If you ask anyone in America, “When do you celebrate Christmas?” the person will look at you cross-eyed and wonder if you were mentally deficient or in the early stages of dementia (I live in Florida and there are a lot of old people. I’m now one of them!). December 25th, of course! The majority do not realize that the members of the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas on January 7th.
The differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church (which includes Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox) is one of the dynamics at play in Ukraine.
About 9 percent of Ukrainians (about 3.6 million persons) are Greek Catholics, meaning they are Catholics who belong to Churches of the Byzantine rite. The vast majority of these are part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is led by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuck of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Kyiv-Halych.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250474/things-to-know-about-the-catholic-church-in-ukraine
The majority of Christians in Ukraine are Eastern Orthodox; especially those who live in eastern Ukraine:
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church,[a][6][7] with approximately 220 million baptized members.[8][5][9] It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods.[9] The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the Roman Catholic Church—the Pope—but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized by them as primus inter pares (“first among equals”), which may be explained as a representative of the church.[10][11][12][13][14] As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.[15] The Eastern Orthodox Church officially calls itself the Orthodox Catholic Church.[
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church
Although both churches believe in Jesus, the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox do not view each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Sad. But it gets worse — Zelensky’s Ukrainian government is targeting the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Ukrainian counter-intelligence services have turned their sights on some Orthodox clergy whom they suspect of pro-Russian sentiment and activity. Ukraine’s secret service examined belongings of a parishioner at the entrance to the Pechersk Lavra monastic complex in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. Ukraine’s counter-intelligence service, police officers and the country’s National Guard searched one of the most famous Orthodox Christian sites in the capital, Kyiv, after a priest spoke favorably about Russia – Ukraine’s invader – during a service. (AP Photo/Efrem Luka)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/searches-ukraine-focuses-suspicions-orthodox-clergy-93860359
I was contacted tonight by a Ukrainian friend who spoke recently to the head of the Lavra Metropolit, Vladyka Pavel. He shared the following:
Pavel said that next week the radical church UPC Poroshenko Tomos church might take over the Kiev Lavra as the government of Ukraine Zelenskiy and his Ministers are ignoring the calls of the head of Lavra Metropolite Pavel to continue the contract for the Church service in Svyato Uspebskaya church and TrapeNaya church of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The radicals from Azov and Pravin Secfor will come into Lavra and try to take control while the regime decides what to with Lavra next.
This is the kind of religious persecution commonly associated with Stalin’s Soviet Union. The potential involvement of the Azov movement in this action is disturbing because the Azov adherents are not Christian. They embrace pagan imagery and practices.
The spiritual leaders of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, if they genuinely believe in the gospel of Jesus, should be coming together to call for peace and an end to the killing. But history tells us that when it comes to killing, religion takes a back seat to nationalism. Or, even worse, religion becomes an excuse for killing.
I want to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers from around the world a Merry Christmas. You do not have to be a Christian to receive the greeting. In writing this I was reminded of something that I witnessed in the Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama twenty years ago.
First a word about the Colon Free Trade Zone aka CFZ. It is one of the largest free trade zones in the world and sits at the north end of the Panama Canal. Every product imaginable is sold there. It is a distribution center for Central America, South America and the Caribbean Islands. It is a walled city and there are no restaurants or hotels inside — only stores and banks. Oh yeah. The vast majority of the merchants are Jewish or Muslim.
A Jewish merchant by the name of Jose, who sold baby clothing, was in a bind. His business was one of the smaller ones in the CFZ and he had annual revenues of $80 million. He was a rotund fellow with a cardiac condition and traveled regularly to New York to see his doctor (he did not trust the Docs in Panama). Jose’s problem occurred because he teamed up with some other merchants and shipped his products to customers in a “consolidated container” (i.e., a container that contains goods from multiple merchants). When it arrived at its destination, customs authorities discovered cocaine hidden in the container. It was not clear which merchant was guilty.
Jose, terrified he would lose his visa, went to DEA and pleaded with them to audit his business to verify he was not trafficking in cocaine or taking drug money. DEA agreed and recommended that Jose hire my firm (my partner previously headed up DEA’s undercover money laundering operations in New York City). We got the job and me and my partner were given full access to his business.
A few months before getting this job I was in Panama doing a raid on a business that was trafficking in counterfeit Sunbeam products. As I rode with the lawyers towards the CFZ they told me the story of the animosity between the Jews and the Muslims. During the U.S. invasion of Panama, the muslim merchants took to the streets with automatic weapons and the Jewish merchants hid in fear. The muslim merchants controlled the city gates and prevented U.S. troops from entering.
So, a few months later, my partner and I are auditing Jose’s business and going through his real set of books and I noticed he was putting together gift baskets.
“Hey, Jose, what are you doing?”
Jose replied, “Preparing baskets for my muslim neighbors. Tomorrow is Eid.”
“What? I was told that during the U.S. invasion the muslims had weapons and people like you were hiding in fear.”
Jose started laughing. “No, no, no. Yes, the muslims had weapons and they blocked the entrances to the Free Zone with containers. But they weren’t hunting me. They were protecting the city. We were all afraid that the locals would try to loot the Free Zone.”
Strange world. We are told that Muslims and Jews are enemies and cannot get along. Yet, in the Colon Free Trade Zone, these two ethnic religious groups have found a way to live together and to help each other. I do not mean to suggest that the CFZ is a utopia. The men and women who run those businesses are hard nosed capitalists and compete against each other. Yet, they do not let religion become a casus belli.
It is in this spirit that I wish you a Merry Christmas. That memory of a chubby Jewish merchant preparing a gift for his Muslim neighbor as a way of saying thank you is the true meaning of Christmas for me. Doing good to others because you can, not because it is required.
I count myself fortunate that there are so many smart, knowledgeable people reading this blog and taking time to comment. That is the best gift I could ever receive. Thank you.
Merry Christmas sir. Thanks for your articles, those are all gifts to me.
Merry Xmas also. Every article you write is a gift. Thank you.
…..and Merry Xmas and wishes for a return to sanity in the New Year to all.
This is a bit off topic but still a part of the greater whole and well worth a listen in its entirety: China-Russia relations and America’s interests, with Brian Berletic, Carl Zha and Mark Sleboda https://youtu.be/ALE6S_MmVew
Then, to cap it off here is a bird’s eye view of some of the very people in the US they speak off, three categories in one, on their way to Zelensky’s appeals to Congress for more money, weapons and hugs:
Cat 1)The ultra-nationalist Ukrainian lobby (is that Chalupa speaking of how Bandera was ‘a long time ago’ and totally irrelevant and how Azov and other neonazi militias were denazified long ago by incorporation into the AFU (and not possibly the reverse))?
Cat 2) a muddleheaded peacenik and now wokewarrior old timer whose head would no doubt explode if he ever entertained the thought of Ukraine targeting civilians in the Donbass for eight years and has the blue and yellow hanging from every window of his abode, bordered by BLM banners and the rainbow multicolor.
Cat 3) Some unknown Congressman who proudly announces “We’re not finished feeding weapons into Ukraine, we’re just starting” and who no doubt moonlights as a MIC lobbyist and likely busily chatting away with Michael McFaul about seating arrangements on his cell.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/wukztbnzb8Ok/
Sleboda’s lecturing style, voice and staccato intonations are unfortunately a turn off – a bit like nails on a blackboard but if you can suffer through it, the content from all three is enlightening.
I turned it off because of him. Say what you want about the so-called leaders in this country but lay off the put downs of people who don’t understand what the food industry is doing to their health.
And Merry Christmas to you as well, Larry!
I will take some issue with the below statement, which lacks understanding of the relationship of Orthodoxy with Rome (and even with Protestants):
“Although both churches believe in Jesus, the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox do not view each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.”
There is a lot to be careful of in this kind of blanket statement. The Orthodox consider the Roman Church schismatic (and, to be fair, the Roman Church thinks the same of the Orthodox). We (Orthodox) do not discount anyone’s salvation, but we acknowledge that they are outside the true Church. But God has raised up Saints (even among the Protestants–I have met a few) and Rome and Orthodoxy recognize many common Saints as well. Orthodoxy also recognizes that there are Saints whom the Church has not recognized, not from any desire to not do so, but simply because we are sometimes ignorant of the Saints who are among us. This is one reason that Humility is among the highest virtues taught in the Church.
