Bishop Sheen Defends the Russian Church in the 1950s

For those too young to remember (and this includes Yours Truly), the 1950s were the high point of anti-Russian hysteria in America. More specifically, anti-Soviet feeling. The fear of communist infiltration was so high that some people –many of them innocent–lost their jobs.

The crusade against communism was led by one Sen Joseph P McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin. A disreputable man in his personal life, he found fame as a “Red-hunter”. His name eventually became a notorious adjective: someone was a “McCarthyite” or this group was engaging in “McCarthyism”. The point is that this person or that group which is so labeled is not to be trusted, they are in fact bad people.

In my opinion, this is unfair. Part of the sting of McCarthyism is that the person or group that is being so labeled, is accused of engaging in “witch-hunts” or that they are needlessly tormenting people who are absolutely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. Joseph McCarthy, whatever his personal faults, was on to something. There actually were communists infiltrating all levels of American society. The State Department had been infiltrated by secret communists, as had the Defense Department (to a lesser extent). We suspected that it was true then and thanks to the “Venona Decrypts” we now know that communist infiltration at the highest reaches of the government (including the White House) was pervasive.

McCarthy was right. He was not after “witches” or other non-existent entities based on paranoiac fantasies. And thus, he did our nation a singular favor in exposing said infiltration.

My point however is not to engage in an apologia of McCarthy or the tactics that he used. It was unfortunate, but there was a hysteria that swept the land and some of it was unjustified. Like all moral panics, it died out after awhile but not without doing lasting damage to careers, lives and reputations. Indeed, we are still living with the after-effects of anti-Russian hysteria to this day. Our Deep State has engineered several plots in order to prevent President Trump from engaging in a détente with Russia.

Because peace = bad. Why? Because reasons. That the neoliberal Establishment has picked up the sword of McCarthyism in all his forms, is more than a little ironic.

Of course, this is ridiculous to the extreme. Russia is no longer a communist country, nor does it have hegemonic designs on the rest of the world. The Soviet Union did and they were a real threat. What is surprising to me however is this: the world cannot be understood simply in materialistic terms: America here, Russia there, or capitalism good, communism bad. There is a spiritual element involved in the conflict of nations. In the Old Testament we learn that each of the nations has an angel assigned to them and therefore things on the ground are not always what they seem.

One man who saws through the veil, who grasped the spiritual nature of warfare was the late Bishop Fulton J Sheen. In the 1950s he had a popular program on television called The Hour of Power. He presented truths, explained ideologies and upheld Christian doctrine in a lively and entertaining format. You can still catch his programs on YouTube (at least until the purge happens and all we’ll be left with videos of cute little kittens playing with balls of yarn). I can’t recommend them highly enough so catch them while you can.

A vehement anti-communist, Bishop Sheen understood more so than most, that the Russian people were not the problem –the Soviet system was. This was a very courageous thing to say at the time. But then again, Sheen was a courageous man. He saw that there was a spiritual nature underlying the Cold War and he knew that Satan had an Achilles’ Heel in Russia which nobody else saw, and that was the Russian Orthodox Church.

I am curious, is there any religious leader alive today who has his insights today? Billy Graham has passed from the scene. The ZioChristians are the new Crusaders and believe that Russia is Gog and Putin Magog. The Neocons are rabidly anti-Russian and anti-Christian just based on general principles. The present Patriarch of Constantinople is only too willing to play along with these globalist schemes. And the Greek government has proven itself to be nothing but a bagman for the Western powers as it twists the arms of Orthodox bishops throughout the Greek-speaking world.

Sheen was a mighty spiritual presence then, he would be a giant among pygmies today. A real bishop if I may say so.

In any event, please take the time to watch this uplifting message from the late, great Bishop Sheen. (I found this video on Russia Today. An excellent site by the way.)

https://youtu.be/eRohs0AY6-4

Comments

  1. Alitheia1875 says

    Two points. First, a Russian priest friend of mine said of Putin, no such thing as ex-KGB. Once KGB, always KGB.
    Second, to relate an historical fact, McCarthy once stood up on the Senate floor and waved a folded piece of paper (it might have been in an envelope) and said there was a list of communists in the State Department on the paper, when in fact the paper was blank.
    None of this is to give credence to anyone in the dispute but only to emphasize we need to be cognizant of all aspects of a controversy before we speak, which I believe George did.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Alitheia, you are right, Joe McCarthy did waive a (probably empty) envelope on the Senate floor.   My point however was this:  that he was largely right, he did flush out several commies in the State Dept.  Thanks to the “Venona decrypts” we know that there were commies sprinkled throughout the highest reaches of the Fed govt.  Not just Alger Hiss.

