We have socialists in our Church! One of them still around today is Mary LaBarge of St. Louis, a.k.a. Box G9a9l
Agape Community seems to have attracted socialist-style thinkers, probably because of the "commune" atmosphere. Fr. Gregory in 1999 offered everyone, me included, that if we would give him our pay checks, then he would take care of all our needs. It seemed he thought this would improve our lives. One of the catechumens, Todd Brown (later baptized Nicholas), was also made this offer, and he said, "I'm totally convinced about Orthodoxy, but I don't like this commie stuff..."
SOCIALISM IS A FORM OF COMMUNISM.
COMMUNISM IS EVIL.
OLD JORDANVILLE TAUGHT US THIS.
COMMUNISM IS EVIL.
OLD JORDANVILLE TAUGHT US THIS.
recent email from Box G9a9l
Posts
added to my morning prayers:
ReplyDelete...guard our souls from the destructive influences of ecumenism, globalism, sergianism, and socialism...
Another comment Nicholas made, after he learned that Fr. Gregory had also asked his son, John, to give up his paycheck: "Doesn't a father want his children to learn how to handle money? Does he think he is going to live forever?"
ReplyDeleteI told Julianna Stephens, another member, about Fr. Gregory asking me to give him my paycheck, and she said,
"Oh yes, he asked us, too." ('us' meaning Julianna + her husband, Anthony)
Then I asked Julianna,
"Doesn't that bother you?"
Julianna answered,
"Oh no, Tony would never do anything like that."
My issue with your opinion on this, sister Joanna, is that it's too broad brush of a statement when we know, for a fact and clearly from the New Testament, that the early Apostolic community did have ownership in common for the common good of the orthodox Ecclesia (it did not last that long, certainly not after the legalization by St. Constantine, but it was a thing). When we know for a fact that Christ taught that it's easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven (implying that it could only happen by some miracle).
ReplyDeleteNot all socialism is Marxist or materialist. There are many different camps. I'm not a socialist personally, but maybe the true Christian economics is not so much socialism, as it is Distributism (yes, I know that this ideology is predominantly papist, but bear with me). Yes, the economics of the Holy Apostles and their beloved in Christ was still unlike the type of hyper-ecumenical kumbaya crap the Agape Community does, but who in their right mind would think the capitalistic economic situation we have today is remotely based on Christ's moral precepts for us?
Andrew-Syneon
ReplyDeleteI am well-armored against this over-used excuse. Communism is Communism no matter how you dress it up. Our Church Fathers have already addressed the supposed "contradiction" of the first Christian Community (Book of Acts) having all things in common. Communism is bound up with the heresy of Heaven on Earth. Socialists are most infected with this heresy. I know one socialist, who used to be a cell attendant for one of our revered teachers at Jordanville, who would even seriously consider joining a secular NON-ORTHODOX "farm community" similar to the Amish, but without any religious requirements. He would live with agnostics in a tight community like that because of the Socialism infection — his brand of socialism, of course -- and he, like all the rest, is still experimenting, forever seeking the perfect socialist heaven-on-earth.
I remembered the name of the heresy that believes in the possibility of a heaven on earth: CHILIASM. Fr. Seraphim used this word. In his book GC&EM, also in his Survival Course. The saintly Abp. Averky also spoke of this.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that in the end times, when Antichrist sets up his one-world-government — it's going to be some form of Communism-Socialism. Is there a better reason than this to train our minds away from the idea that there can be a "good" Socialism? Even if we do not see exactly why, we should not let ourselves "flirt" with the idea.