Recently, Monomakhos has been subjected to a plethora of postings from names that we have never seen before. “Anne Margaret,” “Leftwinger,” “Pelagia Hoffman,” “Charles P” and “american convert” being among them.
Some of you have questioned the timing of this recent barrage of out-and-out homosexual propaganda. My own suspicions were raised when one of them brazenly stated that he and his “husband” were welcomed at an Ephraimite monastery and allowed to commune.
Poppycock.
Thanks to the diligence of one of our editors, we were able to see that these various personages all had the same IP address. This person chose to play many roles for his own sordid purposes, one of them being to spread disinformation (“psyops” in military speak) about the extent of homosexuality and the acceptance of gay “married” persons in the Orthodox Church. Another reason I suppose was to blacken the reputation of the Athonite monastic movement. Another being to strike fear into the hearts of the faithful.
During the Cold War, the Soviets excelled in this area, also known as dizinformatzia. The purposes of such psyops were to discredit the enemy. The modern homosexualist movement has learned this lesson well. Among its many tasks was to create the impression of overwhelming popularity for a cause or otherwise its historic inevitability.
One of these personnae–“american convert”–was effective at calling us to task, making us look as intolerant bigots or angry trolls who have darkened the otherwise gleaming edifice of Orthodoxy.
In a sense, “Charles P”, et al, have paid us a back-handed compliment. In our humble opinion, it tells us that this blog is a significant part of the Orthosphere; a counter-revolutionary force so to speak. It also tells us that the arguments of the homosexualist movement are increasingly thread-bare and that they can only find purchase via governmental fiat or through propaganda.
At any rate, it is not necessary for us to take umbrage or reassess our fidelity to the truth. No one said this would be easy and we should take our marching orders from Jesus Himself who said “be ye as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.”
The truth will always out.
George,
May I commend to you and the readers here a couple of videos which I have found helpful as regards this topic.
One is an interview with Dr. Wesley HIll done by Fr. Trentham at Patristic Nectar Publications called: Gay and Christian: Forging a Life of Integrity.
Another was posted on Fr. John Whiteford’s blog. Published 19 Feb 2013 by Church Militant. Fr. John said, “The source is not Orthodox, but it is a great overview of how we got here, and also exposes many of the typical lies the media has been telling us.“
The latter video is rather long (1:34:11) but really good in its presentation and information.
Monomakhos has been subjected to the homosexual disinformation blitz because of its support for its traditional Christian outlook. The Lord said “Ye will be persecuted even as I have been persecuted.” I do not always agree with George on some issues but I do admire his steadfastness.
The real intolerant bigots are the ones who can’t tolerate the truth and who want to change our religious beliefs in order to pursue their radical agenda. To those I say, go form your own church and leave us alone. Truth is not subjective; if it was, it wouldn’t be truth.
Thank you, George. This information explains the sudden spike in raw insanity posted here recently.
George, you’ve made the big time when the trolls are out to get you! Speaking personally as a pretty much ultra liberal I appreciate your blog. What good is it if I just read stuff I agree with. You make me think.
That was some pretty bold face lying. . . . how can such a person be honest with themselves? Hmm, lost soul. . .
Sure, it was lying, and about some very sacred things, but it was just here. It could have been worse, and it as been. The disinformation tactic is not a new weapon in the ultimately pointless struggle of evil against goodness.
Does anyone remember the big lie perpetrated about thirty years ago by the otherwise highly respected historian John Boswell in his book ‘Same-Sex Unions in Early Modern Europe’?
In that book, he adduced the (now almost obsolete) service of adelphopoiEsis (‘making brothers’) as evidence that we orthodox Christians bless homosexual relationships. He lied, consciously and wickedly, in order to sow tares amid the wheat. although roundly denounced by theologians, liturgiologists and reputable historians, the work was embraced by the lunatic left as ‘proof’ that we were only in modern times teaching that homosexual behavior is abnormal and sinful. They wanted so badly to believe this that there are some people even now who will not be convinced of Boswell’s intellectual dishonesty and moral turpitude.
But the author knew that he was dying of AIDS at the time of this book’s publication, and so also knew that he would never be held accountable for his deliberate, intentional, and egregious exercise in disinformatsiya.
I know a lot of nice gay men. I think there is a double standard heterosexual adulterer don’t get nearly the same treatment by George. Also, while people can disagree on gay marriage, some gays in some states have had trouble getting jobs or rented to because they were gay. The same thing seems not to apply to heterosexual adulterers not being able to get a job or not being rented to. Remember gays about 50 years ago could be jailed for their practice while straight adulterer were not. The law has never reflected right morality anyways.
Anyone who has spent more than five minutes participating in internet forums could have told you that “american convert” was the same trolling poster as the “Anne Margaret,”/“Leftwinger,”/“Pelagia Hoffman,”/“Charles P” poster. It wasn’t even good or subtle trolling.
More entertaining is that one person doing some horribly transparent sockpuppeting is characterized as a “homosexual disinformation blitz”. I would bet you dollars to donuts that the poster probably isn’t some kind of homosexual activist but rather a run of the mill misanthrope who just gets off on stirring up online anguish and chest beating.
Or, you know, your commentators are easy pickings for delicious troll bait. I’m just surprised you haven’t had an anonymous commenter role-play as a homosexual black illegal immigrant on welfare for the sole purpose of trying to give you a stroke.
My money is on Mike Myers – who vanished just at the time the sock-puppet posts started appearing.
