Rahm Emanuel, Chicago, and “Ethnic Cleansing”

Rahm Emmanuel and friend


Rahm Emmanuel and friend

I remember back in the late nineties, when Liberals were all a-twitter about Slobodan Milosevic and his campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in order to keep Serbia intact. “It was an outrage!” we were told. Milosevic (who was a Communist) was being painted as an exemplar of Right-wing xenophobia. NATO was told that we had to go in an protect the Albanians from being overwhelmed by the Serbs.

Instead, Milosevic should have contacted the Serbian-American community of Chicago. One of their biggies, Rod Blagojevich could have put him in touch with his buddy Rahm Emanuel, presently Mayor of Chicago. Emanuel wants to revitalize his benighted city, presently the murder capital of these United States. So what’s a good, liberal, Jewish boy with tight Irgun (as an American citizen, he served in the IDF during the first Gulf War) connections to do?

Let Steve Sailer explain it to you. Here’s the take-away: if you want to do something xenophobic, get a Liberal Democrat to do it for you.

Source: VDare | Steve Sailer

From WBBM-CBS in Chicago:

School Closing Opponents Call Mayor A Racist Liar 

CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago Public Schools’ plan to close 53 schools and 61 buildings, mostly in black neighborhoods, has some West Side residents vowing to fight the Emanuel administration until the end. 

As WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports, to hear some tell it on the West Side, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a racist liar who doesn’t care about the kids. And they’re just getting started. 

“I don’t see any Caucasians being moved, bussed, or murdered in the streets as they travel along gang lines, or stand on the steps of a CPS school,” said activist Wendy Matil Pearson as opponents of the school closing plans protested outside Horatio May Elementary Community Academy in the Austin neighborhood.

… Valerie Leonard, co-founder of the Lawndale Alliance, accused the mayor of trying to drive African Americans out of the city. 

“He says that he wants to turn around the city of Chicago, make a new Chicago. Does that new Chicago mean no black folks?” she said. “Where are people going to go? They’re not going to stay around in the community if there are no schools!” …

The protesters weren’t the first to accuse Emanuel of racism in his school-closing effort. The Chicago Teachers Union has repeatedly said the school closing plans are racist, as most of the schools that would be closed are in African-American communities. 

On Thursday, CTU President Karen Lewis said the plan was both “racist” and “classist,” …

I’m not up to date on Chicago, but none of this speculation about the Mayor’s motivations sounds hugely implausible to me.

Mayor Emanuel is a worldly man. He’s not some dweeb from Lake Forest. His family likes to emphasize how his mother was a civil rights activist for blacks in the American South, but they don’t talk as much about his father. Dr. Benjamin Emanuel is an Israeli and belonged to the right-wing terrorist organization Irgun. Those are the the guys who blew up the British headquarters in the King David Hotel and committed the Deir Yassin massacre of an Arab village that did so much to improve Israel’s long-term demographic position by terrifying many Palestinians into fleeing.

I’m not saying Rahm’s dad was personally involved in either, but he was, by all accounts, a member of Irgun. And Irgun played a crucial role in Israeli history in the 1940s. Irgun was a predecessor of today’s highly successful Likud Party. I presume that Rahm Emanuel is personally closer to Israel’s non-Likud parties, but he definitely knows where Netanyahu is coming from.

The son remains so emotionally close to Israel that he served as a volunteer in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.

Presumably, the Mayor of Chicago knows a lot about Israeli politics, and the #1 lesson that all parties in Israel understand deep in their bones, much more intensely than American politicians understand, is: Demographics Matter. The basic lesson is: You want more of your kind of people and fewer of the other kind of people. The Israeli statesman’s duty is to figure how to make that happen.

The basic logic of Israeli politics is that the Palestinians are Arabs and that, while Israel is a small place, the Arab World is a huge place, so there are lots of other places for the local Arabs to move to, away from Israel.

If you are an African-American in Chicago, the suspicion that Dr. Emanuel’s son might view Chicago as a small place and view you as somebody who has a big place to move somewhere else in (namely, the rest of America), would be uncharitable but not unreasonable. Deep down, perhaps Rahm feels: “We’re not racist: we’ve got Barack! And Oprah and Michael Jordan are welcome back any time. The rest of you …”

A reader writes:

I’m wondering if you could do a blogpost in the near future on any future possibility on the next Detroit(or several new Detroits), what time frame and for what sociological reasons.  

As you’ve written about before, there’s a quiet quest by white liberals to chase out blacks. This is happening in NYC, D.C. and perhaps now in Chicago too.

Personally, I think St Louis is a good candidate [to become another Detroit], as is Memphis. Milwaukee is also right there on the list. Basically cities that are 2nd and 3rd tier, often populated by naïve and communitarian Germanics in the Midwest or abandoned by devil-may-care Southern whites like Memphis. Birmingham is another candidate in the latter category.

1st tier cities like Chicago or NYC understand that they could go down that path, which is why they’re pricing out, or in the case of Chicago, just zoning people out from their homes. 

I’m not an expert on cities these days. It would seem like a fascinating subject to statistically model as a way of predicting real estate prices. The problem is that a big chunk of the model would involve using Census Bureau race statistics. Somebody would have to come up with a way to launder the racial aspect so that corporations could pay you lots of money for your insights without getting them into trouble.

Another aspect would seem to be airports. Winner cities tend to have airports with direct connections to lots of other cities, while loser cities don’t. The arrow of causation points both ways, obviously, but some of it is that frequent fliers want to live near direct connection airports, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and, perhaps, Denver. You can have an inadequate airport if you are San Francisco, but don’t risk it otherwise.

But it’s not really a build it and they will come situation either. I used to fly in to Cincinnati a lot, and the airport was halfway across Kentucky. Presumably, they put it there so it would have a lot of room for expansion, but nobody seemed to be expanding, perhaps because the airport was way the hell out in Kentucky.

Also, it helps to have two airports, one for the masses (e.g., LAX or Dulles) and one for the elites (e.g., Reagan or Burbank, which is turning into a high-priced convenience for the entertainment industry. LAX is full of tattooed proles, while Burbank is full of successful-looking middle-aged couples picking up their lovely daughter flying in from Georgetown U., via Reagan).

Comments

  1. Alexander says

    Way, way off The RahmFather topic, but you folks are likely to find this interesting from the OCA Website:

    H.4. MOTION LANIER/MCFATTER – To approve a financial package for Metropolitan Jonah, including $1000 per month until age 65, full medical coverage for three years, assumption by the OCA of amounts owed by Metropolitan Jonah to the Diocese of the South, and moving expenses not to exceed $25,000. To recommend that the Holy Synod consider the impact on this package should Metropolitan Jonah leave the OCA and that general release and non-disparagement clauses be included in the agreement. CARRIED with 6 opposed (Tosi, Shimchick, Jury, Mikhalevsky, Ringa, Van Duyn).

    George: Move this or don’t post it if it is discussed elsewhere — I just did not see it.

    • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

      And they asked nothing of Metropolitan Jonah in return?
      Did he develop a sentimental attachment to DC? Why? I should think an avowed, professed monastic would want to flee the place: It’s no place for infirm and feeble old folks either. It’s expensive. Wouldn’t San Diego or South Canaan or Phoenix be better?
      Here on earth we have no continuing city, no abiding place…
      Metropolitan Jonah, I just KNOW, is not the person to claim he needs to be supported according to the style to which he’s become accustomed!

    • Carl Kraeff says

      This is from the report of the Metropolitan:

      “I need to spend some time in this report to address the situation of my predecessor, Metropolitan Jonah, with particular emphasis on developments since the last Metropolitan Council meeting in September of last year. At the Fall Session of the Holy Synod (October 9-11, 2012), the Holy Synod appointed me to enter into a process of negotiation with Metropolitan Jonah. The purpose of this negotiation was to arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution to his situation following his resignation as Primate of the OCA in July. I was assisted in this process by a member of the Metropolitan Council who is an experienced mediator and both of us were assisted by the valuable and competent advice of our legal team. Beginning on October 19, 2012, we entered into a process of negotiation that would continue until November 12, on the eve of the All American Council in Parma. On that initial date, we met together with Metropolitan Jonah and his legal counsel in a neutral location for a full day of discussion.

      The basic presupposition of the negotiation was contained in the phrasing of our opening question to Metropolitan Jonah: “Where would you like to be in five years and how can the Orthodox Church in America and its Holy Synod help you to get there?” This presupposition continues to be the basis for approaching this issue and it is the basis for the final proposal that has been offered to Metropolitan Jonah and which I would like to request formal approval from the Metropolitan Council for the financial component. This will take place later in this meeting.

      Many options for Metropolitan Jonah were discussed, including various pastoral options and locations throughout the United States. We were unable to come to a resolution on that initial date or at any time in the following month. After my election, the Holy Synod presented a package to Metropolitan Jonah, where he would have a pastoral assignment in another diocese, complete with financial support and health insurance for a period of two years. This also was rejected by Metropolitan Jonah.

      During this time, I was in conversation with members of the Russian Orthodox Church including correspondence with Patriarch Kirill, and personal discussions with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Archbishop Justinian and Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I mention this because one of the options under discussion was the possibility of a release of Metropolitan Jonah to another jurisdiction. This was his request at several points of our negotiation, but at this moment there has not been a request for his release from any jurisdiction.

      In dialogue with the above mentioned members of the Russian Orthodox Church, we have come to a final proposal which would offer him an honorable situation and appropriate financial support. I believe that our Holy Synod has been very patient and very generous within the limits of what we can do as the Orthodox Church in America. The Holy Synod is asking the Metropolitan Council to give your approval to the specific financial package, which will be provided later.”

    • pelagiaeast says

      I went over the reports and hoped to find data on what the annual support of the other two former Metropolitans is, but was not able to tease it out.
      While it seems encouraging that SOMETHING is being done, the monthly amount is a disgrace. If someone could provide a link for the info about the support of the other two, who may have had time to build their own bank accounts, it would, at least, be informative.
      May the Lord have mercy on us all.

      • Pelagiaeast, keep in mind that Mets. Herman and Theodosius were fully vested in retirement pensions. Metropolitan Jonah was only 52 years old when he was forced out of office, and hadn’t been a part of the pension plan before because he was an abbot, not a parish priest.

        • pelagiaeast says

          Thanks, Helga. I didn’t know if being an abbot would put him in the pension plan or not. I appreciate your response, especially since it didn’t seem like anyone was going to take the trouble to help me with this question.

          The info that Bishop Tikhon posted states that he, Bishop Tikhon, started in the pension plan when he was a deacon, continued as a priest, etc. I do not know how long Met. Jonah was a deacon, but I know for sure that he was serving scattered communities as their priest while he was an abbot. My husband went on some of those road trips with him. Could it be that there actually might be more years vested than we know?
          many thanks,
          p

          • Priest Justin Frederick says

            The pension plan only works if you have money to put in it. Per the OCA plan, the parish is to put in six percent of the priest’s/deacon’s salary and his housing allowance, and the clergyman matches that. A good number of clergy make so little that they need all the money they receive now to live and can’t contribute, even if the parish can, which too often, it can’t–or won’t. An income stream thirty years from now is a low priority when you are trying to have food on the table today.

            Some clergy serve for a good number of years before having adequate income to enroll in the plan. While priests who go to established parishes may get on the pension plan immediately, those who go to missions can expect to serve for many years before enrolling.

            While the Synod has mandated that all clergy enroll in the plan, mandates don’t create the money to pay for what is mandated, and pensions for parish clergy are not a line item in any budget above the parish level.

        • Rebecca Matovic says

          As an abbot, he would have been eligible to enroll. It would have been the decision of his monastery whether to enroll its clergy in the plan. In other words, it was his decision not to enroll and contribute.

          In any case, pensions aren’t designed to kick in for 50-somethings.

          • George Michalopulos says

            OK, lemme get this straight: “as an abbot,” a man who takes a vow of poverty and has no source of income, he’s supposed to sock away money for a pension? Is this what goes on for critical thought among Leonova and her friends? Really? Boy, I know Liberals don’t like monasticism but this really takes the cake.

        • Helga,
          Metropolitan Jonah was the priest in my parish before he initiated the monastery at Pt. Reyes. He did not become abbot for several years. Bishop Tikhon held off on that step for a while, but raised the then chancellor, Fr Nicolai to Archimandrite and placed him over the monastery. I don’t know when Fr. Jonah became Abbot Jonah, but he was given the title, Economos, for the monastery for a while under Nicolai (who lived in Las Vegas).
          j

    • In which American city can one live and provide for his elderly and ailing parents on $12,000 a year?

      Is this what the Holy Synod thinks is “very generous”? Seriously?

      Shame!

      • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

        Theodore. Do you know what better offers/assignments were rejected by Metropolitan Jonah? It looks to me as if that package is all they’re willing to give him as compensation for doing NOTHING in return, but gadabout on the lecture and sermon circuit. Perhaps a higher level of charity should be doled out to him and his parents. So many people still think of him as some kind of monastic, though, who has forsaken “family’ for the Lord. Perhaps the OCA’s Charity Department could institute an annual Drive to take care of Metropolitan Jonah and his parents…
        What about SS Cosmas and Damian? Is that still operating? It was good enough for Metropolitan Ireney and others. What a boost that would give to SS Cosmas and Damian! There are a couple Homes of St.John of Kronstadt, too. Metropolitan Jonah’s parents are not better than the old folks in those places, are they? Anybody know why Metropolitan Jonah, a stavrophore monk, has not asked they be given refuge at SS Cosmas and Damian OR one of the Homes of St. John of Kronstadt. If these places are unsatisfactory, should we be supporting them at all?

        • oliverwendeldouglas says

          Come on now. Was this post actually written by a bishop . . . during Lent?

          • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

            TO: “oliverwendeldouglaz’
            FROM: Bishop Tikhon

            Dear ‘oliverwendeldouglas,”
            The Lord’s blessing be upon you!
            I am pleased to inform you that it is I, an Orthodox bishop, now retired, who actually wrote the post to which you refer and which is identified as coming from me, without ambiguity or deception or false representation, such as a pseudonym!.
            Giving thanks to God Almighty, the All-Holy Trinity, for everything, I remain,
            in Christ,
            +Tikhon
            Bishop ; OCA retired

          • Heracleides says

            Yes Oliver, your eyesight has not failed you. Note also in his reply above that the ‘good’ bishop also disparages the use of pseudonyms – something which he himself has done as recently as three months ago. Go figure.