      Case in point:  Harry Dexter White, a high-level advisor to FDR, who kept peace initiatives from the Japanese away from the President because it was in Stalin’s interests that the US keep being belligerent and provocative to the Japanese.  (The story of the Japanese peace overtures to the US are worthy of a book in and of themselves.)  Because White was a Stalinist stooge, millions of people died unnecessarily in the Pacific theater.  

      There is another point:  McCarthy was a disreputable man who used underhanded tactics.  I admitted as much.  He used evil means to achieve noble ends.  

      Final point:  the ghost of Joe McCarthy has descended upon the Democrat Party which is not only supremely ironic but far more destructive in that McCarthy did the nation a singular favor in exposing communist infiltration.  The modern Dems are doing the US –and the world–no favors in whipping up war hysteria against a modern, Christianized and largely free-market Russian Federation.
      It is not only the height of hypocrisy, but stupid and dangerous beyond measure.

    • Michael Bauman says

      Alitheia, so once in the KGB there is no possibility of repentance?  Those, at least who led the KGB, sold their souls so completely to the idea of power and control they are impervious to the grace of Jesus Christ?    
      I understand the hesitancy of those who suffered at their hands to trust any repentance as real and the difficulty of achieving repentance but I do not believe it is impossible.  To do so puts the salvation of anyone in doubt.  When fear and mistrust harden into cynicism is that not a greater sin?   

      • Alitheia1875 says

        What you say is certainly true. However, a lot of “ex” KGB became very wealthy individuals after the collapse of the Soviet Union and one of then was certainly Putin.

        • Michael Bauman says

          So, yes. They have committed the unforgivable sin?  How do you think Putin compares to Empress St. Irene who had her own son’s eyes gouged out? Might it be possible that Putin’s overseeing the Restoration of the Church in Russia might mean something?   I find your assertions specious and unbelievably cynical. 

        • Alitheia1875: “became very wealthy individuals after the collapse of the Soviet Union and one of then was certainly Putin.”

           
          Certainly? Can you prove it?

        • Antiochene Son says

          a lot of “ex” KGB became very wealthy individuals after the collapse of the Soviet Union
           
          That is true, but I’m not sure that’s so incredibly scandalous. It’s more a natural outcome of the collapse of the USSR.
           
          A Russian member of my parish was in the Soviet Union during the collapse. He explains it this way: most people were more or less equal. The manager of a state-owned factory did not have any more inherent stake in the facility than his workers. Everyone was equally replaceable. But when the government totally ceased to exist, things had to keep running, so the people largely continued doing what they were doing.
           
          With the lack of a state enforcing communism, it morphed into a private enterprise system, and people became the owners of whatever they happened to control. If someone managed a factory, they became the de facto owner. If someone managed an apartment complex, they became the de facto landlord. And the residents, owning no land, had nothing. If someone had controlling access to finances due to their job, they became wealthy. If someone was a lowly worker, they became poor.

          So while the CEO of a major state-owned corporation under the USSR enjoyed a lot of perks (since it wasn’t true communism), he could also be disappeared at any time by those of higher authority. When that same CEO became a billionaire after the collapse, suddenly he was a major power player in his own right, like Western CEOs.
           
          The winners and losers of the Soviet collapse largely corresponded to whatever role they happened to have in the communist system in 1991. It was nefarious, but equally a natural outcome of a total collapse. 
           
          If the US federal and state governments were to totally implode tomorrow, most likely things would end up the same way. Influencers would continue to influence.

          • George Michalopulos says

            This is true. Also I was told that in order to make things equitable, each citizen of the former Soviet Union was given an equal share in the entire enterprise. Some sold their share to another and that person went around buying more shares.

            I am presently looking at G K Chesterton & Hillaire Belloc’s concept of “Distributism”. Basically, every citizen is granted a parcel of land which he cannot sell but must deed it to his son. And so on. It’s akin to what was found in ancient Israel.

