Tag: Christianity

Photo: sparklogic.ru     

Christ is in our midst, my dear readers!

Christ’s beloved disciple John the Theologian teaches us that earthly life makes us members of only one of two families. We become either children of God, or children of the devil. The Apostle says that only those who live according to truth and love are born of God. Truth without love is deformed into cruelty. And love without truth turns into the allowance of sin. God Himself is the source of Truth and Love. Therefore, those who follow Him become like Him. And the opposite is true—those who follow in the footsteps of the evil spirits are always liars and filled with hatred. This is because lies always lead to hatred. The father of lies is the devil, and everyone who serves him becomes a liar.

For the modern world, deception, lies, and fact spinning have become an everyday affair. The ability to lie so that it seems like the truth is a professional quality of many diplomats, politicians, and journalists in any country. Their slogan is: If you don’t lie, you won’t survive.

In order to hold to truth and love, we need faith. Those who don’t have it fall away from God. They are in no condition to pass the test of faithfulness. This can be seen very clearly in the example of the modern life of our Mother-Church. About those who have betrayed Her, the apostle John writes, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us (1 Jn. 2:19). But the hardest thing is to preserve love in ourselves to the very death. When we begin to judge and be angry, we become children of the devil, because evil enters into our souls. Just look at how the Savior related to his betrayers and executioners. When Judas came to betray Him, Christ turned to him and called him, “friend”. When the Lord hung and suffered on the Cross, He prayed for his crucifiers to the Heavenly Father and said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The world with its lies and hatred will someday cease to exist. But God always was, is, and will be. It depends upon our own choice alone whether we will share eternity with Christ, or be tormented with the devil. God wants to give us His Kingdom. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure (1. Jn. 3:3).

St. John of God was born in Portugal in 1495. He was kidnapped by a stranger when he was eight, and was later abandoned to live on the streets in a remote part of Spain.

John worked as a shepherd until he was 22, when he joined the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. For 18 years, he served as a foot soldier, fighting against the French and then the Turks. He began to lose the piety of his youth. Although he had occasional twinges from his conscience, he continued to live a life of violence and plundering, but he continued to have a love for the poor and distressed.

On two occasions, John was saved from imminent death, once after praying instinctively to the Virgin Mary after he was wounded in enemy territory, and once when he was falsely suspected of theft and nearly executed.

When his regiment was disbanded, he took a pilgrimage to Spain’s Santiago de Compostela Cathedral along the Way of St. James. He confessed his sins, and began living a life of repentance. John returned to Portugal, and learned that his mother had died, brokenhearted from his loss, and his father had become a Franciscan monk.

At age 42, John returned to Spain, again working as a shepherd, and living out his faith. He went to North Africa, helping Christians who had been enslaved by Muslims. But he returned to Spain, selling religious books and goods, encouraging his customers to live their faith.

After this, John gave himself entirely to the poor and sick. He opened up his house, establishing a hospital, homeless shelter, and halfway-house, which he ran himself. He begged to raise money for the poor he took care of. The bishop of Granada approved of his work, calling him “John of God.” A group of volunteers joined him.

When his past sins came to light from those who resented him, John acknowledged them humbly and called his life a testament to God’s grace.

For 15 years, John served the poor and sick, before dying through an act of charity. He saved a drowning man in a freezing river, but was weakened from the ordeal. The bishop of Granada administered last rites to John in his own hospital bed, then John knelt before the cross and died in prayer, with his face pressed against the figure of Christ, on March 7, 1550.

St. John of God was canonized in 1690, and is the patron saint of booksellers, hospitals, and the dying.

ROME — In Western parts of the world, Christians often see “secularism” as a sort of bogeyman. Though technically it simply means the separation of church and state, for many Western believers it conjures up images of Gay Pride parades, legalized abortion, and gay marriage, and scorn for traditional religious belief and practice.

When observant Christians call Germany, for instance, or the U.K. or Holland, “highly secular,” it’s understood not to be much of a compliment.

In other neighborhoods, however, Christians often see secularism very differently. The classic example is the small Christian community in the Middle East, where state support for religion is a recipe for heartache, since the “religion” in question generally is some form of militant Islam.

Historically, Christians were among the founders and strongest supporters of secular parties across the Middle East, such as the Ba’ath Party in Syria and Kemalist parties in Turkey, seeing them as the best way to protect minority rights. Coptic Christians in Egypt today are in the vanguard of pressing for a secular democratic state, as opposed to a process of creeping Islamization.

A 2001 Pew Forum study of Evangelical attitudes around the world drove home the point. A stunning 90% of Evangelical leaders from North America defined secularism as a “major threat” to the faith, but two-thirds of Evangelicals in the Middle East reported “favorable” or “highly favorable” attitudes toward secularism.

In other words, when Christians are an embattled minority, secularism isn’t the enemy — it’s the last, best alternative to annihilation.

The insight helps explain why of late, some of the strongest Christian voices in the world in defense of secularism have come from India, where religious minorities of all sorts find themselves increasingly under pressure vis-à-vis what many observers call the country’s process of “saffronization” under the right-wing Hindu nationalist movements associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Saffron is the color symbolically linked to Hinduism, so “saffronization” refers to the imposition of a Hindu nationalist agenda on the country, for example through controversial anti-conversion laws which critics say are used to suppress and intimidate religious minorities. Observers say this “saffron wave” has been building since Modi came to power in 2014.

Last month, the Indian bishops’ conference issued a statement ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for April and May, in which the prelates warned against “divisive attitudes, hate speeches, and fundamentalist movements” which, they claimed, “are eroding the pluralistic, secular ethos” of the country.

“There is an unprecedented religious polarization which is harming the cherished social harmony in our country and endangering democracy itself,” the bishops said.

The warning comes against the backdrop of a chronic, and growing, phenomenon of assaults on Christians in India, which tend to be especially common in states and other territories governed by Modi’s BLJ Party. An ecumenical watchdog group recently issued a report citing 720 incidents of violence against Christians in 2023, which works out to almost two such attacks every day of the year.

