The Catholic Church Has a Visible White-Power Faction: An Orthodox Problem As Well

[Xenophon]

I agree with Rus, and I also think this thread should be locked or removed.

 

[ArmyMatt]

just to chime in, but I think the Fr Whiteford article would have been a better OP, gets the point across much better from our POV. and Fr John is pretty much spot on.

 

[rusmeister]

Look, you are going to find kooks in the Church. It is unavoidable. But do they really have followings? Is there any serious movement to actively promote the bad ideas? Everybody here condemns actual white nationalism and actual racism. But you won’t find any concentrated movement attempting to organize people to promote those awful ideas. Even Fr John’s article focuses on one kooky man’s thoughts. It’s good to say what Fr John said. In general, I find him in his words to be a sensible and godly priest.

It’s wrong to cast such individuals as a movement that is a serious threat within the Church. It is fine to condemn their bad ideas, but wrong to suggest that their ideas are “systemic” and widespread. They aren’t. The harm that can be done in the Church by spreading racial mistrust and fear in the name of combatting racism, something we all already condemn, is greater. Only by rejecting all racial assaults against everybody, white, black, red or yellow, can we keep out the evil attitudes of mutual distrust, fear and even hate. That means that the rhetoric of both “MRJ” and BLM have to go. You can’t kick out one and insist on the other. They both do the same evil work, creating confidence in their misguided supporters and mistrust and fear in their opponents.

 

[Xenophon]

I've seen only one instance (personally) of racism in the Orthodox Church and it escalated pretty quickly into an excommunication - guy simply refused repentance. The idea that there's something systemic in the Church is absurd. And 'kooks' are dealt with appropriately.

As for the Latins, they seem to only excommunicate for denying the papacy anyways.

 

[rusmeister]

I've seen only one instance (personally) of racism in the Orthodox Church and it escalated pretty quickly into an excommunication - guy simply refused repentance. The idea that there's something systemic in the Church is absurd. And 'kooks' are dealt with appropriately.

As for the Latins, they seem to only excommunicate for denying the papacy anyways.

Well, as far as whether kooks are dealt with appropriately, I’d say it’s the general problem of people entering the Church and thinking their own ideas to be the mind of the Church, and refusing correction from the consensus of Holy Tradition. Many walk around with all kinds of ideas out of whack with Tradition. Some think divorce from other churched Orthodox and remarriage to be perfectly fine and necessary, others that same sex sexual relations or other sexual relations outside of holy matrimony are not sin, still others that women ought to be priests, some hold that the words of Christ on some issues today are not relevant, a few do think that interracial marriage is somehow bad, and even more think that a majority race ought to be prosecuted if not persecuted for imagined “privilege” and alleged inherent unconscious racism, all ideas that were never taught by the fathers. This refusal to be corrected by the Tradition of the Church constitutes sin, a failure of obedience, humility, and submission. Anything we say, including me, should be subject to such correction.

 

[ewq1938]