Well, I’m tickled pink. Not only did BoJo utterly smash the opposition, he now has a clear mandate to finally get out of that wretched institution called the European Union.
Oh sure, the Establishment (read: central banking interests in the City of London) will do everything they can to nip at his heels and derail the Brexit train. I’m under no illusions that they can’t succeed should they put their minds to it. But today, I –along with millions of other non-globalists and patriots–celebrate “British Independence Day”.
And yes, this bodes well for The Golden Don.
The moral to this story is “Never Surrender!” If we as patriots (in whatever country we find ourselves) are committed to the fight, then we will win. We have something that the globalists do not have. Unlike them, we are not cosmopolites; we “own” the land upon which we live –it is our ally, the ancestors we have buried there are part of the landscape. Our folkways and customs are particular to us. We don’t have to explain to others what we feel in our bones.
Though we may not have the money of the international elites, we have something they don’t have: Heroism coursing through our veins. Ours is the legacy of Thermopylae, of Hastings, of the Alamo; all battles lost but which safeguarded civilization, each in their own way and thus, are seared in our consciousness.
Let us revel this day in our victory: It was hard won. But let us do so with the full knowledge that tomorrow we will again have to take up the sword and mace, the musket and the AR-15, the pen and the pulpit, in order to secure our hard-fought victory.
And even should we lose, it will have been worth it.
George, not toooooooo much triumphalism. You realize, of course, what Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have in common—unusual, unruly and unimaginable hair. Apart from that the governments of the UK and the US could not be more unlike. Although the Democrats here seem intent on creating a Parliamentary/socialist system. Hey—Hilary could be the Queen.
Also, Boris and Don are global elites in their own right, they just don’t want to distribute the power around the globe quite as much as some others. Nationalism as a political tool to gain and consolidate power. They are probably united in their antipathy to Russia and the Orthodox Church unfortunately.
Jag-u-ars should be less expensive here. Health care in the UK will not improve, there is unlikely to be any reversal of the UK laws against criticizing homosexuality, etc. The UK will likely remain one of the most surveilled polities in the “free” world Nor will the amusement park erected in the Norwich Cathedral be abrogated. Nor will the increasing influence and violence of Islam.
A strong political victory, but to what end? For freedom? Unlikely. Even the “Conservative Party” there is quite socialist. Probably be some good viewing during Q&A time though.
I would like to know what is going to happen to our Orthodox brethren in the UK, especially the Monastery of St. John the Baptist as more political pressure is placed upon them from within and without to abrogate the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Alamo? Really? A bunch of foreign mercenaries who conspired to overthrow the duly constituted governing authority of the land. Texas, a strong slave state even though it was never truly a part of The South. Hmmm….Manifest Destiny, a truly questionable US policy. At best a breathtakingly arrogant approach. Which was also was the same attitude that was responsible for the destruction of the indigenous Orthodox communities of Alaska.
The Battle of Hastings began the conquest of the Norman FRENCH of the English Anglo-Saxons which, IMO, sped up Romanizing England under the Pope.
You dishonor your Greek ancestors by comparing Hastings and the Alamo to Thermopylae.
You have some seriously mixed analogies and some significant cognitive disconnects. The biggest disagreement I have with you and the contents of this blog is your continued insistence on hope in philosophical politics, aka Conservatism. Aside from the fact that such a thing does not really exist except as spun during elections, it is a delusion that ultimately is based in denial of the Church, as the Body of Christ, being essential and foremost in properly ordering human communities.
It is not compatible with Monarchism nor with Symphonia both of which require the Church to be the focal point of just and proper government. A hierarchical state not a Constitutional Republic. Nor is your idealizing of Thomas Jefferson. You do know he was initially a strong supporter of the French Revolution, including its violent anti-clericalism. He was also the premier practitioner of the politics of personal destruction in his time–the reason for the rift between him and John Adams. He and his operatives ran the CNN of his day but he had plausible deniability. Of all the founders, I have the least respect for him. The best modern analog for him is Bill Clinton. Jefferson was just more intelligent.
It remains to be seen if such an anomaly as a Constitutional Republic can long endure. So far it does not look good. IMO, the natural order of things is far too hierarchical to allow a significantly decentralized polity to resist the temptations to power that come to all. Even the Church cannot seem to resist those temptations well. We human beings tend to easily forget that Jesus Christ is our only King and almost as quickly turn into thieves who think the vineyard the let out is theirs.