Emblematic of the trend were separate incidents which took place in early February involving the arrests of six Protestants, including two American nationals, and a Catholic priest, all charged with violations of state-level anti-conversion statutes.

In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Father Dominic Pinto of the Lucknow Diocese was arrested Feb. 5 along with six Protestants on charges of trying to convert poor Dalits, or “untouchables,” from Hinduism to Christianity, while in Assam, in far northeastern India, two American Baptists were fined Feb. 2 for engaging in religious activities that violated the conditions of their tourist visas.

Under international pressure, the Americans were released fairly quickly after being compelled to pay a fine and to promise not to engage in further religious activities. The Indians, however, remained behind bars, facing ill-defined legal challenges. The arrests came after mobs of Hindu radicals gathered in front of churches and other Christian gathering places, demanding that action be taken.

To be clear, anti-Christian violence in India is hardly a new story.

In 2008, an anti-Christian pogrom broke out in Kandhamal, in eastern India, which left 100 people dead and thousands injured and homeless. At one point, Sister Meena Lalita Barwa, a member of the Handmaids of Mary, was dragged into the street along with a local priest, Father Thomas Chellen, by frenzied attackers chanting “Kill Christians!” 

The mob tried to force Chellen to rape Barwa, and, when he refused, they beat him savagely, stopping only because they thought he was dead. At least one man raped Barwa — she doesn’t know the exact number, because she lost consciousness during the assault — and she was then paraded naked through the streets.

That was 16 years ago, and, if anything, most observers believe the climate for Christians and other minorities in India today is even more precarious. In part, that’s because of geopolitics — India is seen in the West as a strategic offset against growing Chinese influence, and thus Modi’s record on human rights and religious freedom often is overlooked or downplayed.

The fact that it’s sometimes inconvenient to call attention to anti-Christian violence in India, however, doesn’t make it any less lethal — if anything, neglect creates an environment in which the perpetrators feel ever bolder.

Context, as ever, is king.

While Christians in the West may rue secular inroads against the faith, India’s small but vibrant Christian population — estimated at 26 million people, roughly 2.3% of the country — may emerge as secularism’s best friends on the global stage.

The panel was titled “Women Leaders: Towards a brighter future,” and was organized jointly by Caritas International and the British and Australian Embassies to the Holy See.

Speaking on the panel, Christiane Murray, deputy director of the Holy See Press Office, said women bring a “fresh and innovative” perspective to the Vatican, but lamented that when a woman is appointed to a leadership role in the curia, she is defined as a power-player, while the same is not said of men who receive the same appointments.

“It’s as if there is an aura of power,” she said, insisting the job is not about power, but service.

She also hit back against what she said are gender stereotypes, saying, “Traditionally, qualities such as graciousness, delicacy, care, empathy, these qualities are always associated with femininity.”

“However, it’s important to note that these characteristics are not intrinsically tied to gender, but they are social constructs that can be experienced and expressed also by individuals of the masculine sex,” she said, as the room applauded.

Similarly, Dr. Maeve Heaney, a consecrated member of Verbum Dei and Director of the Xavier Center for Theological Formation at the Australian Catholic University, said women’s leadership is a theological issue, and touched specifically on complementarity.

“Certain theological anthropologies essentialize too much what men and women bring to the table in ways that are unhelpful and not reflective of real human experience,” she said, saying these anthropological perspectives typically refer to complementarity between men and women.

While true, complementarity at times names “the contribution of women as essentially different to that of men, pitching love, spirituality and nurturing against authority, leadership and intellect.”

“I’m not suggesting there are no differences between women and men, I’m simply asking us not to radicalize or essentialize them,” she said.

To this end, she referred to the Petrine and Marian principles of Swiss priest and theologian Hans Urs von Balthazar, which are frequently invoked by Pope Francis to illustrate why women can play a more important role in the Church, even if they are not ordained.

Heaney in her presentation hailed von Balthazar as “a genius,” but said his work “did not have enough checks and balances.”

“His complementarity theology, in my opinion, is incomplete as it over-emphasizes the maleness of Jesus and femaleness of the Church, presenting women as receptive and spiritual, the counterpart and at times answer to men’s more proactive and intellectual nature,” she said.

Complementarity itself is not a problem, she said, saying the issue, in her view, is when gender roles are “radically” contrasted in the Church, “especially when those are built on power roles.”

She also called for a reexamination of the Church’s theology of ordination, saying “In its current form, our theology of ordained ministry…links decision making in all spheres to ordination, yet in our baptism we are all introduced to Christ and are called prophets, priests, and kings.”

This means everyone has a role to play, she said, saying the ordained ministry is necessary, but it can change.

“I’m not saying women should be allowed, but I’m not saying they should not. That is not the issue I’m identifying,” Heaney said, saying a “robust” reflection is needed at various levels “to untie the knot between governance and power and the ministerial priesthood and thus allow women and other lay people” to play a greater role in decision-making.

Complementarity, she said, “emerged at the moment when the Church was saying women can’t be ordained. I’m not entering into that issue, but I think they were looking for a way to theologically value women while saying you can’t have power.”

What needs to happen, she said, is a deep rethinking of the theology of ordination “so we don’t have all ministerial priesthood and power over here, and therefore women over here trying to give something different.”

Asked about Pope Francis’s frequent reference to von Balthazar’s Petrine and Marian concepts, Heaney said the reflection on the topic of synodality and collaborative leadership is just beginning, and “sometimes we ask too much of one person, not just the pope, but all leaders.”

“Not every word that comes out of any pope’s mouth is magisterial. We’ve all been theologically formed, we all need to keep up to date with that, even popes and bishops,” she said.

Spanish nun Linda Pocher, who has addressed the issue of women in the Church during the past two meetings of the Council of Cardinals, the pope’s top advisory body and who appears to be a close papal advisor on the issue of women, has also taken issue with von Balthazar’s Petrine and Marian principles.