In the end, Orthodoxy may (and does) recognize brothers and sisters in Christ who are outside of the Orthodox Church (God’s grace extends throughout Creation. sustaining all) even though they lack the fullness of the Church and Christian teaching.
I would also point out that, while there are always voices that cry out otherwise, the Orthodox Churches both in and out of Ukraine have called for peace, repentance, and reconciliation of this conflict and all peoples since it began.
That’s why I have this blog. I learn from you. Thank you. BTW, are Eastern Orthodox priests allowed to marry?
Orthodox bishops may not be married and should, preferably be monks. Priests and deacons may be married, but may not marry once they have been ordained.
Yes. Orthodox priests are allowed to marry before they become priests.
They cannot get a Parish unless married.
Merry Xmases to Larry and all readers of this excellent blog.
With respect, this comment that Orthodox priests cannot have a parish until they are married is not true…. unmarried parish priests are uncommon, but they do exist (I am an Orthodox Christian American, so my experience comes from the American Orthodox Christian experience…. so as a caveat I don’t know what is the norm for Orthodox clergy in Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, or Greece, for example…..)
Typically an unmarried priest in the Orthodox tradition is an “Archimandrite,” which is a title for an Orthodox priest-monk. Unlike Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians do not have a tradition of “bachelor priests”… typically Orthodox unmarried priests are part of a monastic brotherhood.
Especially these days in our sex-crazed Western world, living as an unmarried man as the leader of a Christian community is a recipe for disaster. A deep support network is mandatory…. hence unmarried Orthodox priests should be connected to a strong monastic brotherhood.
I will say that ,for Orthodox Christians, unmarried priests are not the ideal — most exist because there are not enough married priests to meet the need/demand. The typical Orthodox priest is a married man with (ideally, many) children.
The priest’s wife (matushka in Slavic traditions, presvytera in Greek traditions) plays a strong role in parish and community life… she often helps makes stuff happen while her husband focuses on leading the parish community and leading the liturgical life of the parish.
A blessed Western (Roman Catholic, Protestant) Christmas today to all! Most of the world’s Orthodox Christians (well more than 70%) are on the older calendar (“Julian calendar”), on which Dec. 25th falls on our civil calendar date of Jan. 7th…. thus for most Orthodox Christians the celebration of The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Flesh (aka Christmas) will be on Jan 7th (which is Dec. 25th on the older calendar….).
Love your website, Larry. Many thanks for the insightful detail and for the unsanitized information and perspective that you deliver. The American mass media – like the leadership of our country – is a complete disaster.
Keep it up!!!
Here is a bit of trivia for “looking smart at a party”. Nikola Tesla was a son of a Serbian Orthodox Church priest that initally wanted Nikola to be one too. After Nikola got seriously ill, his father promised to support his scientific/engineering endeavours if he recovers. The rest is history (that many try to rewrite).
One could say that Eastern Orthodox priests being allowed to marry is essential for everything using electricity (and especially everything wireless). I personally believe that it’s also responsible for lower rate of sexual abuse of children compared to Catholicism, but Pope would probably disagree with that.
Marrying priests. Priests here in Lesvos are married – although I’m not sure if they were married prior to being ordained. And…… There is one priest who women like a lot – ie he has sexual relations with quite a few ladies. And our priests are paid by the state…..
Unlike the UK priests and vicars they are not stand-offish. Very friendly – especially to us ex-pats.
There are, one may say, good priests and bad priests. We pray for repentance, all alike.
Larry
The more I understand about you and where/how your thoughts originate, the more I like and respect you. While your responses are measured and respectful, you make your points with clarity. Somewhat unique. Sounds like you are a Believer, and handle yourself accordingly.
Hats off to you, I wish I had your demeanor and calmness.
Personally, I know we are fighting a spiritual battle and losing. Losing because of people such as myself, full of righteous anger and coming across as such.
Your an inspiration to me and I look forward to learning from you more each day.
We do have a Loving God who wants to bless us, but we make it impossible most time because He can’t reward our current behaviors. But He does bless us by revealing folks such as yourself, so for what it’s worth, keep up the good work.
And thx for openly celebrating the birth of our Savior.
….. well, by golly – it’s probably a nazi regime then.
I think this will explain most of what’s going on. The Ukrainians want only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It all started in 2019, with some serious pressure from the US as I understand it on Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, to recognize ‘autocephaly’ for Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocephaly_of_the_Orthodox_Church_of_Ukraine
It’d be akin to the US denying muslims the right to worship as shi’ites but allowing sunni worship because of shi’ite ties to countries it considers enemies.
Now, ask yourself why statues of Pushkin are being cut in pieces and removed all across Ukraine, or Russian authors through the centuries being expunged from Ukrainian literature and being replaced by nonsensical Ukrainian history books by nonsensical Ukrainian authors that smack of nazi mythology. Sounds too much like a good old Nazi bookburning fest for my tastes.
Hello,
here some on the matter of who burned books, now and then:
https://carolynyeager.net/nazis-did-not-burn-books-more-fake-history
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/politics/1790/
Thank you.
I personally thank Hitler for having burned that most essential of books, Einstein’s notepads, because had he not, well – I assume we might all guess what the consequences might have been.
Traditionally Orthodox parish Priests have been required to marry, and Father’s Wife is a mainstay of the community. If she predeceases, Father is required to remarry, up to a total of three successive wives. After the third wife, he should resign from his parish and go to a monastery.
The Orthodox and Catholics have most of the Saints in common because the two branches of Christendom were in full communion until the Photius Schism of the 860s concerning the “Filioque” disagreement which focused the argument over dispute on Papal Supremacy vs decisions by Ecumenical Councils of all the Bishops, culminating in the Great Schism of 1054.
I was a convert to Orthodoxy 20 years ago. My parish church is Greek, but parishioners also include Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Syrians, and a few Ethiopians. At Liturgy we pray the Lord’s Prayer in Greek, English and Russian. In many Orthodox Parishes the date for celebrating Christmas remains problematic, and some of us compromise by observing twice, surely not a bad thing. However I also note that among the Orthodox the Nativity of Christ is seen as a holiday strictly secondary to Pascha or Easter, which is the Sacrifice which gives meaning to His time among us. Wishing you, and my fellow readers, a Merry Christmas, both today and again in 13 days.
Agios Agios Agios. Amen.
“…If she predeceases, Father is required to remarry, up to a total of three successive wives…”
Um, no. A Priest can only marry another women if he has been laisized (ie he is no longer a priest). If that is going on in your local then it is a very serious moral and canonical problem.
I think you may be confusing that with the allowance for a person to marry up to three times but that is only supposed to be in the case of extreme need. Not divorce today remarry tomorrow. There is only one marriage making so called remarriages very problematic.
As a mutt, half-Armenian and half American Protestant blue blood (mother’s side), I got to go to two Christmas celebrations at church. The Armenian orthodox church celebrates Christmas on Jan 6th. Armenia was the first Christian nation and, I believe, the home of the first church. So I would say that Christmas is supposed to be Jan 6th and all of the other denominations are putting their own spin on the event to be different. In fact, until some point in the fourth century, Christ’s birth was celebrated by all Christian churches on January 6th. I think the Russians go with Jan 7th due to the Julian Calendar (I don’t quite get how that works). The 25th was chosen by Rome to meld Christianity with pre-existing pagan rites (and make a better sale?).
Anyhow, enough of that – and Merry Christmas, peace on earth and good will to mankind.
It’s still December 25th, just a different calendar and different way to calculate the days. December 25th on the Armenian calendar is January 6th on the western calendar.
It’s always December 25th no matter the calendar. The date discrepancy is only because the Western calendar is point of reference and we have to use it as the base point because we have to conform to the rest of the world.
My Greek Orthodox cousin tells me the Roman calendar is correct, however. There is a discrepancy in the other calendars My priest also says he doesn’t care. He’s okay with December 25th, January 7th or whenever. Not a big deal to him.
The Romans used to mess with their calendar so the returning conqueror rode into Rome on the auspicious day (remember, the emperor had the power of god), which was March 1, the birthday of Mars, the dies natalis of the god of war, assembling for the introitus procession on the field of Mars. There are anomalies in both the Gregorian and Julian calendar, particularly with regards to leap years. Corrections have been proposed but have not influenced the Orthodox liturgical calendar.
