Firstly, I want you to read Frank Schaefer’s post on this topic. Now, read this from the Huffington Post.

Note this from the Schaefer piece:

The surprise outage of the flagship global evangelising organization website comes days before the 2012 presidential election, and on the heels of a widening scandal that opened up when aging evangelism superstar Billy Graham made a widely-heralded non-endorsement of presidential contender Mitt Romney, and, soon after, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) website scrubbed a page on which Graham identified Mormonism as a “cult”, along with the Unification Church and Scientology. … To secular audiences, it is hard to overemphasise the earthquake-scale magnitude of this scandal within modern American evangelicalism… superstar evangelist Billy Graham was friend and confidant of multiple presidents, such as Richard Nixon, and was widely viewed as a more sophisticated and inclusive counterweight to theologically-rigid tendencies within Christian fundamentalism. Fundamentalists strongly criticised Graham for his willingness to appear in public with representatives of non-Christian faiths.

Note this from the latter piece:

In February, Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the BGEA, made headlines after questioning Obama’s Christianity and alluding to Obama possibly being a Muslim; he’s been less discreet about his political support than his father. He wrote in a recent op-ed that Obama plans to rebuild America in what could amount to creating a “new nation without God or perhaps under many Gods”. … After Romney met with Graham, the BGEA removed a page from its website that called Mormonism as a “cult,” along with Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists, Spiritists, and the Unification Church.

I asked an older Anglican friend of mine, who knows Billy Graham personally, what they felt about this. The answer was unambiguous. “Billy’s not concerned with politics right now. He’s at the end of his life; he’s got more important things on his mind than petty political concerns. This lash-up is from his son, make no mistake on it”. Indeed, I agree. Franklin Graham doesn’t have a tithe of his father’s ability or cred; yet, he’s trying to use his father’s charismata and mana to endorse his Far Right delusions. Whatever you might think of Billy Graham’s religious viewpoints, he’s a man of principle. If he didn’t endorse Romney in the near past, he’s not doing so now. His son cleverly worded the BGEA release so that it meant one thing to his father (a gentleman of the old school) and another to New Republican activists such as himself. He misled his father into supporting a policy that he refused to support (that’s clever… and evil to the bone).

At present, Billy Graham doesn’t move much from his North Carolina home due to infirmities of age. His son uses his father’s name and rep to back his harebrained notions. Note well that there was no video or audio of Billy Graham making these statements; they’re written statements issued by the BGEA. In short, Franklin Graham used his father… I find that unconscionable, nasty, and quite “below the salt”. Any child who’d do such with their parents is a shit-spattered pig, full stop. Franklin should’ve left his father out of things after Billy’s statement of non-support for Romney. That’s what an honourable and decent person would’ve done. Franklin Graham told the world what he was by this legerdemain.

Nevertheless, it tells one much about both “New Evangelicals” and the “New Republican Party”…  both are soulless and godless in their essence. Their loud religiosity only compounds the evil. “Honour your father and your mother”… Franklin Graham spat on that, so, what does that tell you of his “religion” and about his ethical grounding? If he can’t even keep the Decalogue, what sort of “Christian” is he? I’ve got to hurl… politics is a foul rum go at best, but this is nauseating beyond all measure. God have mercy on poor Billy… his son used him to advance low political ends… HIS OWN FLESH N’ BLOOD DID IT TO HIM. That’s what makes it so horrendous. Deus videat et iudicare.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 21 October 2012

Albany NY

23 July 2012. Two Videos That Illustrate the Konvertsy State of Mind… The First One Shows Their Overweening Un-Orthodox Hubris

______________________________

This crudely-made and badly-scripted konvertsy video show the hubris and diabolic pride of this faction. You see, they’re “concerned about their souls”, whilst the rest of us are prideful and anti-religious. In point of fact, the reality’s quite the opposite. If we don’t remove gibbering heretics such as Paffhausen, our faith will go down the chute, and we’d have no one but ourselves to blame for it. JP attempted to ally the Holy Church with godless money-worshipping elements on the Far Right… it was one of the reasons that the Holy Synod removed him (it was a side-issue, but it was there). Also, he was reckless… don’t forget how he had a convicted felon (Michael Pasonick) as part of his delegation at the so-called March for Life (that’s not what it appears… it’s a stalking horse of the political Far Right).