Michael, as always, you bring your sharp wit to the argument.
Let’s leave aside the fact that the Tories are not “conservative” in any meaningful sense of the word, but neither is the GOP. Still, you fight with the army you got. Churchill hated the Soviet Union with a passion but when Hitler decided to stab his ally (Stalin) in the back, he turned on a dime and said “If Herr Hitler invades Hell, I should say a good word about the Devil”.
As for Hastings, Anglo-Saxon England was more Orthodox before Hastings. Nuff said.
As for the Alamo, they may have been foreign mercenaries but they fought to the last. Nobody wishes that Texas becomes part of Mexico. Hell, Mexico is becoming the textbook definition of a failed state.
We Greeks (and others) romanticize the Spartans and they’re bravery at the Hot Gates but we forget that Sparta was a racialist, apartheid state, essentially no different than South Africa pre-Mandela.
Yes, Jesus Christ is our only true King. Of this there can be no doubt. And God is our only true Father. Jesus Himself said “call no man father”. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have fathers here on earth. I myself was blessed to have a saintly one as well. I would never –even for a second–call my father by his Christian name or anything else by “father”. Am I disobeying Christ? Or was Jesus wrong? Perish both thoughts! Obviously He was operating on two different levels.
Just as there is a King and Father in heaven, so too can we have both here on earth.
At any rate, we are devolving into a tyranny of oligarchs. I would rather we had a dynastic monarch who could at least try to restrain the passions of the oligarchy. Trump is one of two things: He is just a bump on the road to our eventual destruction as a cohesive nation or he is a Constantinian figure which can reorder our society back to Christian principles.
Clearly I hope and pray for the former but I am not blind to the latter possibility.
If the latter, what will happen? The Oligarchs will act as the Bourbons and try to reinstitute the previous immoral, anti-Constitutional regime. It will only work for about a decade and then anarchy will prevail. Then two prospects: The permanent dissolution of the US into historical oblivion (where is Assyria, where is Babylon?) or a Napoleonic figure will arise and become emperor. This happened to Rome when it became clear that the Republic was kaput and to France when the Leftists all started eating each other. It also happened to Germany when it became obvious that the Weimar Republic could not contain the chaos.
I am happy for the UK today. I hope Boris uses his mandate to go for a harder Brexit rather than a softer one, as Nigel Farage fears. We will soon see.
But I admit I’m a little down on Trump after this “Judaism is an ethnicity” executive order business. Sure it will never hold up in court, but it just further reinforces how he will do literally anything to advance Jewish interests while much of his nationalist campaign rhetoric remains empty speech.
AS, I don’t dispute the fact that Trump is pandering as all politicians do. However, I do disagree with you in this particular, in that I do believe that Judaism is an ethnicity.
That’s why I’ve stopped using the term Judaism when discussing the Israel of OT times, the Intertestamental period and the apostolic age.
I use the word monotheism or Yahwism instead. The reason is because the remnant of Israel was religiously diverse. Often these different sects were violently at odds with each other.
The executive order was not so much about defining Judaism as an ethnicity as opposed to a religion for its own sake, as it was about using the baggage of ethnic identity politics enshrined in US law as a weapon to persecute those who want to use their freedom of association to boycott the State of Israel.
In any case, Trump did not end up defining Judaism as an ethnicity for the purposes of enforcing discrimination law. Instead he seems to have opted for the Bucharest working definition of anti-semitism (https://www.state.gov/defining-anti-semitism/), which includes essentially criticizing any Jewish collectivity, and certainly goes far afoul of US free speech norms.
My point stands that Trump will engage in this kind of battle all day long, while he has utterly failed to act on many of his important promises.
What happened to, “I will never sign another CR that doesn’t fully fund the wall”? Where is the birthright citizenship executive order? The Republicans can bloviate all day long about “history judging the Democrats,” but guess what, every day there anchor babies being born to aliens, both legal and illegal. Future history is being written as we speak, and it’s not being written by America’s historic stock.