            • Carl Kraeff says

              His Grace Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) has indeed posted under other names. It is my distinct impression however that he has done so transparently and in order to register his disapproval of those who also post anonymously. I am posting this with the hope that it will be considered informative and not argumentative.

        • Theodore says

          Your Grace,

          I do not know the answers to your questions. Do you know the answers to mine?

          • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

            Yes, Theodore, these are your questions and my answers to them:
            Question ONE:
            “In which American city can one live and provide for his elderly and ailing parents on $12,000 a year?
            Answer ONE:
            In every American city where $12,000 a year is not one’s sole income.

            Question TWO:
            “Is this what the Holy Synod thinks is “very generous”? Seriously?”
            Answer TWO:
            Yes, that’s exactly what they think. Seriously.”

            Conclusion: The Holy Synod must know that if they dole out $12,000 a year to Metropolitan Jonah, he has other sources of income and so do his parents. That’s the only possible rationale for them believing they are being generous.

            PS Archbishop Benjamin has declared bankruptcy a couple times. So, I believe, has Metropolitan Jonah’s father, in the past. But without access to the Metropolitan’s tax returns, and those of his father, I don’t see how anyone can assert with any degree of confidence, that the proposed (and rejected?) $1,000 a month dole from the OCA is the only source of financial support for Metropolitan Jonah and his retired parents. I’m sure, aren’t you, that Metropolitan Jonah has been completely open and accountable about his financial condition. That is the only possible reason for the Holy Synod’s sentiment that they were making a generous offer in return for…..What was it again?

            • George Michalopulos says

              Your Grace, there is no American city in which anybody derives and “income” of only $1,000.00 per month if said person is gainfully employed and/or on some type of disability/pension/govt assistance.

              Let us stop being trite and call a spade a spade: the denizens of Syosset are incapable of Christian charity and acting like Christian gentlemen.

              • Carl Kraeff says

                FYI: The Minutes also indicated that +Jonah has been provided with $10,000 for January and February of 2013. This leads me to think that the “offer” is associated with “In dialogue with the above mentioned members of the Russian Orthodox Church, we have come to a final proposal which would offer him an honorable situation and appropriate financial support.”

              • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                George. is it your conviction that Metropolitan Jonah and his parents are completely dependent on the OCA to provide them food, clothing and shelter? Do you KNOW that? if so, HOW?
                I don’t. This is one of the few areas in which I and the OCA establishment may be in agreement; however, I believe they have access to more facts than I do. i’ve never seen a statement of financial condition or a tax return of Metropolitan Jonah’s: they may have done.
                Has Metropolitan Jonah declared bankruptcy then?

              • Rebecca Matovic says

                The man is 53 years old. He can earn a living if he chooses to do so. Does anyone seriously believe that he’s been so damaged by his short tenure as first hierarch that he’s been rendered incapable of gainful employment in or out of the church?

                • Alfred Kentigern Siewers says

                  Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

                  But Rebecca, didn’t you want us to support the OCA administration’s effort last year to send former Metropolitan Jonah to a Catholic psychological facility on the grounds that he allegedly had problems that prevented him from working successfully? Your logic would seem to imply that that effort was falsely based, and that he should have been allowed to keep working. Can you explain this further, if indeed you are making that accusation implicitly here?

                  Please pray for me a sinner,

                  Kentigern

                  • George Michalopulos says

                    We forget that don’t we? The synod wanted Jonah to go to SLI (at $15K a month I believe) for six months. I suppose the pennies would have fallen from heaven.

                  • In other words ... says

                    Prof. Siewers asks:

                    But Rebecca, didn’t you want us to support the OCA administration’s effort last year to send former Metropolitan Jonah to a Catholic psychological facility

                    If you’re using “you” to mean me personally, then no … never expressed an opinion on the matter either publicly or privately; didn’t, in fact, have an opinion to express.

                    Were there people who endeavored to provide the former Metropolitan with every opportunity and resource to address the issues that bedeviled him in the course of his primacy? Yes. Does the fact that they made such an effort imply that he is permanently unsuited for any form of self-supporting labor? To borrow a phrase, what an idea!

                  • M. Stankovich says

                    Prof. Siewers,

                    This is a disingenuous interpretation of events & you know it: “a man in his error digs a hole and shovels it out, and falls into it himself.” (Ps. 7:15)

                    Perhaps I am foolish for interpreting your words of “conciliation & sobornost,” of unfairly visiting upon you – based upon your “consultation” role as strategist – an expectation. If I offend you by unfair imposition, forgive me. And at your request, I do pray for you. But this direction you are taking saddens me.

                    • Kentigern Siewers says

                      Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

                      In a mystery, a mode probably appropriate to an Orthodox-themed blog, the blogger “in other words…says” seems to respond here as Rebecca, while the Chancellor’s friend wrongly accuses others of being “consultation strategists.” Concern with any unfair public blackening of the former Metropolitan’s name is well taken. But meanwhile we all as Orthodox Christians engage in disingenuousness in making points at the expense of others, including anonymous comments and likes/dislikes, especially during Great Lent. Call it the “Crime and Punishment” theory of shared responsibility and guilt.

                      Please pray for me a sinner,

                      Kentigern

                  • Carl Kraeff says

                    FYI. We had a poster here (who usually posted as a friend of +Jonah) who told us that this facility had diagnosed +Jonah with a mental health condition that can be controlled by medication. Indeed, +Jonah then continued to function as the Metropolitan until he reigned.

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      Carl, are you referring to the unverified comment by “Nikos” that those at SLI didn’t understand +Jonah’s prayer of the heart?

                      I don’t believe that information is verified because (a) I was unable to verify it and (b) one of the frustrations the Synod had was that +Jonah’s medical documentation was not shared with them and they are unable to force him to share it legally. Also, I have heard conflicting rumors re: +Jonah’s “diagnosis” (if there was one) from various anti-+Jonah sources. These, of course, existed both before and after +Jonah’s evaluation so I hold them with a grain of salt. The fact that HIPAA was not violated of course played to some’s confirmation bias who took the absence of a diagnosis as confirmation of +Jonah’s refusal accept a diagnosis. Throughout this +Jonah seems to have behaved humbly, patiently, and servant-like: exhibiting no signs of mental disorder.

                      But back to Nikos’ point: SLI is not and has never been the right place to diagnose and heal such a monastic; nor do I think that was ever the intention in sending him there.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Mr. Cone,

                      What, exactly, qualifies un geignarde such as yourself to proffer such stupidity? Seriously, who are you and who cares? What are the professional criteria you established to evaluate the qualifications and capacity of SLI? You are aware of their reputation and contribution to the field of behavioural medicine? You are aware of the contributions of their researchers to the body of the evidence-base of behavioural medicine and how frequently they are cited and serve as authority in the research of their peers in the field? You are aware of their decades of pioneering experience in the diagnosis & treatment of clergy sex offenders and the prediction of future dangerousness, among patients capable of the mastery of deception, fraud, antisocial personality & psychopathy? You imagine this highly trained, highly skilled, highly experienced team was so stone-cold stupid as to misinterpret “monasticism & prayer” for psychopathology and mental disorder? And after five inpatient days were so flummoxed as to be incapable of rendering a diagnosis? Seriously?

                      Mr. Cone, I personally invite you as my guest to present this full theory to Grand Rounds of the Dept. of Psychiatry at my medical school. And after you have been so soundly smacked down for being the pretentious child who would again stir the waters with irresponsible falsehood – did you even look up the meaning of “confirmation bias,” for heaven’s sake? – you will never again venture into waters beyond the kiddie’s end of the pool. Mr. Cone, I am embarassed for you.

                    • Carl,

                      What are you talking about? Can you refresh our memory about +Jonah and medication?

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Dr S, I’ll let Jesse answer on his own but I’ll gladly proffer my own reasons why SLI is wholly inadequate to the task of “diagnosing” monastics who intone the Jesus Prayer and practice Hesychasm. Baldly stated it’s this: they have no competence in the matter.

                      It’s that simple.

                      For one thing, they’ve totally imbibed the secular model of psychotherapy. Second, their numbers speak for themselves. Have they “cured” any of the Catholic pederast-priests? Clearly they did not as can be seen by the musical chairs that was played in the American Catholic Church some 20-30 years ago.

                      And third, by what right would the Synod consign Jonah there when he was never accused of being a sexual deviant?

                    • Carl Kraeff says

                      Jesse–Yes, I believe it was Nikos. I do not recall his words but I do remember writing that I was happy that it was something that would be controlled by medications. I am not a person who thinks that having health issues, physical or mental, is something that automatically disqualifies folks from doing what they want to do. Obviously, there are some basic caveats here, such as not being allowed to pilot a plane if you have certain vision impairments, etc. That is why I remember being taken aback when folks would not even entertain the possibility that +Jonah had a mental health issue. I agree that a posting by an anonymous poster is not definitive but I also feel that some folks here guilty of socially stigmatizing mental illness, something that is plain wrong and hurtful to millions of folks who suffer from such illness.

                      To all others–I am sorry that I have stirred up the pot again. I posted this to provide some context to the discussion.

                    • Mr. Stankovich,

                      Would you want Jesse to tour the rounds at the Dept of Psychiatry at UC San Diego or at Gifford? Can you remind us again where EXACTLY you work, since you so openly make these claims of your expertise?

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      Mr. Stankovich,

                      My apologies for not being clear. I was trying to remind Carl that if he was referring to Nikos’ post, he missed that the point was criticism of SLI, not of +Jonah.

                      I submit my opinion (which is only backed by a BA in Psychology) with the same personal license that so many others have: the unprofessional opinion of one acquainted with the man. I have seen +Jonah is several contexts and have only known him to be a sane, well-tempered, good listener and competent administrator. I have seen no evidence of mental health issues in the man. Exhaustion? Yes. Poor judgment? Yes, inasmuch as he believes the best in people, giving the better angels of their character more than is their due.

                      It’s my opinion, but since everyone in Syosset and several with mitres offer their public criticism I offer my opinion as public support. (In case you can’t tell there are several others with me.) Certainly many of the opinions are false: I have heard unqualified people spout off about their primate having diabetes, OCD, ADD, ADHD, NPD, alcoholism, etc. Someone is wrong, at least I’m not slandering him with my lay diagnosis of “sanity”.

                      I believe–with reason– that the reason for SLI was to blacken +Jonah’s reputation. If they had desired his well being and to avoid scandal in the OCA they would have allowed him a lengthy stay at a monastery.

                      As for your embarrassment for me, please allow me to carry the burden of my own faults and ineptitude. You have better things to do, and I wouldn’t wish that burden upon anyone.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Nate B.,

                      Pharisees-at-Law should find bait before they go fishing: neither the Giifford Clinic nor psychiatry Grand Rounds are in any close proximity to the Dept.of Psychiatry. Think “rounds,” referring to “patients,” connected to “clinics” to “go to where the patients are…” Getting the picture? Oh, and Nate, have you missed the part about prison and contractor?

                      Instead of attempting to play me for some simple ass from the street, Nate B, if in my commentary regarding SLI there is inaccuracy or misrepresentation of them as other than qualified, respected in the field, and active contributors to the body of knowledge regarding behavioural medicine, I encourage you to correct me. If, in fact, I am unqualified and am proffering opinions that are false and dangerous – which I have done in no uncertain terms in regard to the “opinions” of Mr. Cone – than someone qualified needs to set me straight as to the issues of “diagnosis in monastics.”

                      If I am wrong, Nate B, than there is someone who can intelligently correct me. And that someone is certainly not you.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Mr. Michalopulos,

                      You seem to miss the fundamental criterion for the diagnosis of a mental disorder: interference in the ability of the individual to function normally. And even then, there is significant provision in the understanding of mental “disturbances” to acknowledge circumstances that result in symptoms of mental disorders, but are limited and will generally resolve on their own (e.g. simple grief; “adjustment disorders” from changing careers, divorce, injury, illness, etc.). But when disturbance of mood, perception, or behaviour do not resolve, it is the unconscious attempt to continuing functioning that results in the impairment in functioning.

                      I would suggest to you that you will find no monastic Father or teacher who would support the notion that prayer, hesychia, fasting, or inner discipline will make you, for example, negligent, irresponsible, inattentive, aloof, or selfish. Not a one. I am sure you would agree that quite the opposite would be true. I would ask you to document in the lives of the Saints where the life of inner prayer has been a source of dereliction of duty or responsibility, or where a Father or bishop or priest has been defended in his neglect of his flock because of his own “spiritual life” or needs. This is an absurd, indefensible notion. The “spiritual life” that detracts from one’s sworn commitment and obligations is misguided.

                      Secondly, the diagnostic criteria established for mental disorders do not mimic the Orthodox disciple of prayer & hesychia. This is an ignorant idea. If you would suggest a concern that a psychiatrist might “misinterpret” the recitation of the Jesus Prayer as – I don’t know what, “psychotic perseveration” – I would refer you to the analogy of Mt. 6:16-18, and “be not, as the hypocrites.” I do not wish to belabour the point, but the practice of one’s spiritual beliefs are not viewed as “symptomatic” and detrimental, but are in fact considered a strong “protective factor” when assessing and developing a treatment plan and implementing a course of treatment provision.

                      Finally, I emphasize to you, that a rich and profound spiritual life is no “protection” or immunity from mental disorders, and it saddens me tremendously to read these truly ignorant, uninformed “observations” and conclusions: “I don’t see any symptoms.” In every single patient contact without exception, I ask about feelings of self-harm & suicide. Why? A patient once said to me, “Do you honestly think I would tell you so you could stop me?” And this is my outrage with those who would so arrogantly propose their opinions as to the “need” for SLI, and the wisdom of utilizing this particular facility: I am qualified to make such a determination, but I’m not stupid enough to speculate without an invitation to consult. And to those who do, not only are you ignorant, you are dangerous.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      I don’t doubt your capacity to explicate on matters psychiatric. The point Jesse, I, and others have made is that Jonah is not insane or unbalanced. He may be naïve, too-trusting, foolishly optimistic, etc., but none of these call into question the man’s sanity. Leaving aside the massive problems I have with an institution like SLI (which only serves to bleed dioceses dry), the major flaw in all of this was the Synod wanted to give Jonah “the Radziano treatment” in order to justify their defenestration of him. They know he’s no more insane than any of them it’s just they didn’t like him from the get-go.