My money’s on Heracleides Pompikos! Provocateur and DEZINFORMATSIYA specialist from way bacK1
Now, now, “bishop” let’s not be petty in your dotage. George knows my identity, where I live, and the details of my ISP. If he chooses to be bothered by your nonsense he could easily refute your baseless accusation. Nice try, Lee Roy, but no cigar. Now toddle off to your knitting.
St Paul tells us that Satan himself can appear to us a shining angel, but this duplicitous deceiver appeared as someone with no brightness of any kind, none at all. A foolish liar trying to play us for fools.
How sad. How frustratingly sad, and how evil. May the Lord rebuke him!
Yet, it seems to me that some of these challenges to sacred realities brought out something good in our correspondence here, and for that, blessed be God Who wills that we all be saved and come to know The Truth.
I suspected something was up when my comment about double negatives and the use of “ain’t” received 18 dislikes — about as many as my article in Touchstone, from the same people no doubt.
You wish, Protodeacon, right? Do you realize you actually used a real,, classic “argumentum AD HOMINEM?”
“Attacks on my grammar are produced mainly by the criminal element—one pervert, therefor my English is not problematic!”
Mr. Stankovich pointed out it looked like a troll attack and, indeed, after Charles P. posted I figured it must be. If “americanconvert” was part of it then it was disinformazia, indeed…..
I think you must have burned more than a few fingers out there, George!
Thank you George for exposing the unethical behavior of that person who posted with a multitude of names.
If you don’t mind, allow me to point out couple of things:
1. Talking about his reason for his dastardly ruse, you wrote “Another being to strike fear into the hearts of the faithful.” George–you have been doing this for years now. 🙂
2. You correctly explained that the nature of the ruse was “disinformation” and wrote “During the Cold War, the Soviets excelled in this area, also known as dizinformatzia. The purposes of such psyops were to discredit the enemy. The modern homosexualist movement has learned this lesson well.” While true, this information is not complete: LT COL Vladimir Putin, KGB, Retired continues to use disinformation and is employing a small army of Internet trolls, working 24/7, to support his drive for a renewal of the Russian Empire. Unfortunately, there are many “useful idiots” in the West (to use a Bolshevik phrase or “useful innocents” to use the term preferred by Ludwig von Mises) who are dancing to the tune played by Vladimir Putin and his collaborators in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Today’s NYTimes article about the Russian “troll factory”.
Carl:
Tim:
Hmmm… Maybe Misha, Michalopolus, Priest Alexander and all the other useful idiot apologists for Russia who post regularly on Monomakhos are on the payroll!
An anonymous source suggests, “Maybe Misha, Michalopolus, Priest Alexander and all the other useful idiot apologists for Russia who post regularly on Monomakhos are on the payroll!”
This kind of comment may explain why the source prefers anonymity.
You’re kidding! You mean that I could have gotten a check for all that?!?!
Technically, by definition “useful idiots/innocents” would not be on the payroll nor would they post anonymously. That said, there are many other reasons for folks to be enthusiastic about Russia, Putin and/or the ROC: they may be Russophiles–who simply love Russia and all things Russian; their religious and political views may be in sync with Putin and/or the ROC; or they may love Russia and the ROC but dislike Putin and the current direction of the ROC. I fall in the last group. I do not think that George or Fr Alexander are trolls or useful/innocent idiots. As His Grace would say, what an idea!!!
Put me in the last group, too, Carl!
food for the reactionary types
be mindful friends
even though my opinions do not always agree with yours-they are mine
regardless of the source, anonymity has a credibility problem
I can probably guess the source, but I’d rather not.
Fr. Washburn should have a moment of sunshine now.
Some of those postings really needed some redneck love, but I just couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t want to get banned. And not to mention, liberal rednecks are kind of hard for either side to take.
Care to share the ip?
Why, George Michalopoulos! Disinformation is a perfectly good ENGLISH word! You may look it up in the Oxford American English Dictionary. It explains, further, that it comes from the Russian word DEZINFORMATSIYA. DEZ- not “DIZ-“.
This reminded me of a recent clumsy attempt by Metropolitan to defend Putin and the course on which he is running Russia. The Metropolitan referred to “real politik”!! No doubt how he recalls “Realpolitik” from his Santa Cruz days!
Vladyka:
Or perhaps he was recalling its anagram from those glorious days at that bastion of higher education: “I’ll rip a toke!”
Your Grace–Do you think that Metropolitan Jonah is the author of that love letter?
Clarification: Metropolitan Jonah did not write a “love letter”, he wrote an article for Juicy Ecumenism about the West’s misunderstanding of Russia.
Whether one agrees with Metropolitan Jonah’s article or not, it is crude and inappropriately suggestive for Carl to have made this out-of-context comment about Metropolitan Jonah writing a “love letter.”
“Inappropriately suggestive”??? Dear Helga, there are times when a “love letter” implies something other than a sexual relationship. Would you be happier with “fawning letter” or “adoring letter”?
It’s perfectly modern and trendy for someone to have more than one name at a time. I read the other day about a man who used to go by Bruce but now is Caitlyn. Maybe that’s this person’s situation. It’s called being “courageous” in the press.
Too bad he wasn’t an English male who had the English MALE name of “Beverly” or Marion!!!!
Those pesky Russians! At it again! Aren’t we happy to live in a country that would NEVER stoop to fabricating and distributing totally false information to achieve questionable ends! Ain’t we da greatest!