In a written message to the conference, Pope Francis invoked “God’s gift of wisdom” for the conference and offered prayers that the discussion would “bear fruit in an ever greater commitment on the part of all, in the Church and across the world, to promote respect for the equal and complementary dignity of women and men.”

One ambassador participating in Wednesday’s panel noted that gender biases are experienced even at the diplomatic level, saying men in diplomatic service are often assigned to areas of disarmament and security, while women are given softer issues and social projects.

Australian Ambassador to the Holy See Chiara Porro lamented the double standard women in leadership face, needing to stand out to reach the top, while being facing “bias” for being confident and scrutiny for how they exercise leadership.

Sister Patricia Murray, Secretary General of the International Union of Superiors General, highlighted the role that women religious play in the Church, often on the peripheries and on the frontlines of issues such as poverty, human trafficking and migration.

Quoting her order’s foundress, she said, “there is no such difference between men and women that women may not do great things,” and lauded the many ways she said women’s voices are now being heard in the Church.

She voiced appreciation for the increased presence of women in the ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which saw women cast a vote for the first time in a Rome-based gathering last year.

Issues such as female diaconate, the possibility of women preaching, and the potential creation of other ministries are being considered, she said, saying, “this is not a quick process, it will take time, even beyond the second session of the synod, and it requires deep listening to the Holy Spirit.”

Similarly, Sister Nathalie Becquart, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, the first woman to hold the position, praised the synod’s aim of making the Church “less bureaucratic and more relational.”

The role of women and the desire to create more space for them in leadership is “a sign of the times,” she said, saying “the Church has to be attentive to the voices of women who seek greater equality.”

“There is a great desire to participate more in the life of the Church, especially in decision-making processes,” she said, but cautioned that when it comes to what this should look like, “We cannot speak about ‘the woman’ in the Church, there are many women in the Church with a diversity of experiences.”

She said her own experience working as a woman in leadership in the Vatican has been a mixed bag, and that “the Church is like our families, some are better at some things that others.”

“I have some good collaborative experience working with cardinals and bishops, and sometimes with others its difficult because of culture, education, and background,” she said, but called the experience an “adventure” and “very rich.”

Speaking to Crux, Becquart addressed concerns that discussion about women’s inclusion in leadership has been dominated by an overly western perspective, saying that temptation is there, but the synod itself has heard everyone.

“All our national synthesis from all over the world highlighted the request for more recognition of the role of women. There was a strong call from everywhere for more women leadership in the Church, for more women’s participation. That’s common from everywhere,” she said.

Where differences occur, she said, is in what women’s participation ought to look like.

Some people “strongly advocate for the female diaconate. It’s not only in western countries, it can also be in other places, but it’s not everywhere,” noting that in the United States, women already occupy important roles such as diocesan chancellors and lay ministers.

“In other countries there is not exactly the same experience, so … for what has to be decided at the universal level, you have to take account of all this diversity. You have to recognize, acknowledge and respect the local cultures,” she said, saying, “That’s also very important for western people, also us in Europe and the United States.”

She stressed the need for “decentralization” on certain issues, saying, “there are things you would do in some parts of the world,” but not in others, “so we already have that kind of diversity.”

“I think the synod has really been a process to hear more from the diversity of voices, especially from the different continents. Our Church, like our world, is multipolar,” she said, saying women already play a role in all priority areas, whether it be climate change, migration, or the quest for peace amid conflict.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, has called the federal government’s decision to make permanent a policy to provide abortion under certain circumstances “at odds with the notion that the military protects the innocent.”

On March 4, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) permanently amended its medical regulations to remove the exclusion on abortion counseling, and establish exceptions to the exclusion of abortions for those who use the department’s medical benefits package, and for those who are beneficiaries of its Civilian Health and Medical Program.

The policy has been in effect under an interim tag since 2022. The final rule goes into effect on April 3.

“The [U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’] decision is at odds with the notion that the military protects the innocent,” Broglio told Crux in a March 6 statement. “Now, the Department which was established to care for Veterans of the United States Armed Forces through service-related disabilities and retirement, affirms its decision to join what Pope Francis called ‘hit men’ – those who choose ‘to do away with a human life to solve a problem.’”

Broglio made clear he was responding to the VA’s decision strictly in his capacity as Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and not in his capacity as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Broglio said he “deplores” the VA’s decision.

“The notion that killing an unborn child can somehow be considered ‘medical or surgical care’ certainly violates the dignity of the human person and suggests that some lives are more important than others,” Broglio said. “I deplore this decision that once more removes the right to life for the defenseless and inflicts untold physical and psychological trauma on mothers.”

In April of 2023, both the archdiocese and the USCCB objected to the rule in its interim form. In particular, they argued that the Veterans Affairs Secretary exceeded his authority in expanding the definition of “medical and surgical care” to include abortion, especially considering Section 106 of the Veterans Health Care Act excludes abortion from the services the act covers.

In its comments with the final rule, the VA acknowledges that under Section 106 barred abortion provisions, however, adding that fact “did not limit VA’s authority to provide such services under any other statutory provision.” It goes on to explain that for years the department has already relied on other provisions for general pregnancy care and infertility services.

Broglio pushed back on the logic.

“Nonsensically, the Department claims that other statutes, which never mention abortion, create in their silence, a right to abortion, even though abortion is specifically prohibited within the larger statutory scheme for VA health care,” Broglio explained.

Broglio also took aim at the legal rhetoric the department used to justify the decision.

“This bald rhetoric ignores logic and basic tenets of statutory construction, and bellies a relentless ideological pursuit of abortion even when it is plainly contrary to law.”

As it’s written, the final rule does protect those – medical personnel, staff, and others – who have religious, or simply conscience, objections to abortion from adhering to the rule by stating that it “adheres to all applicable Federal laws relating to employee rights and protections, including protections based on an employee’s religious or conscience-based objection to abortion.”

Broglio said he expects this will remain the case.