                    • Michael Stankovich,

                      You (not surprisingly, as par for the course) did not answer my question.

                      I’ll give you a second try. Go for it.

                      Let me remind you that YOU have been the one to disclose your workplace on this site. YOU have been the one to challenge Mr. Cone to “do the rounds” with you at your workplace.

                      So answer the question.

                    • Carl Kraeff says

                      For the record, here is what I posted back in 2012:

                      Carl Kraeff says:
                      February 2, 2012 at 5:18 pm
                      George–If it is true, as alleged by one who is on your side, that +Jonah was diagnosed with OCD, it was a good thing that he was evaluated, no? Would you rather his OCD is not controlled? I would not wish that on anybody.

                      Carl Kraeff says:
                      March 26, 2012 at 3:41 pm
                      I think you worry too much. Even if the main culprit in the mishandling of clergy sexual misconduct cases was +Jonah, there is no reason to do anything but say “the past is past,” make structural improvements, and to move on. The Metropolitan owned up to his failings, went to a clinic that specializes in clergy with problems and is being treated for what ever ails him. It was one of your team (I forget who) who said that it was OCD, which should be great news for all of us because, as long as he is on his medications, +Jonah will be a fine Metropolitan. I wish he would never again listen to the wrong advisors, like Father Fester for one.

                      I cannot find the post of Nikos, the existence of which was confirmed by Jesse and I think Helga, when she came to my defense against folks who accused me of making this up.

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      Mr Stankovich,

                      Isn’t it possible that a competent and professional psychotherapist would have diagnosed someone like, say, St. John of Kronstadt as psychotic for seeing angels and demons? (Not the movie “Angels and Demons”. Though…)

                      And isn’t it also likely that there are competent and professional mental health professionals who think that devotion to a live of physical chastity would be mentally unhealthy? Heck, I know Protestants who think that!

                      And isn’t it also that case that leading psychologists (and philosophers of that science like UCSD’s Paul and Patricia Churchland) do not believe in the existence of an immaterial soul and materially reduce “love”?

                      I believe psychology is necessary and helpful, and I have seen it help many of my family and friends. However, let’s not pretend that it’s easily possible for a psychological model to be either at odds with or at least ill equipped to understand the Tradition of the Church.

                      Regardless, I’m far more interested in something I know exists: the unjustifiable conflicting lay “diagnoses” of +Jonah than something I don’t know exists, a professional one.

                    • Carl,

                      Perhaps Nikos could straighten this out, but all I remember of this post is that YOU maintained he was on medication. I remember thinking (to borrow a phrase) What an idea!!!
                      Forgive me for attributing poor motives, but my thought then, and now, is that you are injecting rumors into the discussion for the sake of having people question the mental state of Met. Jonah. To the best of my knowledge this is NOT TRUE, and I have asked him about diabetes and all the other conjectures that have come up on this site. So far you are batting zero.

                      You may have had this discussion with someone else, a Syosset crony, perhaps, but please provide the quote where someone else beside YOU has made such an assertion here.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Mr. Cone,

                      Anything is possible. Science, however, is measured in probability and likelihood. So, the answer to your question of whether a professional institution of acclaimed researchers and demonstrated experts providing treatment services for members of the clergy for decades were “baffled” by Jonah Pauffhausen – stymied in their attempt to provide an accurate “diagnosis” – is “NO,” it is not possible. It is a demonstration of your inability to admit you are unqualified to pursue these matters intelligently.

                      Like it or not, fair or not, the treatment recommendations of SLI were published on this site and all over the internet. I believe if you explore the matter, you will find the volumes of comments as to the “correctness,” the “necessity,” and the “appropriateness” of the treatment recommendations. The letter issued by the Holy Synod as their only commentary regarding Jonah’s resignation speaks to the matter of waiting for him to honor his commitment following his evaluation at SLI. And the summary of the circumstances of his resignation include a request to enter treatment as was recommended by SLI and remain Metropolitan, or resign. Mr. Cone, if you did not know previously, understand clearly now: recommendations for treatment are based on diagnosis(-es). Period.

                      The fact that you do not know it “exists” is a matter of privacy and inconsequential. Who cares? You are gossip-mongering a new “dimension” to this tale of “stinkbombs”, timelines, and “the resignation.” And to what end? The Church has moved on with a new Metropolitan. You breed dissension & divisiveness and need to move on as well.

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      Mr. Stankovich,

                      The main discrepancy between our points of view (other than the fact that you apparently hate my guts?) is a discrepancy in whom we place our trust.

                      You read intimations made by the Synod and Syosset Circle that there is a mental illness diagnosis (extrapolated from recommendations for treatment) and –due to your trust– you seem to have concluded that there is a severe mental illness afflicting +Jonah such that interferes with his ability to function. You seem to have concluded (correct me if I’m wrong) that the man has a debilitating mental illness.

                      This conclusion of yours is backed by your role as a professional in the field of mental illness and treatment. Yet you, to my knowledge, don’t have any recent first-hand experience with the man whom you publicly speak about professionally.

                      I figure you can’t have it both ways: both trusting the strength of your own professional opinion (which was not “in play” during the diagnosis/ treatment process) and trusting the intimations of the Synod that another institution (no matter how well regarded) made recommendations based on a diagnosis.

                      To put it another way: I don’t doubt your professional prowess by doubting your claim of a diagnosis. I doubt the prudence of your trust.

                      After all the Synod released the following statement:

                      At some point after his enthronement as our Primate, Metropolitan
                      Jonah unilaterally accepted into the OCA a priest known to him and to
                      others to be actively and severely abusing alcohol…

                      which has been proven false.

                      I know of bishops loudly and continually claiming that OCAT was “+Jonah’s website” and claimed he was behind it; all the while having claims to the contrary and access to the facts. For heaven’s sake, I told one of them about it from the get-go, and told him to come talk to me if there was an issue; and this still went on!

                      These are just a couple of examples.

                      Moreover, in my own experience these same sources you trust have lied to me and hurt myself, my family, and many faithful under their protection. Their inaction in correcting their shameful behavior testifies to their trustworthiness.

                      Give me a reason to trust them. Appealing to SLI and my abundant ignorance will not suffice.

                    • Carl Kraeff says

                      Sue–I do not know how you have come to the conclusion that I “maintained that (+Jonah) was on medication.” If you would just reread what I posted on this thread (April 12, 2013 at 10:40 am), you would see that what I maintained was vastly different. Once again, it was Nikos who said that +Jonah was diagnosed with OCD, something that has been acknowledged by Jesse Cone on this thread (with the caveat that Nikos believed it was a misdiagnosis because the clinicians misunderstood the Metropolitan’s use of the Jesus Prayer). I then said that if that is the case, it can be controlled by medications. For the record, I do not know what the diagnosis was. I have no idea if any medicines were prescribed, nor do I know if any were used.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Mr. Cone,

                      Stop whining. It’s manipulative & unbecoming. If you intend to promote your opinion in the “public square,” man up & defend it on merit, not cry about I “hate your guts.” I don’t even know you.

                      There are two fundamental differences in our “points of view”: 1) You persist in this “war” for Jonah, while I say, “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”; and 2) I maintain a high threshold for truth – particularly in matters related to health, safety, and well-being – while you do not. The point is this: you have more than adequately demonstrated to me that for you, in practice, the end justify the means. Whatever, it’s none of my business. But when your means ignorantly and pretentiously suggest conclusions that might result in needless suffering or life-threatening situations – your expressions of piety may be misinterpreted as “pathology” – I feel compelled to respond. And worse is the fact, Mr. Cone, that your promotion is not an altruistic “caution” to Orthodox Christians in general, but serves the “war.”

                      Over the weekend I downloaded 60 representative journal articles from the National Library of Medicine related to any correlation of religion & psychopathology, and I recently finished reading neurologist Oliver Sacks latest book, Hallucinations, which addresses non-psychiatric “causes” (e.g. epilepsy, Geschwind Syndrome). While I intend to fully develop this on my own site, I will tell you a few things I immediately noticed. As I stated, the overall “tone” is respectful and views spirituality as a “protective” factor. There are a significant number of studies dedicated to discriminating between the legitimate mystical experiences of spirituality and psychosis – as one group of researchers referred to as “distinguishing psychotic thoughts of this world from visions of another world” – even the “transcendent experiences” (e.g. ecstatic visions, “speaking in tongues”) of fundamentalist Christians who also have psychotic disorders. While I have not had the opportunity to read much more than abstracts, I found nothing that even vaguely supports the notion that religion, spirituality, or the expression of spiritual practice is other than protective and a positive manifestation of mental health and well-being.

                      I would note to those who are concerned that psychiatrists would confuse the Jesus Prayer with OCD: Holy Cow! Am I the only person to have read JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey? “Zooey quit mumbling that prayer!” Seriously, kids? It is referred to as prayer of the heart, for heaven’s sake! I’ve watched the videos of Jonah’s Bible studies and have witnessed no “unexplained periods of mumbling” that would indicate to me there is “pathology.”

                      So, Mr. Cone, far be it from me to disrupt your war games. My concern is that someone would read your comments and conclude that, even though they intuitively sense they need to speak with a professional, because they pray, because they fast, because they choose to live a chaste life, because while in prayer they believed they felt a warmth or smelled a fragrance, or because of any manifestation of their spiritual life, they will be misunderstood, misinterpreted, misdiagnosed, or far worse, diagnosed, they isolate. And ultimately, Mr. Cone, they will needlessly suffer. And you weren’t interested in them in the first place – only the war for Jonah.

                      Hey, James. If this is arrogant disrespect for Mr. Cone, buddy, I’m guilty.

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      Mr. Stankovich,

                      What exactly do you think is going on here? “War games”? What am I fighting, and whom?

                      I established OCAT to provide some balance to the disingenuous voice of Mark Stokoe, not because I hate the man or because I wanted to play “war games”. I try to be sincere, and believe me, if I thought the ends (which would be what exactly?) justified the means, things would be very different and there would be some very unhappy people (who had been?) in the OCA.

                      I’m glad to hear that you have been reaffirmed that religion and psychology can go hand in hand. I’ve always thought so, that’s why I studied it as an undergrad at University. I’m simply trying to affirm a real and justifiable doubt that not all psychologists and psychological methods are compatible with Christian Tradition. The former abbot of St. John’s recently is a sad testimony to that.

                      I confess I didn’t think that my words could deter those who need psychological help from seeking it. I figure that’s not the audience here; they’re more concerned with +Jonah and the international OCA soap opera than when, where, and how to seek professional psychological help.

                      When my family took our foster daughter to therapy, I didn’t think to consult monomakhos. I appreciate your concern for such people, and if I’ve deterred them from seeking the right help, I’m truly sorry.

                      By the way, you still have yet to give me a reason why I should trust the Syosset Circle and all their mouthpieces given my first hand experiences. Moreover your failure to do so makes me even more confused about what you say our #2 difference is: the height of your standard of truth and the lowliness of mine.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Mr. Cone,

                      I have reached my customary point of resignation in argument with you. And as always, bonne soirée et bonne chance. Let me be on the record as saying that many an anonymous creep and rodent on this site has referred to and of me as many things, basically because they are cowards and believe they are “secure” behind the wall of the internet. They are naive and only a good sniff away from disaster. But Mr. Cone, you obviously do not appreciate my offense and disappointment at your comment, “you hate my guts.” It was unfair, below the belt, and wrong.

                • Jesse Cone says

                  Rebecca makes the point that “[h]e can earn a living if he chooses to do so.”

                  I believe this is very true, but of course the Synod publicly and falsely bore witness against him. This (I have heard from sources) purposefully made him unhire-able in the public sphere. While their claims have been shown to be wrong inside and out they have not corrected their false witness, thus continuing the OCA’s shame and +Jonah’s employment limbo.

                  It would cost the OCA nothing for them to correct their witness against their first hierarch, allowing him to earn his living in the manner you suggest.

                  • Jesse, you are so right.

                    The OCA’s slander of Metropolitan Jonah seems to have been designed to isolate him and force him into a dependent relationship with the OCA. Personally, I would love to see him able to support himself without the OCA. The OCA’s actions make that a difficult prospect.

                    Rebecca claims Metropolitan Jonah ought to support himself without seeking relief from the OCA. That is a patently ridiculous suggestion when we consider to what lengths the OCA has gone in order to prevent Metropolitan Jonah from working for anyone but themselves. As Dr. Siewers pointed out, it shows a striking amount of faith for people to have in Metropolitan Jonah’s working ability, especially in light of their pretenses to the contrary.

                  • Jesse,

                    You are correct except in one important area, your diocesan bishop Benjamin who continues his relentless assault on Metropolitan Jonah witnessed by his bizarre outbursts at the last Metropolitan Council meeting in which he accused +Jonah of being responsible for his sister’s death because she drank herself to death while living with +Jonah.

                    I am sorry to say but as long as +Benjamin continues to beat the war drums against +Jonah in public and private, it will cost the OCA plenty, both in this world and in the world to come.

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      James,

                      You are, of course, correct. However I was merely asking, “why don’t they?” not saying “they will”.

                      The answer to my (own) question is, I’m afraid: vindictiveness. And the more +Jonah is loved, the worse this gets.

                      It’s this ugly elephant in the room that we tend to forget.

                      None of this had to be this way, and +Jonah’s fault is, I believe, shared with many here: trying to reason with the machinations. This isn’t about sense, money, principles, competency, or fairness. It’s certainly not about conciliatory or Christian love. It’s about being a slave to the sinful passions. That’s right: the OCA, slave to sinful passions.

                      As for the bishop in question: people with exposure have plenty of stories like this to tell. I just met some people who exampled that. That story is a new one for me though.

                    • Jane Rachel says

                      WOW! That is classic alcoholic behavior coming from Bishop Benjamin. I googled “alcoholic behavior blame someone else as being worse than you are” and found, without even moving off the google results site: “Alcoholics excuse and justify their behavior by a variety of stratagems involving resentment, self-pity, grandiosity and blaming others. … his own choices when in fact they are being made for him by his addiction. …. Since there is always someone worse off than himself the addict feels entitled in continuing his addiction.”

                      He needs to get with the Program.

