What you're about to see is a rare window into the Eastern Orthodox Church - the lies,
cover-ups, superstition, and science denial of a branch of Christianity boasting 230 million
members - a tragic window into a system-wide scandal resulting in the mass-death of its
congregants. If you're religious and you're watching this,
I want to make one thing abundantly clear. I don't want to make this video. And in an
ideal world, I wouldn't have to. I have no personal beef with the Eastern Orthodox Church.
In fact, I've personally visited many churches like the ones mentioned in this video and
for the most part, have very fond memories of my time. The gorgeous architecture, the
angelic sound of bells mixing with the melody of monks singing, the rich history, and the
friendly people all come to mind. I've had Orthodox professors, friends, and roommates
who I respect and cherish. Although, I'm not a fan of religious dogma, I care about the
people. So when I see tragedies like this, it fucking shatters me.
But while I would rather make humorous content or talk about scientific progress, countless
thousands have needlessly lost their lives in the last several months alone, thanks to
millenia-old practices which put legalistic superstitious customs above the safety of
people's lives. Even if this video is but a whisper, drowned out in the sea of internet
noise. These needless dead deserve a voice. January 30: the WHO declares a global health
emergency. A novel coronavirus has made its international debut and with no treatment
or vaccine soon begins ravaging the world, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake.
Hospitals are reaching full capacity. Here the halls and waiting rooms are packed – standing
room only – as they wait for someone to treat them.
By mid February, the virus has made its way to Europe, exploding exponentially.
In another Madrid hospital, patients lie on the floor because there are no beds left.
By March, entire countries are going into lockdown in an effort to save lives and slow
the spread of the pandemic - temporarily closing non-essential businesses and forbidding public
gatherings. But churches of all denominations resisted.
Italy hammered hard by the virus urged everyone to stay home while the Pope encouraged his
elderly priests to go out and deliver communion. Hundreds of Catholic priests tested positive
for the virus after this and the pope faced criticism for keeping Vatican offices open.
Protestant churches in the US, refusing to follow shelter in place laws, became hotbeds
of the disease. We had a church that had a preacher from Texas
come down to Dawson Springs, March 15 and 16 for a revival. When he left, multiple families
were sick. Church placed a post on social media that those people did not have corona,
they just had the flu. According to several people interviewed, they were encouraged not
to self-quarantine and still come to church. Hopkins county now has 24 cases, hundreds
of contacts, and two deaths with an epidemiological link to this revival.
But the worst offender of all, was the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Many Orthodox churches remained open all the way through Easter, some still are, ignoring
all laws against public gatherings. And rather than altering practices for the safety of
their congregation, members were still allowed to attend services without masks where they
kiss icons and partake of Communion from the same spoon.
Yes... you heard that right. During a global pandemic lockdown, recipients of the eucharist
were herded to the front of crammed churches to slurp up the sacrament from a shared utensil,
graciously endowing the next participant with millions of bacteria and viruses spread across
a thin film of spittle. Was this an isolated case - one rogue church
ignoring a litany of mandates from the Orthodox Heirarchy? Absolutely not. Orthodox Churches
from Greece to Georgia to Austalia, Romania, Russia, and everywhere in between continued
to observe communion with the village spoon - arguing, even during a pandemic, that the
practice was safe (a position not shared by most medical experts).
They could have listened to the advice of doctors and medical professionals. They could
have opted for online services, they could have required masks of all parishioners and
roped off the icons people love to kiss. But instead, religious zealots actively protested
temporary shelter-in-place requirements fueled on by the encouragement of priests who clustered
crowds of their own parishioners to the front of the building to share each other's saliva
by way of the grim reaper's cutlery. When several elderly women at an Orthodox Church
in Tbilisi, Georgia were asked if they had ever thought about using antiseptic wipes,
they dismissed the idea, saying, "My faith is my disinfectant."