“It is expected that the Department of Veteran Affairs will at least respect the conscience rights of medical personnel, staff, and other employees and permit them to abstain from any involvement in immoral procedures,” Broglio said.

One of the minor delights of living in Los Angeles is the quality of its billboards.

Advertisements back home blight the night sky with offers to buy my apparently ugly house, or cheat me out of a DUI in whatever language it takes. LA has those too, but in recompense it also gives us the “For Your Consideration” billboards, bus signs, and the occasional sky banner telling who or what to vote for in whatever award show we’re not a member of.

I, for one, feel marginally less of an outsider when the giant eyes of Paul Giamatti loom over me, like a benevolent Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in “The Great Gatsby.”

Those billboards harken the arrival of Oscar season, which will culminate with the ceremony next weekend. Since there are so many movies, but only so many times I can bother my dear editor with emails, this is my last chance to share some nominees I admired but couldn’t devote entire whole reviews to.

‘The Holdovers’

Is there really such a thing as the five stages of grieving? Does grief have a nature, or is it just something that filters through the nature of the person? These are the questions asked at Barton Academy, a New England boarding school in Alexander Payne’s nominated film.

It’s Christmas 1970, and everyone else has gone home save three stragglers: Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a student staying over the break, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a history teacher assigned to watch him, and Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a cafeteria worker who stays behind to feed both. 

All three have no one to go home to, but react to that absence differently. Angus is young and still has the energy — and hope — to lash out at his circumstances. Paul, an atheist and a stoic, pretends to be above his anger while letting it corrode him from the inside. Mary buries herself in her work, a fine plan until you inevitably run out of work. 

“The Holdovers” doesn’t offer a solution to their pain – if it did, the pharmaceutical companies would never let the movie be released. But the characters must discover, as we all do, a truism so annoying in its simplicity that it must be right: whatever the way out, you can’t do it alone. It’s said misery loves company, but “The Holdovers” argues that the miserable need it more than they want it.

‘American Fiction’

If identity politics is a war, then Monk Ellison is a conscientious objector. Cord Jefferson’s strong directorial debut follows Monk (Jeffery Wright), a Black literary professor and novelist irritated at the limits imposed on him by even the most well-meaning of white people. The opening scene is a thesis statement of his frustrations where a white student in his class refuses to discuss Flannery O’Connor and lectures him on the severity of the n-word, as if she were the aggrieved party.

Publishers aren’t interested in his books, because while he is a Black author, he has the audacity to write on subjects besides the Black experience. At his wit’s end, he writes a novel satirizing what the publishers’ want, with gangs and drugs and broken vernacular, far from his own experience. Of course, the publishers love it and offer an advance payment too tempting to turn down, putting Monk in a hole where the only way out is to dig deeper.

I saw this film as God intended, with an audience of fellow Caucasians too scared to laugh at half the jokes and laughing too much at the ones they felt invited into. But “American Fiction” is so effective as a satire because it spares no one, Monk included. He is a deeply human hero, which is just a printable way of implying how much of a jerk he is. Like many who presume themselves geniuses, he stopped recognizing the distinction between principle and ego long ago.

His final predicament mirrors the age-old debate between faith and good works: Does what you hold in your heart matter nearly as much as what you put into the world?

‘Godzilla Minus One’

This was not nominated for “Best Picture” but rather “Best Visual Effects.” Perhaps it’s cheating to include it here, but I wanted to discuss it and there’s no authority you can report me to.

The highest grossing Japanese language film in American box office history, “Godzilla Minus One” takes the series back to its post-World War II Japan roots. Koichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot who bails from his final assignment, averting his plane instead to a nearby island base. Before he can be reprimanded, Godzilla attacks the base and scatters the forces. Koichi has the chance once to fire his plane’s guns at the monster, but his will fails again and Godzilla escapes.

Returning to a bombed-out Tokyo, Koichi wrestles with these twin failures and the unspoken judgment from others who see cowardice in his survival. Fate draws him into the lives of a young woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and her adopted daughter, but shame keeps him from opening himself to love. That is, till Godzilla returns and a chance for redemption is in play.

Godzilla movies are often a reptilian spectacle with some human scenes you patiently tolerate, but the human drama proves almost as compelling as the skyscraper lizard with atomic breath. Your own breath is held as you wonder if Koichi can learn to stop trying to justify his own existence and let others love him. This finishes with a rousing third act that praises the collective while not losing sight of the individuals that comprise it, and also points out that sacrifice can only come from those who value life first.

Will any of these films win their Oscar? Not unless Christopher Nolan gets nailed with racketeering charges. But we, Paul Giamatti, Flannery O’Connor, and Godzilla can always hope.

What is our deepest center? Normally we take that to mean the deepest part of our heart, the deepest part of our soul, our affective center, our moral center, that place inside of us which Thomas Merton called le pointe vierge (“the blank stitch”). And that is a good way of imagining it. But there’s another.

The classical mystic John of the Cross saw things differently. For him, the deepest center of anything is the furthest point attainable by that object’s being and power and force of operation and movement. What does he mean by that? In essence, this is what he is saying: The deepest center of anything, be it a flower or a human being, is the furthest point to which it can grow before it dies.

Take a flower for example: It begins as a seed, then grows into a tiny bud that sprouts into a young plant. That plant eventually bursts forth in a beautiful bloom. That bloom lasts for a while and then begins to dry out and wither. Eventually, what was once the substance of a beautiful bloom turns into seeds, and then in its very act of dying, the flower gives off those seeds to leave new life behind.

Thus, for John of the Cross, the deepest center for a flower is not its moment of spectacular beauty, its bloom, but its last moment when its bloom has turned to seed, and it is able to give off that seed in its very act of dying.

There’s a lesson that goes against how we commonly assess things. When are we the most generative potentially? When do we have the greatest capacity to use our lives to give off the seeds for new life? What is our deepest center of growth?