In 1752 in Western Europe they skipped 11 days to get back into sync with the sun, although not all countries did this in in the same year. I first discovered this perusing the help manual pages of the unix cal utility.
Originally Christmas should have coincided with the winter solstice, merging pagan and Christian festivities. It is interesting to note that calendar & keeping time is one of the fundamentals of any civilization … it was what allowed people to travel distances to attend common rituals, markets, exchange women, set the calendar for sowing and harvesting and all other feasts. One of the most important functions of priests was to look at the sky and implement a calendar. Even today, our 12 hour days and nights and 60 hours minutes and seconds legacy harks back to 3500 BC and the early Sumerian/Babylonians who used a hexagesimal number system (base 60 instead of 100; 12×5 instead of 10×10).
“In 1752 in Western Europe they skipped 11 days to get back into sync with the sun, …”
There is a cute puzzle that goes as follows:
A woman gave birth to identical twins, but they were born 11 days apart. How could this have happened?
The babies were born in 1752 around 12PM midnight and 11 days were skipped between when the first and the second were born, a few minutes apart.
The Hindus in India were the first to map the skies and devise a very accurate calendar based on astronomy. They are also the source of the ‘hours’ of the day and the 7 days of the week. All are based on astronomy.
Indeed. Although there is some competition between Armenia & Syria as the first Xian nation … Armenia was the first polity with a Xian king & ‘constitution’. Syria has the oldest Xian traditions, and, in fact, there are still a few churches (thanks to Assad) where they still use Aramaic liturgically, the language Jesus spoke.
Yes. I attended Lebanese Churches that spoke Aramaic.
We have the Syrian Catholic Church in Kerala India, supposed to be among the oldest churches in the world. Christians were in India much before they established themselves in most of Europe.
Fantastic dialogue and thank you Larry for this terrific forum and your well informed commentary. Merry Christmas to all!
The reality is that religious beliefs coexist easily, we see this in every train, airport, village, town.
Those of us who believe, have a creator God concept whose fundamental intent is goodness for ALL creation as well as all humanity. Therefore we reject wanton destruction in all forms and have a moral framework to regulate our behaviour. I also completely respect those atheists who reject any abandonment of higher moral purpose to serve humanity and creation.
The problems happen when immoral belief systems are created and followed, that create a hierarchy in creation. God bless all.
The history of rivalry between various churches in Ukraine (with a Kiev and Moscow patriarch, and competing Kiev patriarchs, and secessions, and interference by the State) is too complex for a short explanation, and goes back to way before the current troubles, although they have probably never been as severe as currently.
One of the problems the Kiev regime has with the Orthodox Church is century/millenial old liturgical prayers that mention ‘Rus’. Of course, Kiev is the origin of ancient Rus. And Church Slavonic goes back to a time when the slavic nations used a common liturgical ecclesiastical Slavonic which also influenced the development of those languages and the church, as did the first translations in the vernacular of many European tongues (Gothic, King James, Luther, Statenvertaling, etc) influenced the development and standardization of many of those languages. But ‘Rus’ referred to somewhat akin to our word ‘Christendom’ … the civilization based on Christian faith and loyalty among Xian princes to keep invaders out of the Xian world (Vikings, barbarians, Moslims, Mongol Tartars, etc etc).
It is a hallmark of completely out of control nationalism/Nazism that anachronistically associates an ancient term like this as something to do with partisan pro-Russian sentiments for the first time ever.
Of course, Kiev is the origin of ancient Rus. Of course it is.
Interesting. So, I take it you are one of the proponents of the popular Ukrainian belief that the branch of the Varangians (Vikings), also commonly know as The Rus, left Scandinavia by sailing through the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Black Seas and up the Dnieper River in their longboats to found Kievan Rus and then invaded the lands to the north some mistakenly call Russia to this day (as any Ukrainian, and many neocons believe, Russia belongs to the Ukrainians).
Of course there is that other, most disinformative of Russian propaganda disguised as history derived from the Russian Primary Chronicles, that the Rus migrated via the vastly shorter route to Russian Novgorod where the first capital of the Rus was founded by Oleg, then on to the lands south and eventually finding and founding their way to Kiev, which became known as Kievan Rus.
https://cdn.britannica.com/44/3844-050-A9CD1CCE/Kievan-Rus.jpg
I believe Brittanica should be immediately brought to task for such egregious falsifications of the historical record.
Those “Vikings” were slavic tribes which back then populated most of what is today north Germany and Poland. See for example “Germania Slavica” for more in-depth info.
For me it’s not pertinent. Most foundational stories are largely narratives/myths that are hard to evaluate because the evidence is scanty. It’s the version all school children have been taught, both in Ukraine as well as Russia, and the term ‘Rus’ predates any polities called Ukraine or Russia and is innocuous in ancient church rituals where it evokes the ancient Christian realm that was established, not a literal version of history.
Archeological and DNA evidence confirms the presence and trade routes of Vikings, like the Celts before them on the rivers to the Black Sea and beyond. I am not venturing an opinion on the exact course of princely conquests and bonds.
It was a common thing in ancient times for a bunch of adventurers to build a ship lare enough to carry them and their cargo but small enough for them to carry. These ships would be sailed/rowed up waterways then carried over to another watershed to conduct long distance trade/raids. This happened between the Baltic and the Black/Caspian sea rivers, between the Don and Volga too [probably used by the Argonauts en-route to the Oxus], Luxor/Karnac is where it is because there’s a pass through to the Red sea. I’ve no doubt the ‘Rus’/Vikings came out of the north by this means and have wondered if a previous migration brought the Greeks into the Med. by the same route or possibly from the Caspian.
The trade route nexus by Azov was so important that Nebuchudnezza established an army from Galilee there to protect/collect his revenues for passage, later they were pushed west to become Galicians.
Catholic Church allows Orthodox Christians to receive Holy Communion.
God’s people are wherever you find them scattered about all belonging to same family of God, the Body of Christ.
Merry Christmas Larry – Looking forward to continuing our community dialogue 2023.
Merry Christmas old boy!
Hope peace be around the world and common sense prevails.
Merry Christmas Larry. Best wishes from northern Canada and thanks for doing your part to get the truth out. You and folks like you are the real heroes of these times. Thanks again.
“Doing good to others because you can, not because it is required.”
Indeed.
Merry Christmas Larry, to you and all your loved ones.
Eastern Orthodox is about half split between new and old calendarists. The non canonical decision to adopt the new, revised Julian calendar places that camp’s Christmas on the same day as the Catholics, for now. Seems Oriental Orthodox mostly or entirely follow the old calendar. This move to persecute the canonical Orthodox church of Ukraine seems insane, there are a lot of deeply religious people there.
Alex Christoforou’s YT vlog of today begins with explaining ‘the split’ with regard to following the Gregorian (>> 25th of December) or the Julian (>> 7th of January) calendar for establishing the date of Christmas Day. On the celebration of Easter however all Orthodox Christians are one.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
I am a Muslim.
I commend Jose for his thoughts and his appreciation for the Muslim community.
The Jews are people of te Book.
As such, I as a Muslim will treat him as equal. When I was in my early teens, I was befriended by Solomon, commonly known as Solly. I used to go to the synagogue with him on Saturdays. I took part in the litany praising Eloihi (Allah) by another name.
Jews and Muslims lived peacefully in Palestine. Jews were protected by Muslims against the pogroms carried out by the Catholic Church in the Iberian Penisula.
My anger is towards the ZIOCONs who usurped the Holy Land. Even though many Palestinians sold their land to the settler Jews, they still lived peaceably till the advent of the Zionists. The Jewess in Ivanhoe is anther example of Jews towards good Christians.
Shylock was a bad example of the Jews. One cannot tarnish all Jews or for that matter all Muslims with the same brush. There are all sorts some good, some bad and most in between.
If iocons are controlled and put in their place, their will be significant reduction in common animosities.
Blessings upon you for your excellent comment.
I agree. Jews and Muslims, like any other groups who lived for long periods in close proximity, developed a modus vivendi, just like Muslims and Hindus in India. It is always outsiders who instigate divisions for their own profit, as the Brutish imperialists did in India.
A great many Christians do not know that the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have been trusted to two Muslim families since 1192.