To make matters worse, some of the clergy spread conspiracy theories, claiming that
the virus itself was a hoax, others claimed it was targeted persecution and encouraged
people to resist. At least one high-ranking bishop claimed that the coronavirus was a
scheme of the anti-christ while another priest stoked fears that it was a Satanic plote aided
by Jews. Even though this pandemic has affected everyone:
every country; every religion; every person! Temporary laws against large public gatherings
aren't an effort to persecute the church, they're an attempt to save the lives of its
members. Hell, even atheist conferences like American Atheists, The Faithless Forum, and
Skeptical all had to postpone events. So did tech conferences and music festivals like
South by Southwest. Is that persecution? Church leaders could help us beat this thing. They
have influence, they have platforms, and people look to them to lead in difficult times.
None of us are thrilled by lockdown procedures. We're all trying to save lives.
But instead, church leaders have actively sabotaged efforts to stop this pandemic. Priests
and nuns claimed their faith would protect them and their congregants. They claimed that
you couldn't spread disease through holy communion. And some even claimed churches themselves
were places of healing where you couldn't get sick. And one by one, Orthodox churches
around the world became contageon mega-centers. Thousands of priests, monks, and nuns, fell
ill. And many of the churches attempted to hide their infection rates in order to keep
congregants coming and to protect the faith. And they came. Infected parishioners flocked
to church services. Hoping for healing, they instead infected others. They demanded miracles.
But no miracles came. The priests had promised them healing. They
had promised their congregation that no one had ever gotten sick from holy communion.
But now, the emperor had no clothes. This could devastate the faith of anyone willing
to peer behind the curtain, but almost no one did - for it would be utterly taboo and
even social suicide to question a priest. Especially in Othodox countries where over
90% or more of the population are practicing Christians.
But before long this problem was getting bigger than even the most devout believers could
ignore. In a formal letter to the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church, the patriarch Kirill, over 40 educated, well-respected, but confused
Orthodox Christians wrote the following: Among the bishops and clergy of the Russian
Orthodox Church, there are many who do not take seriously the threat of becoming infected
with the COVID-19 virus... There are priests who silently ignore your
calls for parishioners to stay home, and there are those who openly preach that it is impossible
to get infected in the church... Many bishops continue to serve, some directly
call people to services. There are bishops who literally force priests to serve in churches,
even when they're empty... Some priests received information that there
was an unspoken order in their dioceses and monasteries to hide information about the
real extent of infection among the clergy. There's already talk of dozens of infected
clerics in Moscow alone, some in serious condition. And as a terrible admonition, we accepted
the news of the death of Archpriest Alexander Ageykin, rector of the Epiphany Cathedral
in Elokhov. In almost all large monasteries, men and women
are being infected, often most of them, but monasteries are not closed to pilgrims and
become centers of mass infection. We believe that daily information on the number
of newly infected priests, and on how many churches have closed will help the Church
as a whole to take our common misfortune seriously and make decisions responsibly.
Preservation of medical confidentiality, of course, remains the requirement of the law.
However, there are many examples when priests who care about their flock themselves publicly
announced their illness. We are confident that such openness can and should become the
norm among pastors. In any case, information should be available
on which churches and in which monasteries there are sick and infected clerics and inhabitants.
The stakes are extremely high - the health and lives of parishioners, of pilgrims and
families (often large families) and of the priests themselves.
We respectfully ask you for support and hope that such information will be available soon
- The Completeness of the Church needs the truth, even if this truth is bitter and disturbing.
One of the most sacred Orthodox holy sites, the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, Ukrain
ignored lockdown regulations and remained open to outsiders. By the time the police
eventually arrived to block visitors from entering, it was too late. The contageon had
spread to 142 priests and vistors, including the monastery's abott.
And with Orthodox churches holding larger than average gatherings on Easter weekend,
infection rates soared. One bishop went so far as to say that, "The pestilence began
on Good Friday." And as lies, deception, and cover-ups spread throughout Christendom, one
Belarussian mega-church took the cake, rising above the rest to cement itself as the pinacle
example of how not to act during a pandemic. But it gets its own video. I'll put a link
to that video in the desciption below as soon as it's released. Until then, make sure you're
subscribed and hit the notification bell to make sure you don't miss it.
Unfortunately, many of these topics are considered taboo to talk about. For that reason, relgious
scandals usually don't get the press they deserve for the harm they cause. Even if you're
religious, you should see that as a problem. You can change that in at least two ways.
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support. Dare to be curious, but don't drink the Koolaid.