Normally, of course, we think of the deepest center as the bloom, namely, that period or moment in our lives when a combination of good health, physical attractiveness, talent, achievement, and influence make us someone who is admired and perhaps envied. This is the time in our lives when we look our best and, as they say, are at the peak of our game. This is our bloom! The best we will ever look!

John of the Cross wouldn’t denigrate that moment in our lives. Indeed, he would challenge us to be in that moment, to enjoy it, be grateful to God for it, and to try to use the advantages and privileges that come with that to help others. But he wouldn’t say this is the peak moment of our generativity, that this is the moment or period of our lives when we are giving off the most seeds for new life.

No, like a flower that gives off its seeds in its very act of dying, we too are potentially most generative after the bloom has given way to the grey of age and our achievements have given way to a different kind of fruitfulness.

Imagine a young woman who is beautiful and talented and becomes a famous movie actor. At the height of her career, she is in full bloom and is given the gaze of admiration. Indeed, she is adulated. Moreover, in her life outside of the movies she may be a generous person, a wonderful wife, a dedicated mother, and a trusted friend. However, that bloom is not her furthest point of growth, her deepest center, that time in her life when she is giving off the most, vis-a-vis generating new life.

Instead, when she is an aged grandmother, struggling with health issues, her physical looks diminished, facing the prospect of assisted living and imminent death that, potentially, like the flower whose bloom has dried and turned to seed, she can give her life away in a manner that helps create new life in a way she couldn’t do when she was young, attractive, admired, envied, and in full bloom.

A similar case might be made for a star male athlete. At the height of his career, winning a championship, becoming a household name, his envied youthful athletic image seen everywhere in ads and on billboards, he is in full bloom; but at that time, he is not optimally generative in terms of his life giving off seeds to bring about new life.

That can happen later, in his old age, when his achievements no longer define him, and he, like everyone else, with his hair graying, is facing physical diminishment, marginalization, and imminent death. It’s then, after the bloom has left the rose, that in his dying he can give off seeds to create new life.

We tend to identify a spectacular bloom with powerful generativity. Fair enough, that bloom has its own importance, legitimate purpose, and value. Indeed, one of our challenges is to give that bloom the gaze of admiration without envy. Not easy to do, and something we often don’t do well. The bigger challenge however is to learn what we ourselves are called to do after the bloom has left the rose.

Photo: fotoload.ru The work of the prophet Haggai is short and easy to miss; it is a mere two chapters in our Bibles sandwiched in between the books of Zephaniah and Zechariah. If you are flipping quickly through the final pages of the Old Testament he easy to miss. After ploughing through longer works such as those of Isaiah (66 chapters), Jeremiah (52 chapters, plus 5 more chapters of Lamentations), and Ezekiel (48 chapters), Haggai looks positively puny in comparison.

It is not only that his literary remains are few in comparison to others in the Old Testament canon. Haggai himself lived and worked as part of a post-exilic community that was few in number and puny in power. This must have been all the more frustrating for him and his contemporaries because the former prophets (ones like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) promised a glorious future for Israel once they returned from exile. God would enlarge them, enrich them, empower them; He would make Jerusalem the epicenter of Israelite dominance in all the world so that all the nations would flock to Jerusalem offering gifts and worshipping Israel’s God.

So, Haggai and his contemporaries must have repeatedly asked themselves, where was all this glory anyway? A few brave souls left their thriving family businesses in Babylon and Persia and straggled back to a ruined land. There they found themselves surrounded by hostile neighbours, both at home and abroad, with Israel a backwater province of the still-invincible Persian empire. Later the Persians would be replaced by the invincible Macedonian power of Alexander the Great, and then Judah would become the plaything of the quarreling Egyptian and Syrian powers, and finally the subservient slave of Rome. The promised glory never arrived. The world was still full of big powerful players, and Israel was still small and powerless, and the brief fling at power by the Hasmoneans was the exception that proved the rule. The people of Israel now were mostly confined to the land formerly occupied by the tribe of Judah, the land surrounding Jerusalem. That was why they came to be called “Jews”. Some glorious future!

We see this frustration and this temptation to despair as a throbbing subtext in every line of Haggai’s message. The people who trickled back in depressingly small numbers complained that they were not working on building the Temple because “the time has not yet come to build the House of Yahweh”. Haggai rounded on them, and retorted, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled house while this House lies in ruins?” He pointed out the results of their negligence: they had sown much and harvested little and were struggling. That, he declared, was because of God’s judgment—when you brought the harvest home, God blew it away (Haggai 1:2-9). The answer was to repent and attend to building God’s House.

Finally they did work and build the House, but it was depressingly tiny and poor compared to the previous House built by Solomon. Haggai was again at their elbow to encourage them: “Who is left among you that saw this House in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?…Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in and I will fill this House with splendour, says Yahweh of Hosts. The latter splendour of this House shall be greater than the former” (Haggai 2:3-9). That splendour, of course, would come with Christ, and the splendour would be a spiritual splendour, adorning a spiritual House (compare Hebrews 12:26-27; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-5). But in Haggai’s day, the success and power of God’s people were depressingly small.

Once again we Orthodox in the West live in a day of small things, small churches, small numbers, and small victories. Admittedly greater numbers now thrive in eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Russia, as people there once again honour and embrace the Orthodox faith. But here in the spiritually dying and decadent West we Orthodox are small, tiny, and embattled. In a world of big people, we are very little. In many census numbers we show up alongside “Protestant”, “Catholic”, “Jew” and “Muslim” as “Other”, scarcely making a demographic mark.

We are sometimes tempted to cope with the pain of puniness by retreating into the glory days of history—which is doubtless why we still insist on calling Istanbul “Constantinople” and dressing our bishops in imperial finery. Sometimes we cope by shyly trying to impress the western world with how fashionably relevant we are in hope of regaining some greatness.