Watch the opening ceremony of the doors. It ain’t a simple door opening.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4N39r7bTezg
Merry Christmas to you likewise! From a Russian reader appreciating your deeds in bringing at least some westerners back to sanity.
Indeed, cases like the Jewish and Muslim traders I’ve encountered and been part of myself, glad to see these kinds of almost harmonious (for lack of a better word) moments in living.
Happy Unorthodox Christmas!
As an atheist I don’t have a stake in any religious dispute myself, but I’ll give you the One Prayer:
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn! Iä iä Cthulhu fhtagn!
Minor quibble: ALL Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25th. It’s just that December 25th on the old Christian Calendar used by Orthodox Churches happens to fall on January 7th.
The Ukrainian, Russian, Belorussian, Macedonian, Serbian and Montenegrin churches use the old calendar. Many of the other churches such as the Greek and Bulgarian churches are on the Western Calendar.
There is no such thing as Montenegrin orthodox church.
They may not be recognized and they may not have much of a flock, but they exist.
As long as Washington keeps trying to divide and conquer
Minor quibble. What you call the Western Calendar was devised by Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković which makes it not western.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Julian_calendar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milutin_Milankovi%C4%87
P.S. He is the guy that discovered Earth climate change cycles a century before “the west” did.
Perhaps, but the local churches haven’t adopted it yet.
What was interesting to me was digging up my Mom’s birth certificate when I was over there. Not only didn’t the name match, the date didn’t either. Of course, her birthday was 13 days behind as listed on her birth certificate using the old calendar dates.
I know. I belive that the main reason for “the lack of adaptation” is that it’s considered to be western, although it is not. It’s ridiculous that Serbs and other Orthodox Slavs don’t use calendar made by one of them, because they wrongly consider it to be western or Catholic.
Re: the attack on the church. It’s Great Reset policy. Puppet Zelensky is absurdly trying to please his WEF masters. They literally, and in concert with the pope, are creating a One World Religion and have drug along a few inconsequential Muslim scholars to make an appearance of actual collaboration in pursuing some bizarre unified Abrahamic cult. Apparently the Dalai Lama isn’t in on it and I’m a little surprised the old fraud hasn’t been cut in on the deal. Merry Christmas to you but not to everyone.
One more little nuance here I forgot to post. The part in Western Ukraine that is “Catholic” was a region that was traditionally Eastern Orthodox. Poland grabbed that land at one point and tried to force the locals to become Roman Catholics. They rebelled and they crafted a compromise where they would keep the external trappings of Orthodoxy (liturgy and external appearances mostly the same as Eastern Orthodox including married priests), but would still fall under the Pope. The Banderites germinated here.
This is the source of many of the problems we have today. The rest of the Ukrainian Orthodox (as distinguished from the ethnic Russians in Ukraine) may not want to live under Russia, but they don’t have the same outright hostility toward Russia that the “Ukrainian Catholics” have.
I believe the root of all this is Roman Catholic hatred for anything Orthodox. Just as the NWO/HATO/neocon types have been trying to divide and conquer Russia for decades, likewise the Papists want to do the same to the Orthodox Churches. They want to force them under the Pope, or at least many elements of Roman Catholicism still do.
Some of this is my opinion, maybe others can help refine this more.
I also find it curious that Hitler was Roman Catholic and he hated most of the Orthodox Slavs. The founding father of the Ustache in Croatia was a Roman Catholic priest and they slaughtered 700,000 Serbs during World War II. Now we have neo-Nazis and the neo-Banderites and they definitely have a Roman Catholic Orientation. I don’t know enough to draw conclusions, but there are a lot of dots begging for connection here.
Merry Christmas to you too. One gift I wish for you is a peaceful heart. You might then realize that there is no Catholic, Jew, or Muslim living anywhere who is not tempted to break God’s laws. The second most important law is: love thy neighbour as yourself and it’s the one most transgressed. Peace, brother.
Barbara, if your own elderly family member, is one of the nuns in Pokrovsky in Kyiv who were threatened by Zelensky’s Nazis to explode the convent in the beginning of the war – it’s only women, most elderly, and forcing the priest to say, ” Glory to Ukraine” to which he replied, “Glory is only to God,” and your begging 2 Dem US senators for help fell of the deaf ears, it might feel different to you, if it were your own helpless elderly family member, vs. having no skin in the game.
Merry Christmas to all. Praying for a peaceful and the miracle of good, godly people coming to rule in high places, who will push for peace and sanity.
Why do you think he does not have peace at hurt?
He is just talking about historic events, and the possible relationships between them.
At “HEART”, my …. flying spaghetti monster!
PS: it would be so nice to be able to correct the message sent only ONCE
Well, I’m still a wishful adherent to the Ten Commandments, which brings me to the principle origin of this Time of Troubles we find ourselves in, and that is the neocons’ plan for NATO to break one of its fundamental commandments regarding Sevastopol …..
“Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s naval base.”
Well put. I just want to add that those “Orthodox under Pope” are often refered as Uniats.
This bloodshed was centuries in the making, and can not be properly understood without making connections with happenings in the The Balkans.
Ustase made their own Orthodox Church in order to assimilate the remaining Serb minority and also to unite other Orthodox communities into a state-based Orthodox Church (they did the Zelensky thing long before Zelensky).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Orthodox_Church
Montenegrin Orthodox Church have been created for the same reasons, and have been doing the Zelensky thing before Zelensky, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegrin_Orthodox_Church
Macedonian Orthodox Church and the events around it should surprise no one paying attention.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegrin_Orthodox_Church
The Macedonian Orthodox Church at least has some history though. It is the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which was disbanded by the Turks in 1767. The Archbishop’s territory extended into what is now Northern Greece (Macedonia) and Albania.
Macedonian see themselves as a separate people and they want their own separate religious institutions. Now after almost a 300-year struggle, they have their church back. Now, I see a lot of this as splitting hairs, but people are proud of their identity and don’t want to see it die.
Another historic wrinkle: when Ohrid was disbanded in 1767, that area came under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (Istanbul). Macedonians weren’t happy about the efforts to Helenize them. At one point they tried to pull Ukraine, some petitioned the Pope to restore the church and take them under his wing. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. But the Bulgarian Exarchate coming into existence was a direct result of that.
Like I said, everybody is too similar there and shouldn’t be fighting. I don’t know if it’s the West sticking their nose into the region playing divide and conquer or if it’s just people’s natural propensity to fight when there is too much heavy handedness and attempt to control. Bulgarians, Serbians and Macedonians should find a way to work together and not be manipulated by the west. But everybody’s identity and right to self-determination has to be respected. Either way, it is what it is.
Of course it’s the West sticking their nose into the region and playing divide and conquer. It is happening in front of our eyes in Ukraine and people still wonder if it’s real. Do you really think that Ortodox people want to fragment their religion and make it weaker by putting artificial border between them in the name of “self-determination”, or “democracy”, or whatever. All this politicization of religion is exactly opposite of what Orthodox Christianity was supposed to be all about.
Macedonian people are just a pawn in the hand of the West, and have dim future ahead of them if they don’t wise up fast. Recently they have sent their T-72 tanks to Ukraine because US told them so. I believe those tanks were gifted to them by Russia so that they could be used against Albanian terrorist (although I might have misrememberd that). You probably know that some of the western wepons have found their way from Ukraine to ex Yugoslav area via Albanian gangsters.
Yeah, the government is trying to curry favor with the west. But in many respects, they are also prisoners because of the large Albanian population. It’s a fact of life that when you have a multiethnic population, you have to keep the Albanians happy and they’re not fond of the Russians.
But I guarantee you the average Macedonian on the street is going to be pro Russia.
Albanians will be happy once all Macedonians are gone, and they can annex the land. West will be happy once Orthodox Christianity is gone. Government serving the interests of those two is helping average Macedonian in the same way Zelenski is helping average Ukrainian. Serbs are at least trying to fight back, while Macedonians are working towards their own extinction.
Merry Christmas Larry. Hopefully you’ll have something on FTX and the Coverup of the money laundering operation it enabled.
