exvigilare

Cool pic! But it wasn’t clear in your post: the 12th day of Christmas is Jan. 5, assuming you celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. So that’s the last day of the Christmas feast, followed by Theophany, the feast of Jesus’ baptism (for the Eastern Orthodox churches on the new calendar).

Knowin’ a little sumthin’ ’bout Orthodoxy, I kin surely ‘ppreciate all yir blog entries of late. But if’n ye don’t mind my askin’, what relevunce does it all have to the political nature of the RMA?

Somehow, I thank, ye gotta link the Orthodox worldview with American politiks. Tall order, that. I thank it kin be done, if’n ye remove yirsef from Byzantium ‘n Moscow, and consider the cult’rl manifestions of WESTERN Orthodoxy, if’n ye catch my drift.

Dear Snaggle-Tooth:

Not everyone in the US is of Anglo-Saxon heritage. I am not, I am Russian, and proudly so. Try broadening your horizons, it is good for you! For instance, I just made a video for a friend in Spain entitled “Sangre de España (The Blood of Spain)”. I am not Spanish, nor am I Catholic, but, I did my best in order to show respect to a friend. You may sound jocular, but, I fear that you are narrow-minded…

Vara

The URL for the video (for those interested): http://youtube.com/watch?v=dOqRquKLdmw

Snaggle-Tooth:

If you not care for a particular post, then, don’t read it! I run two sites myself, and the first thing I realise is that not everybody shall like everything I post. That is the way of it.

BTW, I interpret the parameters for my sites broadly, so, why it is a surprise that the author of this site does likewise? I would say that to define “politics” narrowly vitiates it and robs it of vigour and content. Your narrow definition would cut out the heart of the matter. I repeat, if you do not prefer a particular item, don’t read it! It may be of profit to others.

You are not only a bully, you expect others to be as you are. Show some respect. It goes a long way…

Vara

“As a recent Orthodox convert, the Church is on my mind the most lately. Frankly, I’m so fed up with both major political parties that it makes me crazy to focus too much on them. So, if that’s an answer, there you go.”

L’, thanks Richie. That’s all I wuz lookin’ fo’, and din’t intend for Vara o’ anyone else t’ be offinded.

One-a th’ reasons I asked, tho, is that in my ‘xperience the Orthodox who are politically conservative tend to be Old Rightists of some sort, ‘n not neocons. They tend to be very symputhetic to Easturn Uropean Orhtodox cultures, which of course tend to be very tradishunalist. IOW, the culture, and resultin’ politics, tend to be so in accordance with th’ traditional nature of the faith.

Wut does that mean, thin, for an Orthodox person who is an American? What kind of political wurldview, precisely, does the Orthodox faith call forth?

I know (and know of) some Orthodox folks who are very conservative but who cain’t stand George Bush and the neocons. So, in-att respect (and othahs) they tend to be more paleocon. Srdja Trifkovic ovah at Chronicles magazine wud be one importint example.

Jus’ curious to hear yir thots on the matter, if’n ye don’t mind.

So, wud I be right to conlude that ye either OCA or ROCOR?

“Wut does that mean, thin, for an Orthodox person who is an American? What kind of political wurldview, precisely, does the Orthodox faith call forth?

I know (and know of) some Orthodox folks who are very conservative but who cain’t stand George Bush and the neocons. So, in-att respect (and othahs) they tend to be more paleocon. Srdja Trifkovic ovah at Chronicles magazine wud be one importint example. ”

I am Orthodox. Jurisdictional affiliation aside for the moment, by all considerations I am fairly Libertarian in my political views. I am conservative without a doubt.

One aspect of this conservatism that I embrace is the rejection of the collectivist notion of grouping people. These are devilish constructs that very often lead to the dehumanizing of particular groups. It is un-Christian at its core not see each individual and the image of Jesus Christ with them.
There is no room for racism, feminism, anti-semitism, etc. when the individual in front of you has all rights, freedom, liberty and is recognized by you as containing the image of our Lord and Saviour. Love your neighbor. We must come to this in our own way. I find this through personal responsibility, freedom, liberty.

I find it neither kind, nor loving to be co-dependent with people on social issues. In other words: Teach a man to fish! Do not enslave him.

As an Orthodox Christian, I think we live in ‘potentially’ the greatest country on the earth for religious of all stripes. We are failing somewhat in our calling as the United States. We no longer adhere to the values enshrined in our Constitution and the Rights that it has given us. These have been chipped away. If we are bold enough we can get back to it. The Federal Government must become small again and the Federal Reserve Bank must be brought to heel and done away with, no Central Bank.

I don’t particularly like GWB, though I voted for him twice. I have no appreciation for neo-cons and the NWO.

So this is just one Orthodox viewpoint among the many, diversified viewpoints. I speak only for myself and nobody else. There are reasons that I hold these views and they have to do with my Faith, my love of my country, what she once was and can be again and what I see happening in the world. I have no desire to live under a One World Government in any form, I believe in the Sovereignty of the United States and of all countries.

We will just have to see what happens, won’t we?

Snaggle Tooth:

I am a dyed-in-the-wool Old European Conservative. To my mind, most American “conservatives” are not such, but, rather “radicals” (in the European sense). That is to say, I am “King and Country, Blood and Soil, Sword and Faith”. I reject the American “Revolution” and all that it stands for. America was not made great by this historical event. Its strength arises from the fact that it is separated by oceanic distances from its stronger adversaries and by the fact that its foes on this continent were weak and disunited.

