Putin and American Exceptionalism

President Putin has once more managed to anger those who would wrap themselves in the mantle of conservatism (e.g., http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/09/12/an_explanation_of_american_exceptionalism_for_vladimir_putin_and_barack_obama).  The main offense is this passage from his NYT op-ed:

‘My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.’

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The response to Putin of late has been quite deranged.  The talking points from The Powers That Be have apparently gone out, with Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. calling him a ‘thug’, ‘KGB agent’, ‘dictator’, Stalin sympathizer, etc.  Granted, he is an elected official, so one is always unsure of who is pulling the strings behind the scenes, but this effort to dehumanize him, to brand him as a reincarnation of the Soviet Union, is absurd.  He has done things that many Americans would like their President, Congress, etc. to do:  Ban pro-gay propaganda, encourage the growth of traditional families, fight government corruption, protect the Church, and so on.  Again, he is not perfect, but neither he is the wicked man many are portraying him to be.

As for his essay, there are things good and bad in it.  Though Putin is right when he criticizes the increasingly naked militarism of the American Empire, and the increasing frustration of the world’s nations with it, he is wrong when he implies that attaining a democratic political system should be one of the ultimate goals of every society, and when he encourages countries to place their trust in the globalist-dominated United Nations to protect law and order.  And on we could go.

But these things are only of secondary importance.  What is most crucial to grasp is the understanding of what makes a nation truly exceptional. 

It is not the form of government.

It is not the economic system.

It is not the Renaissance-Reformation-Enlightenment idea of ‘the primacy of the individual’ (Limbaugh, above citation). 

It is, rather, the strength of a nation’s faith, the measure of the Holy Spirit each person of that larger family has been able to obtain through prayer, worship, study, meditation, ascetic labor, fasting, and such things.

Where, America, are your hosts of martyrs and confessors?

http://orthodoxwiki.org/New_Martyrs_and_Confessors_of_Russia

http://freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2907448/posts

Where, America, are your sanctified elders who are adorned with the light of the Holy Spirit?

http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/wonderful.aspx

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/04/saint-nektary-of-optina-and-uncreated.html

http://www.frederica.com/writings/father-arseny.html

Where, America, are pure ones who have regained their pre-Fall Adamic powers over nature and wild beasts?

http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/stcuth.htm

Where, America, are your God-seekers who flee to the wilds of mountains, deserts, forests, and swamps to find the Lord in solitary life?

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/mag/oe11_1.pdf

Where, America, are you healers, prophets, and clairvoyant elders?  Your powerful and rich rulers who gave up their high positions for a monk’s or a nun’s life?  Your fools for Christ who rebuke the powerful to their faces without fear? 

America!  America!  You have many things:  comfortable homes, cars and trucks, smart phones, video games, televisions, music players, microwaves, washers and dryers, computers, novels, vacations, sports, church programs, etc.

But you have not what is truly important:  Our Lord God the Holy Spirit.  Seek Him while there is still time!

Nor should the South feel complacent.  We are too Yankee-fied in these days to feel ourselves safe from judgment.  Furthermore, our pride in our culture and our heroes and our history borders on idolatry and prevents us from seeking closer union with the Most Holy Trinity.  We were judged once for our sins; it is possible the cup of wrath is not yet empty.

But we also know that with the Lord is great mercy.  May we earnestly ask it of Him, and repent, and seek what is truly important, what makes the people of a nation truly unique: the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle of Scotland - St Ninian

It is imperative in these latter times, as Fr Andrew Phillips has said, to gather round us the saints of our ancestors that they might intercede for us.  To that end, we wish to introduce to you all our Holy Father Ninian, the Apostle of Scotland, whose repose the Church celebrated yesterday - 26 August/8 September.  May he ever pray to the Most Merciful God for Scotland and for us sinners in the South, many of whom are descended from the Scottish family, for our deliverance from all evil.

