Trump’s Role in the Two Recent Decisions

I’m sure you all are aware of the two decisions to which I am referring:  Bruen, which added additional teeth to the Second Amendment, and Dobbs, which overturned the execrable Roe vs Wade.

As such, I won’t waste any time in rehashing them, except to say this:  they were not simply five-to-four squeakers, they were six-to-three.  Not even close.

As I wrote previously, this type of supermajority is huge.  

And were it not for the election of Donald J Trump, neither of these rulings would have happened.  I dare say, that none of these rulings would have even appeared before the Supreme Court in the first place. 

Yes, Donald Trump. 

A bon vivant, braggart, with a bumptious personality.  A twice-divorced playboy.  He is no saint.  Yet many Christians of all persuasions voted for him.  Some held their noses while they did so.  Others had no great expectations one way or the other.  

And yet, unlike every other Republican candidate, he kept his word.  He said that he would uphold the Constitution and nominate judges that would overturn Roe.  And he did.

As such, I have no truck with those Christians and conservatives who spoke against Trump and worked against him all these years.  David French, Evan McMullin, and Mitt Romney, I’m looking at the likes of you, you mealy-mouthed pantywaists.  Always with your hand out, talking about “conservative principles” but never doing a damn to get them enacted into law. 

I know Trump is garrulous; a bumpkin if you will.  He’s so garish he puts ketchup on his steaks.  Most of us wouldn’t trust him with our wives and daughters.

In a more genteel time, when noblesse oblige meant something, he never would have been allowed to join the local country club.  He probably would have never made it out of Queens.  

I get all that. 

But if it weren’t for his surprise election in 2016, we’ be openly sacrificing babies to Moloch by now.  God chooses whom He will.  It’s not up to us to hold up moralistic yardsticks and look down on those who don’t meet our requirements. 

This will not be the last time that we here at Monomakhos will opine on these rulings.  There is much more that we will find out in due time. 

I for one, have it on good authority from one of my Washington sources, that Chief Justice John Roberts would have voted with the minority but that he became apoplectic with rage when the leak of Justice Alito’s decision was given to the press two months ago.  This action was so unprecedented that he voted with the five conservatives in order to stick it to the liberals on the Court.

As I wrote earlier, this was a week of unalloyed joy for Christians, patriots, and true conservatives.  And for those Christians who held their nose while they voted for Trump, it is a humbling moment as well.  For that matter, I have to eat some crow myself:  George W Bush nominated both Alito and Roberts to the Court, while his father nominated Clarence Thomas –the real hero of this present iteration of the Supreme Court.

I must also give recognition to His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrius, the primate of a Greek Old Calendar jurisdiction.  Please take the time to read this excerpt from his recent encyclical below.  

 

Encyclical on the Abrogation of Roe vs Wade

Beloved clergy and faithful of our Holy Metropolis, Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.  In the Book of the Holy Prophet Jonah, we read that, in response to words of the Prophet of God, ‘the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them … And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not (Jonah 3:5, 10).

In September 2020, the faithful of our God-protected Metropolis undertook a special three-day fast –a triemeron–in response to my hierarchical appeal, for God to protect our Church, our families, and our Nation and to turn away and dispel the wrath stirred up against us and our neighbors, on account of our many sins.  

The next day after the fast of repentance, our Lord provided for the future overturning of the infamous Roe vs Wade decision with the nomination and subsequent appointment of another pro-life justice to the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

On June 11/24, 2022, on the feast of the Mother of God ‘Axion Esti’, the Supreme Court finally abrogated the fifty-year legal precedent that had permitted the murder of tens of millions of innocent infants over the decades. 

The overturning of the abomination that was Roe vs Wade is an event of great significance.  For us, this is not a political matter, but rather a spiritual one.  Abortion is murder.  To enable it is to be an accomplice to murder.  To endorse it is to endorse the murder of innocents –to the extent that being ‘pro-choice’ is entirely incompatible with being an Orthodox Christian.  The abrogation of the decision that permitted and sanctioned abortion throughout the country is a victory for truth, goodness, and justice. 

But more importantly, it is a demonstration of divine intervention.  At a time when our liberties are increasingly hemmed in by the forces of technocratic despotism and, more broadly, when the mystery of iniquity is at work without check, who could have predicted that religious liberty and the principles of God’s law would be upheld in worldly courts?

Ordinary Orthodox Christians do not have access to the halls of secular power to have an audience with the Supreme Court of the United States or to influence policy and legislation.  The pious, however, do have access to the Master of all, Who guides history and provides for our salvation.  They do not trust in the sons of men, for, indeed, in them, there is no salvation.  Rather they commend their whole life and hope unto God alone; and our Master, when He sees the genuine fruits of repentance, hears the prayers of His people and grants them their requests which are unto salvation.

Accordingly, the recent decision to overturn demonstrates the power of repentance and prayer to draw God’s mercy and to confound the plans of the evil one.  For this reason, I often tell the faithful to never underestimate the power of prayer.  Throughout sacred history, whenever the people of God repented, after facing destruction on account of their sins, God showed them mercy and delivered them from righteous chastisement.  In the lives of the saints, we see how God, in response to prayer and repentance, overturned the plots of the evil one.  So too in our own time, we see the schemes of the demons overturned and undone, and from this, we have a firm hope that His mercy will prevail.  In this, we find great solace, for God is with us. 

Let us, therefore, continue our repentance and give thanks unto the Lord so that He continues to help us in the struggle to overcome altogether the great evil of abortion.  St Isaac the Syrian teaches that gratitude from the receiver incites the Giver to bestow gifts greater than before.  In gratitude to our Lord for His manifest benefaction and mercy, let all the parishes in our God-protected Holy Metropolis chant a Doxology of Thanksgiving after Divine Liturgy this Sunday, June 12/26l 2022.

Lastly, let us continue to repent, for the days are evil.  The evil one will never cease to fight the Church.  But let us remember:  if God is with us, who can be against us?  

Your fervent supplicant before God,

Metropolitan Demetrius of America 

[Ed note:  emphasis added.]

 

P.S.  We have many commentators on this blog from the various jurisdictions.  If any of your bishops and/or primates saw fit to bring attention to this historic ruling (either liturgically or through an encyclical), please let us  know.  As of now, except for a confusing tweet from Archbishop Elpidophoros, we must assume that today passed without mention at the parishes of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. https://www.helleniscope.com/2022/06/26/ab-elpidophoros-a-real-hope-killer-against-the-sanctity-of-life/  (If I am incorrect, please let me know and I will correct the record.) 

