Crossroads Podcast: Why Journalists Want To Talk About Orthodoxy And Guys

While addressing the leaders of the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the South in 2021, iconographer Jonathan Pageau did his best to describe the stunning wave of growth that was affecting many, but not all, Orthodox parishes in the United States.

“It's the guys, it’s the guys, it's all these guys,” he said. “These young men in their 20s and early 30s, they're out there urgently hunting for something. … You can change the world with 2,000 guys like that. It has happened before.”

Pageau knew, of course, that this trend included lots and lots of young families and other seekers, as well as “the guys.” He knew that converts had been streaming into several U.S. branches of Orthodoxy since the 1980s. 

This wasn’t a new story, in other words. But the pace of growth has increased in congregations that are truly welcoming Americans, especially young adults, who are seeking Orthodoxy.

But all many journalists want to talk about is “the guys.”

That focus on young males swimming the Bosphorus has created plenty of mainstream news reports (see this search file from GetReligion.org and elsewhere). This week’s “Crossroads” podcast focused on a BBC feature with this headline: “Young US men are joining Russian churches promising 'absurd levels of manliness'.”

I wish that headline was satire, but it’s not (I think). 

Like so many other stories, the major themes in the BBC piece can be summed up as:

— The guys, the guys, the guys.

— Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump.

— Russia, Russia, Russia.

— Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin.

Journalists also focus on young men seeking simple (apparently) truths that clash with the modern world, especially on matters of marriage, family and sex. There’s some truth in that, but — in my experience in a growing parish — lots of these families (and young men) are seeking solid ground in a shaky world. They are not running from the modern world. They are living in the modern world and want help.

All of that isn’t as much fun as this BBC overture: 

"A lot of people ask me: 'Father Moses, how can I increase my manliness to absurd levels?'"

In a YouTube video, a priest is championing a form of virile, unapologetic masculinity.

Skinny jeans, crossing your legs, using an iron, shaping your eyebrows, and even eating soup are among the things he derides as too feminine.

There are other videos of Father Moses McPherson — a powerfully built father of five — weightlifting to the sound of heavy metal. He was raised a Protestant and once worked as a roofer, but now serves as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) in Georgetown, Texas, an offshoot of the mother church in Moscow.

Journalists love ROCOR, because of Russia, Russia, Russia. However, most reporters are not doing their homework on the diversity of people in other U.S. Orthodox flocks, or even ROCOR for that matter. Later in the piece, BBC does offer a bit of actual ROCOR history, which helps. 

Meanwhile, I would suggest that journalists read the following essay from Bishop Irenei, the London-based leader of ROCOR in Western Europe: “Seeking After Worldly Visions of ‘Masculinity’ is Not an Orthodox Pursuit’: A Word From Bishop Irenei.”

Come to think of it, journalists may want to check out this address from the same source on September 15, 2023: “We Stand Wholly Against the War and Call for Its End: A Statement on the War in Ukraine.”

Back to the bishop’s words on masculinity, which were written in response to the BBC story I mentioned earlier. Here is a key passage>

… There have been a few reports of late, including this most recent one currently making the rounds, about a number of young people converting to Orthodoxy, particularly young men, converting because they find in the Orthodox Church, according to these reports, an environment that preaches ‘masculinity’ and real ‘manhood’. And I want to say that if you’re here because you think that that’s what we are here to do, then you are a fool. This is stupidity. ‘Masculinity’, so far as I am aware, is not an Orthodox term. It is not a term that has any traditional place in Christianity. It is a term embraced by the secular world because this world has rejected normal concepts of humanity, in which of course there is male and there is female, there is child, there is adult. These are simply human beings. But because the world has lost sight of the basics of what it means to be human, it is forced to respond to the lack of clarity it has pushed on itself by fostering these concepts of ‘femininity’, ‘masculinity’, and so on. … 

… If you are here (Orthodoxy) because you think this is a place where you can reinforce some cultural masculinity, if you’re here because you think this is the place to rebel against what you see going on politically around you or socially around you, please keep on going — go somewhere else. We are not here for this reason. We preach one thing and one thing only: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We preach it without fear, and we preach it without agenda. …

Come here for one reason: because you are aware, somewhere deep inside of you, that something is wrong. Something is wrong with you, with me, with the world in which we live, and this something is called sin, and this is the place where it can be healed.

To which Orthodox leaders in various jurisdictions would say, “Amen. Lord have Mercy.”

The podcast includes a list of issues journalists should explore, if they want to understand the past few decades in Orthodox life in America. I also noted some holes in the narrative — missing voices, especially — that should be addressed.

I will end with this BBC passage:

Almost all the converts I meet have opted to home-school their offspring, partly because they believe women should prioritise their families rather than their careers.

Father John Whiteford, an archpriest in the ROCOR from Spring, north of Houston, says home-schooling ensures a religious education and is "a way of protecting your children", while avoiding any talk about "transgenderism, or the 57 genders of the month or whatever".

This made me laugh out loud. 

Not because home-schooling isn’t an important subject. I know lots of Orthodox folks who are involved in all kinds of educational projects — classical schools, helping in nearby Catholic (or Lutheran) schools, support networks linked to other private and public options. And lots of home-schooling.

The key is that the vast majority of these people are women. Some of these women are doctors, lawyers, educators, you name it. They would, by the way, urge more men to focus on their families, as opposed to being locked-in on careers alone.

But the BBC feature is seriously lacking in female Orthodox voices of this kind. Maybe they didn’t fit the narrative?

What the story needed was families, families, families. That, and, worship, worship, worship. Lots of worship.

Enjoy the podcast and, please, share it with others.