fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

A Benedict Option Prophet

An Orthodox priest calls on Christians to be new Maccabees
shutterstock_34034521

Very strong words from the Orthodox priest Father Josiah Trenham, in reaction to Obergefell. The friend and reader who sent me this says “he’s basically advocating for the Benedict Option”. Read on:

We also have to be very careful not to hate. Even though we’re hated, even though we’re mocked. You should see what that man, who wrote the future article, what he says about us. He basically says all Christians are white supremacist bigots. Like, come to our church and open your eyeballs. We cannot return that kind of hate, brothers and sisters. We can’t allow anger to dominate us or we are worse. Right? We have to keep our peace. Instead, we have to love more, and we have to support even our own parishioners, those who have same-sex attraction and those who are laboring to be Christians here and to be pious Orthodox. We need to support them more than we ever have.

And we need to recognize where we are. This is the new normal. Get used to it. This is post Christian times. Learn what it means to be an exile and a minority from the prophet Daniel. He saw exile, and he remained faithful, and he did not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar or his images, and he also lived to see the fall of Babylon. The church has outlived every empire, she’s coursed with empires through their victories and through their falls. We know that the war that is going on of which this is just a small piece is a war between the dragon and our savior, and we know that the dragon has been cast out of heaven. The dragon is roaring. We smell his breath. The beast and the false prophet are well known to us. They’re advancing the dragon’s agenda. Of course we’re sad to see our beloved nation, for so long a city on a hill, stamping the mark of the beast upon its citizens and putting it under boycott. And that is exactly what this is.

The attack that has come already on Christian business owners, on Christian medical professionals, the attack that’s coming on our schools and universities. This is the stamp, or the mark of the beast. Right out of the Apocalypse, which says that unless you bow down to the policy of the beast, you will be economically boycotted. You will not be able to buy nor sell. It appears in every generation some place, and it’s raising its head now. And we know what to do: refuse it! Because you all have been sealed with God’s sign, the Cross. God’s put his stamp of ownership on you. You can’t take the mark of the beast too, brothers and sisters.

We’re sad, but we’re not surprised. Babylonian culture falls everywhere that it asserts itself. Its future is bleak. No one and no culture that opposes God and his law and persecutes the faithful has any future at all. Stay yourself. Recognize where you are. Judge the time correctly. And fight like hell. Do you hear me? Fight! Let your love compel you. Respect his words, God’s words.

Remember the Maccabees? When the Greeks came and tried to impose Greek, pagan religion on them, tried to ban circumcision, defile the temple, the Maccabees went into the hills. They had a password between each other: God’s help. God’s help! And they fought. We have to do the same.

Build up your own marriages. You think this came out of nowhere? You know what proceeded this ruling? Skyrocketing divorce. The rejection of children in marriage. Adultery out the wazoo. We can’t look at this and say to ourselves, “Oh, those gays.” No no no no no. No no no. We should look at that and say, “God, forgive us.” This is our problem. This is our mess. We bought the whole hook line and sinker of the sexual revolution and now we’re wondering that this is actually happening? We can live for pleasure alone and reject responsibility in marriage? Father kids and not be there as dads? Leave our wives and just get new ones all the time? We can do that and this isn’t going to happen?

No. No, we have to nourish our marriages. Build up our catechesis. Teach our kids. Make our families strong and keep the faith. …

Read the whole thing. More about Father Josiah here. He warns that priests and bishops would fall too; the line is not going to run between the church and the world, but also within the flock. He’s right about this. No church will be unaffected.

Things are becoming ever clearer, by the day.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now