AS, I see your point. However from a Jewish perspective, what he did (in defining Judaism as a culture/ethnicity) is not necessarily a net benefit for Jewish people (as you and others seem to believe). More on that later.
As for his promises: The Congress just passed a bill that fully funded the Wall. Not only has he kept most of his promises but has governed as a political whirlwind, accomplishing more in 2 years than most presidents do in eight. (And the 5th Circuit just overturned Obamacare the other day.)
As Dr Steve Turley said, the typical Trump voter (Brexiteer/nationalist/etc) operates from an array of issues and concerns, several of which overlap. Trump has executed over 80% of these issues and/or addressed the majority of these peoples’ concerns. And even the Congress and mass media has gone so far as to adopt his political narrative.
So far, I’d say his presidency has been transformative.
You GUYS. We are in THESSALONIKI NOW AND I HAVE LOTS TO SAY THAT I WILL , PRAYED FOR YOU ALL AT ST DMITRI SHRINE IN CATHDRAL The Church is NOT dead here but people are tired from ten yrs of it all and do not want to come to church to have more politics etc.
Lots of money flowing round. City reminds me of Munich but behind it all you see glimpses of Poverty and lots of immigrants.
Thank you, Nikos. We need your prayers.
Thank you for your prayers!
I k now what Jefferson contributed to our national character, my question, what have you contributed?
Stick around on the blog, usmc12, and you’ll see what he contributes.
usmc12, The action that I most admire Jefferson for what his defense of Christians by sending American forces to fight the Muslim Barbary States who were waging war against the Christian shipping of Europe and taking Christians hostage. .”..the shores of Tripoli” and all that.
As I have stated frequently, Jefferson was the last US President to stand against Islam in favor of Christians. An aspect of the American character which has been forgotten it seems.
Nevertheless, his attitude toward revolution (it was a good thing in and of itself) as a way of renewing the life of a country, his support of the initial stages of the French Revolution and his vicious partisan politics and many other of his acts as President, I do not admire at all; nor his evisceration of the Bible to make it “better”.
The Founders I most admire are George Washington, John Adams, George Mason, and James Madison. All of these men added a great deal more to the American Character of a positive nature than did Jefferson. There was a peripheral man(not a Founder but a well know to many in Virginia), Philip Ludwig, III whom I also admire because he is arguably the first Orthodox Christian in what was to become the US–Russian Orthodox BTW.
Your comment is indicative of “all or nothing” thinking. I did say “least admired”. I did not say I did not admire Jefferson at all. I do not find his political philosophy particularly compelling and really problematic from an Orthodox Christian perspective however.
Michael, I very much agree with you about Jefferson’s Francophilia and the whole French revolution thing.
I also have contempt for his Deism and his anticlericalism but let’s be honest, the corruption in the church was profound. I’m not sure I would have behaved any differently given the circumstances.
George, I “see” your and Michael Bauman’s disdain for Jefferson’s extreme political partisanship, deism, and anticlericalism, and I “raise” you also his blasphemous cut-and-paste version of the New Testament (devoid of all of our Lord’s miracles, exorcisms, and dominical sayings), his insidious metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state during his presidency in 1802, and his scandalous, probably coercive sexual dalliance with his slave Sally Hemmings.
However, the same Jefferson was, like his Colonial counterpart the autodidact Benjamin Franklin, a truly Renaissance man–magnificent writer, political philosopher, successful graduate of the College of William & Mary, polyglot, founder of the University of Virginia, master architect, inventor, astronomer, horticulturist, violinist, etc.
Perhaps the most eloquent tribute to Jefferson occurred on the evening of April 29, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy said to 49 Nobel Laureates (and representatives) who had assembled for a formal White House dinner: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Father Alexander, I did reference Mr. Jefferson’s destruction of the Bible to save it. I purposely did not mention Sally Hemmings because of what my friend Fr. Moses Berry has pointed out to me. To quote from my post about his ministry in 2013 on this site:
“His great-great-grand mother was a slave of Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone. They had a child together. Despite the circumstances, Fr. Moses asserts that it became much more than just a slave-owner taking advantage of his slave. There must have been love, for when Nathan Boone freed her near the end of the Civil War, he gave her a substantial plot of good farm land on which to live and make a life. She did so and not just for herself. The house Fr. Moses and his Matuska live in and raised their family in was built on that land and they still own most of it. The parish is also on his land.