There is a website that has had quite a few, well more than a few but not sure what other word to use, articles on the FTX scandal. He’s also being writing about the covid fraud & elections too.
https://politicalmoonshine.substack.com/
Here is some of them:
https://politicalmoonshine.substack.com/p/the-keystone-of-corruption-ukraine
https://politicalmoonshine.substack.com/p/the-keystone-of-corruption-ftx-and
https://politicalmoonshine.substack.com/p/the-keystone-of-corruption-trumplose
https://politicalmoonshine.substack.com/p/todays-sam-bankman-fried-is-yesterdays
Blessed be the peace-brokers…
Blessed be the kind Samaritans of every hue of faith…
Peace be bestowed to all on earth who are of goodwill…
Even the French and German soldiers who fought through the bloody mud in WWI, found to each other and had a brotherly common Christmas once, let them be remembered.
Merry Christmas, Larry, to you and to my Christian brothers and sisters; and Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish brother and sisters.
Larry, just about every Muslim home around the world has within its family a girl named Mariam (Mary in English) in honour of the Immaculate Virgin, as was my dad’s mother named and as is my wife’s older sister named. And so is Isa (in Arabic for Jesus) the name given to a male child in honour of Jesus among Muslims. Similarly, Musa (in Arabic for Moses) and Ibrahim (in Arabic for Abraham), and Yusuf (in Arabic for Joseph), and Ishaque (in Arabic for Isaac), and Yaqoob (in Arabic for Jacob), and Dawood (in Arabic for David), and Sulaiman (in Arabic for Solomon), etc., are common names for male children in Muslim homes.
And Christmas is also a holy day in the Muslim world since Jesus is also the Messiah for Muslims, raised to heaven, whose return will signify the end time bringing with him peace to reign in the world before the Judgment Day.
The Qur’an bears witness to Jesus and holds him, as Muslims believe Qur’an is God’s revelation to Muhammad, the last of the prophets, in highest reverence.
The theological differences between Christians and Muslims have been the source of animosity and religious conflicts, when the shared reverence and love for Jesus should and could have been the connecting points between them of respect and amity.
Jesus is the challenge, as a knife’s edge, for Christians and Muslims to walk on and embrace each other if both of them truly understood in their own ways, or faithfully according to their scriptures, that theology aside Jesus is the Messiah for both of them. Collectively both have been failing; but as individuals the stories of Christian and Muslim in harmony and amity, in love and togetherness are in legion.
When politics of any sort enters into matters of faith, it is as if a drop of lemon when added to a bowl of milk curdles it so does politics curdles religion.
Albert Camus, the French writer and Nobel Laureate in Literature born in Algeria, wrote, “Politics is not religion, or if it is, then it is nothing but the Inquisition.” Perhaps it could not have been said better for our time.
Our folly, the human condition, has been to turn God’s Word or Logos into weapons against each other and thereby sell our birthright, as made in the image of God, into serving the satanic among mankind.
Christians may balk at Muhammad, and Muslims do the same over the idea of Trinity, but Jesus born of Mary, the Immaculate Virgin, overrides their differences and holds for both of them the promise of his heavenly kingdom. If only they would put aside the politicized messages of their respective religious leaders and listen to what Jesus says and the Qur’an affirms.
May the Peace of the Heaven surround you, your family and friends, as you and rest of the world celebrate the advent of Jesus on this holy night.
God bless and may His Peace, Shalom, Salam, be yours and ours together.
Thank you Salim for the blessing and for what you have written. A Muslim friend of mine once stated to me that Muslim’s have a history of Mary and Jesus that is not taught in the Christian bible. I was surprised to hear that, not having been exposed to such knowledge before. Quite honestly, I trust my Muslim friends more than I trust my Christian friends.
Merry Christmas, Larry and all… May the blessings of peace save us from the fire and blood of war.
Yuletide greetings to you, Larry, and all here.
You may have already seen this extensive feature from RT, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway; it explains in depth the history of Ukraine’s schisms:
“War of the churches: How Ukraine has become unsafe for millions of Orthodox believers”
Why Ukrainian nationalists and the state persecute parishioners of the country’s largest church
https://www.rt.com/russia/568614-war-and-churches-in-ukraine/
Marry Christmas from Serbia!
I live in a Christian country. Walk the streets and occasionally you may find a gold coin just lying there on the street.
However if you are desperate for help ask a police officer. I was trapped in Covid Nuttersville. A police officer found me over night accommodation and made sure I could take possession next day of an apartment I had paid cash for a week earlier. Few months later Open Heart surgery and in free fall, another officer came to my rescue.
Both officers are worth a lot more than a gold coin. When the time comes l shall show my gratitude.
God works in mysterious ways. Saying thank you, is very important.
Thanks Larry for the education. Hope you can be part of the team to reduce or remove nuclear/biological weapons from earth. It’s all getting too much for the human unit.
The Ukrainian Catholics (who have similar traditions to the Ukrainian Orthodox) are in communion with the pope of Rome but are friendly with the Patriarch of Constantinople (Orthodox) and the “independent” Ukrainian Orthodox Church which was approved by Constantinople, in opposition to the Patriarchate of Moscow to which the original Ukrainian Orthodox Church was subordinate. There has been some discussion about these interchurch conflicts as a source of Putin’s motivation (especially in regards to the fate of Kiev, the birthplace of all Rusyn Orthodox Christianity), which I don’t think is actually true. But it is the case that the Ukrainian Catholics are very nationalistic and supportive of the regime, while Constantinople appears to be aligned with the western oligarchs/WEF.
From Nigeria I wish Larry merry Christmas and best of wishes for the new year and beyond. Your writings have always been a breath of fresh air. May God continue to uphold and give you strength to continue this service to humanity.
Merry Christmas to you and your family from mine.
Thank you for all that you do. We feel blessed to have a sane voice of reason as well as solid intel.
God Bless you and yours.
Zelensky move is against anyone sympathetic to Russians.
Here is some history for anyone interested.
https://endtimes.video/orthodoxy-history/
Blessed Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you Larry.
Both, the head of the german catholic church and the lutherian church came out just before christmas regurgitating the whole nonsensical western narrative , stressing that they support the ongoing weapons deliveries to Ukraine. The priests are as reliable as they were 80 years ago.
Few days ago I read an article by former austrian foreign minister, Karin Kneissl. She basically has been kicked out of her country and is living in Lebanon now. She wrote that if you want to find european values, you have to go to the middle east.
( https://de.rt.com/meinung/157506-freiheit-ich-meine/ ) Its in german, I don’t know whether Google can make sense of it in english
At least they are consistent. It is expected that the head of the German Catholic Church supports crusade against those Russians untermensch. Pope, on the other hand, pretends to be a peacemaker while calling some Russian citizens savages. It’s like he tries hard to be “nice”, but he just can’t.
Feliz Navidad Larry!
Wonderful Christmas and a best New Year,Mr.Larry.
Hitler’s last temple-Totenburg ??
https://youtu.be/YMUdk43jNFI
buon natale anche a te larry da un tuo assiduo lettore italiano.
Christ is Born !
( Indeed he is Born )
Glorify Him!
Mr. Larry’s article “Why Zelenki’s Ukraine is attacking the Orthodox Church” opens the door to the millennial answer, which history wrote in the events of time in the world: A millennium of efforts by the Roman Catholic Church to destroy the Eastern Orthodox Church, and those failures established the greatest hatred in the history of mankind ever. It is difficult to summarize this factually, but I will try, specifically only regarding the topic called “The Road to the East” This concept of destruction as a faith is a unique concept of the Roman Catholic faith in political thought, and it comes directly from the Crusades to today in the same religion that is in political thought, it should be remembered that all the wars of Europe were fought in a more national mobilization, the Roman Catholic Church simply launched the Crusades and mobilized the entire Western world into one army with the slogan that exclaims that “God wills it”, and today it is the entire Western world mobilized in one army against Russia, in the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople-Constantinople, the cradle of the Eastern Orthodox Empire with the Hagia Sophia church, was burned and destroyed. held that Constantine gave the Holy Western Empire the vast territory and endless wealth of the Eastern Empire. The continuation of the journey to the East is the Great Northern War against Russia, then Napoleon’s war against Russia, it should be remembered that in these wars more European nationalists were mobilized, then the occupation of Moscow Russia of the western part which was called Ukraine, which means the border of Galicia, the Habsburg Monarchy, the feather of the Roman Catholic churches, was also occupied by Poland. The Rio Catholic concept of the Krewo – the unity or commonwealth of the Mediterranean, the enslavement of Orthodox peasants under occupation was horrific. Pope Clement VIII excommunicated the Orthodox Church and Metropolis of Kiev-Halych and all Orthodox Christians are placed under the jurisdiction of the Pope in Rome. Pope Urban VIII said: “Oh, my Ruthenians, through you I hope to gain the East” The Ruthenians are enslaved Orthodox peasants, and the concept of the Roman Catholic Church for the conquest of Russia cannot be better expressed. Then the Pope introduced a strategy strategy called “Greek-Catholic” as a means of fighting against Orthodoxy, Greek-Catholicism covered with a smile and open arms, false love in the conquest of Orthodox souls. Then the Roman Catholic Church also asked Mary the Mother of Jesus with the concept of Our Lady of Fatima, who said in her second message: Peace in the world will come if Russia converts to Catholicism. Then the road to the East continues through the penumbra of the Roman Catholic Church of the Habsburg Monarchy in the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in WW1 against Russia and Serbia, then with Nazism in the concordat attack on Serbia and Russia in WW2. That Road to the East continues today. It should be remembered that it was not Stalin who demolished the Orthodox Churches, but the Bolsheviks-Jews demolished thousands of Orthodox Churches in Russia, then the Khazar Empire should also be remembered, it is not difficult to see all that through Zelenki’s Ukraine.