            While this hampers much free enterprise, it keeps everybody more or less equal. At the very least, it would prevent the accumulation of said assets from accruing to nascent oligarchs.

            • Distributism is a great concept that I support. I wouldn’t say it keeps people equal, but it massively closes the gap between the richest and the poorest. The industrious man will always get more from his limited amount of property (land or capital) than the lazy man.

              • Michael Bauman says

                Basil, et. al: Many years ago I too was attracted to Distributionism. I found it an interesting concept but quickly found many landmines within it.

                For it to work on a large scale other than a local, tribal one (like the ancient Israelites), it would take a powerful centralized state to institute as it is quite unlikely to develop on its own or maintain itself without the intervention of the same type of state (I have failed to find anything in history beyond the tribal type). Therefore the “real owner” of property is the state. There is no real personal ownership or personal responsibility. Even in a small, homogeneous, stable tribal culture, that culture would have to be cut off from everyone else in order to maintain its base and way of life. That is impossible in the modern world. (A great book to read that addresses this problem is “The End of Indian Kansas”).

                However, if such a culture were established and accepted by some means, then something like the Jubilee as mandated in the Old Testament would also have to be a requirement. The extra accumulated over a period of 50 years by any one would be taken and re-distributed to those who had suffered or become slaves because of the inherent inequality of people. Two things are likely to happen more or less simultaneously: a black market will develop outside the required property restrictions AND the impetus to be creative and exceptionally productive would be treated as a vice and discouraged in law and culture–physically and psychologically. What of the old, infirm, etc. Many, many questions which if not answered correctly and properly administered blows up the entire thing (land mine after land mine).

                It is another form of modernism that is utopian in nature and reject any suffering, voluntary or involuntary and tends to dismiss the consequences of sin. Ultimately it is like all such modern schemes: a Procrustean Bed that can only function through tyranny.

                The only other society in which it could even hope to function is in a fully Christian culture in which the ascetic practices including repentance are so ingrained they are normal, God’s Providence is wholly relied upon by all and no one rebels against God.

                Perhaps a Christian culture built up in some sort of Benedict Option? In any case, the Christian life of asceticism and repentance has to be the focal point. Trying any other way will not work. Guaranteed.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  True. However, we must remember that regardless of the polity, the state always owns the land.

                  In America we have eminent domain. And to be perfectly honest7, we only “rent” our property, after all we pay yearly property taxes. If you don’t pay it, it becomes forfeit.

                  • Michael Bauman says

                    Actually, all the land belongs to God. That 8s the theological basis for the Jubilee.  Which gets back to my point that “Distributionism” only works in a truly Christian, ascetic nation

                    • Agreed totally. For the system to work, you need a strong, moral state willing to maintain justice. You need… a monarch.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Of course the land belongs to God; this was the understanding of the Israelites as well as Christendom.  The king held all land in trust for the Lord and he doled it out accordingly.
                      Hunting licenses, grazing fees, etc, are now the province of the State which has sovereignty (basically all the rights & privileges of the king have been subsumed by the various states of the Union).  Same concept.  
                      By the way, in the various preambles to the States’ constitutions, trinitarian language is palpable and it’s clear that the State in question functions as a trustee of all of the State’s resources for God.
                      I can see some states reverting to a more patently Christian understanding of the concept of Christian sovereignty.  I even like the concept of the Jubilee.

      • Joseph Lipper says

        The fact that former agents of the KGB still remain in the highest positions of power (such as President Putin and Patriarch Kyrill) would suggest their former connection to the KGB is still relevant.  The KGB never really went away.  It was just renamed as the FSB.  The present FSB occupies the same building headquarters in Moscow as was used by the previous KGB. 

        Since it was never deemed a criminal offense by the Russian Federation to have been a KGB agent, as such there is nothing to openly repent of.  What’s fundamentally wrong about bishops and clergy serving as secret KGB agents? It was really just another way of serving one’s country.         
         

        • George Michalopulos says

          Joseph, just as here in the States we have gone from being an ant-communist/pro-Christian country to an anti-democratic/globalist one, so too has Russia gone from a communist/totalitarian society to a largely free-market/Christian one.

          In both cases, the FBI and their KGB/FSB has changed their mission d’etre accordingly.

