Christendom's "trad" problem

Apostolic Christianity has a huge right-wing problem masquerading under the guise of "traditionalism" and I'm tired of ignoring it

So for anyone who doesn't know me, I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian, specifically Antiochian, I was part of the wave of converts to apostolic Christianity that began during COVID and the years following. I'm very passionate about what I believe and I enjoy sharing it, having said this though, I can't help but notice a growing problem in not only my own parish or the Orthodox Church, but Christendom as a whole.

There exists a large amount of converts that have converted not for Christ, but for their own personal reasons, be they political, ideological, or otherwise. This is prevalent in the Eastern Orthodox as well as Traditional Catholics (those who reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and still hold Mass in Latin ad orientem). I find this very prevalent in my own parish particularly, though that may be just because mine is the largest parish in the area. 

To give an example: my parish is right across from a Traditional Latin Mass parish, last Sunday we held a gathering for young adults at a parishioner's house and a girl from the Catholic parish came, she visits for Vespers occasionally as well and it's always nice catching up with her, but something happened this time.


Me, her, and an acquaintance of mine struck up conversation about the Palmarian Catholic Church, a schismatic sect that separated from Rome in the 1970's, they have a range of weird beliefs including but not limited to:

  1. Venerating Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco as saints
  2. Changing one of the final lines of the Nicene Creed to "I believe in One Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Palmarian Church"
  3. Belief that Mary is present in the Eucharist and that her blood is received during baptism
  4. Publishing their own "purified" version of the Latin Vulgate inspired by supposed "mystic visions" of their "Pope", known as the Palmarian Bible
  5. Perpetual virginity and assumption of St. Joseph, Stepfather of Our Lord
  6. Melchizidek was a previous incarnation of Jesus Christ
  7. Belief in an Antichrist-type figure called the "Anti-Mary"
There are several more but those are what come to mind right now, as we were discussing it, someone I've met a few times but don't know too well who was listening in on our conversation said the following:

"At least they're not gay like the Vatican"

This naturally upset the girl we were talking with and caused her to leave the conversation, it made me a bit uncomfortable as well, and I knew this was a possibility as this acquaintance has previously spouted anti-Jewish rhetoric (Orthodoxy denounces Jewish theology, but this man denounces Jewish ethnicity and speaks of them as if they are just inherently evil). He's also a former Roman Catholic so perhaps he has a chip on his shoulder but still

Later on all the young men are sitting around a campfire in the backyard and everyone begins drinking except me, I can't stand the taste of alcohol and always retch and hack it back up before it can affect me. They start talking about right-wing influencers like Nick Fuentes and Charlie Kirk, and eventually the guy that said that thing about the Vatican starts telling stories of when he was in the Marines and why his time at boot camp made him hate black people, I don't remember the exact story but to be completely honest I'm not sure if I particularly want to remember it either. He also talks about why he left Catholicism (I forget this part as well but it essentially boiled down to "Pope Francis was a libtard" or something to that effect). The conversation eventually moves to the topic of racism (shocker, right?), a topic of particular relevance since the town I live in had a lot of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Klansmen until recently. I'm barely old enough to remember those days and luckily very few of them remain, but my father was county sheriff before I was born and had to deal with these people a lot, he would have coffee with the leader of the largest white supremacist organization in the area every Sunday, whether he shared the same views of that man or if it was more of an attempt to maintain good relations is not something I know for sure, but it's pointless for me to find out anyway.

I casually mentioned this because it was relevant to the conversation, which later prompted him to give me the classic "I like you, you're my best friend" type speech that is common among drunk people, I ask him if this was just the two beers he had talking, and he said "no, this is like eight, so you know it's the honest truth", he specifically said to me "I thought you were just some weird geek until you mentioned your Dad and [white supremacist's name], y'know you're actually pretty alright", the rest of the night I didn't really talk to him as he made me uncomfortable.

On the night before The Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, my parish held a combined Vespers/Orthros service, and after Vespers people tend to stick around and socialize for a bit, I eventually find myself sitting on a bench next to a friend and that guy from before, they're talking about the Racist Burger King guy, and jokingly he said that it was his new favorite word, and that he'll start saying it at church, specifically the next day, one of the most holy days of the year. I genuinely can't stand that guy, and he's certainly the worst example I know, but it's not just him, it's every young man at my parish (except for like two but still) and some of the older ones as well. I genuinely feel like I'm the only young male Orthodox convert at my parish that didn't fall down some weird alt-right/conspiracy pipeline and I can't keep awkwardly nodding my head during those conversations to fit in anymore, I mostly just find myself talking to mothers, really old ladies, or the priest now because they're some of the only people that feel sane.

If you wouldn't say it before a priest or before Christ Himself, don't say it at all


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