Comments

  1. The assembly of bishops in America posted on this as well, basically referring back to an article from the prior week.

    https://www.assemblyofbishops.org/news/2022/dobbs-opinion

  2. Looking forward to further posts on this George.

    I’ll have to do some digging on other bishops who have praised the overturning. But, off the top of my head I know Fr. Barnabas Powell (who is in the same metro as me) has celebrated and been open about the overturning, he’s in the GOA. Of course there is also Archbishop Michael of the OCA who has tirelessly prayed in from of murder clinics in NYC.

    • Athanasia says

      Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick posted something on FB as soon as the decision was released.

      • George Michalopulos says

        Can you give us the gist of it? I know longer have Fakebook.

        • Athanasia says

          In its entirety:
          “ With the declaration by the Supreme Court that there is no constitutional right to abortion, today is a historic day here in America.

          The abortion of innocent life in the womb is a demonic evil, and anything that helps to end that is a gain for our repentance and for the general good of mankind.

          It is also critical that even more support be given for crisis pregnancy centers and for any organization, ministry or person who provides help for women not only to bear the children God has given them but also to raise them in holiness and wellbeing.

          June 24 is the feast of the Nativity of John the Forerunner, the saint who leaped in the womb of his mother at encountering the incarnate Christ still in the womb of His own. May we have the prayers of all these saints.

          Some further thoughts here: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/asd/2022/06/24/a-historic-day-for-life/

          Also, in case you think that the Book of Joshua somehow justifies abortion, here is a piece I wrote a year ago: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/asd/2021/06/21/does-the-book-of-joshua-justify-abortion/”

  3. George Michalopulos says

    A MAGNIFICENT analysis by Z-Man:

    https://www.takimag.com/article/who-over-how/

    One of the best takeaways? The role of Big Conservative, Inc, is “losing gracefully.” The neocons, professional cons, and Ben Shapiro couldn’t see this coming because it’s always about process and not about who.

    Trump enraged them from the get-go and they couldn’t see that if anyone could overturn Roe, it’dve been him.

  4. Here is a comprehensive look at the issues involved
    from an independent UK media site – UK Column News:
    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-27th-june-2022

    The first 27 minutes of the video contain the relevant material.
    Sadly the UK government, health services, msm etc are all pro-abortion.

  5. Athanasia says

    We heard bubkis from the ambo at our parish. Nada. Zilch.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Which jurisdiction, Athanasia?

      • Athanasia says

        A little-left-leaning OCA parish. (Still using multiple spoons. Further divided by having two chalices: 1 using multiple spoons & 1 using one spoon. The latter group of people go after previous mentioned group.)

    • Same here, Athanasia. Our retired priest droned on and on in barely audible tones about the saints, with nary a mention of Scripture. He said nothing about last week’s Supreme Court decisions, even though Christians have been waiting for half a century for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. As a former preacher, I was disappointed at the lost opportunity for a teaching moment.

      I understand that we are in the world and not of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are still in the world. And a recently Christian world, to boot. Sometimes I wonder whether the Orthodox Church is so heavenly minded that it’s no earthly good.

      • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

        Not so at St. Herman of Alaska Russian Orthodox Church in Stafford, VA, where Metropolitan Jonah’s homily on Sunday, June 26, focused on the SCOTUS decision on Friday as a welcome and long overdue moral sea change in America. The homily is titled, “Orthodoxy and Living Traditional Family Values.”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwEhAIYEDPI

        • Seraphim says

          Indeed. It was really good, and His Eminence didn’t hold back. Others talked about it as well. A priest a few hours from me talked a lot about it, including talking to protesters at their capitol. Fr. John Whiteford talked about it too.

          • Fr. Alexander & Seraphim, the news that you relate is encouraging. I hope that most of the priests around the country used the occasion to the glory of God and the instruction of the faithful about the sanctity of human life. To be fair to my parish, I see now that the clergy have a Moleben of Thanksgiving to God for “ending the federal abortion law” scheduled for this coming Saturday.

  6. The Dobbs vote regarding Mississippi’s law was 6-3. The vote to overturn Roe was 5-4. Chief Justice Roberts crossed over.

    • Nicholas Sandoukas says

      Yup.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Thanks for the update, Saunca. I guess Roberts couldn’t get over his internal cuckery. In the end, it won’t do anything for him. For the Left, this majority vote will be viewed as a stain on his escutcheon for all time.

      Moral? You can’t please the demonic Left.

      Oh well, a win’s a win’s a win.

  7. George Michalopulos says

    There were several congruences with the date (June 24) on which the overturning of Roe took place:

    1. On the New Calendar, it was the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist.

    2. On the Old Calendar, it was the Feast of Axion Esti (as mentioned by Metropolitan Demetrius in his encyclical).

    3. In the Catholic tradition, it was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

    4. As far as ROCOR was concerned, it was the fortieth day after the repose of His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral.

    https://orthochristian.com/146905.html

    The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways.

    • Lord have Mercy on your servant Met. Hilarion & Met. Hilarion please intercede on our behalf +

      I do believe that Elder Ephraim, Archbishop Dimitri and Met. Hilarion will be our next American saints.

  8. Thank You for Μαρτυρία/Witness! (Rev 12:11)

  9. Fr. David says

    Several priests I know have addressed it publicly, including me, giving thanks for this significant change and noting that there is some significant light on the moral horizon. With men, these changes seem impossible but with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. II Chronicles 7:14.

  10. George Michalopulos says

    THIS JUST IN: Metropolitan Nathanael of the GOA metropolis of Chicago, issued a directive to his priests that nobody is to talk about the overturning of Roe v Wade.

    If I had to guess, I’d say that this is what we can expect from the GOA.

    Parenthetically, did he give a sermon extolling men who get women pregnant who then have abortions as “fathers”? Just asking.

    • Joseph Lipper says

      This is actually a good directive. Part of the bishop’s job is to protect the flock from hostile political forces. The overturning of Roe vs Wade now creates a new level of political hostility in every state.

      The battle of “Pro-choice” vs. “Pro-life” has now been amplified times fifty. Yet this is not a legal battle that the church needs to be involved in. Though the Church naturally recognizes the sanctity of unborn life and considers abortion a sin, the unborn have no formal existence in the Church, apart from their Orthodox parents, until they are born and baptized. It’s sufficient to say the abortion is not an option for Orthodox Christians.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        There is no more battle, Joseph. The Federal government no longer supports abortion and if it weren’t for Christians, we’d still be shackled with it.

        Unfortunately, there is a contingent in our Church who are anything but (Christian). Orthodox people disgust them. Particularly those in jurisdictions, like ROCOR, that hold fast to the traditions of the Church.

        Your bishop was the one who introduced (albeit, with a lot of help, for he is anything but powerful) hostile political forces into Ukraine sparking what could have been and may still be a world war.

