http://blog.acton.org/archives/58094-powerlinks-07-30-13.html

What I do not understand is why no American Church noticed this let alone the Assembly of Bishops. We are constantly told time and again that Halki will open soon and things are changing but I think serious Orthodox questions need to question this narrative and its foundation in reality. Does anyone think Halki will open when the Turkish Government is still taking Churches.

Gratefully so. Thank you, Mr. Stankovich.

Mr. Couretas,

I most assuredly was not referring to you, and pardon me for even appearing to make the implication.

The Scripture I quoted, in fact, speaks to my longstanding opinion that these “labels” are the antithesis of what St. Paul describes as “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up [οἰκοδομὴν] of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12),” and far too frequently ends up quite reminiscent of the words, “God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, progressive, Parisian, Sergian, or even as this Obamian.” (cf Lk 18:11)

I repeat myself, Mr. Couretas, that I concede the point. I dutifully watched the film; I read your information, downloaded the Pielke statement with gratitude; and have my opinion. As you noted regarding Mr. Solzhenitsyn, with respect, we have our differences. No doubt we will differ again, but thankfully the exchange killed no one.

Mr. Stankovich:

You wouldn’t be talking about me here, would you?

… in the age of the internet, there will be hundreds of anonymous, disaffected, belligerent, concrete-thinking jackasses who know better than the anointed of God.

Such vehemence! Are you OK?

No “dream interpretation” guides needed. All you have to do is click on the YouTube video and let Bishop Demetrios do his Green Patriarchy thing. You know, how he explains that we’ve brought tsunamis and earthquakes down “upon ourselves” because “nature has a way of replenishing itself.” What? Really? Then he warns us that we’ll get more of these deadly disasters if we don’t straighten up.

Your quoting of Holy Scripture puzzles me. Does the Scripture speak to this discussion about the GOA bishop throwing in with Progressive Christians in an agitprop video designed to shut down fracking in Illinois? I don’t see it.

Yes, by all means, let us shun “unnaturally contrived labels” of patently political origin when discussing the work of bishops engaged in patently political agitation. Nothing to see here! Move along please!

Because Orthodox Christians are above this sort of thing, don’t you know? We float aloft on the empyrean free of any political taint. Unless of course we’re protesting fracking with the Progressive Christian Left, posting their videos on church Facebook pages, engaging in down-at-heels Protestant social gospel advocacy with the greying sandalistas over at the NCC, or endlessly lobbying for Old Country national issues at every statehouse in the land and in Washington.

Sorry, won’t wash. You’ll have to try to paint this all as “jargon” somewhere else where folks won’t call you on it.

Mr. Couretas,

If you were able to discern & divide that “We’ve [been] thrown in with the hand-wringing progressive Christian environmental crowd” based on the bishop’s presence or the 90+ seconds of actual dialog in that short film, I say get yourself one of them “dream interpretatin'” certificates and set up a practice as “Bishop Whisperer.” I could pull out Bishop Dimitrios dialog verbatim, and use it to support the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. (or perhaps, supporting the science that “epigenetic x-chromosome inactivation results in female fecundity for homosexual males,” and the bishop would say, “We bring this upon ourselves.”)

Now this is another matter altogether. In my mind, better the bishops speak about the chances of the Detroit Tigers in this year’s World Series than speak to anything of substance, because 1) many times it will be “cringeworthy” and, practically speaking, useless, or 2) in the age of the internet, there will be hundreds of anonymous, disaffected, belligerent, concrete-thinking jackasses who know better than the anointed of God. These will scour the web for any single sentence – context is insignificant – to prove just how nefarious, just what scoundrels these bishops really are! And what, in heaven’s name, could St. Paul be thinking: “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” (Col. 3:11) and “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28) We batter one another with unnaturally contrived labels of “conservative Orthodox,” “traditionalist Orthodox,” “Parisian Orthodox,” progressive Orthodox,” and of course the usual right, left, Tikonian, Sergian, Leninist, Obamaists, blah, blah, blah. There is a new “summer movie” telling the story of an advertizing executive who apparently suffers a head injury and can only speak in TV commercial jargon, and that apparently, is what we’ve come to on this site. The need for jargon, it seems to me, serves as “filler” for an otherwise thin gruel.