That is, I am an “imperialist” rather than a “democrat”. Democracy is mostly a sham, and I do not participate in “politics”, as I find it puerile and boring beyond words. There are no leaders of the stature of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin on the American scene, and given the insane American process, none is ever likely to arise. I remind you that VVP did track down and kill Shamil Basayev, whereas George Bush cannot do likewise to Osama bin Laden.

The Russian Empire is in the process of reunification, and Russia is in an economic recovery amazing in its scope. I am proud of what my people are doing, and the fact they are doing so in opposition to American-style “democracy” is refreshing. Let us not fool ourselves, Snaggle-Tooth. We are opponents, but, I shall always be civil and courteous to you. To be otherwise would be a betrayal of my blood and rodina. I bow before you and leave you in peace, for crudeness is never becoming (your posting style is not “cute”, it is demeaning to you, sir).

May God go with you.

Vara

“I am a dyed-in-the-wool Old European Conservative. To my mind, most American “conservatives” are not such, but, rather “radicals” (in the European sense). That is to say, I am “King and Country, Blood and Soil, Sword and Faith”. I reject the American “Revolution” and all that it stands for. America was not made great by this historical event. Its strength arises from the fact that it is separated by oceanic distances from its stronger adversaries and by the fact that its foes on this continent were weak and disunited. . . .

There are no leaders of the stature of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin on the American scene, and given the insane American process, none is ever likely to arise.”

Fair enough, Vara: yir a Russian. And I believe Putin is the best man for Russia right naw. I wuz glad to see him git Time’s Person of the Year designation.

But yir comments ’bout America illustrate somethin’ I implied earlier: what kind of political wurldview does Orthodoxy call forth IN AMERICA?

See, we proud of our reverlution and of our Foundin’ Fathers. America WAS made great by-att event. Greater than anything else, I wud argue. ‘N we would-a maintained our greatness, maybe, if’n the South hadda won. We proud of our wild and raggly Anglo-Celt forebears and the commitment to constitutionalism and liberty they gave us. We ain’t monarchical. We republicans. Without repentance.

Some Orthodox I know like-u seem to thank they can “make America Orthodox” and in so doin’ make it like czarist Russia. But that ain’t never gonna happen. So to conservative (European “radical” or “liberal”) converts such as Richie, I ask - how do you reconcile tradishunal Orthodox culture with American culture and its political foundashuns? A tall order, I say.

Howbeit, Fr. Sergius Bulgakov ‘n others argued that Orthodoxy don’t call forth no particular political view necessrly, ‘n is therefore harmonizable with America’s system. But many Orthodox I know disagree.

(ed. - fixed )

“We do not live in Russia, Holy Rus has a special and glorious history and future, she has known Orthodox Christian monarchy, she has known obedience to a crown, the United States has thrust away monarchy and is, for better or worse not a Christian country.

To pretend as Evangelicals do that the United States is or has a Messianic purpose, is unrealistic and patently untrue.”

Way I see it, Handmaid, I don’t know that Russia has any mo’ “glorious history and future” thin any other country that has been shaped cultur’ly by Christianity. Ever’whar I look in the former Christendom, I see high cultures emergin’ but also a lot of corrupshun & sin. It’s jus’ as true of Russia as it is of Italy.

That bein’ the case, everone’s “default” Church shud be the church of they anscestors. Qualerfied, ‘course, by the reqiremint that said church be true to the faith. IOW, seekin’ a church of the Anglo-Celts don’t mean that ye shud naturally join or belong to fake churchs like the Episcopagan Church.

But if’n ye wanna be Orthodox, ‘l-att don’t make ole Snaggle-Tooth no never mind, but ye oughta at least wanna see an AMERICAN Orthodoxy. But, ‘n pardon my frankness, that means leavin’ all this “Holy Russia” stuff behind as the kinda baseless romanticism it is. Aim for a “Holy America”, and leave Russia to the Russian Orthodox.

Now, I would agree with, against the “Evangelicals,” America don’t got no divine mission. (To be fair to all the Evangelicals, only a certain stripe of-em believe-iss.) But I don’t thank Russia got a divine mission neither.

As fir the res’ of yir post and that open letter by Clark Carlton, I agree hole-hartedly. See, our tradition ain’t monarchy, or at least it ain’t in the same sense it is in Russia. We got kings in our background, shore as heck, but we also got Magna Cartas and social contracts and theories of resistance and Glorious Reverlushuns. We got the right to keep and bear arms, free speech and t’ worship as we please. ‘N Ron Paul mo’ than any other candy date, GOP or Dem, faithfully represents our tradishun, a tradishun that is bein’ destroyed, slowly but surely by modern Republicans and Democrats, just as surely as the “bishops” the The Episcopagan Church has destroyed the Faith as it received it.

Orthodox don’t vote as a block, shore ‘nuf, but that don’t mean it’s OK for an Orthodox person to vote for a librul, bein’ that librulism is godless to the core. He who sez A (’bout theology) must say B (’bout culture ‘n politics), understandin’, however, the partic’lr cutural conditions that may give shape to a political tradition that it don’t halway ’round the world.

Russians are Russians, ‘n wanna strongman.

Anglo-Celts are Anglo-Celts, ‘n want liberty. (And the Celts will fight to the bitter end fo’ it.)

‘L anyway, seems like I done p-offed a couple people here in this commints box, you included, so maybe I shud shut my piehole fo’ ‘while. I thank I done sed all needs-ta be sed to put fo’th the way I thank ’bout these things. You might could tell I’m an Anglican sorta fella - mostly Catholic in the way I see thangs but appreshutive of the Evangelical faith too. Personally, I’m hopin’ to one day see th’ political applicashun of th’ “Brainch Theory” here in America.