Alexi Giannoulias

The post-Orthodox Orthodox?

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Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Democratic nominee for US Senator, supports homosexual marriage. Here’s the introduction from the Greek Star (a Chicago newspaper with Greek readership):

Alexi Giannoulias, Democratic nominee for US Senator, shares why he supports the freedom to marry for all, including people of the same sex. This is something that many of his supporters, and especially Greek-Americans may be opposed to. The Greek-American politician chose to be honest and he should be given credit for being brave to state his opinion on a difficult subject. He stated, “There may be many individuals that may not be happy with my particular stance”. The Greek Orthodox church does not allow, or support, same sex marriage. Giannoulias in the video continues “To me faith has always been less about how you treat God and more about how you treat people.”

Alexi Giannoulias

Moral relativism afflicts the Greek Star as much as it does Giannoulias. Since when is a stand against the moral tradition an act of bravery? Why the accolade for a position that flies in the face of Church teaching?

What you see in Giannoulias is the same syndrome that affects former Senator Paul Sarbanes and Senator Olympia Snowe who had no qualms ignoring Church teaching on the sanctity of life in their public lives. Both Sarbanes and Snowe never met an abortion provision they did not defend. Both voted against the repeal of partial birth abortion, and both supported the funding that promoted abortions in the Third World (a particularly noxious form of cultural imperialism). Giannoulias takes the accommodation of the moral deconstruction of Western culture to the next level: redefine marriage to cultural insignificance.

And no, Alexi, the Christian faith is not about “how you treat God.” The Christian faith is about how God has treated you. Then, and only then, will you properly understand how to treat people.

Yet the real failure, or at least the primary failure, does not rest with Giannoulias, or Sabanes or Snowe. The real failure is the accommodation the Church makes with the culture by lauding these politicians without public correction. Giannoulias simply reflects the generation that follows Sarbanes and Snowe. The generation that follows Giannoulias will justify even more egregious sin. The culture is morally confused, and because the Church refuses to draw clear moral distinctions our parishioners are too. That’s why Giannoulias supports homosexual marriage and why the Greek Star praises his stand as virtuous.

Here’s the video:

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Giannoulias for Ill. Governor?

Obamakis and Bidenopoulos

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Political candidates follow a time-honored campaign strategy of reaching out to ethnic groups and religious communities, and Orthodox Christians have been courted this way for years. It works both ways, of course. Now, little more than a week after the election, we’re getting a good look at how politicians and political operatives of Greek descent — many of them prominent in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese — have been working for years to promote President-elect Barack Obama and running mate Sen. Joseph Biden. The Greeks for Obama group, for example, developed this catchy slogan: “If you are Greek and love Obama, clap your hands.”

Opa! Obama!

On Nov. 5, the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes told supporters that it had raised $500,000 for Obama’s campaign just weeks before the election. (full message appended at bottom of post). Andy Manatos, a public relations executive who also chaired last summer’s GOA Clergy-Laity Congress, led the effort for this group. “Moving the huge American bureaucracy to treat Greece, Cyprus and the Ecumenical Patriarchate fairly is never easy in light of competing American interests,” Manatos said. “However, having Obamakis and Bidenopoulos in the White House opens the door to some good possibilities.”

The blowback came pretty fast. Earlier this week, Greek News reported that the “Obamakis and Bidenopoulos” statement received an angry reaction from “almost every one of the community leaders that participate in the Coordinated Effort.” But, of course, that was more a question of how the press release was handled rather than the facts surrounding the “Coordinated Effort.”

Yes, those “competing American interests” that Manatos referred to after the election. Those would be the interests that are of great importance to the United States, and not necessarily to the nation of Greece. But if you read the statements of Obama’s ethnic Greek supporters, you get a sense that any American interests have been pushed completely out of sight. The focus is for the most part is on three issues: Cyprus, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Macedonia/FYROM naming issue.
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