Mr. Couretas, I concede the point. I am well of the “purpose” of the film, thank you for asking.

No, M. Stankovich, either you missed the entire point of video — which is to build public opposition to fracking — or you’re averting your eyes. This is a perfect example of the “progressive captivity” that Fr. Hans wrote about. Just perfect.

We’ve thrown in with the hand-wringing progressive Christian environmental crowd which, not so long ago, was lecturing us about peak oil. Now that the United States is in the midst of a true oil and gas boom, they’ve despaired of achieving their utopian dream of bringing the fossil fuel economy crashing down. And our entire economy crashing down with it.

And all of this wrapped in loose talk for half an hour about the “sacred.” Indeed.

So we have a Greek Orthodox bishop spouting oh so predictable nonsense about the impending global environmental cataclysm, which is what we’ve been getting for years from the Green Patriarchy project. Utter nonsense. The video is agitprop, not a balanced and reasonable examination of the technology and risks behind the boom. Search in vain in the video for any counter to the endless predictions of irreversible disasters that will be caused by fracking. Scary!

What’s next? Will Bishop Demetrios slip on his birkenstocks, pick up the eagle bone whistle, and join with the folks protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, coal-fired power plants, LNG exports, and on and on? So predictable. Can’t wait for his next video.

Andrew,

While I grant you that the motivations of the GOA are notoriously unpredictable – and I specifically indicated that I am a most unlikely defender – but they are so predictably ethno-centric/GOA-promoting that any inclusion of any GOA hierarch speaking in a position of “authority” (and you must admit His Grace Bishop Dimitrios makes an excellent “media presence”) would be promotable & duly promoted. That was the intent of my purposely vague (and cynical) summation: “They’re like that.” Don’t get me wrong, Andrew, I am not being dogmatic here and want to be clear that this is my opinion, but have Diane Sawyer call the GOA for a bishop to speak for 90-seconds in a Tuesday night World News segment on pro-life and see where “fracking” goes…

Stankovich,

Why are interviews with fracking activists given a prominent spot on the GOA webpage but no interviews with pro-life activists?
Are some politics for suitable than others in the GOA?

So do the labor unions… Strange bedfellows make you wonder why certain people fund GOP candidates? Me too.

I don’t doubt that global warming is occurring, but I am not convinced it is manmade, because it seems to also be occurring on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter.

That being said, I can see how the whole ecological theology pushed by the EP does have a point: man is responsible for the stewardship of creation. But the falleness of creation is firstly alleviated by mankind’s overcoming of falleness and personhood in the GOD man, in the Eucharistic life. Of course, conscious effort and correct use of the environment makes sense. But that doesn’t mean selling ones soul to the eco hypocrites, Al Gore, Kyoto and Carbon Credit private jet Cophenhagen crowd.

The most disturbing part of this is that this jurisdiction does not seem to care about the standard of living of its parishoners decreasing, their moral climate assaulted and their religious liberty being back into a corner by the Left. There are many things to be concerned about, but when your “concern” seems to primarily coincide and resonate with Left of Center politics that in and of itself seems like something which is best labeled “neo sergianist”.

While I generally do not find myself defending the GOA, it seems to me you are seriously overstating the participation of His Grace Bishop Dimitrios and the position of the GOA. If his entire 90 seconds or so of commentary is extracted, I would never have guessed as to what he was referring, and thus the statement, “FRACKING is now a serious issue for GOA Hierarhcs” is, in fact, a cheap convention. That the GOA “promotes” such a video is, in all likelihood, more a decision and promotion of their PR Dept. than their “Faith & Order” Dept. They’re like that. I actually thought his point, simplified and direct – stewards though we be, we are not “entitled” (endowed, indemnified, gifted, whatever you wish) to use the creation as we wish – was an excellent point.

Mr. Couretas, a nice catch of the Pielke statement – I was happy to download and disseminate it. But seriously, I do not believe His Grace Bishop Dimitrios was making a statement of “biological fact,” nor is he alluding to “A simple truth.” It was a simple message that, like sin, in this fallen world, actions have cosmic consequences.