Amusing that name of Fatima(as) the Daughter of the Prophet Muhammed (as) is being used in conflicts between Christian sects.
Indeed. This view is supported by a video recently posted by Vasily Prozorov, who was a senior officer in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) before deciding his loyalties lay elsewhere. He now hosts a Telegram channel called UKR Leaks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZaMULRkJc
It would seem that the Holy See is anxious to “recover” some of the wealth that Byzantium moved to Kiev before Byzantium fell, just as Rome moved a substantial amount of its wealth “offshore” to Londinium.
Fun fact: the Norman invasion of England in 1066 (shortly after the Schism which also involved Norman (Norseman) mercenaries) had to wait for authorization from the Pope.
Zelensky is Jewish so he does not care or understand difference between Catholics and Orthodox why Orthodoxy is very important to both Ukrainian and Russian. His ghouls are Nazis who are trying to “cleanse” white Northern people from so called Jewish religion and go back to Viking religion. I am not joking, they are nuts. I saw video somewhere in Western Ukraine they were performing old Viking ritual on the orthodox advent day, mocking Christians. Zelensky went too far, Ukrainians and Russians might fight with other but not in church. My mother is Russian orthodox, kept her faith all through communist years, which was an act of bravery by itself.. When I became Anglican, she was not too happy, but at least I did not join Catholic Church.
Jewish Zionism would never have prospered if it had not been carried out by Catholic Zionism.
My first girlfriend was Jewish. She was witty and pretty and very intelligent. She even understood my jokes. LOL. We’d just go to the stage of holding hands when she came to me in tears. I can’t see you anymore. I thought you were Jewish. I was puzzled. We decide, I said. She said you don’t understand. My family will throw me out.
I got over it, married someone else and have 5 amazing successful children.
But sometimes, at senior moments like these, I still think of her, my first love.
I recently read something I thought was very wise. The Abrahamic religions should stick together, or words to that effect.
Klaus is no Santa.
The WEF seeks to destroy us all.
But we have God on our side.
We must stick together. The ruling class knows that once united, the Sons and Daughters of Abraham will defeat their satanist agenda. This is why they’ve had us at each others’ throats for the last 50+ years.
“And We said to the angels, ‘Bow down to Adam.’ They bowed down, except for Shaitan. He refused, was arrogant, and was one of the disbelievers.”
They believe man is just an animal, to be culled to 500,000. And just like Satan, they choose to disobey God and worship His creation instead.
The story about the CFZ shows again how twisted the info coming from official news is compared to the reality.
They are Jews its normal. All leadership in Ukraine is jewish. Just like they destroyed the Churches in this country with relentless news about “catholic pedos” When priests err less than 0.4% of general population let alone Hollywood. Television shows and other cultural institutions they own mocking Christianity.
I should say hard core practicing Jews don’t dislike Muslims or Christians. It’s the Shylock ones. Irreligious and neo-liberal outlook ones like Zelensky are issue. He has no use for any institution that gets into the way of state or corporate power, even synagogues – let alone churches
I think you need to revisit your ‘all leadership in Ukraine is Jewish’ belief.
Merry Christmas Larry to you and all yours! We wish you (body n mind) health to move on writing your sharp articles!
Who is Santa Claus, why does he look like that, and where did he come from?
Answer here
https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1606891166221623298
I knew that it would be wrong even before I clicked the link, because it’s Twitter.
He came from Slavic pagan mythology, where it was called Ded Moroz (meaning Grandfather Frost). After adoption of Christianity by Slavs, he was combined with Saint Nicholas. The west appropriated him and renamed to Sinterklaas or Santa Claus. Slavs still call him Ded Moroz.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ded_Moroz
Maybe you should write that as Djed Moroz (or Dzed Moroz), else the Ukrainians and their supporters will have a field day with it.
Different Slavic languages use slightly different versions of name. Ded Moroz is the one used on English language Wikipedia, so I just copy-pasted it.
I have just checked Ukrainian Wikipedia, and it says Did Moroz. I guess you are not one of “Ukrainians and their supporters”. 🙂
They certainly ‘did’ the frost onto themselves, didn’t they?
Now, if only Putin would knock off the freeze on America. It’s getting pretty frisky there I hear.
This entire “Ukraine persecuting Ukraine Orthodox Church” is more than a little odd.
People don’t seem to remember that the Ukrainian Orthodox church officially split itself away from being under the Russian Orthodox organization in general and Moscow Patriarchate specifically in 2019.
Did the Ukrainian Orthodox Church somehow change its mind about being Ukrainian Orthodoxy as opposed to being under Russian Orthodoxy?
I think the point is that the Kiev regime is determined to purge all pro-Russian sentiment from UOC-KP (or OCU) parishes.
La Iglesia Católica está profundamente divida y muy, muy cerca de un cisma con la Iglesia Católica en Alemania (Lutero 2.0) Actualmente está muy penetrada por las fuerzas globalistas (ONU, WEF, ETC) Tenemos un Papa que escribe enciclicas herméticas, Amoris Laetitia Fratelli Tutti. Persigue a los católicos tradicionalistas que son los que aportan TODO a la Iglesia y son los que mejores relaciones tienen con los ortodoxos. El actual Papa está con Ucrania porque forma parte de un movimiento que busca formar una nueva religión ecuménica falsa.
Zelensky is derusifying Ukraine. That is why they are going after the churches.
The derussification process got into high gear after 2014 coup. Russia dropped the ball then and let them take power by force. Instead of intervening then, they let them subject the Russian speaking population to anti Russia propaganda for 8 years, they let them build an army, and fortify their positions. These are just a few of Russia’s many failures in handling Ukraine.
Russia had to build it’s army for 8 years too that’s why they are not running out of anything and are fully prepared should NATO feel froggy. Russia was in a disastrous state when Putin took power on 2000. Little better by 2014 when people said he should have invaded but nothing like now, fully prepared to take on NATO
Putin also could not rally Russians in 2014. They needed to see 8 years of relentless attacks on ethnic Russians. Even so it’s hard needed NATO to arm the nazis to the tee. Would be even better if NATO entered.
Financially, Putin needed to set up alt cash flows so regime wouldn’t collapse with NATO sanctions. That took time and planning.
Bottom line is Putin needed time too.
In 2014 Ukraine had about as much soldiers ready to fight as Georgia had in 2008.
Russia could have overpowered them easily. They could have gone in, restore the legitimate president back to power, deal with the most far right, extreme leaders and pull back most of its troops back to Russia.
In 2022. however, after 10 months of heavy fighting, Ukrainian army is still in the outskirts of Donetsk and Russia is destroying civilian infrastructure just like NATO did in 1999 in Serbia.
Russia is behaving more and more like a bad NATO copycat.
and Russia is destroying civilian infrastructure just like NATO did in 1999 in Serbia.
Well, there you go…reaching out to ‘whataboutism’ again, known simply in legalese as ‘precedent’. As I remember and seeing that Weasly Clark couldn’t manage to find very many Serbian tanks, Jamie Shea became quite enthusiastic about NATO intentions to destroy Serbia’s civilians and their infrastructure until Milosevic cried uncle.