“His great-great-grand mother was a slave of Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone. They had a child together. Despite the circumstances, Fr. Moses asserts that it became much more than just a slave-owner taking advantage of his slave. There must have been love, for when Nathan Boone freed her near the end of the Civil War, he gave her a substantial plot of good farm land on which to live and make a life. She did so and not just for herself. The house Fr. Moses and his Matuska live in and raised their family in was built on that land and they still own most of it. The parish is also on his land.”
I also must added that there is also an historical cemetery now a consecrated Orthodox Cemetery on the same ground. A cemetery that Fr. Moses’s family began to bury with dignity, love and respect: “Negros, Indians and other undesirables” that the righteous of Ash Grove, Mo would not bury at the time.
Seeing and experiencing the extraordinary depth of forgiveness Fr. Moses expresses for all the harm done to his ancestors by slavery, by the Grace of God and the intercession of St. Moses, I can no longer approach the slavery question in quite the same way.
FWIW, all the DNA analysis of Hemming’s descendants could prove was that her descendants have the DNA of a male member of the Jefferson family line. Most reputable historians pin the paternity label on Thomas’ two nephews, who were often seen in the vicinity of Miss Hemmings.
Jefferson himself was profoundly ashamed of only one sexual peccadillo in his life, wherein he had seduced the wife of his best friend. The guilt stayed with him and made him a humble and sober man, one not wont towards sating his sexual appetites. This was especially true after the death of his wife who died while giving birth to their sixth child.
George, methinks you have your latter Trump before your former.
While I have some sympathy with anti EU especially being greek and now in Thessaloniki, and paying high prices for everything!!! I do not rate T or Ali Kemal sometimes known as Johnson. That man has no beliefs in anything or anybody and is a lazy bastard. He will as soon be in EU as out. What ever does HIM GOOD.
Eton, OXFORD. Bullingdon club, Etc. MAN OF THE PEOPLE. Let me go and vomit.
Are you going to make the Eighth Day Symposium next month?
George: “We Greeks (and others) romanticize the Spartans and they’re bravery at the Hot Gates but we forget that Sparta was a racialist, apartheid state, essentially no different than South Africa pre-Mandela.”
It appears to me that not much has changed in that regard considering the GREEK Church and the way many there treat we non-Greeks. Snarky, but a clear reflection of what I feel. The saying that I first encountered shortly after I was received into the Church in 1987: The Greeks are crazy; the Antiochians worldly and the Russians morose has been shown to me correct in only one particular: The Greeks are crazy. Encountered separately it can add a nice spice but together, man: it quickly becomes unpalatable.
As to the rest, it matters not because the victory has already been won for us if we focus on Jesus Christ. Then no matter what our earthly/worldly fate, glory awaits. A glory that will not fade, decay or be overcome with vermin and power worshipping idiots. PMS: (Power, money and sex) the derangement syndrome of the ruling class.
The power will always be a carrot to distract all but the best of us from the path of humility and repentance–The Cross.
I believe it was Tolkien called it the “long defeat” Sounds pessimistic does it not?
Just remember the evil one thought he had won when Jesus went to the Cross.
The Church is not meant to rule, yet. She will endure and prevail by God’s mercy and grace. The rest is entertaining speculation — a sort of video game of the mind: Forge of Empires played out in seemingly real time.
All human government is artificial and therefore subject to corruption, war, decay and dissolution.
The United States has been in an almost constant state of war, with minor breaks, since our founding. Shoot almost enough to make me a pacifist.
The only “natural” form of government seems to be essentially tribal with expansion based upon some sort of confederation around a shared faith. But all such affinities are fragile even in the Church.
Glory to God in the highest. The Virgin cometh today to a cave to give birth. May He find room in the stinking and dark cave of my heart and for us all.
Michael, give me the dates and I’ll see if we can make it.
Wednesday evening, Thursday, Friday & Saturday Jan 22-25. See https://www.eighthdayinstitute.org/private-events
The dinner Friday night is probably already sold out. The table with Fr. Stephen Freeman is for sure. Don’t have to come for all the days of course. Eighth Day Books will be available on site.
This looks very interesting and is a great initiative. I’m surprised that I haven’t heard of it before.