          • Joseph Lipper says

            George, yes this is an important point you make.  The Russian government used to be controlled by the officially athiest Communist party, whereas the present Russian government is no longer officially athiest.  So of course this ideological change influences all levels of government, including the present FSB.
             

            • Joseph Lipper, et al,

              ” The Russian government used to be controlled by the officially athieist Communist party, whereas the present Russian government is no longer officially athieist.  So of course this ideological change influences all levels of government, including the present FSB.” (two corrections mine, sorry)

              Why this insistence about KGB and FSB?

              (1) Are these two the worst state organizations on earth, above those of the US, UK, Middle East countries etc, etc. In other words why is it worse for the bishop to be an agent for the Russian state than for e.g. the Greek or the US?
              Is the Russian government more atheist than the Greek or US one, etc?

              (2) Are such organizations the worst dangers for a bishop, above strong passions like simony, homosexuality, and mainly Glory (as stressed by St.John Chrysostom)?

              (3) Joseph, how did Bartholomew manage to have such an …expert performance in the last 25 years, WITHOUT BEING a KGB agent?
              Could it be that, for BISHOP PERFORMANCE, Jesuit training at the age of 26 is far better than KGB?
               
               

              • Joseph Lipper says

                Ioannis, thanks for the spelling corrections!  I will have to ponder your other questions some more.

                • Re: spelling corrections – ‘atheist’ rather than ‘athieist’.
                  Sometime an ‘iota’ can make all the difference… 🙂

              • Joseph Lipper says

                Ioannis,
                 
                Thanks for your reply and reminder.  It’s probably only a potential conflict when those clergy with ties to the KGB/FSB are serving outside of the Russian Federation.  Then it becomes a question of whether or not they are really apostles of Christ, or perhaps just apostles of the KGB/FSB.  Unfortunately, the KGB was the driving force of the ROC’s involvement with the WCC, and ecumenism in general, and that might still be true today.
                 
                Within the Russian Federation, they are probably just doing their patriotic duty by cooperating with the government.  I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with it.

        • Michael Bauman says

          Joseph, ….and just because a clergyman had a KGB code name does not mean there was any active involvement. All bishops in any communist country has code names.

          Being a high ranking KGB officer, as Putin was, means that he has lots of which to repent. Whether he has done that, we will never know but his active support and funding for the Church may be an on going penance of sorts. To me it speaks more loudly than his past activities.

          God’s mercy is great.

          • George Michalopulos says

            Let’s not forget that Pres George H W Bush (“41”) was Director of the CIA.  And that many of the names being bandied about today in America were either CIA agents or operatives:  Anderson Cooper and  Evan McMullen spring instantly to mind.
             
            The CIA has its tentacles in the highest reaches of many American denominations, including the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, the NCC and so on.   There is ample evidence that Pope John Paul I died a little too prematurely so he could be replaced with Karol Wotylja.

        • Very few clergy “served as agents” of the KGB. Many had code names, but that was because they were public figures. This has been explained in a few places, you can look it up yourself.
           
          I agree, though, that the KGB – broadly speaking – was a way to serve the country. Even in the USSR, the majority, if not all, of the military and intelligence leadership may have been card-carrying Party members, but most of them were not ideological communists, being simply patriots and nationalists that served in that capacity. Only certain departments of the KGB went against the Church and the Red Army needed commissars for a reason, if you understand me.

          • Monk James Silver says

            There were KGB priests and bishops both in the USSR and — especially — here in the USA. Oh, I could tell you stories!

            Sometimes, especially in the USA, it wasn’t the priest who was the apparatchik, but his wife.

            This is not to say that there were not good men among these false pastors, because there were, and the people usually knew who was who. I don’t know how — they just knew. I remember being photographed many times by the FBI going to church as a kid. This stuff was real.

            I’ve been through this a couple of times, so please let’s not falsify this sad history. Let’s just acknowledge that it happened, and move on.

            • Solitary Priest says

              I did not realize you were a cradle Orthodox, Fr. James. I suppose I assumed because you are of Irish or Scots Irish descent, that you converted later.
                 I converted later, though one parent was cradle Orthodox, the other Protestant; of similar background to yours.
                 But you are correct; which is why I think both ROCOR and the Metropolia were correct in avoiding the MP back in the day. Of course, things have changed since. Glory to God!

