Neo-Nazis Infiltrating Orthodoxy
“Why is a symbol of my faith being used alongside Nazi and White Nationalist symbols, and what is American Orthodoxy going to do about it?”
This question was asked by Arthur Hatton after taking a picture of a rock painted with neo-Nazi–and Orthodox–symbols. It’s published in this post–WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE AMERICAN ORTHODOX CHURCH: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ASSEMBLY OF CANONICAL ORTHODOX BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA–by Orthodoxy in Dialogue.
Neo-Nazi and Confederate sentiments have been making their way through the Orthodox Church, a small but disturbing minority, going directly against everything Christ ever stood for. OID wants the leadership of Orthodoxy in America to clearly condemn white supremacy and racism before this poison does any more damage. And anyone can still sign the open letter by e-mailing OID.
And of course, the neo-Nazis have responded with a post by Matt Parrott of the Traditional Worker Party. (The name draws from the original German name of the Nazi Party.) In a hate-filled post, he makes himself and other white supremacists in Orthodoxy into some kind of martyrs for the cause, puritans fighting the heretics of “Ameridoxy.” You can read it on the OID website here, along with OID’s response. That’s better than linking you to the original post, which is on a Nazi website. 😛
For example, Parrott writes,
The Toronto School of Theology’s vibrant and very ecumenical community is calling on Orthodox clergy to go on a hysterical witch hunt for absolutely any and all clergy who may have the slightest anti-globalist or pro-Southern sympathies. Co-signatures are reaching into the hundreds as layman and clergy alike scramble to get their name on the list of people less likely to find themselves strapped down to the lynch mob’s cucking stool.
And also,
May the first man who attempts to deny communion on account of race be excommunicated.
Hold up. Wait a second. That stupid list [ names signed to the OID letter ] actually is a handy list of folks who are guilty of precisely that. Start with excommunicating and defrocking them. … The road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests and bishops, and I will stomp on each one of them on my way to hell and back to win this war for the universality of Christianity in the West.
Apparently, this TWP group would find my feminism and desire to see equality for LGBTQ in Orthodoxy to be much, much worse than their racism.
Their words made me want even more to sign OID’s letter.
The TWP even has the crazy idea that Confederate symbols weren’t seen as “super racist” at all until a couple of years ago. Er…..I’ve seen Confederate symbols as “super racist” as far back as the 1970s/80s, when I was a child. And so have countless others. In fact, I’m amazed that it took so long for Southern states to wake up to how many people see the Confederacy as “super racist.”
I see this stuff popping up here and there, and start wondering if my ex-friend Richard, the guy who led me into Orthodoxy, has anything to do with any of it. He’s only half-white, so hopefully the other half and his mixed-race child keep him from joining the racists. But I can’t be sure, because I remember how he became militant Tea-Party in the last year or two of our friendship, back when nobody had heard of the Tea Party yet. I remember how he hated Obama, and how his militancy strained our friendship until it finally broke in 2010. I wonder if he’s a Trumper now.
I hope he has nothing to do with these “Orthodox” neo-Nazis, but who knows.
And of course, it’s because of Trump that these neo-Nazis are so bold these days. They think they have a chance to take over American sentiment now.