For several months now, I’ve been trying to go easy on Archbishop Elpidophoros Lambrianides. There are a variety of reasons for this, not the least of which is that I don’t think he’s a bad man. Even though I am diametrically opposed to his ideas on practically everything, I see nothing sinister about him.
That said, I’ve begun noticing a cyclical pattern: It seems that every year around this time, His Eminence does something that, let’s say, is unfortunate. (I’m being charitable here; I could use words like “tin-eared,” “maladroit” or “clumsy.”)
Two years ago, during the heart of the lockdown, he marched with some miscreants from BLM down a crowded street.
Then last year, he celebrated a Divine Liturgy on St Bartholomew’s Day at St Bart’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan; which, in traditional Episcopalian fashion, was bedecked in the finest homosexual fashion for “Gay Pride Month,” with flags and everything.
I’ll leave it to the canonists to decide if the altar is forever desecrated; as for me, I’m going with “yup.”
This year, however, Archbishop Elpidophoros decided to issue a statement on the recent atrocity perpetrated by a deranged young man in Uvalde, Texas. https://www.goarch.org/-/archbishop-elpdiophoros-calls-for-end-to-death-culture-of-guns-uvalde-shooting-2022
I won’t take the time to point out the lameness of his arguments. It would take a more lengthy discourse on freedom versus tyranny and I don’t want to expose his historical illiteracy to flush this out. For now, let me just say this: When the elite of our societies give up their heavily-armed bodyguards, we’ll think seriously about giving up our guns.
As for the good Archbishop, we may have to chalk it up to living in an insulated East Coast bubble, where the elite experience no consequences for their actions. (We saw an example of this last Sunday at St Nicholas Cathedral in D.C., where an anti-Russian prayer event was held.)
Instead, let’s concentrate on the recent atrocity.
It’s become apparent that the shooter in question was a very disturbed young man.
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn he was heavily medicated.
6,155,852 between the ages of 0 and 17 are medicated. When you look at the age breakdown, the numbers are even more alarming:
Age Breakdown:
00-01 Years 85,003
02-03 Years 138,822
04-05 Years 215,120
06-12 Years 2,652,554
13-17 Years 3,188,966
According to some reports, Salvador Ramos was bullied, possibly because he spoke with a lisp and had an intermittent stutter. By all indications, he also came from a broken home. None of this excuses his actions, of course, but it might help to understand them.
Bullying isn’t new. There have been bullying incidents in schools since mandatory government schooling began over a century ago.
In many cases, single mothers, aunts, sisters, and grandmas are often the only adults in the home. This may explain the widespread psychotropic medicating.
Women have a more difficult time managing the behavior of burgeoning alpha males just as males trying to navigate the emotional ups and downs of a young daughter in the absence of a woman.
Often the only solution is to medicate children in an attempt to force them to acquiesce to society’s norms.
***
For now, we will leave all of this aside. Instead, I want to comment on the atrocity itself. More specifically, about the police response –or lack thereof.
We are now aware that the police received an order to “stand down,” and not enter the building. They waited for 40 solid minutes for a crisis mediator to then be followed by SWAT.
A lot of damage can be done in 40 minutes. I can only imagine the anguish a parent would feel hearing shots come from the school while they stood, helplessly, outside.
What’s worse is that they begged the police to let them go in after their children! One woman said, “I don’t care if I get shot. I just want my children.” She was tased and handcuffed by the police. Not because she was berating them but because she was desperate to rescue her children.
These circumstances are nothing short of horrendous.
I can just hear the progressives explain, “This is the protocol for dealing with an active shooter situation. It makes no sense to encourage parents to flood the scene, as this could inflate the body count.”
This might make sense if none of the police had rushed into the building to save their own kids.
The question is why? Why were the police lollygagging around for the better part of an hour, allowing the killer to continue his rampage? Who came up with this idiotic protocol? And if there were no such protocols in place, why did the chief of police give the order in the first place?
I mentioned to several friends a few weeks ago that we may see some mass shootings until the election primarily is over.
They could have taken place anywhere with the same result. Mass shootings are a great equalizer: They’re equally horrible no matter where they occur.
Two days before the Uvalde incident, ten black people were shot to death at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY. We know from the manifesto of the killer, that this killing was racially motivated. Yet for some inexplicable reason, there were hardly any outcries from the liberal media.
It’s curious. The divergence between Buffalo and Uvalde with respect to media outrage is stark. Indeed, it is almost puzzling. Do black adults matter less than Hispanic children? Or is it because New York State has strict gun control laws, whereas Texas doesn’t?