                    • Jane Rachel says

                      Here is a link to an article written by Julia Duin that speaks about her friendship with Laurie Paffhausen and her sadness when she heard of her friend’s death. It’s a good article. It provided some balance after reading that toxic statement by Bishop Benjamin (if he really said it).

                      http://www.juliaduin.com/2012/11/25/thanksgiving-in-tennessee-and-requiem/

                    • Carl Kraeff says

                      Jane Rachel–I also Googled your search term and found out that It is not only an alcoholic that will indulge in the blame game. I do not want to go any further because I am not a behavioral health clinician, just a planner who is familiar with behavioral health. I suggest that we leave diagnoses to qualified individuals.

                    • Jane Rachel says

                      Carl, you’re right.

                    • A momma mouse says

                      Archbishop Benjamin’s assessment of Laurie’s condition is not really his to make. And for someone who asserts that he is “in recovery,” it is remarkable that he holds +Jonah or anyone else responsible for her actions, assuming he even knows. (First Step: Admitted we were powerless…. this is also the first step for those in Al-Anon, an organization for families and friends of alcoholics…)

                      If +Jonah is responsible for Laurie’s death per +Benjamin, it would seem that the DOW bishop would then be responsible for the deaths 1) Gregory Solak, dead in +Benjamin’s home, and 2) one Bishop from the DOM. One can’t have it both ways.

                      There has to be a less damaging way to exorcise one’s demons than to project them on others. There are 12 suggested Steps….

                    • Jane Rachel says

                      A momma mouse. Exactly.

                  • Jesse, you have made so many good and reasonable points in this thread. There is no reply button to most of them so I wanted to state I am glad you are not manipulated and sidetracked yourself by the immaturity and ill-will of others here.

                    • Jesse Cone says

                      Thanks.

                    • Kentigern Siewers says

                      Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
                      I’d second Colette’s post, not that she needs it.
                      When folks feel like getting mean online, myself most of all, this offers helpful counsel:
                      http://www.pravmir.com/archpriest-maxim-kozlov-advises-tight-control-of-personal-presence-on-social-networks/
                      Or maybe we all should enroll in a continuing ed class for Orthodox behavior online? 🙂
                      This gets back to the need for the Assembly of Bishops in North America to develop some kind of standard for Orthodox behavior on line. Even Orthodox folks of the best organizational pedigrees, and most of all a mutt such as myself, can forget that behavior in the virtual realm (with all the time we all spend in it) can hurt the hearts of others as well as darken our own nous.
                      Please pray for me,
                      Kentigern

                    • Carl Kraeff says

                      Dear Professor–I do not mean to get into an argument before Pascha, but I do want to pose my question to you so that you might remember to reply to me after Bright Week.

                      Am I right in perceiving that there is a disconnect between your criticism of folks who are “mean” on line and your approval of Colette’s post, which may be considered “mean” by some folks? I am referring to these words: “the immaturity and ill-will of others here.”

            • Theodore says

              Your Grace,

              Stubbornly I must insist this is not “generous” by any definition.

              At a meeting last year, one group was told by our Locum Tenens that if those of us in Dallas want Metropolitan Jonah to be taken care of we should take care of him ourselves. I don’t know what he would think of coming to Dallas as our Bishop, nor do I pretend to speak for the Cathedral, but there are many of us who would welcome him here and my guess is that his starting salary would be so much greater than 12K that you could not see 12K from there. In short, this is at least one solution that would not impinge on the shrinking income of Syosset, would financially provide for Metropolitan Jonah better than the Synod seems willing or able to do, and would fill at least one vacant bishopric.

              Not being privy to all the internal negotiations, I do not know whether such a solution has been discussed. For all I know, they may have offered him a Soviet-like proposition of a vow of silence and internal exile within the OCA. But if they did, I must say that when high ranking executives leave corporations under some cloud and sign non-disclosure, non-compete agreements, their parachute is much more golden than this one appears.

              Snarkiness aside, does the above proposition not seem viable to you as well?

              • Theodore, one of the OCA’s terms on their proposed settlement (not mentioned in the Minutes) is that Metropolitan Jonah can’t live within 100 miles of Washington DC or Dallas TX.

                • Theodore says

                  1. Removing DC from the potential destinations would require Metropolitan Jonah to move his ailing parents again.

                  2. Removing Dallas ensures that Metropolitan Jonah will be far from many who love him and want to support him.

                  I’m with George. Where is Christ in all of this?

            • His Grace Bishop Tikhon writes:

              “Conclusion: The Holy Synod must know that if they dole out $12,000 a year to Metropolitan Jonah, he has other sources of income and so do his parents. That’s the only possible rationale for them believing they are being generous.”

              Your Grace, I don’t understand why you are mouthing off about this, when I can tell you really don’t know enough about the situation to say anything helpful. The coerced resignation letter had Metropolitan Jonah referring to himself as the main source of income for his parents and sister, not the only. That would indicate that any other sources of income would not be enough to support a family, either.

              Metropolitan Jonah’s “other sources of income” are things like giving lectures, retreats, and the like. By its very nature, that income can only be supplementary, not the main source, because it is so intermittent. Furthermore, the Synod’s slanderous attacks on Metropolitan Jonah’s reputation have diminished his ability to earn that kind of income, so it is necessary for them to increase the settlement accordingly.

        • Your Grace, I don’t think you are familiar enough with Metropolitan Jonah’s situation to start passing judgment on how he takes care of his parents.

          Metropolitan Jonah is NOT going to hand over his parents to an OCA institution. I would think it would be obvious why he wouldn’t want to put them under the control of the OCA. Also, Metropolitan Jonah has expressed discomfort with the idea of putting the elderly in homes if family members can take care of them. That was his whole reasoning for relocating his parents and sister to Washington: so he could take care of them.

          Yeah, I know it is just horrible for a tonsured monastic to have anything to do with his birth family, but try to choke back your vomit for a second and remember that Metropolitan Jonah’s family situation emerged long after he was ordained, tonsured, and consecrated. He is now his parents’ only surviving child. So I hope you can forgive him for committing that gravest of sins in the OCA: actually practicing what he preaches.

          • George Michalopulos says

            Good point, Helga. And I might add, there are NO OCA institutions which could care for Jonah’s elderly parents. No nursing homes, no extended care facilities, and no hospitals, hospice, soup kitchens, orphanages, free clinics, etc, etc, etc. We do have Sex Czars though (and mandatory continuing education)!

            • Araminta Andrews says

              I have often thought over the last few months, that NONE of us including Bishops, retired or present should be telling Met Jonah, how, where, or what to do with his parents. NO one, is their son, and although all sorts of suggestions have been put forth by those who think they not only know where they should be sent and whether the parents of this monk should be split up and sent to separate institutions, no one, has been asked by him for this direction.

              It is also true, throughout the written history of monastic life that many times monastics return home to care for aging or infirmed family members. I am sure that Bishop Tikhon knows this very well.

              Whatever the gifts or limitations of Met Jonah’s time as Met. he clearly didn’t have the chance to really do the job he was elected to do. Hounded from day one, by jealousy, liars, and those who would choose sin in a second over obedience to God in order to protect their “way of life”. He didn’t have a chance.

              Over the years, I am sure you all have acknowledged the great gifts of men, while also viewing their sometimes grotesque failings.
              Bishop Tikhon, uses his friend Bishop Nikolai as an example to praise constantly. But whatever his gifts were in organization, creation, or expansion of the church, It is known far and wide that he has, for whatever reason a very heavy hand when dealing with people.
              So too, Bishop Tikhon’s reputation for, not only brilliance, but mental instability.
              In as much as Met Jonah has failings, I do not think they were any more bizarre or hurtful than the sins and lies, and bullying that are such a hallmark of Bishop Benjamin behavior..
              And yet, +BB continues to run the show out West, and in Alaska, a show that, Bishop Tikhon suggests that Met Jonah participate by taking a job under him. Wow. Is this sanity?
              And what of John Jillions? Do we trust him? He, who took his black clad ass with his cross swinging from its chain into the home of Met Jonah and announced in a bold-faced lie that all his brothers were insisting on his resignation.
              Does the ending justify the means? No and it never will.

              • M. Stankovich says

                And now there were seven (7) in the room, and a Poirot at that: a master of interpreting the “black clad ass,” the subtle, but nuanced “swing” to the cross, and the “bold-faced lie.” “Zut alors!”, cries Jonah, “Vous êtes jimmies sont secoué. Ça va, mec, c’est bon, calme-toi.” OK, OK. But in re-winding the tape, Poirot misses the means entirely: Honour your committment, participate in treatment & remain Metropolitan (NOTE: he is not alone in constantly ignoring this fact), or…

                Round, and round, and round the mulberry bush this ever-increasing line of dancers, prancers, and vixens join the monkey chasing the weasel. Now if you want a fair assessment of leadership-per-dollar compensation, let’s be fair here: for my first draft pick… boy this is tough… I’ll take Hilarion Alfeyev. Still care to run with this moronic “compensation” analogy? Does collette think Jonah’s compensation be set pursuant to Hilarion’s? Gifts & failings being equal? Right.

                Two men were in the room. Two. One publicly described for the record what occurred. One has chosen to issue a written statement: “I nether had the inclination nor the the temperment to be Metropolitan.” As near as I can tell, this statement addresses his “constitution,” not his circumstance”; his motivation & ego strength, not his relationship with other members of the Synod. Boil this as you wish – and many have wished – but as Vladyka Tikhon has been insisting, Fr. Chancellor Jillions – whose ass might well have been cloaked in blue for all you know – could have seduced him with the lie of the serpant to Eve, but he resigned because of his lack of inclination and because of his temperment. And neither Canon nor slander is a factor in how any of us reach such conclusions.

                What you are now hearing is the silence of consent.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  As I replied to His Grace earlier Dr Stankovich, where is Christ in all of this?

                  • M. Stankovich says

                    Mr. Michalopulos,

                    On the road to His voluntary Passion.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      OK, if you see Him, ask him if he would have treated Jonah the way Syosset did.

                    • M.S.

                      Because our Lord is going to His Voluntary Passion, all the more reason for the OCA bishops to understand and act with love and not a whip.

                      Now they are demanding that Jonah leave the house HE rents in DC. The OCA isn’t paying for it, what makes them think they can demand such a thing? THey have given him no assignment so he can live wherever his wants.

                      Do they ever tire of crucifying innocent people?

                    • Lola J. Lee Beno says

                      Now they are demanding that Jonah leave the house HE rents in DC. The OCA isn’t paying for it, what makes them think they can demand such a thing? THey have given him no assignment so he can live wherever his wants.

                      Is it because the house is right next to St. Nicholas? Last I heard, that is private property and does NOT belong to the church. Heck, the opportunity to buy TWO private houses right next to the annex was turned down. This is ridiculous.

                    • Fr. Yousuf Rassam says

                      As a point of information, the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate regulates where in Russia retired hierarchs may reside.

                      https://mospat.ru/en/2012/12/26/news78474/

                      “The Synod approved the list of the dioceses where retired bishops may reside (live). The list includes the Kemerovo, Kursk, Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Saint-Petersburg dioceses.”

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      That’s good to know. Does the Synod of the Russian Church also slander their primates?

                • Ladder of Divine Ascent says

                  M. Stankovich, “Now if you want a fair assessment of leadership-per-dollar compensation, let’s be fair here: for my first draft pick… boy this is tough… I’ll take Hilarion Alfeyev.”

                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_reconciliation#cite_note-CWN_2008-04-08-39

                  In 2008, the Russian Orthodox bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna, in his presentation at the First World Apostolic Congress of Divine Mercy (held in Rome in 2008), argued that God’s mercy is so great that He does not condemn sinners to everlasting punishment. The Orthodox understanding of hell, said Bishop Hilarion, corresponds roughly to the Roman Catholic notion of purgatory.

                  http://thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3132

                  In an amazing, even surprising ecumenical moment in the Catholic Church’s first World Congress on Divine Mercy, Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, bishop of Vienna and Austria as well as temporary administrator of the Diocese of Budapest and Hungary, took Divine Mercy to its logical conclusion. God is Love, all He created and sustains is always loved by Him. Even the creation that rejects Him continues in existence by His love. This unfathomable Divine Mercy can even make hell* “Gehenna,” temporary, according to Bishop Hilarion, who spoke on Day 3 of the Congress (Friday, April 5) at St. John Lateran Basilica.

                  After Bishop Hilarion’s presentation, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn,
                  who is presiding over the Congress in the name of Pope Benedict XVI,
                  chatted warmly with Bishop Hilarion, shaking his hand and thanking him for his “courageous witness on the absolute mercy of God.”

                  The congress had found its electric moment.

                  ….

                  Hell, therefore, according to Bishop Hilarion, is transitory. Once more, he emphasized that this is the logical conclusion that is derived once we establish the major premise that above all, God is Love, and that He is unlimited mercy. He said that God established the Kingdom of heaven for all created beings, “even though an intervening time is reserved for the general raising of all to the same [heavenly] level. And we say this that we too may concur with the magisterial teaching of Scripture.” Such an understanding of Divine Mercy will cause people to love God more and not less.

                  ….

                  In this way, the first World Congress on Divine Mercy had found its electric moment.

                  An Improvisation for the Ages
                  In an impromptu discussion afterward between Cardinal Christoph Shonborn, Archbishop of Austria, and Bishop Hilarion, the Cardinal expressed his deep thanks to his Orthodox counterpart for his “courageous teaching” on the depth of God’s mercy. Asked by this reporter if he found anything that he could not accept about Bishop Hilarion’s remarks, Cardinal Schonborn said, “Nothing at all, because as the Bishop said, all creation falls under the care of The Divine Mercy.”

                  Thus, in an amazing ecumenical moment, unqualified Divine Mercy washed over this Congress. Cardinal Schonborn and Bishop Hilarion agreed that St. Issac’s teachings were not well known by most Catholics, but the Cardinal said this doesn’t mean that we cannot “share our understanding of God’s limitless love.” Asked point blank if he could accept the idea that God’s love can make even hell temporary, the Cardinal responded, “How can there be a problem with any proposition that presents The Divine Mercy as the limitless manifestation of Love? I welcome and learn from [Bishop Hilarion’s] teaching.” **

                  Those standing around to witness this incredible moment smiled, and people rushed up to Bishop Hilarion. Cherry Silcock-Stone, a marketing and administrative analyst for Concorde International in Kent, England, was one of those people. With joy in her face, she thanked Bishop Hilarion for his merciful teaching. “You have revealed something so wonderful,” she said.