        I’ll pass on his “protection”.

        • Joseph Lipper says

          I’m not sure what “hostile political forces” you are referring to.

          Are you referring to the Russian military in Ukraine?

          • Gail Sheppard says

            The Russian military in Ukraine is not hostile to the Church. There are people within the Church who hate it and want to change it. Why are they in it? That’s what I want to know. Why do they sully it by bringing in people who are hostile to it, refusing to even be ordained? No matter. They’re not going to be satisfied running around in costume in Poland or Russia. Wonder how Bartholomew is going to explain their quick exit from what he calls the Church? Like Zelinski, they perform with a green screen. They’re long gone.

            Thank God, for Metropolitan Onufry and Patriarch Kirill.

        • Joseph Lipper says

          My local parish decided to hire additional security last Sunday specifically as a result of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Perhaps many others have done the same.

          • Gail Sheppard says

            So what are you saying? That being safe is preferable to doing the right thing and Bartholomew and your parish would have preferred to “protect” us by not overturning R v W?

            • Joseph Lipper says

              Gail, no, I have no criticism against SCOTUS for overturning Roe vs Wade. That was entirely within their prerogative to do so, and I fully accept their decision.

              However, the reality is that churches are now being targeted by “Pro-choice” extremists, and it’s on a different level than even a week ago. That’s why my parish decided to hire extra security. I think many others have also.

              My criticism here is not against judges, government, or legislation. I’m not really interested in criticizing “Pro-choice” extremists for that matter either, because they’re kind of a lost cause. My criticism instead falls squarely on the “Religious Right” that has Judaized Christianity, and also on the Orthodox Christians who have followed after them in trying to create a legal “Zion”.

              If any of Metropolitan Nathanael’s parishes are ever attacked by “Pro-choice” extremists, I would hope that those parishes are at least found innocent of any political provocation.

              • Gail Sheppard says

                People who believe in birth are now “extremists” and a “lost cause?” I say we’re Orthodox. I don’t know what you are.

                • Joseph Lipper says

                  Gail, no, I wrote that “Pro-choice” extremists are “kind of a lost cause” for criticism.

              • No, Joseph, it’s you and those whom you support that are trying to Judaize Christianity by turning it into a religion of traitors. I’m sure many of us have seen the very frequent examples of Jews recently claiming that abortion is a religious right (or is it rite?) of theirs.

                See also the group of sellout clergy that stood shoulder to shoulder with a Jewish lawyer and some female ‘rabbi’ and decried another recent SCOTUS decision to allow a football coach to pray on the field.

                Repent before it’s too late for you.

              • Joseph: “I have no criticism against SCOTUS
                for overturning Roe vs Wade. That was entirely within
                their prerogative to do so, and I fully accept their decision.”

                Indeed, but do you support the decision?

                • Gail Sheppard says

                  Great question. Not to put Joseph on the spot, but if you all don’t accept the tenets of our Faith why do you all want to be Orthodox? Wouldn’t it just be better to open your own church and call it Ortho 2.0?

                • Joseph Lipper says

                  Brendan, all Orthodox Christians are called to support their government in prayer, by paying their taxes, and doing their best to abide by their government’s laws, regardless of whatever decisions are made. In this sense, I suppose you could say that I previously supported Roe vs. Wade just as much as I now support the Dobb’s decision. I didn’t protest against Roe vs Wade, and I’m not protesting against the Dobb’s decision either.

                  • A lukewarm answer, Joseph;
                    neither cold nor hot.

                    • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

                      Moreover, Mr. Lipper, indiscriminate indifference is hardly a virtue. It is most certainly not an acceptable Orthodox social ethical–or even moral–worldview.

                    • Our Lord spits out the lukewarm.

                    • Joseph Lipper says

                      Father Alexander, can you name even one criticism of the government from the New Testament? The closest I can think of is John the Forerunner’s rebuke of Herod, and it was because Herod made pretense of being Jewish, of being God’s elect.

                    • Joseph Lipper says

                      Brendan, I would hardly call anyone who prays for their government daily, pays their taxes, and tries to respect and obey their government’s laws as somehow being “indifferent” or “lukewarm”.

                    • Joseph: “…can you name even one criticism
                      of the government from the New Testament?”

                      Revelation 18:1-3
                      1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
                      2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
                      3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
                      and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,
                      and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich
                      through the abundance of her delicacies.
                      [KJV]

                    • Joseph: ‘ I would hardly call anyone who …
                      tries to respect and obey their government’s laws
                      as somehow being “indifferent” or “lukewarm”. ‘

                      So first you try to respect and obey laws that permit abortion,
                      then you try to respect and obey laws that do not permit abortion;
                      but you don’t (and won’t) protest one way or the other.

                      That is being lukewarm, Joseph.
                      It is being indiscriminately indifferent.

                    • Gail Sheppard says

                      And this will be the last word. 🙂

              • George Michalopulos says

                Joseph, respectfully, no true Orthodox Christian (or any type of Christian for that matter) can accept, abet or support abortion. It is the intentional killing of an innocent life. It is murder, not merely homicide (which can be unintentional, involuntary, and/or justifiable).

                Even with the last three qualifiers, there is no moral universe in which the taking of a life is a cause for joy. Even Planned Parenthood back in the 60s called it unfortunate at best and murder at worst.

                The fact that many in the GOA can’t see this, especially Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago, means that mere Christian catechesis in that jurisdiction is woefully inadequate.

                • Joseph Lipper says

                  George, I think I agree completely with what you wrote, except for the part about GOA and Metropolitan Nathanael.

      • Peter A. Papoutsis says

        I think you meant to say utterly stupid and dumb.

      • There is no battle of “Pro-choice” vs. “Pro-life”, Joseph.
        There is a battle between “Pro-death” and “Pro-life”.
        Pro-life is a choice.

        Deut 30:19
        I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
        that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
        therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
        [KJV]

        • Gail Sheppard says

          I’m pro-choice, too, and I choose life. Some who choose death sound like demons. They often use the same phrase in the same guttural voice: “Yes, I like killing babies.”

      • Christine says

        Give me a break!!! It’s a good directive to not talk about the overturning of Roe v. Wade in church? Are you kidding me? Church hierarchy should be leading us in chanting the Akathist of Thanksgiving with joy and issuing powerful, supportive statements about this ruling.

    • https://orthochristian.com/146933.html

      In a spot of some very good news

    • Fr. Peter Andronache says

      I, at least, did not understand it as a directive. It was a discussion in a Zoom meeting. Metr. Nathanael did say that he wondered whether it would be good to not mention the supreme court decision (I do not remember the exact wording), but he followed that up by saying that, if we were going to talk about it, we should do it in a pastirally sensitive way. As I recall, that was the final note on the topic, so I went ahead and talked about it. The readings for both Saturday and Sunday offered a fairly good tie-in, anyway.