‘Ninian Aug 26 + ? 432. A Briton who was sent to enlighten his native country. He established his mission at Whithorn in Wigtownshire in Scotland, so called because the church was built of stone plastered white. There was a monastery attached to it and it was from this centre that Ninian and his monks enlightened the northern Britons and the Picts.’

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/s5centy.htm

A portion of the service to the Holy St Ninian:

***

Joy of the ranks of hierarchs, who didst follow in the steps of the apostles, the holy Ninian is praised with hymns for he brought the saving light of Christ unto thosewho sat in heathen darkness.

The holy hierarch Ninian, waging war against the devil in the land of the Picts, lifted high the Cross as a standard of victory; wherefore, as a valiant warrior of Christ, his abode is ever with the angels.

Dwelling now in light unapproachable, O most blessed Ninian, entreat Christ the Master of all, the King of kings and Lord of lords, that He move the people of Scotland to repentance and have mercy on us all.

…

Thou wast a true guide on the straight and narrow path which leadeth to the kingdom on high, O most blessed Ninian; for thou wast first to arrive in the land of the Picts, where thou didst bring the Faith of Christ to the heathen, giving them new birth in water and the Spirit. And amid their bleak forests and moors thou didst graft them, like wild olive-shoots, upon Christ, the Tree of Life, whence they were filled with the oil of His mercy. Wherefore, honoring thee as a peer of the apostles and the great hierarchs of old, we earnestly fall down before thee, crying aloud: Entreat the God of all in behalf of the Scottish land and all who honor thy memory with love!

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/pdf/servs/ninian.pdf

***

Destroying the Muslim World and the Rise of Antichrist

From an insightful essay by Fr Andrew Phillips (emphasis added):

***

The sabre-rattling by chemical-weapons-providing Western elites against the Syrian government has for the moment been stopped by the common sense of Western peoples. The peoples recall the recent lies that they were told about Iraq by their financially and morally bankrupt governments. As they say: Once bitten, twice shy. However, what has not been explained as yet is what the present turmoil in the Muslim world, the centre of which is Syria, is really about.

Ever since the fall of Communism, it has been clear that the next enemy of those who want to see a World Dictatorship, which will lead to the enthronement of Antichrist in Jerusalem, is Islam. This is clear from the Western creating and arming of the Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan, then from the first Gulf War, which ended even before the final days of the collapsing Soviet Union. And since then from the wave of divisive events, in Iraq, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria and elsewhere.

Only when the Islamic world has first been divided, brought back by the most barbaric violence to a primitive state, can it be ruled over. And the Islamic world can be divided most easily by pitting Sunni against Shia. This is exactly what is happening in Syria, where the oil-rich, Sunni, Saudi and Qatari dictatorships, strongly backed by the West, are financing and arming the fanatical terrorists and mercenaries who are fighting against the Shia-backed Syrian government.

Why, however, must the Islamic world be ruled over? It is because only when it has been divided and so ruled over can the Islamic shrine of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem be destroyed. And only when the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has been destroyed, can the Temple where Antichrist is to be enthroned be rebuilt. Fortunately, there are still healthy forces in the world which consciously and unconsciously resist this movement towards a World Dictatorship.

Firstly, there are some independent Western people who still resist the movements of their own elites. The latter are desperate, as their lies show, to become paid minions of the coming World Dictatorship, which is to be centred in Jerusalem. Some Western people realise that their countries are being prepared by bankruptcy and used, so that they can be enslaved to this coming Power. Secondly, there are countries outside the Western elite’s hegemony, such as Syria, Iran, China and, now most visibly, Russia.

At present post-Communist Russia is ruled by a Russian politician. Like all politicians, he is liked by some and disliked by others. This is inevitable because he is only a politician. A Russia ruled by politicians will always be mixed and divided. However, as the respected Athonite Hieroschemamonk, Fr Raphael (Berestov), has prophesied: ‘There will be a Tsar in Russia’. And it is only then that the Coming of Antichrist will be truly resisted and systematically opposed.

http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/tsar-versus-antichrist-what-lies-behind/

***

Scientific Progress and a New Mankind: Addendum

In another contrast to the project of human perfection without God, Abbot Tryphon in a short podcast (a little shy of five minutes) explains what it means to be really human.