Bringing attention to this disparity may invalidate the argument of gun-grabbers but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to hear non-stop caterwauling about the need for “common-sense gun laws.”
It’s possible that the media elite doesn’t want to draw attention to racist attitudes of those who live in Blue States; concentrating instead on interracial crimes perpetrated by whites that occur in Southern states. (That said, crimes committed by whites against non-whites is an extreme rarity. You can see for yourself if you go to the FBI’s website, which distinguishes crimes –and victims–according to race. FBI — Table 43)
Here’s a thought: You know that $40 billion we (supposedly) just gave to Ukraine? * Perhaps it would be better spent on doing a top-down peer-review of policing policies when it comes to schools and maybe some of the money could be spent on metal detectors, armed security guards, door monitors, or even security dogs in front of the classroom.
Panic rooms could be set up. Children could be taught to pull the fire alarm sending a deluge of water all over the classroom or lay close to someone who had been shot, as one little 4th grader did. The gunman assumed she was dead.
Some of that money could also be used for reviewing the protocols that the American Medical Association uses for medicating young children with psychotropic drugs. I would even go so far as to say that tax breaks could be offered to parents of children who attend parochial schools or are homeschooled.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that while we are so worried about the territorial integrity of Ukraine and having one thousand military bases all over the world, maybe we should worry more about our children here in America.
That’s all.
- If you want a breakdown of the $40 billion here it is: The Truth About the $40 Billion in US Aid Ostensibly Being spent to arm Ukraine (thegatewaypundit.com). (Spoiler alert: most will wind up lining the pockets of Defense companies, NGOs, and assorted useless bureaucrats.)
- “Wait! George! The Ukies are getting $19 billion in ‘direct military aid!’ you say.” Well, let’s take a looksee at that “$19 billion in direct military aid” shall we?
- $6 billion for training, equipment, weapons, logistic support, supplies and services, salaries and stipends and intelligence support to the military and national security forces of Ukraine (and the specifics of the expenditures remain to be determined).
- $9 billion to replenish U.S. weapons stocks already sent to Ukraine.
- $4 billion for the Foreign Military Financing Program (this allows a foreign country like Ukraine to buy brand new weapon systems).Mr. & Mrs. M
Once again, Abp. Elpidophorous shows himself to be a superficial thinker and lukewarm teacher when he blames the “culture of guns” and our Constitutional rights, rather than the evildoers themselves, the immorality in our society, the culture of violence, the entertainment and video gaming industries that glorify gratuitous violence and constantly promote the irresponsible use of guns, the refusal of politicians to effectively punish criminals and protect innocence, and the abandonment of GOD and rejection of moral principles by most schools and institutions in America driven by leftist and progressive academics.
As I warned in 2019, America faces a moral crisis, not a gun control problem. As God and morality are purged from all our institutions, darkness, chaos, evil, and violence grow to fill in the gap.
There is no political solution or regulation that will stop these evildoers. Only more armed law-abiding citizens and a true spiritual and moral revival will help reduce these atrocities and protect innocent lives.
America Has a Moral Crisis, Not a Gun Control Problem
https://orthodoxnet.com/blog/2019/08/america-has-a-moral-crisis-not-a-gun-control-problem/
I was disappointed to read Fr Victor Potapov’s e-mail on his Washington DC ROCOR cathedral parish e-mail list to be much of the same thing — blaming this Uvalde mess on “a culture of guns” rather than attacking the real problem.
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the real problem is a systemic, across the board, very-difficult-to-fix failure in American family and community systems. Particularly an incredible failure to simply show up for life among American men. God calls men to be leaders, to lead family, churches, and community. But so many American men are just out to lunch — absent, numbed out on porn/drugs/alcohol/you-name-it, paralyzed by fear lest they be called “racist.” American men are just not there or are afraid to show up at the table. Or among younger American men, what I’ve noticed is that they are itching to be leaders but no one is there to show them how.
I was disappointed in Fr Victor’s e-mail because I otherwise admire him very much. As an American himself, he’s done so much to bring our faith to our American land, something that I value with my whole heart.
But it’s just too easy to blame “guns” than to blame the obvious systemic problems in American culture and among American men. I guess it’s too tempting to just try to take people’s weapons from them than it is to try to fix the real underlying problems — this is why our feckless leaders gravitate to the seemingly easiest solution. But taking Americans’ weapons away from them will fix nothing.
Those of us who live in the American heartland know so many American gun owners who are downright good people, many of us communicants in our American Orthodox parishes.
A weapon no more caused the massacre in Uvalde than the steak knives in my kitchen will spontaneously rise up and stab me in the neck the next time I stroll by them.