      • Peter A. Papoutsis says

        This is very pastoral and well in keeping with our Orthodox tradition. I wonder what they talked in their zoom call if they even needed one:
        ——————-
        Encyclical from Metropolitan Demitrios of the Genuine Orthodox Christians regarding the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

        G.O.C. Metropolis Headquarters
        106 Elm Street
        Cobleskill, NY 12043

        ENCYCLICAL ON THE ABROGATION OF “ROE VS. WADE”

        Beloved clergy and faithful of our Holy Metropolis,
        Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
        In the Book of the Holy Prophet Jonah, we read that, in response to words of the Prophet of God, “the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them … And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.” (Jonah 3: 5, 10)
        In September 2020, the faithful of our God-protected Metropolis undertook a special three-day fast of repentance––a τριήμερον––in response to my hierarchical appeal, for God to protect our Church, our Families, and our Nation and to turn away and dispel the wrath stirred up against us and our neighbors, on
        account of our many sins.
        The next day after the fast of repentance, our Lord provided for the future overturning of the infamous “Roe vs. Wade” decision with the nomination and subsequent appointment of another pro-life justice to the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
        On June 11/24, 2022, on the feast of the Mother of God “Axion Esti”, the Supreme Court finally abrogated the fifty-year legal precedent that had permitted the murder of tens of millions of innocent infants over the decades.
        The overturning of the abomination that was “Roe vs. Wade” is an event of great significance. For us, this is not a political matter, but rather a spiritual one. Abortion is murder. To enable it is to be an accomplice to murder. To endorse it is to endorse the murder of innocents––to the extent that being “pro-choice” is
        entirely incompatible with being an Orthodox Christian. The abrogation of the decision that permitted and sanctioned abortion throughout the country is a victory for truth, goodness, and justice.
        But more importantly, it is a demonstration of divine intervention. At a time when our liberties are increasingly hemmed in by the forces of technocratic despotism and, more broadly, when the mystery of iniquity is at work without check, who could have predicted that religious liberty and the principles of God’s
        law would be upheld in worldly courts?
        Ordinary Orthodox Christians do not have access to the halls of secular power to have an audience with the Supreme Court of the United States or to influence policy and legislation. The pious, however, do have access to the Master of all, Who guides history and provides for our salvation. They do not trust in the sons
        of men, for, indeed, in them there is no salvation. Rather they commend their whole life and hope unto God alone; and our Master, when He sees the genuine fruits of repentance, hears the prayers of His people and grants them their requests which are unto salvation. Accordingly, the recent decision to overturn demonstrates the power of repentance and prayer to draw God’s mercy and to confound the plans of the evil one. For this reason, I often tell the faithful to never underestimate the power of prayer.
        Throughout sacred history, whenever the people of God repented, after facing destruction on account of their sins, God showed them mercy and delivered them from righteous chastisement. In the lives of the saints, we see how God, in response to prayer and repentance, overturned the plots of the evil one. So too
        in our own time, we see the schemes of the demons overturned and undone, and from this we have a firm hope that His mercy will prevail. In this we find great solace, for God is with us.
        Let us, therefore, continue our repentance and give thanks unto the Lord so that He continue to help us in the struggle to overcome altogether the great evil of abortion. St. Isaac the Syrian teaches that gratitude from the receiver incites the Giver to bestow gifts greater than before. In gratitude to our Lord for His manifest
        benefaction and mercy, let all the parishes in our God-protected Holy Metropolis chant a Doxology of Thanksgiving after Divine Liturgy this Sunday, June 12/26, 2022.
        Lastly, let us continue to repent, for the days are evil. The evil one will never cease to fight the Church. But let us remember: if God is with us, who can be against us?
        Your fervent suppliant before God,

        Metropolitan Demetrius of America

      • There are certain situations where I think certain topics should not be discussed within Church. For example, the priest at our parish (ROCOR) directed us not to talk about the war at Church given the ethnic makeup of the parishioners, in order not to cause scandal or quarrels.

        The ending of Roe v Wade is not one of those instances, the Church is inherently Pro Life and anyone who would be “offended” by proclaiming life probably needs to reevaluate their stances and align them with the Churches.

        I obviously can’t speak for what Met. Nathaniel had to say, but, given his track record on several things I would not be surprised. I hope what you say is correct.

      • Thank you, Father

      • George Michalopulos says

        Fr, thank you for clarifying this.

        Having said that, how can one discuss this issue in a “pastoral” fashion? Either one is for infanticide, or one is against it.

        • Fr. Peter Andronache says

          I think, at a tume when so much public discourse seems to be little more than ad hominem attacks, by focusing on the issue and on things we can do to offer the light and hope of Christ to those imprisoned in the darkness of believing the choice to end a life is a good one

  11. Not sure if my previous post went through (if it did feel free to delete), but it looks like GOARCH and Elpidophoros have received quite the smack down from just about every bishop on the Assembly of Bishops, with all of them threatening to walk.

    There are a myriad of other reasons why they should but this is a start.

    https://orthochristian.com/146933.html

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Well, good on them.

      • Yea, finally they call them out on something. I will say that this is the second time in as many months that Elpidophoros has had to be corrected, remember the rebuke after his statements at the March for Life?

        I have only been involved with Orthodoxy for ~7 years but I’m hard pressed to remember any rebukes from one bishop to another in the U.S, let alone a whole bishops council.

        I get the impression that the Assembly of Bishops is getting increasingly tired of Elpidophoros and his antics and I have no doubt the bishops of the various jurisdictions are hearing rebukes/complaints of him from their laypeople. We may be different jurisdictions but we are One Church and this touches all of us.

        Side question, I know you and George are involved with the monastery in Piedmont, any idea why the Georgian bishop wasn’t included? That was a surprise.

        • Gail Sheppard says

          The Georgian Church took a different stance than the rest of the bishops when it came to the lockdowns but they signed his name on some of their joint directives. I suspect he was cautioned to make sure they’re all in alignment when it comes to these things, but I don’t know.

          • Does he speak English?

            Maybe he just sat this one out.

            • Gail Sheppard says

              No, and that’s certainly possible. He wasn’t left off the COVID communication, though.

          • Ah gotcha

            • Gail Sheppard says

              Well, this isn’t the first time, my dear. 😉

              You’ve come a long way in a very short time. Your insights are usually spot on. One day soon you’ll have your own following and, hopefully, you will give George and me the time of day!