              • I remember when they took the “Russian” off of the sign for the Church my mother and I attended. It went from St Stephen”s Russian Orthodox Church to St. Stephen’s Protomartyr Orthodox Church. The family with the blessing of my BaBa also decided that none of the grandchildren would be taught Russian. My father was Episcopalian but he stopped attending when they did away with the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

              • Monk James Silver says

                Please forgive me if I somehow gave the impression that I was born into an Orthodox family. My mother was Roman Catholic and my father was ‘other’, and became an RC only because my mom’s family insisted.

                My mother was half Irish and half Italian, my father half Scots Irish and half ‘eastern european’, whatever that was. At any rate, my DNA test showed that I’m 57% Scots Irish myself, 22% southern european, 20% eastern european, and 2% south Asian. They DNA people told me not to be concerned that these numbers add up to more than 100%. Hmmmm.

                In any event, I started attending the Orthodox church when I was about nine years old, third grade or so. I don’t know why. I think that God was leading me. In any event, my polish-Ukrainian relatives steered me to the uniat church when I was in my teens, but I hated it. Then I found the Russian Catholic Church in New York City, where I stayed until 1971 when I formally converted to Orthodoxy at the age of twenty-four. Spent the next several years in Chicago until — after I broke off plans to get married — Abp John Garklavs sent me to the monastery in 1977.

                The rest, as they say, is history.

                I hope that serves to clear things up a little.

                • Was archbishop John Garklavs the person who brought the Tikhon Icon of  Our Lady to USA from Russia to Chicago before  Icon was restored   and taken back  to  the Tikhvin monastery 2002/3 I think?  

            • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

              For a detailed discussion of collaboration and resistance within the Moscow Patriarchate during the Soviet Communist era, see chapter 2 (“The Moscow Patriarchate and Religious Freedom”), pp. 31-87, in my book titled, The Price of Prophecy: Orthodox Churches on Peace, Freedom, and Security (2nd edition; Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. & Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1995).
               
              As an Orthodox moral theologian trying to pursue the truth wherever it leads, I pulled no punches describing the shameless collaboration of Metropolitan (later Patriarch) Sergius and Patriarchs Aleksii I, Pimen, and Aleksii II with the evil regimes of Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev, Androprov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev. That nefarious betrayal of the Church and the suffering Orthodox faithful ranged from public lip service to every dimension of Soviet foreign and military policy to betrayal of Orthodox dissidents to the KGB. I also mention the KGB “codenames” of the prominent MP leaders that were verified by two independent sources. 

              One of those prominent leaders was Patriarch Aleksii II himself (“Drozdov”), who, after years of dissembling and self-serving pseudo-apologies, finally, on Forgiveness Sunday in 1993, atoned fully and, I am convinced, sincerely as one of those “who [were] faint-hearted and even, God forbid, pandered to the persecutors who trampled on the Church of God, bringing to Christians suffering and death.” He concluded his long message by making “a humble appeal to forgive me for all my many sins before you” (PoP, p. 57).

              I took that public confession and plea for forgiveness at face value. It was, indeed, possible for a notorious collaborator with evil Sovietism to acknowledge his sinful past and amend his life by the grace of God the Holy Trinity.  And now the same Patriarchate of Moscow, once a subservient tool of godless international communism and persecution of our own Orthodox faithful, having cast off those shackles, is, arguably, the bastion of Orthodox moral tradition in its fullness, together with a few other autocephalous  Churches.

              May the Patriarchate of Moscow, then and now, serve as an example for the Patriarchate of Constantinople today to cast off its political and global shackles and its grandiose delusions, hearken back to those bold, courageous faithful archbishops and patriarchs of the Ecumenical Throne such as St. John Chrysostom and St. Photios the Great who prophetically spoke truth to the powers that be, and repent publicly for its betrayal of the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine, its sister Church in Moscow, and the Orthodox faithful around the world.

    • Alitheia1875 ,
      What are you suggesting about Putin with the comment, ‘once KGB always KGB?’ 

  2. Alitheia, the Patriarchate of Moscow and ROCOR use the Old Calendar, and many of their hierarchs have said it was a mistake to change the calendar. Among those was St. John Maximovitch.But, unlike the Greek Old Calendar Churches, (and there are many OC jurisdictions opposed to each other), the MP does not say there is no grace in the mysteries of the new calendar churches. Indeed, the MP and ROCOR  concelebrate with churches that follow the new calendar. I think it’s fair to say that the Old Calendarists have made a dogma out of the calendar issue.