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/morningoffering/humankind

His web log may be viewed here:

http://morningoffering.blogspot.com/

Scientific Progress and a New Mankind

‘ . . . in the beginning humanity was created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) in order to be perpetually born by the Spirit in the exercise of free choice . . . , and to acquire the additional gift of assimilation to God by keeping the divine commandment, such that man, as fashioned from God by nature, might become son of God and divine by grace through the Spirit.  . . . Desiring, then, . . . to return humanity to its divine inheritance, the Logos who created human nature truly became a man, humanly begotten . . . ’ (St Maximus the Confessor, ‘Ambiguum 42’, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ, trans. Blowers & Wilkens, Crestwood, Ny., St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003, p. 93).

‘ . . . perhaps [evolution] is the very key (intellectual) to the assault upon the Church, to the very ‘philosophy’ (and there is such a thing!) of the coming Antichrist’ (Father Seraphim Rose, letter to Fr N., 18 April 1973, quoted in Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Hieromonk Damascene, 3^rd ed., Platina, Ca., St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2010,  p. 541).

We have probably seen enough of the path of Progress to know where it is leading us:  the perfection of man by means of technology.  Already stories are appearing in the mainstream/corporate media promoting the merging of man and machine:

http://www.infowars.com/google-plans-on-implanting-chip-in-your-brain/

Mankind, having abandoned God’s plan for his deification - first in the Garden of Eden before the Fall and now through Our Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ after the Fall - has come under the sway of a satanic desire to raise itself to a higher state of being apart from God’s grace, and even in opposition to God.  This desire has manifested itself throughout the centuries in different ways: the Tower of Babel, alchemy, and now eugenics/transhumanism.

Barbara Peterson of Farm Wars has posted a good introduction to this latest (and frightening) attempt at creating a ‘new man’ apart from God.  An excerpt is included below.

http://farmwars.info/?p=11212

This much, at least, should be clear after reading it:  It is urgent that we all reject - and find a way to break up - behemoth corporations like Monsanto, Google, etc., not simply for a healthier economic and political climate, but for a better spiritual climate as well.

But what is to be the Church’s answer to the world’s attempt to create a superman, to overcome fallen man’s broken, distorted, limited nature through the natural sciences alone?  It has already been given, as Fr Seraphim said, in men like ‘St. Anthony the Great, who did overcome mankind (his own human nature) and was like an angel on earth’ (‘Orthodox Survival Course’, series of talks given in 1975, quoted in Father Seraphim Rose, p. 25). 

Corporations or no corporations, the choice is still ultimately ours to make, whether to accept scientism, pride, the machine-man/superman, and the Antichrist with his cult of Progress or to embrace the ways of the Most Holy Trinity, humility, asceticism, prayer, and transformation through His grace.  Let us by all means ‘walk in the light, as He is in the light’ (I John 1:7)!

From Farm Wars:

***

There is a move afoot to reprogram humanity. To redefine it in the limited terms of scientific understanding, place it in a box, and then, all wrapped up in a pretty package, attempt to deliver this convoluted mess to us as progress.

There are those who think that, given the chance, they could and should genetically manipulate the earth and the creatures that inhabit it, including man, to suite a purpose of their own imaginings. They want to experiment on all of our precious resources, turn our rivers into streams of pollution, and take each and every living thing on earth and use it to create something “better.”

According to whose design? Well, the so-called “scientific” one, of course. And if this means combining cows and humans, goats and spiders, man and machine in order to achieve the goal? Well, so be it. After all, the only thing that is important is the end result. And the end result is that a few will obtain immortality… or so they think. And if a few eggs get broken in the process, well, that is the price paid for success.

This is Transhumanism – the natural culmination of something called reprogenetics. Some call it designer evolution.