Such was one speaker at a March for Life in Washington who gave a speech “affirming the gift and sanctity of life” and who could not resist adding “At the same time, we also affirm our respect for the autonomy of women”—a meaningless phrase in this context, offered only as a sop to the feminist left whose approval he hoped to gain. (Not surprisingly, said speaker also made a point of travelling to another country to baptize the adopted children of a homosexual couple.) Common to these responses is the reluctance to accept that we are now little people in the land of big.

I sympathize. When my own people at St. Herman’s look around they see vast crowds filling Catholic churches for Mass and crowds of Evangelicals piling in to listen to praise bands. By comparison we are very tiny. And it’s hard to be small. It’s hard to be an Orthodox here in the West.

The Prophet Haggai reminds us that there is a day to be small and that a wise heart will leave questions of numbers, growth, and influence in the hands of God. Soon the heavens and the earth will be shaken once more, as Haggai foretold, and God will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots, and their riders will go down (Haggai 2:22). Until then we wait with patience, as Christ’s little flock. We refuse to be cast down or discouraged. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom (Luke 12:32).

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity were martyrs who died for their faith around the year 203.

St. Perpetua was a young noblewoman and mother living in Carthage, North Africa. Her mother was a Christian and her father was a pagan. Perpetua followed her mother’s example and fearlessly proclaimed her faith.

When she was 22, Perpetua was imprisoned for being a Christian. She continued to care for her infant child while in prison and undergoing torture. She was sacrificed at the Roman games as a public spectacle.

St. Felicity was a pregnant slave girl who was imprisoned with St. Perpetua. Little is known about her life, but she shared in the same tortures as Perpetua, and was condemned to die at the games. A few days before she was executed, Felicity gave birth to a baby girl, who was taken away in secret to be raised by Christians.

Although this new sect is not well known outside of Russia, it appears to be trying to reach new audiences in other languages on the internet. It is nothing particularly new in the world of “self-help” and “empowerment” sects, and this warning could be applied to other similar organizations that we in the West (especially in the U.S.) have been dealing with for decades, such as Scientology, Erhard Seminars Training (EST), Tony Robbins’ Unleash the Power Within (UPW), The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Montessori, and scores of others.

    

In my practice as a priest, I came across something new to me—the online “Super Jump” courses.

One of my parishioners asked me to study this matter and give an Orthodox evaluation, because an Orthodox priest’s wife she knows is a trainer in this organization, has highly recommended these courses to her daughter, and peddles them to others. I looked into it, and it turns out that there are already trainers and clients amongst the parishioners of my parish. I think that by force of the pushy advertisement of this “supermethod” propaganda in the Russian language internet, most likely its followers can be found in other parishes of our Church as well.

The “Super Jump” courses, according to its claims, is a system of intellectual and physical exercises intended to develop the mind, raise energy levels, and control one’s emotional state; it is also called “adult learning”. Thus, it is supposedly a set of various training techniques for a successful life and personal growth.¹

The courses were developed by an entrepreneur of dubious reputation, Vladimir Dovgan, in 2015. At the present time, he has changed his surname to Schastlivy (Russian for Happy, Lucky), and often signs his books with the pseudonym, Velichaishy (Supreme, Greatest). He lives outside of Russia.²

In his motivational video clips and texts, Dovgan says that he spent decades and somewhere between 300-400 thousand dollars on the development of his “unique revolutionary method”.

The aim of the courses is this: on the personal level, the attainment of happiness and emotional harmony due to a radically heightened level of inner energy; and on the global level, nothing less than salvation of the world and all mankind from ecological catastrophe and self-destruction.³

The actual and obvious aim is the creation of a network of material enrichment, fueled by the sale of internet courses.

Anyone who has completed training in the intellect clubs and online courses of Super Jump immediately receives the opportunity to become an intellect trainer who can teach other participants.⁴

Trainers of the “International Association of Super Jump Intellect Trainers” pretentiously call themselves coaches, psychologists, and educators, though they often have no higher education, never mind any special psychological or educational background.

A strange and dangerous situation arises when unqualified individuals undertake to solve the spiritual and physical problems of others without possessing sufficient knowledge, skills, cultural level, or life experience, armed with some new method of dubious character touted as a panacea. Involuntarily, the Gospel proverb comes to mind: Physician, heal thyself (Luke 4:23).

Students pay coaches for their classes (one hundred dollars for a course, ten dollars for each session), and coaches give a certain percentage to their own coaches, on up to the founding coach. The more students and coaches, the more profit.

This forms a commercial pyramid network of multi-level marketing (MLM).⁵

In the “Super Jump” courses, students are offered to master eight fairly simple psychophysiological exercises that are supposed to radically change their lives for the better.⁶ One lesson is allocated for each exercise. On the last two lessons, students are given motivation to purchase a license to call themselves “intellect coaches” for the price of 3300 dollars.

The entire course consists of ten hourly sessions conducted online using video conferencing software (VCS) early in the morning (from 7:00).

The first exercise is called “200 smiles.”⁷ You need to smile at least 200 times every day. According to the coach, frequent smiling generates a positive energy field around you, attracting other people to you and connecting you with the Universe as a source of energy. To remind yourself of this rule, you need to draw a smiley face on your left hand. You can look at it and smile.

As an additional technique, you can deeply inhale and joyfully laugh on the exhale as often as possible. This should provide oxygen flow to the brain, improve mood, and, of course, strengthen the positive energy field.

The second exercise is called “I am the master of my thoughts” (other names: “rubber band,” “billionaire bracelet”).⁸ You need to put a rubber band from a banknote package on the same hand where the smiley face is drawn. Use it to painfully slap yourself on the hand when negative thoughts arise in your mind, and then replace them with positive ones.

In this way, a person engages in self-discipline, developing a conditioned reflex: negative though–pain–positive thought. Inflicting pain on oneself should switch the brain from negativity to positivity. As a result, the person will supposedly be cleansed of negative energy and fully attuned to a positive energy vibe, entering into even greater unity with the Universe.