              I had arranged to have a brief audience with Bishop SAVA on one of his recent visits, just so I could say hello. But George took my spot! You owe me, George!!!

    • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

      Thank you, Petros, for that weblink and its wonderful news.

      It is reassuring to know that bishops of five of the AOB jurisdictions have backbones.

    • Looks like they found an old supply of backbones somewhere.

      Elpi can do nothing but back down here, and Bart is going to be furious. If they go ahead with this criminal consecration, that might be the ‘limit’ for the monasteries and assorted trads still in the GOARCH.

      • If they go ahead with this criminal consecration, that might be the ‘limit’ for the monasteries and assorted trads still in the GOARCH.

        You would think, but the EP has been concelebrating with schismatics for a couple of years now and nothing has happened.

    • “…this action threatens to further erode..”

      An interesting, revealing, and hopefully puposeful choice of words – “further erode.”

      This is now the second public rebuke of the Archbishop on the part of key members of the assembly, showing that although they value unity, they are not willing to sacrifice truth on its altar and will no longer play along with his and the EP’s games.

  12. “the unborn have no formal existence within the Church”

    ???

    I cannot recall ever hearing a more nonsensical, heartless, and downright ignorant statement from an Orthodox Christian. I suggest you think through the implications of this assertion.

    You may then proceed to attempt to reconcile this idea of “formal existence” with the many actions of those you defend.

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Brian,

      Until the child is churched or baptized, they don’t have any formal existence in the Church apart from that of their Orthodox parents. I recall Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) commenting on this very blog years ago saying much the same thing.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        Like he’s never wrong about anything. – The pregnant women I know cross their bellies when they enter the Church to cover their to-be-born children. If anyone can baptize another, surely a mother can baptize her child in her own water and bring her child into the Church.

      • So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

        And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

        But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

      • As for those having “no formal existence in the Church” being none of our concern…

        When Archbishop Dimitri and others marched in the Annual March for Life for lives without “formal existence” is that too political?

        When Archbishop Iokovos marched with MLK, was that too political?

        When Archbishop Elpidophoros marched with BLM the overwhelming majority of whom have “no formal existence in the Church,” was that too political?

        When Archbishop Elpidophoros called for stricter gun laws, was that too political?

        When Pat. Bartholomew calls for/lobbies for the reopening of Haiki Seminary, is that too political?

        Shall I continue…? Every single one of the examples has a clear, obvious, unavoidable political (as well as humanitarian) dimension; and some even carry/carried risk to themselves and their flocks. Where, I wonder, was/is your concern for these being too political?

      • And now we come to the heart of the matter.

        Saint Basil the Great in this Eucharistic prayer gives thanks to God for giving us the law. Not because the law can save us; but because we, being lost in darkness, needed to be taught what is true and good and beautiful. We needed, moreover, the law to restrain our evil inclinations in order to keep us from destroying ourselves and those around us.

        “Yet thou didst not turn thyself away forever
        from thy creature whom thou hast make, O
        good One, neither didst thou forget the work
        of thy hands; but thou didst visit him in
        diverse manners, through thy tender mercies.
        Thou didst send forth prophets; thou didst
        perform mighty works by thy holy ones who,
        in every generation, were well-pleasing unto
        thee; thou didst speak to us by the mouths of
        thy servants the prophets, who foretold unto us
        the salvation which was to come; thou didst
        give us the Law as an aid
        ; thou didst appoint
        guardian angels. And when the fullness of
        time was come, thou didst speak unto us
        through thy Son himself…

        (…and all these benefits were bestowed in love upon those who were yet “without “formal existence.”)

        All those in the “Pro-life” movement want to do is bestow this same gift of law that reflects God’s gift of the law upon the world in order to show the world what truth, goodness, and beauty look like.

        There are those – the lawless (so-called “Orthodox”) in our midst – who insist that the law no longer applies and that, moreover, the law was given only to the nation of Israel. These would be the same people who rightly insist that the Church is, and always was, the true Israel of God, as Saint Basil’s prayer testifies. These deceivers pretend never to have read the law itself which testifies to the fact that the law was given to Israel to show all the world what truth, goodness, and beauty look like. And while it is true that we are no longer “under the law,” this is only possible because for those who have received the Spirit the law is “written on our hearts.“ We obey it without needing the law to know what is good.

        “knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers.”

        Those so-called Orthodox Christians who try to “get around” the law as opposed to fulfilling it in love demonstrate that they “have not the Spirit.” As the blessed Apostle writes,

        “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

        Our Lord also spoke of such when He said,

        ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

        There are also those – the lawless, the foolish, the deceivers – in or midst who say the law makes no difference, that sinners will be sinners. As is usual for such, they speak only partial truth while claiming it is the whole. For they themselves know that the law, even secular law, has the power to modify not only behavior, but attitudes (that is to say hearts).

        The testimony to the fact that the law does make a difference is before our very eyes.

        Until Roe v. Wade only an extreme few radicals believed that killing their child was their right, and no one would have dared call it “healthcare.” Everyone knew it was wrong, even those who believed it was “necessary.” Not so today. Thus, the law changed hearts, as well as behavior, and we are witnessing the effects of this evil law upon the hearts of all too many as we speak.

        The same is true of laws against racial discrimination. Like legalized abortion, the law changed attitudes and beliefs (hearts), as well as mere behavior. As a result of these laws only an extreme few radicals believe that those of other races are somehow subhuman or unworthy of equal treatment under the law.

        Then there are those who would justify their callous indifference by pretending that the Church in the U.S. still lives under Emperors (and not a Constitutional Republic wherein citizens elect political leaders who make law and appoint/confirm members of the judiciary), and they thus pretend that we have no say whatsoever in matters of law. Some even willfully confuse our duty to pray for our government for a duty to support whatever decisions it makes regardless of how evil they may be. They choose not to see that such a view would mean that the Apostle Paul “supported” the idolatry and other manifest evils of pagan emperors and their governments. Or that the Churches under the Soviet yoke “supported” atheism and all the evils that flow from it. Such people betray their indifference to the evil of abortion in particular by their actions on other ‘issues’ that are equally political in nature. They do not hesitate to speak and act freely on these other issues while singling out abortion as uniquely ‘political.’

        Let us be clear. In the Church the subject of abortion is not, and should never become, a political issue, The Church ought never to become aligned with political candidates or parties.

        However, we as citizens of a Constitutional Republic bear responsibility for the actions the government officials we freely elect when knowing beforehand what they will do. Our voice as individual citizens may be small, but it is one for which we bear as much responsibility before God as that of the voice of an emperor who is/was also only one person. Thus, it is we – collectively as Christians and especially as Orthodox Christians – who are in dire need of repentance. Perhaps not always as individuals but certainly collectively, we have freely chosen to ignore our responsibility toward God and neighbor, preferring selfish interests to love of neighbor. We not only allow abortion, some the Church are so callously indifferent that they hand out medals to politicians who openly favor it.