  3. Johann Sebastian says
  4. Alitheia1875 says

    It wasn’t long ago that ROCOR did not celebrate with new calendar churches. Again, the calendar is not the main issue. It is ecumenism.

    • Monk James Silver says

      It’s always been clear that the calendar — per St Paul — is not a theological issue. It’s a matter of unity in practice, and that’s a goal we have yet to achieve. We Orthodox Christians are almost as divergent now as we were in the fourth century, even regrading the date of the Paskha.

      It’s been true for at least a century, though, that choosing to follow the Gregorian calendar makes some people think that such churches are ‘liberal’ or ‘ecumenist’, while choosing to follow the Julian calendar makes some people regard those churches as ‘traditional’ and ‘conservative’, possibly ‘anti-ecumenist’. All of these words have very flexible definitions, and are almost unusable in theological discussions.

      The fact is, though, that there are all sorts of permutations in ecclesial stances here, not any nor certainly all of them indexed by their adherence to one or another way of counting the days.

      If anyone can come up with a clear definition of ‘ecumenism’, I’d like to hear it, and I’d also like to know which of the churches is guilty of it as so defined.

      • I do not know if any of you know of the ‘Miloserdie’ centres in Russia sponsored by the Church in monasteries and in cities.  These give refuge to children,  babies,  whose mother’s cannot look after them or who would have had an abortion. 
        They are not  considered as  being  orphans as their mothers can keep in touch and when able to,  take their children home.  There are over 200 such centres in Russia and 30 more being planned. 

        • George Michalopulos says

          No! You’re kidding! I thought that Putin is merely using the Church for political purposes. Surely this can’t be right.

          Meanwhile, here in America, Orthodox parishes have their own priorities in the social sphere: things like food festivals.

  5. George, this is telling:
    President of the European Council of Jewish Communities, and the third-richest oligarch in the Ukraine, Igor Kolomoysky ran the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion placing bounties on Orthodox Christians and committing war crimes. But now, he’s back peddling. 
              From RT: “You all won’t take us,” the oligarch said of the EU and NATO. “There’s no use in wasting time on empty talk. Whereas Russia would love to bring us into a new Warsaw Pact.” The IMF, he said, could easily be replaced by loans from Russia. “We’ll take $100 billion from the Russians. I think they’d love to give it to us today,” Kolomoisky said. “What’s the fastest way to resolve issues and restore the relationship? Only money.”
     
    See: https://www.rt.com/news/473355-ukraine-moscow-alliance-kolomoysky/
     
     
     

    • George Michalopulos says

      Isn’t this telling?  
      If I may respond to another commentator who said that because of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), that there would be no danger of a nuclear exchange between Russia and America, I hasten to add this caveat:  During the darkest days of the Cold War, the United States was ruled by men who had known the horrors of war (e.g. Eisenhower, JFK, et al) and tried desperately to open back-channels to the Soviets in order to prevent it. And this was a time in which the USSR was truly an evil empire (or at least the legatee of the demonic forces of Bolshevism).  Even so, the American presidents and the top layers of the Congress knew what was at stake and did what they could to not provoke or even react to the Soviets.  The fact that you and I are here today talking about it shows the wisdom that enlightened them.

      In addition, the United States and Europe were ruled by a class of people that didn’t hate the indigenous peoples, they were part and parcel of the same stock.  Today’s elites are riven with hatred towards the ordinary people who do the work, pay the bills and play by the rules.
       
      It won’t be the first time.  During the War between the States, the Radical Republicans led by the likes of Rep Thaddeus Stevens, had formulated plans to enact a massive genocide against Southern whites in order to eradicate every vestige of Antebellum America.  Lincoln knew what they desired and tried as hard as possible to prevent them from carrying out their plans while he was alive.  That is one reason he chose as his vice-president Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, so he could try to heal the nation by presiding over a “Unionist” ticket.
       