And now: Annibyniaeth i Cymru!
….which means:
Independence for Wales!
Anybody seen season 3 of The Crown? Lots of Welsh spoken! Fascinating language.
I grew up in the “Welsh tract” of suburban Philadelphia, where Welsh Quakers emigrated en masse in the 1600s and where Welsh was spoken well into the 1900s. (The Welsh tract of Pennsylvania and the Welsh area of Patagonia in Argentina are among the more well known Welsh emigre areas.)
Town names in this area outside of Philadelphia include Bryn Mawr, Bala Cynwyd, Caernarvon, Haverford, Tredyffrin, Radnor, Uwchlan, Lower Merion & Upper Merion, Lower Gwynedd, North Wales, Saint Davids, among others.
I always thought it’d be awesome to create a St David of Wales Orthodox Church in this area to honor the Welsh history of this region and under the protection of this wonderful Welsh saint. Sadly, most of the Orthodox churches in this area are quite attached to their old country ethnicities, not to mention that this region is now among the most expensive parts of the Philadelphia area.
I, too, have always been fascinated by the Welsh language.
Great piece on the state of Orthodox Christianity in Wales: http://orthochristian.com/48566.html
Anon,
I met Hieromonk Deiniol (=Daniel in Welsh) years ago.
He prefers to celebrate in the Welsh language.
I have also met Fr Deiniol when I was in North Wales earlier this year – he is a warm Welshman with a real love for his local community and especially those struggling with the problems of poverty and drug abuse that followed the closing of industry in the grey slate town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The whole town has a feeling of hopelessness, but his little parish brings the light of the Gospel of Christ into an otherwise bleak and isolated part of Britain!
Greece should join India and Israel in the Anglosphere. The Anglosphere was actually invented by the Dutch but hailed from the Phoenicians and Greeks. Then Orthodox Prince Phillip can make the Church of England Orthodox.
As to Sparta, Dulles and Acheson got it backwards: Athens farmed Scythia begetting Russia while Sparta farmed Sicily begetting the mafia fascist molestors of Rome, the evil empire that killed Jesus and stole his religion. Alexander’s dad choked Athens into submission by grabbing the Besant, hence choking off Scythian wheat.
As to Israel, you have to realize the USA was always zionist and rewarded for it from above. The Pilgrims of Thanksgiving were followers of Cromwell who brought the Jews back to England and Columbus set sail the day after the Spanish Inquisition with a shipload of Jews. But Constantine the Great was a Christian Zionist when he recognized Gemaliel IV as Partiarch of Israel. Catherine the Great was a Christian Zionist and Christian Hellenist when she invited Greeks and Jews to plot their national regeneration from newly liberated Odessa.
The Duke of Edinburgh is anything but Orthodox in his publicly stated views that humanity is a virulent virus, a plague on the earth that deserves to be wiped out. And as consort to the Head of the Church of England, didn’t he convert. And there is that, England has a official state sanctioned and supported “Christian” church. Look at what that profited them and where they are now.
Linda,
Whoever this Duke is he sounds like a disciple of Bartholomew. A true environmentalist preaching the anti-human ideology of mother gaia.
‘Whoever this Duke is…’
He is the husband of Queen Elizabeth of the UK;
and father of the next king thereof.
King and Prophet David has said:
“Trust not in princes….in whom there is no safety”
(Psalm 145,3 LXX)
Linda,
“The Duke of Edinburgh is anything but Orthodox in his publicly stated views that humanity is a virulent virus, a plague on the earth that deserves to be wiped out”
Why doesn’t he go first but stays on the planet for 90+ years?
He wishes to wipe them out personally, I think,
with his trusty twelve-bore shotgun.
To Aristos such as him, peasants such as we are fair game…
Brendan,
Intelligent Aristos, and yet they are pleased to see
the stupid masses of fair game clapping their hands for the Aristos.
What’s the value of that, coming from stupid masses?
(Paraphrase of St.Chrysostom’s words)
“Vanity of vanities” saith the Preacher. “All is vanity.”
PS: To some villagers on Vanuatu, Prince Philip is a divine being. Google: “Prince Philip Movement” for details
PPS: It adds a whole new layer of meaning to the term: ‘Greek God’ 🙂