        65 MILLION children – six times the population of Greece – have been legally slaughtered in the U.S. while we stood by indifferently, convincing ourselves that “there are other issues of equal importance.”

        May the Lord have mercy on us and grant us repentance.

  13. Metropolitan Tikhon’s archpastoral letter on the overturning of Roe v Wade:

    https://www.pravmir.com/archpastoral-message-of-his-beatitude-metropolitan-tikhon-on-the-recent-supreme-court-ruling/

  14. Contrast and compare…

    Joseph Lipper: “…the unborn have no formal existence
    in the Church, apart from their Orthodox parents”.

    Luke 1:41-44
    41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
    42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women,
    and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
    43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
    44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears,
    the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
    [KJV]

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Brendan, does “the babe” constitute a formal existence?

      • Gail Sheppard says

        Now, Joseph, you know the answer to this. How can you get rid of something that doesn’t have a formal existence?

      • What does “constitute a formal existence” mean?

        • Joseph Lipper says

          Brendan, can you name a Church service where an unborn child is given formal existence, other than being referred as the “unborn child of…”?

          The OCA has a “Service after a Miscarriage or Stillbirth” where a name of the stillborn or miscarried infant can be used. That could also be considered a formal existence in the Church, but alas, the child in that case is no longer unborn.

          We don’t even (properly) have icons that depict Jesus, the Theotokos, and John the Forerunner in their unborn state. They are not supposed to be depicted as such. Their unborn state is hidden from the human eye by the very providence of God.

          Those three are the only conceptions that are celebrated in the Church. All three are supernatural conceptions too, defying all biological reason. They prophetically reference a new reality, a new Adam and Eve. Yet there is no precedent going forward of formally celebrating anyone else’s conception in the Church that I’m aware of.

          • How ’bout the Feast of the Annunciation?

            From the Didache:

            “2:2 {Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,} thou shalt not corrupt boys, thou shalt not commit fornication, {thou shalt not steal,} thou shalt not deal in magic, thou shalt do no sorcery, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born, {thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods, thou shalt not perjure thyself, thou shalt not bear false witness,} thou shalt not speak evil, thou shalt not cherish a grudge, thou shalt not be double-minded nor double-tongued;”

            The only One who gives “formal existence” is God. You have created a straw dummy. The Church knows no such category.

            • Joseph Lipper says

              Misha, by formal existence, a formal noun, meaning a name, and not just an informal reference such as “the babe”. In the case of John the Forerunner and Jesus, their names were prophesied beforehand by the Angel of the Lord, but the actual naming is still officially given by the parents after the child is born, not before. So we read that after John was born, his father Zechariah held up a sign that said “His name is John”, as the Angel had commanded him. When Christ was born, we read that His adopted father Joseph called His name Jesus, also as commanded by the Angel.

              Yes, human existence begins at conception, but that existence is purposefully hidden with God until birth. It becomes a formal existence with the naming of the child, usually meaning a birth certificate in most places now. It later becomes a formal existence in the Church when the child is baptized. It is through baptism that we are actually conceived in the Church.

              • It sounds like a monstrous rationalization for diminishing the impact of the abomination of abortion. As I said before, you are making it up as you go along.

              • Joseph: “Yes, human existence begins at conception,
                but that existence is purposefully hidden with God until birth.”

                So, pregnant mothers do not know they are pregnant;
                not even when they are big with child…

                “It becomes a formal existence with the naming of the child”.

                Papers please! Unborn Child? Unknown Saint?
                No papers? No name? No number? No formal existence!
                We don’t know you. You’re not one of ours. Go away…

                said the Joseph (sorry: Keeper) at the Gate

          • Gail Sheppard says

            There are actually several. Here we see the representation of Byzantine fetus of Christ in the womb: the painting of the XIV th century comes from the small church dedicated to the Holy Cross, in the village of Pelendri located in the center of the island of Cyprus. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/68/2e/72/682e727f0b8bed23d7ee2da5ba609411–holy-cross-cyprus.jpg

            • The icon also depicts, it seems to me,
              St John the Baptist in the womb…

              Anyway, Joseph, you have not answered the question:
              What does “constitute a formal existence” mean?

            • Joseph Lipper says

              Thank you, Gail. Yes, the icon symbolically depicts St. John the Baptist and Jesus as unborn infants, telling the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. Yet this is not a proper representation, because both are actually hidden in the womb. Neither are revealed yet. Even their prophesied names are hidden at this point. Rather, this is a contrived representation meant to convey the story.

              • Gail Sheppard says

                Clearly, an unborn child has been consecrated with an identity before it’s born, Joseph. If a child were “non-existent” would any of these apply? This is Scripture, Joseph. the Church teaches us the importance of Scripture. To say a child does not exist in the Church until it is born is simply not true.

                Jeremiah 1:5 BEST EVIDENCE
                “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

                Palms 139:13 BEST EVIDENCE
                For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

                Isaiah 49:1 BEST EVIDENCE
                Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb,
                from the body of my mother he named my name.

                Job 31:15
                Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

                Isaiah 49:5
                And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—

                Isaiah 44:2
                Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

                Psalm 22:9-10
                Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

                Luke 1:15
                For he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

                Jeremiah 1:1-19 BEST EVIDENCE
                The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” …

                Galatians 1:15
                But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

                Jeremiah 1:4-5
                Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

                Luke 1:41
                And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

                Psalm 139:13
                For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

                Psalm 139:16
                Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

                Psalm 127:3
                Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

                Isaiah 24:24
                Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

                Psalm 100:3
                Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

                Luke 1:44
                For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

                Psalm 127:3-5
                Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

                Job 1:21
                And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

                Acts 15:18
                Known from of old.’

                John 3:4
                Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

                Psalm 139:15
                My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

                Psalm 71:6
                Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continual of you.

                Genesis 20:18
                For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

                • Joseph Lipper says

                  Gail, yes, of course the unborn are with God, but the Church doesn’t give formal names to positive pregnancy tests.

                  • Gail Sheppard says

                    God does.

                  • Gail Sheppard says

                    The unborn are with God? Then why would He talk about fashioning them in a woman’s womb? Joesph, the Church teaches what God has revealed in Scripture. We don’t presume to know better or second guess what He says. If God talks about a child He consecrates in the womb of a woman that’s what the Church teaches.

                    Do you know what Planned Parenthood does with aborted babies? They sell their body parts for a great deal of money. They’re “not with God,” Joseph. They’re not with God. They’re body parts on someone’s work beach.