      Interestingly, Johnson provoked the Radical Republicans because he confounded Reconstruction at every turn.  Today he is represented as a self-made, low-class racist (largely true) but what is overlooked is that he tried to mitigate the murderous intentions of the Northern victors against the South as best he could.  For that he was impeached on trumped-up charges (e.g. a law which restricted the ability of a President to fire his Cabinet ministers that President-elect U S Grant demanded that the Senate overturn before he was inaugurated).  In any event, Johnson was actually trying to carry out the mostly merciful policies of Lincoln.  This included by the way Jim Crow legislation (for those who don’t know, Lincoln was a white supremacist).

      Therefore, I’m not so sanguine that the kakistocracy which rules America won’t worry too much if Fly-over Country is taken out in a nuclear strike.   

  6. Monk James Silver says

    It’s a pity that Brzezinski didn’t share Sheen’s insights.

    It’s been estimated that there have been nearly eighty million Christian martyrs over the last twenty centuries or so, half of them killed by communists in the twentieth century alone. And no nation suffered under communism as badly as did the Russians. The prayers of all those recent martyrs are surely helping the modern resurgence of authentic Orthodox Christianity.

    Altogether, though, this essay would have held together perfectly with no mention of Joseph McCarthy, who made life miserable for many innocent Americans, and who probably didn’t have any shame, considering that he should have been more than embarrassed by his personal behavior. Perhaps he thought that pumping up the ‘red scare’ would distract people from that. It didn’t.

  7. The least of my worries are ex-KGB agents. The Soviet Union has been dead for decades now. Infact I welcome them as a counterforce to the CIA.  If it wasnt for Russian intelligience we would not have known of Victoria FU EU Nuland, and the fake white helmets etc etc. 
    You know who I do worry about? Crazies who belong to the GOA such as former CIA director George Tenet,  Arianna Huffington, Pappas of the Pappas Post, warmongering Russophobe Admiral Stavridis, the current archbishop Elpidoforos. Honorable mention to all those American ambassadors such as Nicholas Burns who attended ROCOR sobors to persuade them the MP was the boogeyman.  To all those Euro-Atlanticist politicians whether American, Greek or Serbian who are atheists and dictating policy. Those are the people I worry about and hate. I was NEVER worried about KGB agents whose entire empire never had a reserve currency or a money printing press to dish out as much fiat money bribery as needed.
     

    • George Michalopulos says

      Indeed.  The people you mentioned are not all Orthodox however.  Just sayin’.
      In any event, we can lament the fact that the spirit of “Tail-gunner Joe” has alighted amongst them.  I only hope that someday one of them will awaken, Arthur Koerstler/Malcolm Muggeridge-like and see the error of their ways.

  8. Karloutsos on Ukraine several years ago:
    https://youtu.be/GbVFvQ0vkH0
     

  9. Patriarch Theodoros on Ukraine several years ago:
    https://youtu.be/3fVFHuZg5Lc
     

  10. Patriarch Theodoros on Metropolitan Onouphry several years ago:
    https://youtu.be/bwainCFT07Q

  11. I was listening to a radio commentator last week. He cited the fall of the Berlin Wall as good reason to examine the West’s increasing totalitarianism. I thought of censorship boards in the Soviet Union, and other communist countries, their propaganda enforcing militant atheism and other degeneracies. Movies, books and other media ran through a sort of demonic algorithm or filter. Christian values mocked and religion secularized. 
     
    Surveillance inside our homes, vehicles and public streets exist, of course, the informants no longer plant devices – we sign into and buy them off Google and Amazon. Censorship boards exist in this country, no doubt. These censorship boards may not subtract anything, but they certain add and multiply revolutionary and anti-Christian content. Just look at the ACLU, the ADL, and GLAAD.
     
    Another reason to discourage social media, media consumption, and public education while encouraging positive male and female role models through our clergy and parish members, bolstering our youth and family outreach through services, shared living – even multigenerational communities – through the Church. As a father, and deacon, in the West, I’m concerned for our youth. They appear more and more connected to virtual reality and less connected to reality. 
     
    This is a huge problem for us, at least out here in the Pacific Northwest. Media consumption, and children – adults too, I confess – leaving the Liturgy to play on their phones, and discussing the latest garbage pumped onto Facebook and Disney/Marvel. 
    See: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/gay-pressure-group-demands-1-of-5-prime-time-tv-characters-be-lgbt-by-2025
     
     

  12. Russian President meets with Primates of the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem and Russia

    https://mospat.ru/en/2019/11/20/news180256/