Cynthia, I happen to agree with Bryan (in retrospect) about WWI. We shouldn’t have been involved int that war. As for Grover Norquist, while I agree with his economics, Bush made a horrendous error at the start of the War on Terror when he listened to Norquist. Norquist led a contingent of Muslims to the White House right after 9/11 and they all fed Bush the line that “Islam=peace” mantra. The reason is that Norquist is married to a Muslim woman.

P.S. Wallis alway struck me as a sanctimonious hypocrite.

One of the things that bothers me about this Ground Zero Mosque thing is that our GOA leaders fall back into a dhimmi attitude as their default position. Not just the bishops and “intellectuals” like Frank Schaeffer, but eminent laymen in the political sphere –think George Stephanopoulos and Alexi Giannoulis. Even our hierarchs had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Bishop Andonius made an appearance, but it seemed to me perfunctory. Where was Demetrios? He has the moral authority here. Instead, Andonius said he was “out of the country with the EP.” Isn’t this his country? Is a defunct monastery in Pontus more important than a destroyed Greek Orthodox Church in Manhattan?

Anyway, I sound like a broken record. the GZM provides a moment of clarity for American Orthodxy and if nothing else, I hope the American Orthodox Church that arises will not be one characterized by dhimmi qualities or even one subservient to the political world. We don’t have to be, so let’s not even get started on that road. I realize things are different for Antioch, Alexandria, and C’pole, but we have been spared the depredations of the Hagarenes so far.

It seems that G. Soros has his hands on these sorts of efforts throughout the globe. He is surely responsible to keep Orthodox Christians separate through superficial disputes and by flaming nationalism.

Of course in saying this, I’ve rendered myself a conspiracy theorist nutjob! 🙂