Give the guy a break.

A Greek Orthodox bishop channeling the Spirit Guide Al Gore. A perfect example of what Fr Hans wrote about in the “Progressive Captivity.”

Responding narrowly to Bishop Dimitrios’ claim that we’ve brought these disasters upon ourselves, check out the “take-home points” from a statement by Roger Pielke Jr. to a July 18 U.S. Senate hearing on climate change. Pielke is a professor of environmental policies at the University of Colorado and is the author of The Climate Fix (Basic Books, 2011).

Take-Home Points

— It is misleading, and just plain incorrect, to claim that disasters associated with hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or droughts have increased on climate timescales either in the United States or globally. It is further incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases.
— Globally, weather-related losses ($) have not increased since 1990 as a proportion of GDP (they have actually decreased by about 25%) and insured catastrophe losses have not increased as a proportion of GDP since 1960.
— Hurricanes have not increased in the US in frequency, intensity or normalized damage since at least 1900. The same holds for tropical cyclones globally since at least 1970 (when data allows for a global perspective).
— Floods have not increased in the US in frequency or intensity since at least 1950. Flood losses as a percentage of US GDP have dropped by about 75% since 1940.
— Tornadoes have not increased in frequency, intensity or normalized damage since 1950, and there is some evidence to suggest that they have actually declined.
— Drought has “for the most part, become shorter, less frequent, and cover a smaller portion of the U. S. over the last century.” Globally, “there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years.”
— The absolute costs of disasters will increase significantly in coming years due to greater wealth and populations in locations exposed to extremes. Consequently, disasters will continue to be an important focus of policy, irrespective of the exact future course of climate change.

Then note Pielke’s following points, under the heading “to avoid any confusion,” adding good context, following his warning that the climate issue is “deeply politicized.” As the video Andrew linked shows.

Full Pielke statement here, with others:
http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=cfe32378-96a4-81ed-9d0e-2618e6ddff46

Golly. This stuff is complicated! And this:

Sensitive information — A peek inside the next IPCC assessment
The Economist. Jul 20th 2013

… over the past year, several other papers have suggested that views on climate sensitivity are changing. Both the 2007 IPCC report and a previous draft of the new assessment reflected earlier views on the matter by saying that the standard measure of climate sensitivity (the likely rise in equilibrium temperature in response to a doubling of CO2 concentration) was between 2°C and 4.5°C, with 3°C the most probable figure. In the new draft, the lower end of the range has been reduced to 1.5°C and the “most likely” figure has been scrapped. That seems to reflect a growing sense that climate sensitivity may have been overestimated in the past and that the science is too uncertain to justify a single estimate of future rises.

more >>> http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21581979-peek-inside-next-ipcc-assessment-sensitive-information

It is ironic that this same group contends that homosexuality, abortion, all manner of immorality and state sponsorship of social degradation to the point of religious repression is “none of its business” or even “right and proper”, “evangelical”, “Christian”.

The Leftist koolaid cups do indeed seem to be part of GOA coffee hour. That and their new McCarthyism of “rooting out Orthodox Traditionalists”.

Such a strange and politically, unnuanced brand of ‘Hellenism”.

Maybe this is why the usurper Obama used a Greek temple for a prop all those years ago?

Makes one wonder If they really still espouse “Orthodoxia”, because their trajectory seems to definitely be “orthophobia”.

From the GOA Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/goarch.

The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago participated in this production of “Fracking Southern Illinois: Faithful Opposition”, which was originally broadcast on the Chicago ABC-WLS-TV Channel 7 on June 30. His Grace Bishop Dimitrios, Chancellor of the Metropolis of Chicago is interviewed in the program. In the context of the program, His Grace talks about our theology of being made in the image and likeness of God and our responsibility as stewards.
http://youtu.be/FXwdhp5ilxs

Yet, Another sign of the Progressive Captivity of the Church in America. At about the 25:30 Mark of the youtube video Bishop Demtrios says we bring natural disasters on ourselves.