But, you know what they say; “two wrongs don’t make a right’. but then if the first wrong was interpreted by the wrongdoer as a right, then that leaves the second wrongdoer in the clear and equally ‘in the right’ and certainly immune to any declarations of wrongdoing by the original wrongdoer.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what makes the world turn.
BTW: I don’t know who wrote this but it seems acutely perceptive:
“the more civilized a society seems to be, the more susceptible it is to its buried atavism”
So many fancy words to justify the suffering of civilians.
It was wrong in 1999, it is wrong now.
So many fancy words to justify the suffering of civilians. It was wrong in 1999, it is wrong now.
It was wrong in ’99, wrong in 2014-2022 and wrong now. There, corrected it.
That’s three wrongs to one wrong. The west and its proxy Ukraine win the wrongathon.
“It was wrong in ’99, wrong in 2014-2022 and wrong now.”
I don’t disagree. The terror campaign that Donetsk was subjected to was also a crime. A crime Russia could have prevented in 2014, by preventing the coup.
If Russia, with all its influence in Ukraine was in the dark regarding what was about to happen…
In 2014 Russian economy would collapse under sanctions and rewind to 1990s, which was/is the main goal of this whole exercise. This is economic war above all. Shooting part is just a sideshow. If you think that Russia is anything like NATO, then you know nothing about Russia or NATO.
The sanctions would have been light had they managed to do it quickly and relatively bloodlessly, like they captured Crimea, and like they prevented a coup in Kazakhstan.
There were no sanctions to speak of when Russia defeated Georgian offensive in a few days.
Yanukovich could have provided Russia with some legal framework.
It is amazing that the roots of this schism go back early two thousand years to when Constantine felt the empire was too big to administer from Rome and made an insignificant but strategically located Greek village on the edge of Europe his second capital.
From a western perspective, and for purposes of this post I’ll include Russia and much of the near East as western, nearly half of written human history has been dominated by Rome. Either directly through imperial rule in Rome or Constantinople or the lingering aftershocks through culture, religions, and attempts to reinvent or reimagine the old empire.
I have a feeling that some far distant historian will see the last 2,000 years or so much the same we we see the Sumerians and the other civilizations in the Fertile Crescent and all that. It will all sort of merge into an amalgamation where the vast expanses of time are somewhat ignored and will simply be referred to as “The Roman Period.”
Some consider Russia to be the Third Rome, so you are not wrong at all. Besides being the defender of Ortodox Christianity, Russia even have the two-headed that eagle came from Constantinople alongside Byzantine princess.
I suppose the overlooked truth, or so it seems to me, is the Ukrainian government is Pagan at its heart and what better way to show your belief than to destroy competing religions. While Zelensky is Jewish this does not preclude him from Pagan practices and that should not be overlooked. At the very least, Zelensky is a puppet of the Ukrainian neo-nazi, Pagan government and he has little say in the matter. I view Zelensky as a man that is on the edge, on borrowed time and frightened out of his mind.
Of course, one could view the Ukie onslaught against the Orthodox church as the frustrated thrashing outs of a failing government, striking in fear and anger at the one, last vestige that ties Russia to the Ukrainian people…its religion. In the end, this one act will turn Ukrainian hearts to stone when Zelensky (if he survives his own military) and other government and neo-nazi members come to trial. And they will come to trial.
The original Nazis were a pagan cult and their Ukrainian offshoot are at every turn showing themselves to be enthusiastic followers of such pagan rituals.
It really isn’t rocket science. One simply has to have an unburdoned pair of eyes and ears and even moderate skills of perception, something becoming an ever increasing rarity in western journalism.
Merry Christmas to you Larry and prosperity to your family, knowing you and other people who offer their knowledge and fight for the truth is the best gift we can receive. I raise my glass with fernet and coke for the men of good will who seek peace.
The West have been actively working on destroying Serbian Orthodox Church too, but none of it ever made it to the mainstream news. Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija have been destroying it physically with US supplied explosives (and everyting else). US puppets in Montenegro and Northern Macedonia are trying to seize it and make it their own privately owned Orodox Church, jus like Zelensky.
You can not destroy Russia/Serbia without destroying Russian/Serbian Orthodox Churches, and The West knows it. That’s what this whole religion kerfuffle is all about.
Catholic Church have always considered Eastern Orthodoxy as its biggest enemy, and had no problem aligning with Muslims in order to kill Ortodox “brothers and sisters in Christ” together. If you don’t believe me just google about Crimean War, or the mess that The Balkans were since the Catholic-Orthodox split up untill today.
Merry Christmas to you and your family Larry and all readers. Thank you for your wonderful work, from a UK follower.
Hope and prayers for a turning towards peace for our future.
Merry Christmas to Larry, and all his readers, and best wishes for the New Year. Thanks for all you do Larry, looking forward to more next year.
Let’s hope next year finishes on a happier note than this one. Imagine.
Merry Christmas from the the other Larry Johnson.
If I may hazard a slight correction about Stalin and the Russian Orthodox
Church, according to Andrei Martianov Stalin never closed down the churches in the Soviet Union. This as pure propaganda and if people think about what this would have meant to the country, it would have been a destabilizing thing to do and simply not worth the bother. Of course Martianov might be wrong, but the logic for doing this for Stalin simply isn’t there.
FWIW,
L.
Most of the western common knowledge about USSR/Russia turned out to be Cold War propaganda, and I have no doubt that it’s the case here too.
He closed down quite a few and blew up some of those, so yes and no.
Those that remained were often put under surveillance by ‘minders’.
Yet another example of how the SBU has many things in common with the NKVD. We’ll leave similarities with the Gestapo to another day.
Merry Christmas, Larry. I always enjoy your posts and interviews. RT has an interesting article detailing the evolution of the current religious situation in Ukraine (below). I’m not sure what to make of this paragraph though, specifically, whether the 34.8% of Ukrainians who claimed to be “unaffiliated Orthodox” in 2018 were in fact pro-Russian and did so in order to prevent being harassed or worse:
“The Maidan of 2014 significantly affected the religious life of Ukraine. In 2013, 27.7% of believers called themselves parishioners of the ROC-MP, 25.9% of the UOC-KP, and 5.7% of the UGCC. Gradually, the popularity of the ROC-MP declined, while that of the UOC-KP and Greek Catholics grew. By 2018, 19.1% of believers considered themselves parishioners of the Moscow Patriarchate, 42.6% of the Kiev Patriarchate, and 9.4% of the Greek Catholic Church. Over a third of Ukrainians retained the Orthodox faith but did not want to be associated with a particular denomination: In 2013, 40.8% of Ukrainians called themselves unaffiliated Orthodox, and in 2018 that number decreased to 34.8%.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/568614-war-and-churches-in-ukraine/
Or am I making too direct a connection between religious identification and political orientation?
Ukrainian Orthodox priests oftern bless the AFU and Russian Orthodox priests often bless the SMO. Make of that what you will.
To me, one of the blessings of the US Constitution was the separation of church and state. Too bad it’s rarely adhered to in practice.
Another interesting historic wrinkle: in the early part of the 20th century as Slavic laborers immigrated to America for work, many of these Ukrainian Catholics tried to establish their own parishes. The existing Roman Catholic hierarchy treated them very heavy-handedly, trampling on their traditions, especially the one about priests being allowed to marry.
Because of hostility from the Roman Catholic hierarchy here in the United states, Ukrainian Catholics formed their own parishes. But get this, those Ukrainian parishes came under the Russian Orthodox Church in America, now known as the Orthodox Church in America.
When primitive man made the transition to agriculture (condensed version) he needed the calendar to know when to seed ….these learned men that watched the planets and other celestial objects that created the calendar based on planetary cycles morphed through astrotheology into the priesthood….. marauding hunter gatherers who preyed on the farming settlements and their surplus slowly stopped violent plunder in exchange for a tribute and hence this monopoly of violence birthed the monarchy…..two distinct but competitive establishments vying for influence and power over the chattel. There has been some crossover… Henry forming the Church of England or the
Warrior Popes but basically it’s all about control and any totalitarian government like the current president puppet in Kiev who outlawed all political competition and closed down all independent information dissemination will also try to control the Church as well….stands to reason. Because Russia and Ukraine share such a close and intertwined history….the social engineers are attacking and symbols of Russian influence…. scrubbing history and rewriting it in their image. The followers of Odin who brought us Yule are a benign influence….it’s the Abrahamic religions that teach forcible conversion and destruction of infidels … pagans or goyim…..the Nazis that where institutionalized/mobilized by Washington and Kiev to go kill Commies in the Donbas because no other Ukrainian forces wanted to….do it because of the misguided historic conflict between National Socialism and Soviet Communism….not to push Asatru and Ragnarok on anyone
Each of your articles is for me a « leçon de choses ».