***

As a contrast to this evil, we offer a portion of St Anthony’s life below.  The whole of it, along with some of his teachings, is found here:

http://www.greek-icons.org/texts-papers/synaxaries-saints-lives/life-saint-anthony-the-great.html

***

Anthony was born near Herakleopolis Magna in Upper Egypt in 251 to wealthy parents. When he was eighteen years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his unmarried sister. In 285, he decided to follow the words of Jesus who had said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21). Anthony gave his wealth to the poor and needy, and placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins, a sort of proto-nunnery at the time.

The moniker "Father of Monasticism" is misleading, as Christian monasticism was already being practiced in the deserts of Egypt. Ascetics commonly retired to isolated locations on the outskirts of cities. Anthony is notable for being one of the first ascetics to attempt living in the desert proper, completely cut off from civilization. His anchoritic (isolated) lifestyle was remarkably harsher than his predecessors. By the 2nd century there were also famous Christian ascetics, such as Saint Thecla. Saint Anthony decided to follow this tradition and headed out into the alkaline desert region called the Nitra in Latin (Wadi El Natrun today), about 95 km west of Alexandria, some of the most rugged terrain of the Western Desert.

Also note that pagan ascetic hermits and loosely organized cenobitic communities that the Hellenized Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria described as the Therapeutae in the first century, were long established in the harsh environments by the Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria, and in other less-accessible regions. Philo understood: for "this class of persons may be met with in many places, for both Greece and barbarian countries want to enjoy whatever is perfectly good." (Philo, De vita contemplativa, written c. 10)

According to Athanasius, the devil fought St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art. After that, he moved to a tomb, where he resided and closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his intense worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious. When his friends from the local village came to visit him and found him in this condition, they carried him to a church.

After he recovered, he made a second effort and went back to the desert, further out, to a mountain by the Nile, called Pispir, now Der el Memun, opposite Arsinoë in the Fayyum. There he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some twenty years. According to Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against Saint Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes and scorpions. They appeared as if they were about to attack him or cut him into pieces. But the Saint would laugh at them scornfully and say, "If any of you have any authority over me, only one would have been sufficient to fight me." At his saying this, they disappeared as though in smoke, and God gave him the victory over the devil. While in the fort he only communicated with the outside world by a crevice through which food would be passed and he would say a few words. Saint Anthony would prepare a quantity of bread that would sustain him for six months. He did not allow anyone to enter his cell: whoever came to him, stood outside and listened to his advice.

Then one day he emerged from the fort with the help of villagers to break down the door. By this time most had expected him to have wasted away, or gone insane in his solitary confinement, but he emerged healthy, serene, and enlightened. Everyone was amazed he had been through these trials and emerged spiritually rejuvenated. He was hailed as a hero and from this time forth the legend of Anthony began to spread and grow.

***

Secession Rising? Northern California County the Latest to Join the Movement

'The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday to support the county's split from the state of California.

'It's the first in a long series of steps to form the proposed state of Jefferson, which proponents of the effort say would bring representation to rural North State counties that currently are beholden to the whims of representatives of the more heavily populated Southern California and free them from burdensome state regulations.

'”We have to have government that's local, understands our issues and has empathy” for those affected, said Mark Baird, a Scott Valley rancher who's also president for Scott Valley Protect Our Water and vice president of the Siskiyou Water User's Association.

'Baird is leading the charge to form a new state from rural counties in Northern California and Southern Oregon, though he certainly wasn't the only voice in support of the move.'

The rest is here:  http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_24011588/siskiyou-supervisors-support-withdrawal-from-california

As with those in Northern Colorado seeking a separate political existence for themselves, please support those in Siskiyou County through messages of encouragement, prayers, etc.  Their victory in separating from a state that is grossly oversized and setting up a smaller, more intimate sized state that can be known and therefore loved is a victory for us all.

You may contact the county supervisors here:

http://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/BOS/BOS.aspx

Behind the Scenes of the American Empire's Foreign Policy

It ain't pretty.  A good term is introduced, however, to describe the form of government the South and much of the world find ourselves under - 'corporatacracy'.