As someone put it very well and very succinctly:
“One has the sense that at present our society is simultaneously characterized by wildly disproportionate accountability for trivial transgressions and zero accountability for profound institutional failure.”
In one sense, our society completely failed this poor 18-year-old kid in Uvalde who massacred nearly 20 people. Where were the older men in his community to get him the help he needed? Did any older male adult take him camping for a weekend, show him love, teach him about Christ?
I wish Fr Victor and Abp Elpidophoros would comment on this “profound institutional failure” of American men instead of deflecting responsibility to metal, inanimate objects for causing mankind’s ills. It’s honestly quite pathetic.
But yes, the responsibility of faith leaders is to tell us what we *need* to hear, even if it’s not what we want to hear. St John Maximovitch, St John of Kronstadt, St Nectarios of Aegina, Blessed Seraphim Rose of California, and countless other Orthodox saints had no problem at all doing this.
Law-Abiding West Virginian Woman With Concealed Firearm Stops A Mass Shooting
Instead of waiting for the police to arrive, a woman with a concealed carry license in West Virginia acted fast to stop a crazed man with an AR-15-style rifle who was about to kill dozens of people at a graduation party.
“Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night,” Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett told local news WCHSTV.
The incident occurred Wednesday when Dennis Butler,37, was angered by a group of people hosting a graduation party who told him to slow down through an apartment complex in Charleston. He returned 30 minutes later, parked his vehicle, jumped in the backseat, and discharged his weapon toward the group of 30-40 people.
Unbeknownst to the shooter, a law-abiding citizen with a CCW was within the group and quickly drew her weapon and engaged Bulter with direct fire, fatally wounding him.
See: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/law-abiding-west-virginia-woman-concealed-firearm-stops-mass-shooting
Normally I’m difficult to offend, but LP’s statement really struck a nerve. Who is this European, this Turk, to criticize our American tradition of human rights? What would a New Yorker know about the culture of Texas?
LP is like your mom’s new boyfriend or your dad’s second wife. Suddenly this strange invader is a part of the family, and everyone is pretending it’s normal, and you don’t understand why he is lording over you and telling you what to do and why everyone is being deferential to him and letting him get his way. Why is he here? He’s not one of us. Who let him in the house? Why don’t the adults protect us?
Austin, very well put.
Frankly, the Patriarchate of C’ple doesn’t want their chief Hierarch in New York to be one of us, to be an American. That’s quite obvious.
If an American Orthodox Christian wants their Chief Hierarchs to be Americans, really the *only* current options are the OCA and ROCOR. These are the only American Orthodox jurisdictions where the bishops don’t answer to any overseas hierarch. Yes, both churches honor and respect the Patriarchate of Moscow (though the OCA does not honor him at divine services; ROCOR does). However neither is under the Patr of Moscow’s direct daily jurisdiction. The ROCOR first hierarch holds a seat on the Russian Church holy synod.
With Met. Hilarion of ROCOR’s recent respose, the Russian Church will need to rubber-stamp the selection of the next First Hierarch of ROCOR, but other than these once-every-decade-or-two events, there’s no foreign church meddling in our daily life.
Well, to quote a certain All-American hero, “If we wanted to be under a pope, then we would be under the real one.”
Speaking of which, how hilarious would it be if Metropolitan Jonah became the new first hierarch of ROCOR?
This one? I’m not sure who the real pope is. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/3/3d/High_Sparrow.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151228011905
Let us so hope and pray !!!!!
I for one would love for Met. Jonah to be the next First Hierarch of ROCOR.
He is exactly the kind of leadership that the English-speaking Russian Orthodox world needs (which is essentially what ROCOR has become – the Russian Orthodox missionary arm to the English speaking world, though a part of it in Latin America/the Caribbean is Spanish, Portuguese, and French-speaking).
Met. Jonah is thoroughly Orthodox yet, being a native Californian, he knows better than anyone I’ve ever heard how to express Christ and the timeless, universal truths of our faith to a secular North American audience. Some hate this about him, but that’s simply a sign that he’s on the right track.
But man, what a comeuppance that would be for the OCA, who so unceremoniously threw Met. Jonah under the bus a little more than a decade ago. Plus, Met. Jonah is well situated in his new monastery in northern Virginia.
Anyway, I would love to see him as a successor to the wonderful Met. Hilarion Kapral of blessed memory. May God give us who we need to lead us through these turbulent, militantly secular times in North America.
I completely agree. It should be Metropolitan Jonah. Frankly, it was only because he was such a perfect fit that the OCA threw him under the bus. He was too perfect.
Well I’m sure none of that will happen and they’ll pick someone totally incompetent who is easy to blackmail.