                    Again, you folks need to start your own church so you can make definitive statements that are not true. But don’t call yourselves Orthodox which means “right teaching” if you’re not willing to accept it.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Respectfully, Joseph, don’t we have enough mealy-mouthed weasel-wording from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and their minions in the diaspora?

                      “Let your yea be yea and your nay, nay; of anything else cometh evil.”

                    • Solidarity Priest says

                      Gail, I know this blog belongs to you and George, so it’s not for me nor anyone else to tell you to regulate someone’s posting.
                      That said, doesn’t there come a point when you can tell folks who post the same things ad nauseum, “change the record already?” I mean, you reprimanded me a couple years back when I really was out of line. You actually may have helped save my soul because I really had a serious problem with alcohol. Except for the wine-hot water mix after communion(usually only when I don’t consume the chalice), I’ve given it up. So I pray for you and George daily.

                    • Gail Sheppard says

                      Perhaps you could just skip over the things that you don’t like.

                      P.S. So glad to hear you’re doing better, Father. You’re always welcome here.

                    • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

                      Gail and George: I suggest that we conclude this three-ring circus with Mr. Lipper. He is obviously a supporter of abortion politically and, despite his feeble protestations to the contrary, morally as well. He is playing with all of us. But no longer with yours truly.

                    • May God bless you, Solidarity Priest.
                      One of my family went down the excess alcohol road
                      and I very nearly did so myself; so I know whereof you speak.
                      It can be hard to stop, but with God all things are possible.

                  • Matthew Panchisin says

                    Dear Joseph,

                    Fathers and Mothers, Family and Friends, Priests and Matushkas in the Orthodox Church often formally discuss the topic of what name shall be given to the child. At a Cathedral they can even ask the Bishop to name and bless the child and other family members. Can you see how the Church formally names a child?

          • Slippery Joseph Lipper, the Church has prayers for women during pregnancy in which the child is referred to as “this infant” or “this child.”

            Give up while you still have a shred of your dignity left.

            • Joseph Lipper says

              Basil, those are informal references.

              • Merriam Webster:

                Definition of informal
                1: marked by the absence of formality or ceremony
                an informal meeting
                2: characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary, casual, or familiar use
                informal clothes

                Please define ‘formal existence.’ You continually contradict everyone else, but refuse to actually define your terms.

                These are ecclesiastically-sanctioned and universally-used prayers in which the as-yet unnamed infant is referred to in the third person and, therefore, an explicit recognition of the child’s existence. They are not ‘informal’ in any way.

                • Either he’s saying that unless the soul in the womb receives recognition of its “formal existence” then destroying its body is not a heinous sin, OR he’s saying that the tiny body does not have a soul until it receives recognition of its “formal existence” and thus destroying it is not a heinous sin.

                  Either way . . .

  15. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has *always* been waffly on the legalized-abortion-on-demand issue. At least as long as I can remember, over the past 30-40 years.

    I’ve always wondered if this is due to some prominent Greek-American men and women who seem to not fully understand their faith, who adopt a protestant or modernized Roman Catholic style outlook, that “the church is outdated” and “needs to get with the times.” And the GOA hierarchs who seem terrified of offending these secularized Greek-Americans. Usually because of money – unfortunately seems that GOA hierarchs cower almost always because of money!

    Very different from the Russian Orthodox Church approach – and even the OCA approach – where those who oppose the Christian approach to life tend to just quit church altogether. In the Greek Archdiocese, by contrast, more tend to stay around and whine about it, possibly thereby creating wishy-washy hierarchs who try to appease them.

    The biggest proponents for legal abortion on demand are men. Almost always secular men who want sex without consequences, who fear losing their safety net. Most women, deep down, have an instinct to keep and protect their child. Studies show that upwards of 90% of women going for abortion would not follow through with it if the men in their lives encouraged and supported them in keeping the baby.

    Fascinating piece the other day I read, analyzing the original Roe decision 50 years ago, in the context that it was essentially a last vestige of the old-timey Protestant vs Catholic wars from the 1800s-1900s. Of the 9 justices in 1972, 8 were Protestant, only 1 was Catholic. Many Protestants in Britain and North America were worried that they were losing their cultural clout, as Catholics (at that time) had many more children and far bigger families. Demographics were definitely in the Catholics’ favor. (Throughout most of the 1900s, for example, Catholic Quebec had massive families with huge projected population booms — which energized the Quebec separatist movement from otherwise Protestant Canada.)

    The Roe decision of 50 years ago can be seen as a Protestantized worldview being pushed on American society — the wealthy protestants who ran the country essentially saying “Yes, we’re still in charge.” The 1972 decision was nonsensical from a legal perspective and carried no concept of the sanctity of life from conception — it was essentially “we will make this law because we like it and because we can.” A very protestant approach to life. And the descendants of these people are still running American culture, running it into the ground, into the secular wasteland that we have today. Thanks protestantism, thanks a lot. We should listen to the Church when it calls protestantism a heresy.

    Thank God the Roe decision of 50 years ago is gone.

    • Unfortunately the overwhelming majority of Greeks whether in diaspora or in Greece itself support abortion. Abortion itself is a rampant affair. The Church has no power to reverse this tragedy, they dropped the ball long ago and now hide behind “western values” as it’s justification.

      • From the stats I have been able to find Greece is split almost 50/50 on abortion being illegal/legal. I imagine that much like America that “illegal” number skyrockets outside of the cities and by region.

    • George Michalopulos says

      And the irony FTS, is that whereas the Supreme Court was overwhelmingly Protestant then (with only one justice being Catholic), today there are six Catholic justices, three Jewish justices and no Protestant ones.

      • Katherine says

        Isn’t Gorsuch some flavour of Protestant? And now the First Black Woman Justice, as well?

    • The biggest proponents for legal abortion on demand are men.

      I’m not sure about this, given the composition of the massive mobs of shrieking protestors all over the country this past few days. Mostly witches with dyed hair, piercings, and a crazy look on their face, with a handful of soy ‘males’ in rear support.

      • Ah, my friend Basil, the truth is almost always behind the scenes. We need to go deeper, beyond that which is only on the surface.

        I think you are wrong on this one.

        Plus, who are the big funders of corporate abortion? Virtually all men. Who are the world leaders who persecute Christ and His Church? Again, virtually all men.

        The anti-Christ will be a man, not a woman.

        • Yes, but those guys higher up the ladder aren’t your average thirsty male who wants to be able to fornicate without subsequent responsibilities. These guys don’t support abortion qua abortion, but simply the destruction of human life in any way possible. It’s the same people that support and finance LGBTQ, mass immigration, social unrest and every other kind of degeneracy and attack on normality and order, not because they care about the rainbow people or black lives mattering, but because they want to destroy.

