too many mainstream Protestant churches offered only shallow theology and “far-left” ideology
This is partly correct. But it is also deeply fused with eh revival of modernist vs fundamentalist debates in the 1970s, which was NOT an organic development.
But critics say that top church leaders rarely condemn even the most noxious rhetoric from high-profile Orthodox Christians.
Correct; the bishops want the numbers and the money.
Rod Dreher warned recently that “antisemitism is spreading like a virus among religious conservatives of the Zoomer generation,”
Says the discreditable Putin worship. Here, I'm more inclined to consider the possibility of easily manipulated stooge.
Matthew Heimbach, who organized the notorious Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, had been excommunicated from the Antiochian Orthodox church but joined another branch.
In other words, he's ROCOR now. I did not know that he was behind the Unite the Right rally.
Father Trenham’s congregation in Riverside, Calif., has more than 1,000 active parishioners, and 241 in the process of converting. “Five years ago I had 75, which I thought was a lot,” he said in an interview this fall. “The trajectory is increasing.”
So he bloated his parish on the back of MAGA, just like other online influencers.
In a more recent video reflection on the prominent white nationalist Nick Fuentes’s appearance on Mr. Carlson’s show, Father Trenham claimed he didn’t know much about Mr. Fuentes and went on to praise the men’s conversation about the scourge of pornography.
That's horsecrap; there is no way that he travels his circles without knowing. The only possibility would be stupidity and willful ignorance, and Brad has never been either.
The Rev. Josiah Trenham, one of the most well-known American priests, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show shortly after the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to discuss Christian mourning traditions
Damn. Didn't know this.
The online influencers that many young men credit with introducing them to Orthodoxy speak directly about politics and culture in a way that parish priests more often avoid. They tend to share an unbending social conservatism, with a particular interest in the “traditional family” and what they describe as the threats of feminism, homosexuality and transgender identities. They are also generally opposed to the state of Israel.
And here is both the heart of the matter, and the evidence that they are representing the Kremlin, with its long and deep history of anti-semitism.
In North Carolina, All Saints is exploring the possibility of opening a school, as well as adding a second priest and a new location. This fall, the parish had a record 165 catechumens, people in the typically yearlong process of formally joining the Orthodox Church.
Heading the St. Elias path, which is not normal.
Some Orthodox parishes now have their own schools, long a rarity in a tradition with such small numbers. The pan-Orthodox Saint Constantine School has more than 500 students at its flagship school in Houston, which opened in 2015. The network opened a new campus in Pittsburgh last year, and another in Dallas this fall
This is hardly a normal school.
Father Winn, 38, converted in the early 2010s. He has a seemingly endless energy for meeting with people curious about the church. His wife, Destinie, runs a popular Orthodox parenting account on Instagram when she is not home-schooling their four — soon to be five — children, or hosting groups from the church on their big back porch overlooking a patch of woods in nearby Cary.
Antiochian parish.
Orthodox churches were significantly more likely than others to ignore the coronavirus pandemic and continue to hold in-person services.
And there is the special sauce. A bunch went full apocalyptic and threw in with Trumpism. Note the utter failure of the NYT to address jurisdictional differences. Antiochian and GOARCH were instructed to comply with authorities. So the OCA and ROCOR are falsely claiming to represent all churches here.
The Orthodox Church stands as the hope of those who wish to be normal, to be healthy, true and beautiful
In American binary, this suggests a very dark view of non-Orthodox.
Many converts say they appreciate the notion that Orthodox theology and practices have remained the same since the birth of Christianity
And this is completely ahistorical bullcrap. The kerygma has not changed, but the theological expression of it most certainly has. Changes in practice are even more obvious to find.
not just conservative morally, but that take the unseen world seriously
A very strange combination by Damick, whom I always had doubts about anyway.
Some argue that the common denominator in churches attracting young people is not their style of worship but their treatment of the supernatural. Father Damick, the priest in Pennsylvania, pointed out that charismatic Christianity, whose theology includes an openness to faith healing and “spiritual warfare,” has also resisted trends of religious decline
Some validity to this, I think.
In the Catholic church, a significant minority of young people prefer the pre-Vatican II Traditional Latin Mass, and attend parishes where women wear veils to mass.Image
Yes, because both groups are being manipulated by the same political operatives, going back to Weyrich and perhaps beyond. The whole point was to transform churches into reliable "conservative" voting block.
collapsed in scandal
So, young, ignorant, and misinformed, they think Orthodoxy is the perfect vessel.
“Young men are struggling to find jobs, they’re struggling to get into schools, and they’re really being told by society, ‘We don’t really need you.’”
Here is the anti ERA relic turned to MAGA-leaning trope online.
There’s no war for us to die in — well, there are wars for us to die in, just not ones that are honorable
WTF! The bar of masculinity is to go die as a slave to some elite's agenda to preserve his own legacy?
24 percent of adult adherents younger than 30
That's a significant unbalancing.
More than 60 percent of them are men, compared with 46 percent of evangelicals, according to the Pew Research Center
This statistic shows clearly the pseudo-monastic warping of American piety. The fact that women are repulsed should give us cause to reflect. Instead, we just berate feminism. And even the feminism claim is hardly credible in the face of our rank hypocrisy in matters of sexual abuse.
Some recent surveys suggest that young adult men are defying that trend.
This is not fully new; see above on Billy Sunday. And such men distort things badly.
The church also maintains a strict and complicated schedule of fasting.
Yes, but actual practice is far broader than Orthobros claim.
an hourslong affair at which attendees typically stand the entire time, rather than sitting in the pews or kneeling
Confusing ROCOR for the whole tradition much?
Many of the young Americans new to the pews have been introduced to Orthodoxy by hard-edge influencers on YouTube and other social media platforms. Critics call the enthusiastic young converts “Orthobros.”
First fully correct sentence of the piece.
representing about 1 percent of the population
Half that. Less if one consults Krindatch.
converts say Orthodoxy offers them hard truths and affirms their masculinity
Gross.
They are drawn to what they describe as a more demanding, even difficult, practice of Christianity
Like the Billy Sunday "muscular Christianity" toxin.
especially among conservative young men
An abuse of the word "conservative". These are fundamentalist radicals, politicized by Kremlin propagandists.