The third exercise is called “Posture of the King/Queen.”⁹ One must not slouch. It is necessary to stand straight with the head held high. A person’s royal posture should express his conviction in his uniqueness, individuality, and greatness. To achieve this, one should frequently tell themselves: “I am the king of kings” or “I am the queen of queens.” In order to never forget this, it is necessary to draw a crown next to the smiley face on the left hand and look at it as often as possible to smile, straighten up, and engage in self-praise. The majestic posture along with the auto-training of self-confidence should, according to self-proclaimed psychologists, improve self-esteem, health, and stimulate the internal and external development of the individual, enhancing the same personal energy level.

The fourth method is called “Be Healthy”, and essentially represents hardening yourself by dowsing yourself with cold water.¹⁰ According to the pseudoscientific assurances of these self-proclaimed doctors, water is the main element of the Universe, possessing life, mind, attention, and memory. Therefore, it can absorb information available to it and transmit it to those who come into contact with it. In other words, water can be filled with good information and charged with positive energy, which can then be used for one’s own health and positive energy charging.¹¹

This is the program’s pseudoscientific theory. In practice, one needs to fill a basin with cold water, undress, utter words of love and gratitude to Mother Nature over the water, thereby charging it with positive energy, and pour it over oneself. This should be done at least once a day. The more often, the better. The water ideally should be icy, because according to the trainer’s assurances, this sharply raises the body temperature, and all its cells are renewed and rejuvenated. It is best to do this outdoors, in nature or, in extreme cases, on your balcony.

In addition to the personal health effects, this procedure, according to these self-proclaimed ecologists, also has a beneficial effect on the state of the entire planet. They claim that the acknowledgment of love for the Universe and pouring water by tens of thousands of “Super Jump” followers around the world has a global, planetary, saving effect—it maintains and enhances the positive energy-informational field of Earth.

At the same time, the newly minted healers make no adjustments for individual organisms or health conditions. Pouring ice-cold “enchanted” water is simply declared a cure for all diseases. This is of course untrue, and contradicts official medicine.

From a medical standpoint, cold water procedures are dangerous for cardiovascular diseases, disorders of the nervous system, acute mental disorders, skin diseases, burns, severe injuries, bleeding, hypertension, renal and hepatic colic, respiratory diseases, and acute respiratory viral infections or the flu, and exacerbates chronic diseases.¹²

As is known, a similar teaching was preached by the late neo-pagan Porfiry Ivanov, whose followers called him the Victor of Nature, the Teacher of the People, the God of the Earth.¹³ Apparently, it was from him that Vladimir Dovgan borrowed the fourth exercise of his system, as well as the underlying idea of ​​worshiping Mother Nature, supplementing it with the teaching of information-energy fields. The latter is borrowed from the pseudoscientific trend called “bioenergo-information”, which emerged back in the 1970s.¹⁴

Thus, the “Super Jump” courses, which were initially presented as a harmless psychophysiological technique for personal growth, acquire at the fourth stage obvious features of religious neo-pagan teachings and practice. Pouring “charged” ice water with a prayerful appeal to Mother Nature takes on the character of pseudo-religious initiation, representing a kind of “baptismal sacrament”. Therefore, “Super Jump” is not just a commercial pyramid selling a dubious method of personal success, but a networked neo-pagan sect with its own doctrine and cult practice.¹⁵

The fifth method is called, “I am the master of my feelings”, and consists of not responding with evil to evil, force to force, offense to insult, rudeness to rudeness, negativity to negativity, and never seeking revenge.¹⁶ After all, all this accumulates negative energy around a person and destroys the positive information-energy field of both oneself and the entire Earth. To cope with rising anger in moments of attack, a person needs to count backward, for example, from a thousand to one. Counting backward allows one to turn away the attention, calm down, delay an immediate reaction, and not be rude to the offender. Counting backward is difficult; it requires more attention and concentration. And to always remind oneself of this, one should draw the number 100 or 1000 next to the smiley face with a crown on their left hand.

The “master of one’s feelings” directly echoes the “master of one’s thoughts,” the second technique of the training, and is its derivative. There is nothing fundamentally new here. The person must fight with negative thoughts by hitting himself with a rubber band on the wrist, and with negative feelings by counting backward.

This recommendation itself is a well-known ethical norm. There is nothing unique about it. It was formulated in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism as the principle of ahimsa, in Christianity as the commandment of not resisting evil, in Tolstoyism as the virtue of non-forceful resistance to evil, as well as in many other teachings.

Pacifism is undoubtedly useful in terms of personal spiritual development. However, it is flawed in situations where it is necessary to defend your loved ones from a direct threat and aggression. In such cases, it is necessary not to withdraw oneself but to “lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (cf. John 15:13).¹⁷

The sixth technique is called, “Audio Training”, or self-suggestion using a recording device.¹⁸ A person needs to make an audio recording of words expressed their highest self-esteem, formulating his highest desired achievements, and his most grandiose dreams. He is supposed to say that he is the greatest, the smartest, the most talented, the most beautiful, the richest, and the coolest winner of all and everything. This recording should be listened to for at least one hour a day, preferably longer. In the end, according to the trainer’s assurance, these words will materialize, manifest in reality, and the person will indeed become the “king of kings” and the conqueror of all problems. The person is instilled with the belief that presenting what he wants as a reality will inevitably lead to a positive change in reality.

The sixth method clearly echoes the third. It is called “the posture of the king and queen.” In the third, self-suggestion of one’s own greatness is realized through bodily posture and internal self-praise; in the sixth, through words and hearing.

From a Christian point of view, we see a direct appeal to self-love, pride, and vanity. According to the holy fathers, pride is the root and cause of all sinful passions. It is totally destructive for a person’s spiritual development and eternal salvation. Pride is the opposite of humility, and humility is the source of all virtues, and the basis for true spiritual development and salvation.¹⁹

The “Super Jump” courses instill an anti-Christian approach. Pride in the form of megalomania is elevated to the main virtue, while humility is entirely rejected. Instead of faith in God, faith in oneself is proposed, and instead of theocentrism, anthropocentrism is preached.