          I see where you’re coming from, but I still think that supporters of abortion qua abortion are mostly brainwashed harlots.

        • Katherine says

          I think you are both right. The big money behind abortion and its horrific industry of selling and using the human remains is male. But, from my experience, it is the women who are the most full-throated supporters. Men I have spoken to about this issue have all had a change of heart once I challenged them to see what an abortion really entails. The women don’t care, even when they have seen.

  16. John Anon says

    Conception to Birth Visualized: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKyljukBE70

  17. Back to “Trump’s role”, what we are seeing is the slow end of the liberal world order. Looking at the big picture, it makes perfect sense. A clique of western liberals have attempted over the last 70 years or so to fundamentally upend longstanding traditional values and replace them with a new artificial ideology. In the West, they have largely succeeded. However, their efforts to export their poison to the rest of the world have been resisted by Muslims and, increasingly, by believers of other faiths including Christianity and Hinduism.

    Now, liberalism is in remission at home and abroad. Elites on the coasts still cling bitterly to it, but the rest of the country and much of the rest of the world have moved on. This resistance is now on the offensive and so the liberals call it “fascism”. That is inaccurate but it most certainly is “illiberal”, and proudly so. Both the progressive liberalism of the Dems and the conservative liberalism of the establishment Republicans have failed us and liberalism has become a cancer on American culture. Moderate conservatism is far too weak to slay this Grendal and so a more robust traditionalism has arisen which the liberals call fascism. Yet it is the wave of the future at home and abroad.

    The midterms will inject a strong dose of MAGA into Congress. The first wave of chemotherapy was the Court’s decisions over the past few days. The second will be the midterms. After that will follow two years of congressional hearings exposing the attempt at imposing a police state. Then the 2024 presidential and congressional elections will lay control of the entire government firmly in MAGA hands. It could signal the end of the Democrats as a national party.

    There will be a war on the MSM too. The media is the subconscious of the body politic so it must be disinfected as well. Look for right wing media to take over.

    The future looks bright and it is clear enough why the liberals are reacting and acting out as they are. This could be as big a change as the Enlightenment on a world scale. Call it the Renaissance of Faith. The liberals will fight it tooth and nail but they are largely spent. You can tell it by their irrationality and extremism.

    • Anonymous II says

      My goodness, I admire your optimism. Hope you’re right!

      • Part of this “enthusiasm” is a realization that “what is good for the goose is good for the gander”; i.e., the efforts that liberals have exerted to censor and coerce can be retasked back upon them. FB has censored discussion of “morning after pills”. That is uncharacteristic of it but is indicative of the fact that all this “Orwellian” stuff can be tasked for traditionalist purposes. It just takes people with the nerve to do so.

        Liberals have been screaming that the sky is falling for years. When it actually does fall upon them, who will take exception but them? A new ultraconservative DS, a traditionalist press, an emerging conservative academia, social media under MAGA control – it’s called “occupying the field”. You can tolerate a certain limited degree of dissent, of course. But if you make sure that the main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing, then peripheral views can only get so much traction and things become much more homogenous.

        That’s how the Eurasians are doing it.

        As Steven Segal replied in one of his movies to a woman who asserted, “You’re no better than they are!” He said, “Oh, no, I’m far worse.” Terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology; and traditionalists can be more ruthless than liberals. The true difference is what we are respectively fighting for. We’re talking about people who want to establish a police state, are inducing demographic winter and are transition kids gender to gender. The gloves are off and there are no such things as war crimes in this conflict.

      • I should also add, I’m not advocating terrorism or war crimes. I was speaking figuratively about separating means and ends. One should not bring only a knife to a gun fight. Again, figuratively, what justified the firebombing of Dresden was not the righteousness of the Allied cause but the reciprocity and deterrence of answering Hitler’s bombing of civilians in the UK.

        • Churchill bombed civilians in Germany first, and Hitler waited quite some time before responding. The blood for this one is on the Brits’ hands.

        • On reciprocity and deterrence:
          May 10-11, RAF bombs Dortmund
          May 13: Luftwaffe bombs heavily fortified Rotterdam during battle
          (much like Russia is currently doing in the Donbass)
          June 7: French Naval Air Service bombs Berlin
          August 15: 30 Luftwaffe bombers target RAF Croydon aerodrome,
          which was then considered part of Surrey rather than London.
          Several people were killed, with damage to the aerodrome and nearby housing.
          August 25-26 RAF Bombs Berlin

          From then on it all took off, with (as is usual)
          everybody blaming everybody else…

        • I stand corrected, up to a point. I simply recalled the standard rationale I’d heard without revisiting it. It was an inappropos example. However:

          * * *

          “Dresden, therefore, became a target in early 1945. Allied intelligence revealed that, far from being an inoffensive center of culture, Dresden and the surrounding area was home to 127 factories that manufactured everything from rifles and machine guns to artillery pieces, aircraft components, precision optical devices, and poison gas (the latter manufactured by Chemische Fabrik Goye, GmbH).

          Dresden was also a key rail hub, with lines running to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Breslau, Leipzig, and Hamburg. The Wehrmacht’s headquarters had also been relocated from Berlin to the Taschenbergpalais in Dresden, and there were at least one ammunition depot and several military hospitals.

          The Joint Chiefs of Staff of both the United States and Britain had earlier in the war authorized the aerial attacks on German cities to accomplish “the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial, and economic system, and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened.”

          Colonel Harold E. Cook, an American prisoner of the Germans in Dresden, stated after the war, “I saw with my own eyes that Dresden was an armed camp: thousands of German troops, tanks, and artillery, and miles of freight cars loaded with supplies supporting and transporting German logistics toward the east to meet the Russians.”

          Thus, RAF Bomber Command and the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) determined that Dresden was a legitimate military target and decided to mount a joint attack on the city at the direct request of the Soviet government. There would be four separate raids commencing on February 13. Seven hundred and twenty-two heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force and 527 of the USAAF would drop more than 3,900 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices as part of the planned bombing of Dresden.” – https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-bombing-of-dresden-was-the-attack-fully-justified/

          It just wasn’t the right example to prove my point.

  18. George Michalopulos says

    And now, a word from the Prince of Darkness regarding the recent overturning of Roe:

    https://youtu.be/0LI4UEHUvtM

    Beyond hilarious!

    • He gives credit where credit is due;
      to Mitt, Nancy, the actors and all the rest…
      Yet even when he speaks truth he still manages to lie,
      by reducing the horror of industrial scale slaughter
      to no more than a distraction, a game of numbers.

      As one of his chief deputies (Stalin) famously observed:
      “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”