                  The World Mercy Congress had just caught fire.

                  * The Eastern Church holds that two states exist — heaven and hell — and that sanctification is more process-orientated. Thus, hell is where this process takes place. We are in the middle of the process of sanctification at the moment of our deaths, the work of holiness is an eternal one, since God’s holiness is limitless and hence forever beyond us. The Western Church speaks of purgatory as a state where the “residual debt” due to sin is “worked off” before the Second Coming. Both realize the truth of the process of becoming holy by God’s holiness, thus the cleansing “state” is temporary.

                  http://oca.org/news/headline-news/metropolitan-tikhon-welcomed-at-romes-russian-orthodox-church

                  His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion [Alfeyev] of Volokolamsk, who chairs the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, welcomed His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, for the celebration of the Great Kanon of Saint Andrew of Crete at Rome’s Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Catherine on Wednesday evening, March 20, 2013. Accompanying Metropolitan Tikhon was Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, OCA Secretary.

                  Both hierarchs were in Rome for the Installation of Pope Francis, held one day earlier.

                  [Metropolitan Hilarion], “This church, erected here in ancient Rome, is also one of the fruits of the outreach efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church. But this church does not exist here for any missionary or proselytizing purposes, but rather for our compatriots—Orthodox Christians living in this country – to provide for them the salvific haven of the Holy Orthodox Church, in which they were nurtured, which they love and to which they remain faithful while living in a heterodox environment.”

                  http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/nameworship.htm

                  Since the 1930s, both in Paris and New York, the name-worship heresy has attracted the sympathy of modernists and two academic theses were written by intellectuals in both places in the 1980s. As recently as 1999, the youthful, Oxford-trained Bishop (now Metropolitan) Hilarion (Alfeyev) made the following surprising statement: ‘Even though the movement of name-worshippers was crushed at the beginning of the century by order of the Holy Synod, discussion of the subject regained momentum in the years before the Moscow Council (1917–18), which was supposed to come to a decision about it but did not succeed in doing so. Thus the Church’s final assessment of name-worshipping remains an open question to this day’.

              • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                Araminta Matthews, a few points, please:
                I know of NO Bishop in the history of the Church who has “returned home to care for aging or infirm (note: not “infirmed”) parents.” I know THAT ‘very well.”
                I have not made shameful comparisons of Metropolitan Jonah to myself, Bishop Nikolai, Metropolitan Tikhon or anyone else. I have, indeed, pointed to His Grace, Bishop Nikolai’s outstanding qualities, but I have never compared him and Metropolitan Tikhon to Metropolitan Jonah!.
                It is Araminta Matthews, rather, who INSISTS on making comparisons.
                I think that diagnosing me as mentally unstable, as Araminta Matthews has done, is his right, but I consulted a clinical psychologist for a couple years and a psychiatrist as well. Neither of them has diagnosed me or characterized me as “unstable” in any way.
                I don’t think I have referred to any “failings” of metropolitan Jonah as bizarre or hurtful, let alone compared his “failings” to those of Bishop Benjamin.
                I’ve reviewed all my posts here, and I state that Araminta is not telling the truth in stating that I have EVER suggested that Metropolitan Tikhon “take a job under Archbishop Benjamin” except to opine that he’d be better off at Manton, his own creation. After all, Bishop Benjamin, NOT I, recommended Father Jonah to be a bishop and participated in his consecration, and elected him to be First Hierarch. Not only did I NOT go along with Archbishop Benjamin in any of that (as Helga, George, Heracleides, and many others have done), I WOULD not have done so if I had not retired. i might have even tried to talk ever-memorable Archbishop Dmitri OUT of taking the course that Benjamin recommended!
                There are no “bold” faced lies, but there are bald-faced lies. Was it NOT the consensus of the Holy Synod that Metropolitan Jonah be ASKED to resign? Who, exactly, did NOT want him to resign? Was Metropolitan Jonan NOT going along with a consensus when he decided to resign? Prove it. He didn’t have to resign, you know, even if all the hierarchs demanded it.
                Araminta! You wrote the following:
                “Does the ending justify the means? No and it never will.”
                Wrong!
                If mankind is saved through Christ’s crucifixion, may we not opine that in that case the end DOES justify the means?
                Therefor, I recommend Araminta quit opining that the ending “NEVER” justifies the means. Some also find that sexual intercourse, the means, is justified by the end: production of children, as well.
                However, sixteen thumbs ups out of a total of 23 thumbs, indicates that many Monomakhos followers agree with Araminta’s reasoning. When are we going to read reprints of Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and others like them here, then, clear thinkers, all of them?
                Does the NRA realize that sheriffs, though authorized guns, find that their guns are of no avail against NRA customers? Will the armed school monitors proposed by the NRA sales advisory department succeed where policemen and sheriffs do not?
                And we must all be sure that our “well-armed militias,’ like the Crips and the Bloods and the KKK and any number of South Los Angeles and NYC millitias as well are allowed to support the gun business which makes America great. After all, the 2nd Commandment of the Constitution guarantees them this inviolable right!

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Your Grace, this is all very interesting but where is the Christ in all of this?

                  • One could ask the same about most things here, George. Why pick on Bishop Tikhon?

                    Seriously, since you asked the question: Where’s Christ in your blog?

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Good question, unfortunately, it’s a diversion. This blog is about politics, culture, and religion, from decidedly High Church, Traditionalist, Burkean Conservative (with some Objectivism thrown in) perspectives. If I see something awry, I address it. If I see something I like, I feature it.

                      As for “picking on Bishop Tikhon” I have done anything but that. I respect His Grace and am mightily honored that he is a regular correspondent. I very much admire his perspicacity in uncovering the corruption in Syosset and exposing the criminality of the actions against Metropolitan Jonah. Let us not forget, it was he that first uncovered the e-mail conspiracy against His Beatitude some two years ago. I just feel that we have to agree to disagree with his assessment of how Syosset is presently treating His Beatitude, that’s all.

                    • Nate Trost says

                      Objectivism: Satanism minus robes and kinky sex.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Touche! Mdme Rosenbaum was rather kinky but her philosophy did not inevitably lead to her idiocies, anymore than Cesar Chavez’s working to improve the lot of stoop-workers lead to his own cult of personality.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Mr. Michalopulos,

                      I believe it fair to state that you have drunk deeply at having a canonical Orthodox Bishop, the anointed of God, of 20 years of faithful service, and whom God has richly blessed – as you should read in the Book of Proverbs – with 8 decades of life to be respected, as your frequent contributor. I do not question that you have been honoured & are grateful. Like you, I have disagreed with Vladyka Tikhon and have expressed this to him in no uncertain terms. But you have dual roles here: correspondent, on the one hand, and host/moderator on the other. The comment “any idiot who takes the name ‘Tikhon’ can be elevated,'” while obviously was personally offensive to Vladyka Tikhon Fitzgerald the man, was likewise derogatory to Vladyka Tikhon, set upon by God with a Grace & dignity not even afforded to the angels or archangels. The first was typically mean-spirited & familiar; the second was scandalously offensive and demeaning. In my opinion, Mr. Michalopulos, twenty years of service in Christ’s vineyard and 8 decades of life should immunize a Bishop of the Church from such derision in your house.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      You are right. I shouldn’t have posted that characterization of His Grace. I deeply regret it and ask for His Grace’s forgiveness. Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald is many things: erudite, sarcastic, scholarly, caustic, knowledgeable, a tad irascible at times, too progressive for my tastes, disingenuous at times, but he is no fool.

                  • Francis Frost says

                    Dear Mr. Michaelopulos:

                    Some of your correspondents seem to be misinformed as to the actual terms of the settlement offered to Metropolitan Jonah. It is clear from Metropolitan Tikhon’s report, which is contained in the minutes posted on the OCA website, that the $12,000 annual payment was not intended to be Metropolitan Jonah’s sole income.

                    Indeed, the $12,000 annual payment came attached to an offer of continued employment in the OCA, ROCOR or the MP. Given the fact that Metropolitan Jonah is neither aged nor infirm nor disabled; why would $12,000 annually in addition to gainful employment be unsatisfactory? What is more “honorable” than honest labor?

                    What is clear is that the only impediment to a “just and honorable settlement” is Metropolitan Jonah’s unwillingness to accept such a settlement. You might also note that Metropolitan Jonah has been represented by an attorney during the settlement negotiations. Do you consider that representation to be ineffective or insufficient to protect his Beatitude’s interests? If so, why?

                    Might I suggest that you and your posters actually read the relevant documents before accusing the members of the Holy Synod of a ”defenestration” and “shameful treatment” in regards to Metropolitan Jonah? I have attached below several paragraphs from Metropolitan Tikhon’s report which is attached to the minutes and is posted on the OCA web-site:

                    From the OCA web-site: quoted from Metropolitan Tikhon’s report:

                    “I need to spend some time in this report to address the situation of my predecessor, Metropolitan Jonah, with particular emphasis on developments since the last Metropolitan Council meeting in September of last year. At the Fall Session of the Holy Synod (October 9-11, 2012), the Holy Synod appointed me to enter into a process of negotiation with Metropolitan Jonah. The purpose of this negotiation was to arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution to his situation following his resignation as Primate of the OCA in July.

                    I was assisted in this process by a member of the Metropolitan Council who is an experienced mediator and both of us were assisted by the valuable and competent advice of our legal team. Beginning on October 19, 2012, we entered into a process of negotiation that would continue until November 12, on the eve of the All American Council in Parma. On that initial date, we met together with Metropolitan Jonah and his legal counsel in a neutral location for a full day of discussion.

                    The basic presupposition of the negotiation was contained in the phrasing of our opening question to Metropolitan Jonah: “Where would you like to be in five years and how can the Orthodox Church in America and its Holy Synod help you to get there?” This presupposition continues to be the basis for approaching this issue and it is the basis for the final proposal that has been offered to Metropolitan Jonah and which I would like to request formal approval from the Metropolitan Council for the financial component. This will take place later in this meeting.

                    Many options for Metropolitan Jonah were discussed, including various pastoral options and locations throughout the United States. We were unable to come to a resolution on that initial date or at any time in the following month. After my election, the Holy Synod presented a package to Metropolitan Jonah, where he would have a pastoral assignment in another diocese, complete with financial support and health insurance for a period of two years. This also was rejected by Metropolitan Jonah.

                    During this time, I was in conversation with members of the Russian Orthodox Church, including correspondence with Patriarch Kirill, and personal discussions with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Archbishop Justinian and Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I mention this because one of the options under discussion was the possibility of a release of Metropolitan Jonah to another jurisdiction. This was his request at several points of our negotiation, but at this moment there has not been a request for his release from any jurisdiction.

                    In dialogue with the above mentioned members of the Russian Orthodox Church, we have come to a final proposal which would offer him an honorable situation and appropriate financial support. I believe that our Holy Synod has been very patient and very generous within the limits of what we can do as the Orthodox Church in America. The Holy Synod is asking the Metropolitan Council to give your approval to the specific financial package, which will be provided later.

                    I will end here and offer an opportunity for questions. But ultimately, the goal that each of us has is to strive for the love and grace of Christ and this is our common work for the glory of God.”

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Mr Frost, I dare say that the vast majority of my correspondents and readers have read and re-read the heavily redacted minutes of the latest Metropolitan Council meeting. That is why good people of differing views on said Council voted against the proposed package.

                      I’m sorry, but a Primate being “gainfully employed” as a pastor in a parish which is in a diocese headed by a tormentor and subject to his whims, caprices, and diatribes is not, cannot, and can never be considered “gainful employment.” I rather think that your own employment situation would not fall into this characterization. I don’t know anybody else who does either. Mine certainly doesn’t.

                      Also, I don’t understand why you look in askance at the fact that His Beatitude is represented by an attorney. I dare say that said representation is the only thing standing between Jonah and living on the streets and eating out of a dumpster.

                      You forget the torment that his dear sister had to suffer because of lies, slanders, and distortions leveled against her brother. Said actions contributed mightily to her untimely death. I seriously doubt that you would allow your own parish priest to be treated in such a fashion.

                • Ilya Zhitomirskiy says

                  2nd Commandment? 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Commandment is “Thou shalt not not make unto thyself a graven image.” The 2nd commandment has nothing to do with firearms. Spearking of firearms. though, the selective application of the second amendment is racist, because it does not allow blacks to defend themselves from whites if need be.

              • George Michalopulos says

                Very well stated.

                • “This blog is about politics, culture, and religion, from decidedly High Church, Traditionalist, Burkean Conservative (with some Objectivism thrown in) perspectives.”

                  How does the Objectivism fit in with any of the rest? Ayn Rand was a militant atheist and didn’t respect tradition at all. Unless it’s an example of a broken clock being right twice a day, but then it’s hardly worth mentioning in the same breath as “High Church.”

              • wild Bill says

                IF THE O.C.A. CAN THROW AWAY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON ATTORNEY FEES! WHY CANT THEY JUST GIVE HIM (MET JONAH) A LUMP SUM OF 125,000!

            • Actually, George, the Ss. Cosmas and Damian Adult Home in Staten Island is under the OCA. It is where Metropolitan Ireney lived his final years. It seems to be more like a communal living facility rather than a nursing home, with common meals and senior-related activities, but no 24-hour nursing care. This is really the exception that proves the rule, though: there are extremely few facilities like this associated with the Orthodox Church in this country, and I think this is the only one associated with the OCA.

              There don’t seem to be any Orthodox facilities near Washington, DC. Even if there were, it wouldn’t qualify anyone to criticize how Metropolitan Jonah takes care of his parents. The real concern is making sure that Metropolitan Jonah is given an adequate financial accommodation from the OCA.

          • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

            Helga, dear. you wrote this:
            “I don’t think you are familiar enough with Metropolitan Jonah’s situation to start passing judgment on how he takes care of his parents.”
            Tnanks, I agree, that’s why I’m not going to start passing judgment on how Metropolitan Jonah takes care of his parents, nor am I going to pass judgment on the Holy Synod for how they propose to supplement Metropolitan Jonah’s current system of providing food, clothing, shelter and medical care for himself and his parents, OK?
            You also, dear lady, wrote these words:
            “Also, Metropolitan Jonah has expressed discomfort with the idea of putting the elderly in homes if family members can take care of them. That was his whole reasoning for relocating his parents and sister to Washington: so he could take care of them.”
            Any expression of “discomfort” by Metropolitan Jonah should be taken seriously, especially in view of the Russian Patriarch’s paternal advice to our Synod.
            But let’s look at Metropolitan’s STATED condition: “IF family members can take care of them.’ This is probably sound thinking unless by ‘family members’ is meant one son.
            And you aver that his ****whole**** reason for relocating his parents and sister to Washington was so he could take care of them. Did he imagine, at the time he relocated them, that he, a single man, serving as Primate of a Local Church with SOME non-family obligations, would be “more comfortable” than if his parents were to be looked after in a retirement home, like, for example, St. John of Kronstadt home or an institution of “assisted living?
            I’d not be that vain with my own parents, either one of them, as to think I’d do better than professionals.
            My grandmother ended her days in Luther Haven, although she had five middle-aged childen, all with families. My mother ended her days in assisted living in Rochester, Michigan, although my sister and her husband are “people of means,” and I was entirely supported by the Church in which i was a Bishop. I did look after my mother for a couple weeks when my sister was exhausted, but, frankly, I was uncomfortable bathing her and looking after her personal hygiene in every way, even though she had done all that and more for me when I was a baby.
            You, Helga my dear, and George, were not born yesterday. We know, do we not, that if the OCA were to dole out a thousand dollars a month to Metropolitan Jonah (for doing nothing except existing), that would NOT be his sole support or the major portion of his support and that of his parents.
            By the way, while I am not always enabling in my discourses, I take exception to your unfounded insinuation that I have started “passing judgment on how he takes care of his parents.”
            I deny, Helga, my dear, that I pass judgment on how Metropolitan Jonah takes care of his parents EVER.
            Helga, dear lady, you are really going over the top, too, when you claim (and I do NOT claim):
            “Yeah, I know it is just horrible for a tonsured monastic to have anything to do with his birth family” “Horrible?” No, no, no. I’ve always found our Saviour’s words about preferring family to be very disturbing.
            You also asked me to “choke back your vomit for a second.” Please let me know where I indicated any digestive problems relative to any actions of Metropolitan Jonah.
            Now, let’s “lighten up,” OK? The fact is, the Holy Synod seems to be acting out a kind of Gilbert and Sullivan operatta which opens with a chorus of that old standby: “I don’t want her, you can have her, da da da da da…..” and so on. Perhaps this might inspire a new cartoon by the Heracleides?

            • I may be a bit naive but when the OCA is looking to pay a bishop (arch, metropolitan) I am assuming they were setting a salary for a single and not a family of 4. Not to sound crass but Metropiltan Jonah’s parents are not the OCA’s financial burden.

              And $1000/month plus $25,000 initially is very good for a monastic. If he doesn’t want to re-join a monastery and stays away from major metro areas, one can live comfortably and simply on $1000/month. I know from experience.

              Good thing he is not with the Antiochians and after 30 years could qualify for $800/month if Metropolitan Philip gives the OK.

        • Dear Bishop,
          Do your feelings on what +Jonah should get have anything to do with your retirement package?

          • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

            colette. I contributed to my OCA pension from when I was a Deacon, in 1973, until I retired, in this century. I likewise contributed to my Social Security Account since my first paper route in 1944 until I retired in this century. Social Security and OCA pension, and rent-free quarters constitute my “retirement package.’
            I’ve never been on welfare, or ‘the dole’, and I’ve never declared bankruptcy.

            I’m amazed that entities here who vaunt their right-wing conservatism and the responsibility of every individual for his own welfare, are acting in every way like those “lefties” and “commies” and ‘knee-jerk” liberals, who demand that employers pay their employees according to their needs! Sounds a little Marxist, no?
            Social Gospel anyone?

            • George Michalopulos says

              Far from it! Conservatives, Libertarians, and other Classic Liberals are not at all against pensions, severance packages, and the like. Besides, Helga and I are Christians, and we would never deign to think that Christians like to kick one of their own when he’s down. (Much less come up with defamatory letters in order to remove another Christian from office. Or undermine, backstab, kibbitz or otherwise make a superior’s life miserable.) Let’s not forget, we are talking about Christian witness here.

            • Collecting Social Security, living rent free and collecting an OCA pension-you sounds pretty set up. How can you possibly relate to +Jonah’s situation and secondly how uncharitable of you.

              • Rock Hudson says

                You don’t have to be an ant to be an expert on ants and their behaviour, Colette. After all, you seem to be quite all right with JUDGING a Bishop’s situation, no?
                And, Colette, if you want to call me uncharitable to comment on Metropolitan Jonah’s situation, that’s your right as a free American citizen. However, if you are going to play the CHRISTIAN Charity card in Metropolitan Jonah’s situation, I ask you, How can you justify not only MY situation, but YOURS? You have access to pure drinking water, do you not? What about the millions, many of them your age, who have never had access to pure drinking water, do NOT have word processors, internet connections, ANY schooling and little life expectancy. Metropolitan Jonah and his folks, even if they were put in a Salvation Army home, would have access to hot and cold water, baths/showers, food, clothing; in short You and Metropolitan Jonah already have a standard of living more comfortable and more luxurious than Justinian and Theodora or any of the royalty of the Byzantine Empire!
                You are “charitable?” I don’t really think so, but it’s not up to me to judge you, just as it is not up to you to pronounce before strangers than I am uncharitable. Now, if you are a Pharisee, it’s expected of you.
                COLLECTING Social Security? It’s MY MONEY, that contributed. OCA Pension: it’s MY MONEY that I contributed. It’s not money that the Holy Synod of the OCA decided to take from the offerings of the Faithful so that I don’t have to be held responsible for MY decision to uproot my parents and move them to one of the most elegant neighborhoods in this entire incredibly RICH country, and be “comfortable.”
                I was surprised that the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia actually implied that providing COMFORT is an evangelical virtue. Our Lord never said, “Inasmuch as you didn’t make the least of my brethren comfortable, you didn’t make me comfortable,” did He?
                I advise you and everyone else here to be very careful when judging ANYONE’s charity or charitableness. Our Lord referred only to clothing the NAKED, visiting the PRISONERS, feeding the HUNGRY, and so on. He never said, “All men are entitled to make their families as comfortable as possible.”
                You judge only yourselves when you do that, and no pseudonym can conceal you from God’s gaze.

                • Doris Day says

                  Shame on you, Tikhon Fitzgerald.

                  Bend your knees in prayer, and prostrate before the Christ. Your words spoken on this forum are a judgement to you and you alone.

                  • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                    Doris, know what they call four bullfighters in quicksand? Quatro sinko!

                    And the reason gorillas have those big nostrils is because they have those big fingers.

                    Just sayin.

                    In other words, Ms. Day, lighten up!

                • Aaron Little says

                  Nice try Bishop. Why is it that invariably most topics on this blog end up revolving around either you or Mr. Stankovich? I realize that this outcome must be a tremendous boost to the narcissistic personalities you both flout, but please, give the rest of us a break every once-in-awhile.

                  • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                    Aaron, my dear, I think the word you were looking for, but did not find, is “flaunt,” not “flout.”

                    You know what, Aaron? I was born in 1932. I’ve noticed that, like the Athenians of old, many Americans today get caught up in fashionable jargon. For most of my 80-plus years, the word narcissism was rarely heard, but in the last decade, it’s become a great buzzword of the most unimaginably shallow trend-followers ever. One just KNEW that the case concocted against Bishop Nikolai, for example, would HAVE to include some reference to and use of the term “narcissm,’ or, even trendier, ‘narcisstic personality disorder.” I remember when schizophrenia and, especially, “multiple personality disorder” was all the rage. They even made that old movie about “the Faces of Eve.’ It’s totally out of style now.
                    But ‘narcissism” is even heard around traIler parks and in RVs, these days. The media all love it, too, for now.
                    Is there anyone out there who agrees with this fantastic proposition of Aaron’s that “most topics on this blog end up revolving around” me and M. Stankovich? Good grief! He’s not envious, I hope! What an idea!
                    By the way, I get to be crotchety and pesty at my age: I’ve earned it.
                    By the way, I thought most topics on this blog revolved around Metropolitan Jonah; Metropolitan Tikhon; Archpriest J. Jillions; Pope Francis, the media-savvy Jesuit (chosen for that quality, no doubt); Archbishop Benjamin, Mrs. Steve Brown; the arch Protodeacon, E. Wheeler; President Obama, and so forth.
                    Aaron! Do you have anything to offer us all but an empty complaint about me, your personal problem?

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      I rather agree. This blog is more broad than what Aaron supposes. He forgot Trayvon Martin, Liberal (classical) economics, gun control, etc.

                    • Aaron Little says

                      Of course you agree George. Without your three performing monkeys – Tikhon, Stankovich, & Carl – your blog would actually be a mighty dull sideshow. Pay me no mind as I subside and return to gawking at the OCA Circus train-wreck.

                    • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says:
                      April 6, 2013 at 10:15 am
                      “Is there anyone out there who agrees with this fantastic proposition of Aaron’s that “most topics on this blog end up revolving around” me and M. Stankovich?”
                      I do, and I find it to be most blatant.
                      BTW, I was born in 1932 also, but do not believe that I’ve earned the right to be “crotchety and pesty at my age.”

                    • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                      Oh, the servant of God, “PdnNJ’ has not earned the right to be crotchety and pesty! I’ll accept that and pray for him.
                      I’m so sorry, especially because he’s also over the hill, like me. Don’t be discouraged, NJ, Reverend NJ, try more fiber in your diet and long walks: try not to live in the old days so much.
                      I’m trying to figure out, too, how revolving topics on this blog are “blatant.” What does that mean?

                    • blatant |ˈblātnt|
                      adjective
                      • completely lacking in subtlety; very obvious
                      PS. My grandchildren keep me living, not only in the present, but in the present moment. They also keep me hopping and regular, which takes the place of walks and fiber. But I will appreciate your prayers.

                    • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                      Thanks “PdnNJ!” That’s EXACTLY what i thought blatant meant!

                      Do you think YOUR contributions are, on the contrary, marked by subtlety and opacity?

                      Please give an example of anything you’ve contributed here that was NOT “lacking in subtlety” and was NOT obvious, OK? You shouldn’t have any trouble with that…..

                      It’s the serpent that’s subtle, right, NJ?

                  • M. Stankovich says

                    Mr. Little,

                    A short clarification, then why I appreciate your comment:

                    A narcissistic personality does not “boost,” but rather fends off insecurity, fear, and shame by intimidation. Most importantly, s/he is totally unconscious, and in fact, impervious to having it pointed out.

                    As I have said on many occasions, I struggle with translating my thoughts to “paper,” and I am well-aware of the fact that I am verbose and can be perceived as direct & provocative. Secondly, I operate in two confrontive domains, research academic & forensic, neither of which rewards for “timidity” or hesitation. Nevertheless, in a world of depravity, despair, and loss of hope, I do the best I can to bring hope. And even then I suck.

                    I am well aware that I have crossed boundaries here: some have been kind enough to point this out to me on the site; some have contacted me personally; ever-gracious, ever-patient, long-suffering Mr. Michalopulos has even saved me from myself as editor/moderator unbeknownest to anyone but me. I am a strong personality & a passionate man, but I attempt to temper this with humility, meaning I take criticism to heart. I do listen, and while I may not necessarily agree, I do always consider.

                    • Wow! an awful lot of “I”s there.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Fr. ProtoDeacon,

                      I pray for you every day. Seriously. You say you have grandchildren and you are investing energy in the number of “I’s” in my post?” Pardon me, but who am I? Nobody. Nobody listens to me, and why should they. Save your sarcasm for the heterodox, for those who would rob your grandchildren of the moral authority of the Fathers, and of the richness of the Faith. If you can’t stop a compulsion to read me, see your doctor.

                    • Dear Mr. Stankovich:
                      Thank you for your prayers.
                      The Orthodoxy and personhood of my children and grandchildren has always been my highest priority. I believe I have been at least 50% successful with that. Only 50% because the rest is up to them and their God-given freedom. (My oldest son is a highly respected Orthodox priest.)
                      I have no compulsion whatsoever to read you, nor Bishop Tikhon F. for that matter. I think that my real interest in scrolling through the comments posted here is in how people think (rather than what they think which I always take as just personal opinions) and you and His Grace seem to be especially good at revealing that. But then, that’s just my opinion and I could be wrong.

                • Johann Sebastian says

                  “COLLECTING Social Security? It’s MY MONEY, that contributed. OCA Pension: it’s MY MONEY that I contributed. It’s not money that the Holy Synod of the OCA decided to take from the offerings of the Faithful so that I don’t have to be held responsible for MY decision to uproot my parents and move them to one of the most elegant neighborhoods in this entire incredibly RICH country, and be “comfortable.””

                  He’s right.

                  • George Michalopulos says

                    Actually, Social Security is nothing but a Ponzi scheme and will collapse when the money runs out.

                    • Johann Sebastian says

                      The more you pay, the less you get back out.

                      At least slot machines and bingo are more entertaining.

                  • Neither you nor +Tikhon know how +Jonah’s parents are living, but that does not stop you from having an opinion. Interesting.
                    My point was +Tikhon has steady income, doesn’t matter how, it matters that he does-so why not tell someone else how to live on $1000 a month! What an idea!

                    Now here is the real challenge-I challenge you not to have the last word here, dear Bishop . . . .

                    • Rebecca Matovic says

                      His Grace is 80+ years old. The resigned Metropolitan is 53.

                    • Rebecca,

                      His Grace has a pension, sounds like more than one. The resigned Metropolitan did not resign from his episcopate, but was removed from it. Moreover, he was then slandered in a way that makes it very difficult to get a secular job, or any job for that manner. Of course, the slanderous letter had no impact on the request for release – sowed no FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) in any jurisdiction considering accepting him. /sarcasm off.

                      The Synod who elected +Jonah rendered him unemployable. The least they could do is make him whole financially.

                      And that translation about making him comfortable? My Russian friends who looked at the original statement tell me that the meaning was more on the order of treating him with dignity and providing work appropriate to his title. But why would the OCA put a 53 year old bishop to work? After all, they have bishops coming out their ears!

                    • Also Anonymous says

                      He may have been pressured, but for accuracy’s sake, he did resign, didn’t he?

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Not as Archbishop of Washington, DC. Only as Primate.

