AOI – The American Orthodox Institute – USA

Occasionally I get emails from readers taking me to task for discussing politics on a “religious” forum. It should not be allowed they argue but obviously I don’t agree. Politics, culture, religion, values, ideas and so forth overlap in critical ways and ignoring this is, at a minimum, a prescription for ignorance. It’s true that religion and partisanship can be a dangerous brew, but here too I notice most of the complaints deal more with the fact I lean towards Classical Liberalism and that I find the Progressivism of my critics lacking substance at best, and even dangerous at worst.

Frankly, I find the Progressive infatuation with moral idealism (at the expense of clear headed examination of the concrete ramifications of their ideas in real life) dangerous because moral idealism too easily devolves to the embrace of ideology. Ideology is defined here not as a mere constellation of ideas, but a closed, self-referencing system of thought that reacts to any contrary idea as a threat to the integrity of the ideology. Marxism, feminism, etc. fit this definition.

With that in mind, I am posting an analysis by Michael Barone of the recent election. Barone is clearly one of the sharpest analysts around of the electoral currents running through the body politic. It was published today on FrontPageMag.com. As I see it, the analysis captures a sea-change in the culture that has been happening, well, for almost the last two decades.

[Below is the transcript — and video — of Michael Barone discussing what is emerging on the political national scene at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend in Palm Beach, Nov. 18-21.]

Video Part I:

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“Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer: Experiencing the Presence of God and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of an Ancient Spirituality”

It will be published February 8, 2011 by HarperOne.

New York, July 1, 2010 — A little known 2000-year-old Christian prayer, still used by monks and nuns in far away caves and monasteries, is the subject of a documentary feature film and book slated for early 2011.

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer focuses on the prayer, Kyrie Eleison (“Lord Have mercy”) that is thought to have been first practiced by the Apostles.
Traveling with cameras and crews to ancient lands of peace and solitude, the Very Rev. Dr. John McGuckin, Ane Marie and Bent Emil Nielsen Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies, Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University, and Dr. Norris J. Chumley, a media producer and columnist for Beliefnet, visited hermits, priests and nuns in caves and monasteries to record their use of this ancient mystical prayer.
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Source: Orthodox England Published December 6, 2010

Pat. Kirill

Sometimes, people say that our country cannot live without an ideology…It needs an ideology in order to survive. I asked myself the question, ‘Is that true?’ In reply I thought, ‘No, it isn’t’. At best an ideology survives for three to four generations. No ideology that there has ever been has lasted longer than that. One of the most powerful of all ideologies ruled our country. Why was it strong? Why did it survive for three generations, but another ideology in Germany only lasted for one generation? It was because the ideology in our country exploited the Christian idea. People remained faithful, as has already been said, not because they went to church…they could not do that…in a spiritual sense, they were driven underground. Nevertheless, they kept the system of values formed in them by Orthodoxy and the dominant ideology exploited this system of values.
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