Thus, the “Super Jump” courses, like other life success and personal growth trainings that are based on self-suggestion of belief in oneself and one’s success, contradict the Christian consciousness and way of life, which are based on the virtue of humility and faith in God.²⁰ In my opinion, any participation by Orthodox Christians in such trainings, whether as a student or even more so as an instructor, is incompatible with Christian faith and therefore unacceptable.

The seventh technique is called, “Protect Yourself from Informational Poison.” It involves refraining from watching informational and other programs on television and the internet, clearing the phone memory of all “negative” photos and videos, and deleting the phone numbers of “negative,” “toxic” people.²¹

All this needs to be done to achieve success. After all, useless and negative people and information hold us back and drag us down, preventing us from developing. Therefore, a person must build a wall between himself and his familiar informational and human environment, which is declared the source of evil in his life.

On the one hand, these recommendations have a healthy core consisting of informational and communicative hygiene. Indeed, in our information age, people suffer from an excess of negative information, from informational (internet and/or gadget) addiction, and from aggression in their environment.

On the other hand, these recommendations indicate a strict division of the world into “us” and “them,” the enlightened and those in the darkness of ignorance, the saved and the damned. Thus, individuals are pushed to gradually abandon the values of the evil, negative, “sinful world,” sever their ties with it, and become full-fledged members of the benevolent and positive community of the saved, the “Super Jump” family, preaching its saving doctrine.

The eighth exercise is called, “Supergoal”, and involves setting oneself a certain higher task.²² The higher and more complex the goal a person sets for themselves, the greater results they can achieve as they progress towards that goal. According to the coach’s assurances, this supergoal should be the salvation of the world from destruction that may result from ecological catastrophes, wars, human greed, and other threats. If a person strives for this goal using the path proposed by Vladimir Dovgan (also known as the “Great and Happy”), then all material goods will naturally flow to them.

The content of the ninth session is about the international association “Super Jump,” which claims to be an organization for saving the world from unconsciousness, environmental problems, ignorance, malice, and self-destruction for the sake of a happy future for future generations.

At the same time, according to Dovgan’s promises, intellect-trainers have the opportunity to earn fabulous amounts of money.²³

Only those who have embraced the practice of this new religion will survive, while those who are not initiated condemn themselves to a life of poverty, and will ultimately perish. The wicked will destroy themselves, while the virtuous will prosper.

Thus, in the minds of “Super Jump” followers, humanity is definitively divided into those who are saved and those who are doomed. If the goal of the methodology is to save the world, then its recommendations become commandments, the entire methodology becomes a doctrine and practice for salvation, its founder becomes a teacher or prophet of salvation, and the organization he leads becomes a pseudo-religious church or sect. One is saved by following the teacher’s commandments, while failure to do so leads to destruction. This is the key principle instilled in Dovgan’s followers, and their creed.

In the concluding tenth session, the trainer suggests that listeners themselves become intellect-trainers, practically apostles of the new pseudo-religion. All one needs to do is purchase a license costing $3300, or when discounts are offered, for $3000. In return, the newly appointed trainer will receive pre-written speeches to deliver to the audience, which they simply need to adapt to themselves.

From this point on, individuals can begin their commercial and simultaneously evangelical activities, earning money by “saving” new clients and/or followers.

During interactions with students during sessions, trainers use classic techniques for recruiting new members:

These are all classic techniques used in manipulative or coercive groups:

1. Drawing attention to personal problems and showing sympathy: This builds trust and creates vulnerability, making individuals more receptive to the group’s influence.

2. Creating a sense of inadequacy: By implying that individuals are living incorrectly if they don’t adhere to Dovgan’s teachings, the group fosters a feeling of inadequacy that can only be resolved by following their guidance.

3. Glorifying the methodology as a unique universal panacea: By presenting their method as revolutionary and unparalleled, the group instills a belief in its infallibility and superiority.

4. Excessive positive attention and care towards participants: Overstepping boundaries of communication and personal space, excessive praise, and boosting the ego of participants create dependency and loyalty to the group.

5. Building trust and imposing confessional practices: By fostering an environment of trust and openness, the group encourages individuals to divulge personal information, which can later be used for manipulation or control.

6. Replacing old social circles with the group: By encouraging members to distance themselves from old relationships and form new ones within the group, individuals become reliant on the group for social support and belonging.

7. Involvement in the “new family”: By positioning the group as a new, powerful organization or pseudo-church, individuals are made to feel dependent on the group for their well-being and salvation.

8. Imposing radical positive thinking: By promoting an ideology of radical positivity, the group sets its members apart from those who do not possess such thinking, reinforcing a sense of superiority and allegiance to the group.

9. Rigid division of humanity: By dividing humanity into insiders and outsiders, positive and negative, those who are saved and those who are doomed, the group reinforces loyalty and obedience among its members.

10. Messianic idea: By presenting the group as the savior of humanity from impending catastrophe and offering membership as a means of salvation, individuals are motivated to stay within the group to fulfill their role in saving others and themselves.²⁴

In conclusion, the “International Association of Super Jump Intellectual Trainers” is a networked commercial sect of a neopagan nature. Its methods of psychological and physiological influence on individuals, both individually and collectively, contrary to the statements of its founder and followers, are not unique, revolutionary, or salvational. Some of them are well-known, others are highly dubious and pseudoscientific, and still others are downright dangerous to mental and physical health. Despite loud declarations, its real goal is to make money through deceitful manipulative practices on gullible people.²⁵

In its pseudo-religious and pseudo-spiritual settings, the “Super Jump” system is opposed to the Christian belief in God the Creator, and to moral values ​​such as humility, meekness, patience, and honesty.

Orthodox Christians must clearly understand that by becoming a member of the “Super Jump” organization and propagating its ideas and methods, they become accomplices in sinful deeds—both falling into temptation themselves and leading others into it.

Let us remember the stern words of the Lord:

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! (Matt. 18:6­–7).