                    • Also Anonymous, what you describe as “pressure” was duress, designed to obtain the resignation under false pretenses. Metropolitan Jonah did NOT resign voluntarily.

                    • anonymous,

                      For accuracy’s sake, he did NOT resign as bishop from the see of Washington, DC, he was removed by Syosset’s interpretation of that see belonging to the Metropolitan, even though other places, like NY, have been the Met See in the past.

                      His letter indicated that he awaited another assignment. (Maybe the diocese of the South?) But rather than reassign Met Jonah, the Synod slandered him in a way that made any reassignment anywhere difficult or impossible. If any of this was true, it should have been handled in a spiritual court, not in rumors and innuendos in the court of public opinion.

                      His resignation was undoubtedly the major mistake of his tenure as Metropolitan.

                      Someone should write a case study on the OCA methods for managing personnel. Some of the best talent they have is thrown out the door with both hands. These policies bring the term ‘politics of personal destruction’ to a whole new level.

                      How many episcopal vacancies now exist in the OCA??

                • Jane Rachel says

                  Now THAT makes sense.

                • “I was surprised that the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia actually implied that providing COMFORT is an evangelical virtue. ”
                  Perhaps there is more to this story than you know . . . .

                  And-How do you know my living situation or my age for that matter? Maybe I live in a box and am using the library computers. Then you say I’m using a pseudonym-how do you know?
                  I refer to you as uncharitable because you speak of things you do not know and are unnecessary to even say.

                  • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                    Hi, “Colette.” I assume “Colette” is the pseudonym of an Orthodox person, either male or female, who has a Christian (i.e., Saint’s) name which he or she chooses not to reveal. I never said I KNOW that; however, I do have a right to form my own picture of “Colette”. Colette asks “how do you know.” I don’t KNOW: I have convictions about “Colette” and I express them, as I have a right to do.
                    Frankly, I never suspected “Colette” of dyslexia or any other pathology relative to language, but after reading that “Colette” thinks uncharitable means speaking ignorantly or unnecessarily I have my doubts.
                    If “Colette” is NOT a member of the Orthodox faithful, he or she should let us know thatk, I feel.
                    Finally, EVERY WORD UTTERED HERE BY COLETTE AND EVERYONE ELSE IS TOTALLY UNNECESSARY.

                    • Colette is Colette says

                      Nice sermon by Metropolitan Jonah with simultaneous translation into Russian

                      http://youtu.be/VqZ78vFxW8I

                      Yo, being Yo

                      PS. One thing I miss is the Metropolitan delivering his sermon in whatever language, without notes and then translating the same into Russian, also withut notes.

                    • Jane Rachel says

                      Your Grace, if words written here, including your words, help people get to a better place then I don’t believe they are unnecessary. Sounds corny, I know. For example, as long as the comments made here on Monomakhos help in some way to keep the coals burning under the mountain of falsehoods, the false paperwork, reports, letters, uncanonical and unethical destruction of lives, and false shepherds’ self-justifications, which lead people astray, then it seems like they can be considered necessary. Especially the comments that insist on getting to the truth about the people who were treated unfairly, including Fr. Kondratick and Bishop Nikolai, and Fr. Joseph Fester, and Metropolitan Herman, and Metropolitan Jonah. I believe comments that keep these injustices from being forgotten are necessary not only for the sake of those who have been falsely maligned, and for those who have been bamboozled, but also for the sake of those who continue to live as they have done nothing wrong, when things are still very wrong.

                      Illegitimi non carborundum! and thank you for all your comments here.

                  • Lola J. Le Beno says

                    I have been to every nook and cranny of Colette is Colette’s home and I can testify, without being struck down for being a liar, that the home is occupied by the Orthodox faithful. Including a lovely, cozy fireplace that works.

                • nit picker says

                  Bishop Tikhon,

                  Two things:

                  This is colette: http://www.sacredpresence.com/

                  Below is the word of the Lord that you continually brandish about and step on. Good luck extricating your foot from your mouth. At your extreme age you must have some joint problems and it couldn’t have been easy to get it there in the first place. Be careful not to dislocate your hip, because if you do, I can guarantee, many people will remember how uncharitable you were to Metropolitan Jonah on this forum, including the Lord, and until you become more charitable towards your brother in Christ, there will be nobody to pick you up from the floor and take you to the hospital. Just something to take into consideration.

                  Matthew 25
                  31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

                  34 Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungered, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: 36 Naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you an hungered, and fed you? or thirsty, and gave you drink? 38 When saw we you a stranger, and took you in? or naked, and clothed you? 39 Or when saw we you sick, or in prison, and came to you? 40 And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me.

                  41 Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungered, and you gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you an hungered, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

                  • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

                    “nit-picker” is obviously afraid to be identified as a person who quotes the Holy Scriptures. That’s why he, or she, uses the name “nit-picker.”

                    Wonderful and melodramatic warnings, though in her introductory paragraph!

                    He or she made this wrong declaration: “Below is the word of the Lord that you continually brandish about…”
                    Please, O Judge of the Universe, when have I brandished the Word of the Lord? Give us some examples. Do they compare with the long quote from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew that you, unlike me, brandish now in your rant?

              • So Bishop Tikhon paid his own way and that is commendable. Should every priest that gets removed from a parish because he couldn’t cut the mustard get a $1,000 bucks a month until age 65? Every Bishop? If we do it for Met. Jonah we need to do it for everyone. This amount of money is no small amount it is more than $120,000. Then there is the moving expenses of $25K, where is he moving, the moon? ANd what about these loans Met. Jonah owes the Diocese of the South. Who authorized these loans in the first place and what do they total? Maybe Met. Jonah can follow Bishop Tikhon’s example and pay his own way. Also, did Met. Jonah return the Panagias that were bought for the Office of Metropolitan that cost the people of the OCA $13,000? Or is that another loan amount to be subsumed by the plebians?

                • Hey George (not our webmaster George, nor lowercase george, but a different George), you say that if it’s done for Met. Jonah, we need to do it for everyone? Okay, let’s see the OCA start slandering everyone like they have slandered Met. Jonah. The OCA would collapse even faster than it is right now.

  2. nit picker says

    Interestingly enough, Yahoo news has had a series recently. “The worst cities for women,” “The top 10 cities for families,” “The best cities for work,” “The best cities for living,” etc…. hmmm….

  3. Daniel E. Fall says

    It is important, no vital, that everyone, especially inner city black folks, understand redzoning and how it has affected their lives since WWII.

    I couldn’t care less about the opinions, shattering the inner city slum isn’t ever a bad plan.

  4. Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

    What’s the point? Is this competition for “The Chancellor’s Diary?” “George’s Diary?”

  5. Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

    Here’s another absolutely great quotation from George’s Steve Sailer: (the quote is from the time around hurricane Katrina:
    “What you won’t hear, except from me, is that “Let the good times roll” is an especially risky message for African-Americans. The plain fact is that they tend to possess poorer native judgment than members of better-educated groups. Thus they need stricter moral guidance from society.”

    The guy is just full of ‘Plain Facts,” is he not?
    Native judgment. What is it? Is there a chair of Native Judgment at Oral Roberts or Regent?

  6. closing schools–annihilating a race of people=same thing

    • George Michalopulos says

      I for one agree with you. The phrase “ethnic cleansing” has been bandied about too promiscuously in my opinion. The problem however, is that those who do so invariably come from the left side of the political spectrum. Those who are screaming loudest in the school-closing imbroglio are even further to the left of Mayor Emanuel. That a progressive like Emanuel is being hoist on his own petard is a delicious irony.

      • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

        Does the progressive Rahm Emanuel KNOW that he’s been hoist on his own petard? I doubt it.

        The preacher, Reverend Steve, has convinced his own choir…

        Oh, yeah! Rahm Emmanuel’s dad was in the Irgun! What a revelation!
        Emanuel was once a ballet dancer, These so important facts, though as well known as Daylight Savings Time, should alarm the whole Islamic world and its civilization. Does this add to or detract from the magnitude of “The Clash of Civilizations?”

    • Ladder of Divine Ascent says

      “closing schools–annihilating a race of people=same thing”

      Closing schools never means annihilating a race of people, unless we mistake a sterile parasistical ideology for race, progressives/nihilists/liberals are really bad at getting married to a member of the opposite sex, having children, passing on a culture to them that is healthy enough for the process to repeat itself. Progressives need to steal other cultures’ children through things like school systems. Culture and races existed before public school systems and will continue to do should all public education end, no race/culture “must” die out because of it, except for the progressive “race,” who could soon be relegated again to “the sort of people who used to hang out in cafes and plot to blow things up in between free verse recitals” (to quote Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Khish blog).

      http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-speed-of-progressivism.html

  7. tradition says

    Early American Orthodoxy scholarship by Nicholas Chapman from Russian Archives

    http://youtu.be/eJcq_5otOz8

    The sermon of Metropolitan Jonah on the Sunday of Last Judgement mentioned in the talk is available at

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzkyRL8-T3c&feature=share&list=PLjSOZQqHxpi8upX1tpoM6EV0M0gJ_-4df

  8. Beware of angry ballet dancers.

  9. cynthia curran says

    Well, I don’t think the serbs were all innocent on the raping of women but I think the Moselms did it as well. The serbs were villianzed more.

  10. cynthia curran says

    What you won’t hear, except from me, is that “Let the good times roll” is an especially risky message for African-Americans. The plain fact is that they tend to possess poorer native judgment than members of better-educated groups. Thus they need stricter moral guidance from society.”

    The guy is just full of ‘Plain Facts,” is he not?
    Well, I remember Sailer talking about that and that blacks in Washington state have less crime than they do in Louisanna. The problem is sure whites or asians have their problems but blacks and hispanics have more children out of wedlock, both the left and right talk about this but it seems the problem is far from solved and some of the left and right want to add fuel to the fire by importing more poorer Hispanics from Mexico or Central America that will drive down the wages of native born blacks and hispanics which will probably lead to higher unemployment and more children out of wedlock and poverty issues..

    • George Michalopulos says

      BTW, the great black leaders of the late 19th/early 20th century believed the same thing that Steve Sailer said in that quote. Booker T Washington wanted African-Americans to be trained, educated, and self-sufficient where they were rather than be integrated with whites who did not have the legacy of three centuries of slavery. He called it “putting down your pail where you were.” Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, and others likewise believed that blacks should rely only upon themselves, live lives of rectitude and morality, pursue education for its own sake, and refrain from indolence, sloth, and mayhem. To their credit, Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam likewise preach these attitudes. Instead, the entertainment culture glorifies the worst aspects of ghetto culture to the detriment of black people everywhere. The final straw for me was the vilification heaped upon R G Lewis III, an outstanding scholar-athlete who is called a “cornball brother.” Instead of being proud in this man’s accomplishments and sterling character, thugs like Snoop Doggie Dogg are looked upon as exemplars.

      • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

        heh heh. What, then, is “native judgment?”

        • George Michalopulos says

          Good question. The apparent inability of many in the African-American community to exercise sobriety and virtue. I dare say that this is due in large part to the influence of modern African-American leaders to be rewarded by Progressives with wealth. Remember when Jesse Jackson was pro-life? He said “abortion is genocide.” That all went by the wayside when he –like Esau–sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge. This unfortunate phenomenon is being replicated in spades among working class whites (in whose ranks I was born into). Cf Charles Murray’s most recent opus, Losing Ground.

  11. cynthia curran says

    You are right. I shouldn’t have posted that characterization of His Grace. I deeply regret it and ask for His Grace’s forgiveness. Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald is many things: erudite, sarcastic, scholarly, caustic, knowledgeable, a tad irascible at times, too progressive for my tastes, disingenuous at times, but he is no fool. Bishop Tikhon is a great guy.

    Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)

    • Cynthia,

      Your assessment of Bishop Tikhon is correct. He is all of those things and more.

      The one thing that people attribute to him is that they think he thinks too much of himself. Nothing could be further from the truth. I appreciate his gentle and often not so gentle ways to keep us from assuming that what others have told us is “the truth” is in fact so.

      I will take an irascible social commentator that forces us to think rather than just “go along” any day!

      Many Years, Bishop Tikhon, retired Bishop of the West! Keep rockn’ that boat!

      • George Michalopulos says

        James, I concur. His Grace is a breath of fresh air at least since his retirement. He cuts to the quick and won’t stand for cant and the happy talk that comes out of Syosset.

        • No, Bishop Tikhon doesn’t do much for Syosset’s propaganda machine. But bear in mind you’re talking about the man who just said, of Metropolitan Jonah, that “no one wants him”. Not true, and what a horrible way to say it even if it were. I don’t know the extent of Bishop Tikhon’s personal problems and how they might affect his ability to relate to other people, but it’s getting harder and harder to see much of a difference between his attitude and the atmosphere of hard-heartedness that prevails in Syosset.

          • M. Stankovich says

            What world do you live in? Am I the only one who is again forced to ask who is my neighbor? Apparently I am expending too many “I’s” in mourning my impotency: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” (Mt. 17:20) Is it simply me – that the world is otherwise fair and just and consoling – leaving everyone free to be consumed with the transcendent “compensation” of Jonah. Or am I just unlucky?

            • Michael Stankovich, you seem to be asking a sincere question, so I will offer a sincere response. You are basically asking why, with so many dire situations and major issues in the world, we would seem to obsess over the relatively trivial question of settlement money in an employment dispute.

              My answer is our concern about what happens to Metropolitan Jonah is not saying other things aren’t important. This may surprise you, but we all do have lives outside Monomakhos and Metropolitan Jonah. Yet people have done all kinds of thing in an effort to tell the OCA administration that we won’t stand for further abuse of Metropolitan Jonah and his family. Why? Because he matters to us, it needs to be done, and it makes a difference for someone we care about.

              Now, I’m very sorry that there are not people like us around every person and family in need all over the world, but that is certainly no reason to abandon our efforts to help one.

              When Metropolitan Jonah is safely in ROCOR, and his and his parents’ well-being is no longer threatened by the OCA, then you can criticize how we spend our time. Tell Syosset to stop trying to snow ROCOR and let Metropolitan Jonah go.

              • Lola J. Le Beno says

                I too have a life and do not care to keep trying to respond to the circular logic some commenters seem to have a habit of falling into here on the blog, but, yeah, I’m with Helga on this.

              • I’m with Helga here, too.

                Release Jonah!

          • Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

            Hiya, Helga! I believe I am telling the truth when I declare my conviction (not opinion) that No Local Church wants Metropolitan Jonah. If you have KNOWLEDGE that any other Local Church has requested Metropolitan Jonah be released to It, please, let us all know, and don’t tell us, “If you need to know that, call Metropolitan Jonah.” You said of my conviction, “Not true.” It IS true. Next you made this sulky non-sequitur: “and what a horrible way to say it even if it were.”

            It’s true that “syosset” (the Holy Synod and Metropolitan Soviet) has offered Metropolitan Jonah $1000 a month or nothing. He chose nothing. They feel they were generous. Others want Metropolitan Jonah’s parents to still live on Embassy Row in NW Washington DC, REGARDLESS of any pension, social security, rents or investment income Metropolitan Jonah’s parents have and feel that this is the responsibility, (even Christian Duty!!!!!!!!) of “syosset” to provide.

            I believe the Paffhausens had a family business, a realty firm. Now they are retired. How did they maintain themselves after Metropolitan Jonah became a monk? And when their son was elected to be a bishop and then Primate of the OCA, did that son not say, “Hey, I’m the Metropolitan This is cool! Why not move the folks to DC: they deserve it and now I can afford it! Think how cool that will be!!!” So, what then, did they pull up their stakes in San Diego? Of course, neither they nor he could have foreseen that he would be resigning WITHOUT A PLAN! They feel he should have got SOMETHING out of his performance/service, but it looks now like he’s going to have to mostly support himself and them on his own. He’s way too young to retire under Social Security. He’s way too junior in time in the clergy ranks to be fully invested in the Pension Plan (and did he contribute to a Pension Plan at all when he was gadding about as Abbot of the St.John Monastery out West?)
            In the 1920s, 1930s and some of the 1940s, diocesan bishops didn’t get ANYTHING from the Metropolia or their poorly organized “dioceses”, so they often took the unusual step of appointing themselves Rectors of their Cathedral parishes, thus getting a Priest’s income.
            I don’t believe Metropolitan Vladimir (Nagossky) received any income from the OCA after he retired. Bishop Nikolai doesn’t get a penny from the OCA (and he’s never been found guilty by any court or magistrate of any crime disqualifying him from service) or the Diocese of Alaska. Where does the Gospel or our Lord indicate its ANYONE”s responsibility to insure that Metropolitan JOnah is made comfortable? Bishop Seraphim (Segrist), let go by the Church of Japan, gets no income from that Church, and it was only through the efforts of former seminary classmates, like Father Leonid Kishkovsky, that he has any means of earning a living today.
            Helga has a right to strike out at me, failing any rational engagement in conversation. She says I have a bad attitude, like that of Syosset. OK, she’s got a right to that judgment.
            I have been a poor steward of my time in these last days/years, and one of the worst aspects of that bad stewardship is the amount of verbiage I’ve inflicted on so many of you here.
            I really DO want to stop posting here, In the past, I’ve tried, but then I spot some lie or injustice that I feel it’s MY responsibility to address. It’s not. I ask you all to pray that I can realize that.
            Here are my last sentiments, for what they are worth.
            1. The Holy Synod was wrong to elect Metropolitan Jonah.
            2. The Holy Synod was wrong and dishonest in its attacks on Metropolitan Jonah.
            3. Metropolitan Jonah was not and could never have been, FORCED to resign; rather, he was asked to resign, and he DECIDED to ‘go along, for his own and his family’s sake, rather than that of the Church and did resign, and, if he truly tried to take his resignation back, that was an aggravation of the wrong.
            4. Of all the possibilities, electing Metropolitan Tikhon was absolutely the best and most promising choice the Holy Synod could have made. I personally (for what THAT’s worth!) would have preferred him as the immediate successor to Metropolitan Herman, but he was, ironically, not considered to be a serious candidate because he was so JUNIOR (!) to others.
            5. I am grateful to God that He blessed me to retire when I did. I should have done it sooner: when the deposed-by-ROCOR former deacon, Lev/ Ron/Lazarus Puhalo/Buehler/Haler, was received as a bishop into the hierarchy of the OCA over my undying protestation. I didn’t have the balls to quit right then, I now confess publicly. It took the blatant refusal of the Holy Synod to allow Protopresbyter Rodion S. Kondratick to appear before them and answer all questions WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF COUNSEL, as he had agreed to do until prevented by the machinations of Bishop Seraphim (Storheim), Archbishop Job (Osacky) (sp?), Archbishop Nathaniel Popp, Bishon Nikon Liolin while Archbishop Dmitri nodded off in his chair and Bishop Nikolai just stayed out of it, to finally convince me to retire, added to the behind-the-scene machinations of Bishop Benjamin, my vicar at the time,
            in the Diocese of the West.
            I remain thankful to Almighty God, the All-Holy Trinity, for everything and trust that the same God will bestow on you all the joy of the Resurrection! God bless His Beatitude, the Most Blessed Tikhon!

            • George Michalopulos says

              Lot to chew on there, Your Grace. Your assessment of His Beatitude is unfair in my opinion. Based on the entire Syosset/Synod operating paradigm (as described you in this most recent post), the only reasonable assumption is that he was set up to fail. It could not be otherwise.

              On the other hand, the fact that he accomplished as much as he did is wondrous given the abominable circumstances in which he had to operate.

              • Archpriest Andrei Alexiev says

                I agree with His Grace on points 2 and 3.About point 1,I’m not sure.I kind of wish His Beatitude HAD stayed at his monastery.I might have wanted to retire to St.John’s monastery.Now,no way,I’ll stick with ROCOR.

                • Fr. Andrei, let’s say you are asleep in your bed at home one night. A man breaks in and he has a gun. He demands all your money and valuables, and says he’ll shoot you if you don’t, so you do as he says. The man escapes with your valuables. The police don’t find the man or the things he took, but they do find the gun he used to rob you, which he dropped on the way out. Turns out, the gun was unloaded, and could have never shot you.

                  Does this mean that you gave your things away for nothing, and that you weren’t really robbed? Are you somehow stupid for having been “tricked”?

                  The answer is no. The police and everyone would still treat you as any other victim of a robbery, not just as some old fool who gave everything away in the middle of the night.

                  Metropolitan Jonah was indeed forced to resign. No amount of childish taunting from His Grace – who is most definitely not aware of all the facts – is going to change that.

                  As for whether it was a good idea to elect Metropolitan Jonah to begin with, I don’t find anything in him unworthy of the episcopacy or primatial leadership. I am, however, grateful that he did not remain a priest in the Diocese of the West.

                  And you are smart to stick with ROCOR.

                  • Jane Rachel says

                    Helga, does Metropolitan Jonah approve of your posts? In other words, do you speak for him with his blessing? Also, does Metropolitan Jonah want more money than he has been offered by the OCA? Also, if Metropolitan Tikhon writes that ROCOR has not asked for his release to them, and you say that ROCOR has asked for his release to them, does this mean that Metropolitan Tikhon is lying?

                    I wonder if Metropolitan Jonah sees himself in the same way that you represent him here. How can I say this without being seen as his enemy? If he is released to ROCOR he will probably do a good job there, and he has probably learned a lot from all the hardship he has endured. And he probably rejoices for that hardship. Yes, he was treated unfairly and wrongly. No, he was not defrocked, killed, stripped of absolutely everything. He had two web sites where his supporters instantly spoke up against his detractors. There were lots and lots of people who publicly supported him. Not so for the others who were shunned, vilified, tried in kangaroo courts, defrocked, viciously attacked. Hardly anyone spoke out on their behalf. Would Metropolitan Jonah want people to see him as being more saintly and martyrly than he really is? Sometimes I think he’s being represented here like that.

                    • Jane Rachel says

                      More questions. It seems Metropolitan Jonah has had a good relationship with ROCOR. Why do people here write that his reputation has been ruined? Doesn’t ROCOR know what was done to him and who do they believe? Do those leaders who could accept him doubt his qualifications? Do they know less than you do about him, that they would not want to take him? If they do want him, why does the letter written by Metropolitan Tikhon say that no diocese has requested him? Are he and his parents in danger of having absolutely no source of income and no way of supporting themselves financially?

                    • nit picker says

                      Good questions JR. Thanks for asking them. Truthfully, I’ve been wondering the same for a while. I wish somebody could give a definitive answer about what +Jonah wants, needs and desires without jeopardizing his legal situation.

                    • Jane, I don’t speak for Metropolitan Jonah. He has no personal control or influence over the opinions I have or comments I make.

                      We know that what Metropolitan Jonah wants is a canonical release to another church, even the OCA has officially admitted as much now.

                      The words of Archbishop Tikhon reported in the MC minutes are not outright lies that I know of, but the reported words did omit key information that would have affected the reader’s interpretation of the words that are there.

                      I know more, but I fear saying any more at the moment. I would just say Metropolitan Jonah is innocent of the scurrilous charges leveled against him by the OCA, and lots of people know it.

                    • Carl Kraeff says

                      Just for the record, here is what Metropolitan Tikhon said after going over unfruitful negotiations before and after the AAC:

                      “During this time, I was in conversation with members of the Russian Orthodox Church, including correspondence with Patriarch Kirill, and personal discussions with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Archbishop Justinian and Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I mention this because one of the options under discussion was the possibility of a release of Metropolitan Jonah to another jurisdiction. This was his request at several points of our negotiation, but at this moment there has not been a request for his release from any jurisdiction.”

                      In analyzing the above passage, i think reasonable folks will draw the following conclusions.

                      1. It is probable that +Jonah requested to be released.
                      2. It is probable that +Jonah requested to be released specifically to ROC/ROCOR.
                      3. The possibility of release of +Jonah to ROC/ROCOR was discussed.
                      4. A formal request for release from another jurisdiction is necessary for a canonical release to happen.
                      5. There has been no request for release of +Jonah from ROC/ROCOR.
                      6. There has been no request for release of +Jonah from any other jurisdiction.

            • nit picker says

              Bishop Tikhon,

              I was going to rip you to bits, but you humbled me lower than the earth with this:

              …5. I am grateful to God that He blessed me to retire when I did. I should have done it sooner: when the deposed-by-ROCOR former deacon…..God bless His Beatitude, the Most Blessed Tikhon!…

              I do wish however that you had stuck it out, that you would have fought them tooth and nail, that you would have blown the whistle loud and clear and rallied the clergy and laity. No doubt, you would have been crucified, but I hope that the people would have rallied around you for the sake of the church.

              I prostrate myself to the ground before you and beg your forgiveness. Pray for me the sinner.

  12. cynthia curran says

    Well, personality I think some conservatives are hung up against free trade. i agree maybe some of the deals should not be made with China. But Pat Buchnan thinks all factory jobs pay good while all service jobs don’t. There are factory jobs that pay very low in the US, I saw one that advertise for 8.00 per hr capping bottles on frangance. perfumes. I think that insource immirgation has a more negative impact since it brings in a lot of job competition for the remaining jobs in the us. Also, trade can work both ways, factory goes to Mexico but another factory like Asian Food products or Asian car companies locate in the States, something that Pat Buchnan does think about.

  13. I have finally come to the conclusion that Michael Stanky Stankovich is a full-blown asshole.

    Why don’t you just shut the hell up you pompous blow go away.

    If you are an expert then God save us from such arrogance. Your science is not that perfected for you to be so cock-sure of yourself.

    M. Stankovich says:
    April 10, 2013 at 11:44 pm
    Mr. Cone,

    What, exactly, qualifies un geignarde such as yourself to proffer such stupidity? Seriously, who are you and who cares? What are the professional criteria you established to evaluate the qualifications and capacity of SLI? You are aware of their reputation and contribution to the field of behavioural medicine? You are aware of the contributions of their researchers to the body of the evidence-base of behavioural medicine and how frequently they are cited and serve as authority in the research of their peers in the field? You are aware of their decades of pioneering experience in the diagnosis & treatment of clergy sex offenders and the prediction of future dangerousness, among patients capable of the mastery of deception, fraud, antisocial personality & psychopathy? You imagine this highly trained, highly skilled, highly experienced team was so stone-cold stupid as to misinterpret “monasticism & prayer” for psychopathology and mental disorder? And after five inpatient days were so flummoxed as to be incapable of rendering a diagnosis? Seriously?

    Mr. Cone, I personally invite you as my guest to present this full theory to Grand Rounds of the Dept. of Psychiatry at my medical school. And after you have been so soundly smacked down for being the pretentious child who would again stir the waters with irresponsible falsehood – did you even look up the meaning of “confirmation bias,” for heaven’s sake? – you will never again venture into waters beyond the kiddie’s end of the pool. Mr. Cone, I am embarassed for you.

  14. Bravo Momma Mouse says

    Archbishop Benjamin’s assessment of Laurie’s condition is not really his to make. And for someone who asserts that he is “in recovery,” it is remarkable that he holds +Jonah or anyone else responsible for her actions, assuming he even knows. (First Step: Admitted we were powerless…. this is also the first step for those in Al-Anon, an organization for families and friends of alcoholics…)

    If +Jonah is responsible for Laurie’s death per +Benjamin, it would seem that the DOW bishop would then be responsible for the deaths 1) Gregory Solak, dead in +Benjamin’s home, and 2) one Bishop from the DOM. One can’t have it both ways.

    There has to be a less damaging way to exorcise one’s demons than to project them on others. There are 12 suggested Steps….

    Momma Mouse,

    Thank you for summarizing the total hypocrisy that now is the OCA. The only thing more tragic is that they think the Orthodox world is blind to their sickness.

    +Benjamin has no right given the current measure of fitness defined by the OCA to be a bishop and if he can’t be a bishop in the OCA then he sure can’t anywhere else.

  15. Michael Stankovich, again showing his true colors speaking with arrogant disrespect to Jesse Cone:

    The fact that you do not know it “exists” is a matter of privacy and inconsequential. Who cares? You are gossip-mongering a new “dimension” to this tale of “stinkbombs”, timelines, and “the resignation.” And to what end? The Church has moved on with a new Metropolitan. You breed dissension & divisiveness and need to move on as well.

    Actually it is MS who still lives in a bygone timeline of the OCA. Those days are over, never to return and what the OCA is now is a sad joke with more retired and suspended bishops than active ones.

    And what is the OCA doing today? Marching in Birmingham, trying to be relevant while their church is crumbling around them. Another silly distraction to make us feel important. No Sale!