The Spread of Orthodoxy In Texas
And The Rest of The United States
Right before lent began a salacious hit piece was published by New York resident, Meagan Clark Saliashvili, in Texas Monthly. For months prior, Meagan had attempted to secure interviews from everyone that ended up being mentioned in the article, telling us that the subject would be the spread of Orthodoxy in Texas. The article was instead entitled, “Inspired by the Confederacy & Czarist Russia, ‘Ortho Bros’ Are on the Rise.” As you could tell, it had little to do with the spread of Orthodoxy in Texas, and turned out to be just mindless babble and a hodgepodge of labels intended to make us seem like crazy racists and anti-semites. The blurb about me was quite amusing if we’re being honest.
Thank you Meagan for pointing out that I was lost and confused, an absolute wreck, before finally becoming Orthodox nearly ten years ago. Glory to God, I’m no longer an occultist or a Liberal. The main point of the article was to lessen the credibility of one of American Orthodoxy’s renown Priests and Biblical scholar, Fr. John Whiteford. You can read his response here. Fr. John’s son-in-law, and a prior guest on my podcast, also wrote a great response. I was also contacted recently by a lady named Abby Arora, who said she was a producer for The Daily Show, and wanted to set up a “field piece” segment for Jordan Klepper about “Orthodoxy in Texas.” A quick survey of his content, and it was clear he wouldn’t be interested in an objective search for truth. I declined, and I hope nobody in Texas was stupid enough to agree to the segment. As far as I know there isn’t any updated “data” to support this claim, but it seems pretty apparent that Orthodoxy is in fact growing rapidly in Texas. It has certainly caught the attention of the regime’s stooges in the media. Admittedly, this is anecdotal evidence, but I’ve observed it myself since moving here a few years ago. In my parish, we simply have no more space to accommodate new people, but somehow we make do, and are planning a new building. We currently have 25 catechumens, and it seems like a new family shows up every Sunday. Not too long ago, I visited St. Joseph’s in downtown Houston, and witnessed what looked to be about 100 catechumens going to the front when called forward for their blessing. I also had the opportunity to visit St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKinney Texas last October, and they appeared to be in need of a larger space as well. I’m not the most well traveled person in Texas, I hear the situation is the same at other parishes far and wide in Texas. The Federal agents assigned to surveil Orthodox Churches must have noticed, and initiated their media stooges and subversive plants. Orthodoxy is spreading in Texas, and is spreading because Texans are recognizing it as a stalwart of truth that resists the lies perpetuated by the ruling elites and their progressive institutions.
I was received into the Orthodox Church on the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul in 2014 according to the New Calendar, roughly six years before many Churches would shut down along with the majority of small businesses. Global GDP declined by $400 million as a result of the lockdown measures. Not only did the lockdown measures essentially destroy the economy, thrusting many people into unemployment and poverty, it was becoming apparent to anyone with a working brain that they didn’t work to stop the spread of COVID-19. It also became fairly obvious that the disease wasn’t as dangerous as the media and “experts” were insisting that it was. That being followed up by an experimental vaccine that was nearly federally mandated for all, but was mandated by many employers. The vaccine would go on to be the most dangerous vaccine in human history, and perhaps the most useless one at that. With the “truth institutions” blatantly lying to people’s faces, the people began to question everything that they previously assumed to be true. They began to question their entire worldviews, ranging from political systems to religion. I witnessed this pattern throughout 2020, until the present times. I’ve talked to countless converts since the “pandemic” that have cited those events as what led to their pursuit of truth, that eventually led them to the fullness of truth in The Orthodox Church. Some converts selectively choose their Parish to complete their catechumenate in, based on the Parishes response to COVID-19. It has been my observation that parishes with less or no restrictions during COVID-19 lockdowns, or at least lifted the restrictions fairly early on, have seen much higher rates of growth than parishes that complied with lockdown mandates.
For many of these converts, the progressive ideology being imposed upon this society, is simply untenable. Including all of its variations, such as Classical liberalism and good ole American conservatism. Converts to Orthodoxy have witnessed society move further along the paths towards its logical conclusions. Forced multiculturalism doesn’t quite seem to be a strength. LGBTQ propaganda is being imposed upon their children. Children are being slaughtered in the womb. Elections appear to be rigged. BLM protests burning American cities go unpunished, but January 6th protestors are punished harshly. Any dissent leads to gaslighting and ostracization from polite society. Ultimately even shallow acquiescence to the system leaves a void in the people’s heart. It is an ideology of death, one that kills both the individual soul and the society at large.
As with most Utopian philosophies, Progressivism is an attempt to transcend humanity in its fallen condition. Almost emulating the goal of the Church, but in a manner prescribed by forces other than God. Because of the fall as described in the book of Genesis, mankind who was created in the image and likeness of God, lost His likeness. The law was given as a precursor, setting the stage for the coming messiah, who would be Jesus Christ, God incarnate, one person of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Christ would conquer death by His death & resurrection. By doing so He laid out the path for us through His Church, The Orthodox Church, to regain the likeness of God through a process of repentance and receiving His grace given to us through the Sacraments. Those converting to Orthodoxy in Texas, have been led to this realization by the nudge of the Holy Spirit and the light of Christ. Orthodoxy is thus, the final and strongest enemy against all worldly and Satanic ideologies. This is why the ruling elites, and the media that does their bidding, have taken notice of the spread of the true faith.
The question perhaps for further inquiry, is why are they singling out Texas? As far as I can tell, this rapid growth of Orthodox Christianity is happening all over the United States. As much as I would personally enjoy the emergence of the Texantine Orthodox Empire, it seems that similar things are happening all over, not just Texas, and not just in the “South.” For instance, Fr. Josiah Trenham’s parish in California, has reported having hundreds of Catechumens at any given time. The Antiochian Parish that received me in 2014 in the Baltimore area, is also bursting at the seams and in need of space. Even in Washington D.C. the ROCOR Cathedral is forced to have two liturgies every Sunday for lack of space. So it’s curious why the regime and the media would single out Orthodox Christians in the South, or Texas specifically. Is there still some sort of lingering resentment directed against the South from the Civil War? Are they fearful of Orthodoxy becoming popular in Texas? Maybe if all of the Southern Baptists in Texas Converted to Orthodoxy, that wouldn’t be good for the modern State of Israel.