You need an antidote to that, so, here’s:

******

______________________________

Frank Schaeffer points up the nauseating rubbish that the konvertsy are trying to contaminate the Church with. They’re trying to ally us with the worst factions in Sectarianism, and Real Orthodox have to fight that with all their might. Look at the late Job Osacky, “the last honest bishop in the OCA“, and compare him with the disgusting Matthias Moriak, a nepotist who smoothed the way for his son to take over a plum parish in Columbus OH and who attacked Vladyki Job’s oikonomia towards Mark Stokoe. Mark’s crazier than a loon in some things, but Fr Ted Bobosh’s pastoral leeway was legit, it was in sync with the Church’s teaching, and Vladyki Job knew and approved of it. These semi-Evangelical phonies aren’t going to be with us much longer, so, don’t argue with them, it’s pointless.

God is calling us to UNITY. It’s time to bring together the healthy elements of the Russian Orthodox diaspora under the Mother Church. A “Rump OCA” will exist, and it’ll be loud, and it’ll be a “pain in the arse” (people like Rod Dreher will belong to it). Let it be… God is calling us to better things. We have Russian Orthodoxy in America to rebuild… now, that’s something well-worth fighting for. The OCA’s going DOWN. It’s nothing to gloat over. Too many are going to be hurt (and have been hurt). It’s a rum go, all the way ’round.

BMD

19 August 2011. Michele “Motormouth” Bachmann Does It Again: “The Rise of the Soviet Union”… D’OH!

Here’s what she said, complete, and in context:

“What people recognise is that there’s a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union, and our loss militarily going forward. And especially with this very bad debt ceiling bill, what we’ve done is given a favour to President Obama, and the first thing he’ll whack is 500 billion (14.6 trillion Roubles. 347 billion Euros. 304 billion UK Pounds) out of the military defence at a time when we’re fighting three wars. People recognise that”, Bachmann said on conservative activist Jay Sekulow’s show.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-bachmann-soviet-20110819,0,7989785.story?track=rss

******

Editor’s Snarky Aside:

By the way, the actual 2011 DoD budget was 685 billion USD (20 trillion Roubles. 476 billion Euros. 416 billion UK Pounds)… which proves that Motormouth Michele does absolutely no research or vetting before opening her Southern-fried yap. Crazy world, ain’t it? It tells you a great deal about much of America to know that many take this popinjay seriously…

BMD

******

I didn’t think highly of Motormouth Michele’s intelligence before this… after all, anyone who believes “Born Again” nonsense (or is in sympathy with those who do) has a few empty rooms to let upstairs. “The rise of the Soviet Union”…? That’s boobish, even using the low standards that one must apply to unwashed Sectarian yobbos. Earth to Michele… the USSR disappeared TWENTY YEARS AGO… IN 1991… It was ALL OVER THE TV. Ms Bachmann was 35-years-old then, she wasn’t a kid; she and her hubby were running a so-called “Christian Counselling Centre”.

As an aside… I’d like to know what “Christian Counselling” is… her husband has “degrees” from Regent University and Union Institute and University, two Podunk U Born Again degree mills. That means that he can’t be an incardinated psychologist under full APA guidelines. The Union University PhD programme is a crank “Interdisciplinary Studies” charade. That is… the guy’s no certified psychologist… he’s mucking about with people’s heads without proper training. It tells you much about his wife, Michele, doesn’t it (her law degree is from Oral Roberts University (sic), another derisory Born Again degree mill)?

As I said, this is DUMB even by the abysmal standards that one must use in vetting statements by any rightwinger. Here’s the scary part… she’s NOT smokin’ kick-ass weed… she’s not drinkin’ no-nonsense samogon… this is her natural state. THIS is what the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Barry, and Nixon has degenerated into. One can see why Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Frank Schaeffer, and C C Goldwater left the Republican Party, I certainly did. Gibbering baboons such as Kingfish Rush, Lil’ Mizz Sarah, and Motormouth Michele convinced me that the contemporary Republican Party had spat on its heritage and was embracing Boobosity with full fervour. That’s sad… but it’s the truth. This is too much of a muchness… “rise of the Soviet Union”… how much more ignorant can a supposedly-educated person get? Ponder this… it’s not going to concern her fans one bit… they know even LESS. They can vote… but so can you. Get up and do so…

A Note to All Orthodox Christians:

Paffhausen and Potapov approve of Bachmann’s emptyheaded maunderings… as do Dreher and the Coneheads at “OCA Truth” and Darling Marilyn’s clique at “OCA Laity” (will I get another prissy and snarling rebuke from Rebecca the Ad Queen? Let’s see…)… caveat lector!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 19 August 2011

Albany NY