Austin, I thought you were talking about Istanbul.
No, I’m talking about ROCOR. I assume it’s fairly well known how broke ROCOR is because of lay bureaucrats siphoning off funds. Supposedly in Red Bank, New Jersey they outright sold a church and pocketed the money. I was amazed when I visited Jordanville how broken down the buildings were.
First, to quell the memes, here are two articles regarding the myth that America leads the world in these types of shootings and that the problem is the second amendment.
Second, I have long thought, somewhat like George, that the impetus for these young male shooters is the soul-destroying context of feminism/matriarchy in which they find themselves. Not only does it reduce testosterone levels in males across the board, but it creates a sense of hopeless powerlessness in adolescent males who are denied expression of their masculinity by society. Normally, it’s not the jocks who manage to find an outlet in sports and physical prowess but the less imposing types who go through an identity crisis since the society does not value them in their true nature.
The most common feature of these young men, if you look at the profiles of the shooters, is extensive playing of first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty. This is a fantasy world in which the masculine ideal of the hunter-warrior dominates as opposed to the real world where it is diminished and/or ridiculed. But boys don’t just want to play games. They want the hunter-warrior experience in real life. Some go into ROTC or the military eventually (though it is also being feminized and queered) but a very, very few simply lose it and bring the killing fields into their own reality.
If that analysis is correct, such tragedies will not even slow down until the worm turns and the patriarchy makes a societal comeback. Notwithstanding all of that, we rank 11th or 12th among developed countries in terms of the frequency and lethality of these types of shootings and they are exceedingly rare given the demographics.
This is a simple question that none of the incompetent or controlled opposition is fit to answer. America was safer just a few short decades ago when guns were far more accessible to the general public (anyone could mail order a gun from a magazine like you order a toaster from Amazon) and the country was more Christian, more disciplined, more racially homogeneous, and had intact families with a mother and father invested in their children and the well-being of the nation. These peaceful people also had less exposure to technology and drugs.
Fast forward to today and the general public has less access to guns, is less Christian and more atheistic or of “other” religions, has less racial and cultural unity, and has fractured families and broken individuals. People cannot understand each other figuratively through cultural barriers or literally through language barriers. Men are so depraved they have fetishes for each other. Mothers are so depraved they kill their own children for a few more years of sex, alcohol, and dopey music. Many of these peoples’ brains are operating on blood that has foreign chemicals flowing through them from drugs they take daily to stave off suicidal levels of depression. Some have no god. Others have consciously rejected God.
What do we expect?
Yes, perfectly stated. Amen.
‘Retired’ Federal Agent ‘Regularly Communicated’ With Buffalo Gunman in Private Discord Chatroom
Authorities believe the former agent – believed to be from Texas – was one of at least six individuals who regularly communicated with accused gunman Payton Gendron in an online chat room where racist hatred was discussed, the two officials said.
The two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation stated these individuals were invited by Gendron to read about his mass shooting plans and the target location about 30 minutes before Gendron killed 10 people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14.
The News could not determine if the retired agent accepted the invitation.
“These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color or not of European ancestry,” said one of the two law enforcement officials with close knowledge of the investigation. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened.
“The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting. The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen.”
See: https://www.infowars.com/posts/retired-federal-agent-regularly-communicated-with-buffalo-gunman-in-private-discord-chatroom/
The problem with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in general is that it’s become nothing more than the mouthpiece of the US political establishment. Don’t you think it’s interesting that Elpidophorus just happens to repeat everything you’ll find as the acceptable viewpoint in Beltway Bubble? However not being from here I don’t think they are aware of how politics in America goes through changes in cycles. If you only watched CNN from thousands of miles away you’d think it’s got a better hold on power than it does. In reality the sand is shifting away from the establishment as it becomes more and more unpopular thanks to its incompetence. I hope a wipe out in the next 2 elections will make them realize what’s happening.
Do not invite death by the error of your life, nor bring on destruction by the works of your hands; because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal. But ungodly men by their words and deeds summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away and they made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his party. ~Wisdom of Solomon 1:12-16
But I thought these mass shootings only happened in America:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/satanic-shooting-at-catholic-church-leaves-dozens-dead-officials-say/ar-AAY8BKr?ocid=msedgdhp&bk=1&pc=U531&cvid=a77fa23eb8384fc0a4c0c310041a83b3
I think that it’s the nature of the attacks that differ.
There are ongoing Islamic insurgencies from Nigeria to the Philippines in which we see these kind of mass fatality shootings fairly often, but the ones here in the States are either lone crazies broken by our completely toxic society, MK Ultra projects, or both.