Thank you.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Merry Christmas.
Jesus’s second commandment was to love one’s neighbor as oneself, even to the extent of loving one’s enemy. Following this commandment does not lead to sufficient death and destruction to please the Satanic cult(s). Hate is much more destructive and profitable for the developing (would be) world religion. Russia is upholding many of the older Christian values, and if not love , is at least showing some restraint in dealing with its neighbor enemy. This cannot be acknowledged. Thus the war against Russia becomes a crusade/inquisition of applied hatred.
Celebrating the birth of Jesus is important. It might be of lesser but not inconsiderable importance to understand why the celebration was set to (some say to obscure) the ancient “pagan” festival of Sun-return. The importance of the festival is (was) in celebrating the recovery from the last cyclic destruction of human civilization, and in the realization that it will recur at its regular interval. Mathew 24 documents Jesus’s prediction of this recurrence. While “No man knoweth the hour or the day” current magnetic pole movement and magnetic field decline do suggest an approximate timeframe.
In the Serbian Orthodox Church a man cannot be a priest unless he is married.
…. In the Serbian Orthodox Church a man cannot be a priest unless he is married…..
Tell that to Vladika 🙂
My Orthodox Priest said that the reason for the marriage policy was that a single priest would end up dating within the parish, with the danger that this would cause jealousy, hard feelings and possible scandal.
It is not called orthodox catholic church ever,just orthodox christianity.You have russian orthodox church,serbian orthodox church etc.Only russian orthodox church have authority over all orthodox christian church in ukraine,just like serbian orthodox church have authority over orthodox churches in croatia,bosnia,montenegro.
Please my esteem for you is enormous so I kindly ask you to better verify the correctness of your following statement
“..kind of religious persecution commonly associated with Stalin’s Soviet Union..”
sorry I forgot the most important:
Merry Christmas Larry
Newsweek
Zelensky’s Sobering Christmas Message to Ukraine Describes ‘Loss of Hope’
12/24/22 AT 8:12 PM EST
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses his nation every night with a speech that usually gives updates of war, whether good or bad. His delivery on Christmas Eve was more somber than upbeat. It discouraged Christmas lights and bells. He said meals aren’t warm and that there may be an empty seat or two at this year’s table.
Zelensky described a loss of love, hope and even himself as the war hits the 10-month mark on Christmas Eve.
He began his speech, on a night typically filled with good tidings, cheer and joy, as one of “bitter aftertaste” and somewhat despair.
“Unfortunately, all the holidays have a bitter aftertaste for us this year. And we can feel the traditional Spirit of Christmas differently. Dinner at the family table cannot be so tasty and warm. There may be empty chairs around it,” Zelensky said.
“Our houses and streets can’t be so bright. And Christmas bells can ring not so loudly and inspiringly. Through air raid sirens, or even worse – gunshots and explosions. And all this together can pose a bigger threat. It is a disappointment. Of the higher forces and their power, of goodness and justice in the world. Loss of hope. Loss of love. Loss of myself …”
Zelensky recently returned home after a trip in the cloak of darkness to the United States and back on Wednesday, in which he met with President Joe Biden and asked Congress to continue providing aid to his country. The U.S. approved $1.85 billion in additional aid to Ukraine, which now includes the Patriot Air Defense System.
The war is entering its 305th day on Christmas and Russia has lost more than 101,000 soldiers since their invasion on February 24 this year.
Zelensky called Russia the “evil and darkness” that has invaded his country, and he vowed Ukraine would use the “wisdom of God” to overcome it.
“Isn’t this what evil and darkness, which have taken up arms against us, want in their essence? We have been resisting them for more than three hundred days and eight years,” Zelensky said. “And will we allow them to achieve what they want?
“In this battle, we have another powerful and effective weapon. The hammer and sword of our spirit and consciousness. The wisdom of God. Courage and bravery. Virtues that incline us to do good and overcome evil.
“Our path is illuminated by faith and patience. Patience and faith. These are twin forces. As it was said, “he who rules and controls his own spirit, is better than he who captures a city.” To endure does not mean to accept the circumstances. Patience is watching to make sure that we don’t let any doubt or fear into our minds. It is faith in one’s own strength.”
Source:
https://www.newsweek.com/zelenskys-sobering-christmas-message-ukraine-describes-loss-hope-1769525
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A point of information, please . . .
Since when has 24 December been “Christmas Eve” in the Ukraine?
Since when have Eastern Orthodox citizens of the Ukraine, namely the vast majority of the Ukraine population that professes a religion, celebrated Christmas on 25 December?
Perhaps Zelensky, who is not a Christian, might enlighten inquisitive minds in this matter. He seems to think that “Western” Christmas is celebrated by Ukrainian Christians, which it indeed is in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church church in Western Ukraine, a church promoted by the Roman Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and further promoted by the Roman Catholic Habsburg Austrian Empire. Perhaps Zelensky should visit the Kiev Pechersk Lavra on Christmas Eve, 6 January and find out what’s going on there, if he has not already by that time ordered its closure.
I don’t know, I have a good buddy who is a Ukrainian Catholic and they celebrate on December 7th, same as we do.
Oops, Jan 7th.
I stand corrected!
The Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church (Orthodox ritual, but recognises the Roman Pope as primate) celebrates Christmas on 7 January. However, the Banderites have made 25 December the “official” Christmas Day.
As of 2017, 25 December, Christmas Day by the Gregorian calendar, became an official government holiday in the Ukraine. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches predominantly follow the Julian calendar, and 7 January is also a public holiday in the the Ukraine.
The Yeltsin regime tried to do the same in the ’90s, namely make 25 December the “official” Christmas holiday so that New Year celebrations followed the Christmas ones and then back to work. This proposal was turned down in the State Duma.
This year, the last working day here in Russia is 30 December. The first working day of 2023 is Monday, 9 January, namely the first Monday following Orthodox Christmas of 7 January.
That sounds very moving until I remember how Poroshenko in 2014 decided to celebrate by proudly pontificating that while Ukrainian children will go to school and celebrate all things near and dear, Donbass children, oprphaned or not, will cower in cold, dank, dark basements, at least those that survived Ukraine’s terror shelling. Hundreds never did.
Not so cocky any more, are you Petro?
To hell with that regime and to hell with its supporters.
By God, can you imagine if Belgrade had decided to shell Pristina helter skelter in order to terrorize the civilians into surrender? Apparently, that’s only something the western-annointed ‘democracies’ do.
Another interesting historic wrinkle: in the early part of the 20th century as Slavic laborers immigrated to America for work, many of these Ukrainian Catholics tried to establish their own parishes. The existing Roman Catholic hierarchy treated them very heavy-handedly, trampling on their traditions, especially the one about priests being allowed to marry.
Because of hostility from the Roman Catholic hierarchy here in the United states, Ukrainian Catholics formed their own parishes. But get this, those Ukrainian parishes came under the Russian Orthodox Church in America, now known as the Orthodox Church in America.
I have a North American story in that vein.
When I was younger, we lived next to the Pakistani consul. Come December, someone gives the guy a bottle of Crown Royal.
Being a for-real diplomat, he graciously accepts it. Being a for-real Muslim, he can’t use it.
So that’s why the Pakistani consul showed up at the door, offering his Jewish neighbor a bottle of Crown Royal… for Christmas.
To my Christian friends, a toast in respect to a world-changing day, and the tremendous good you have done under the banners of Christendom. It beats pagan societies all hollow. As we are now discovering first hand, to our sorrow.
May Christendom restore itself across the West, speedily, in our days.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Joe! Jesus said “salvation is from the Jews”.
Thank you, Joe! Jesus said “salvation is from the Jews”.
That might have been from the ruling Jewish hierarchy, that found its place among the Roman overseers.
A striking resemblance to the majority Jewish hierarchy otherwise known as the neocon/zionist amalgam, who found their place among Washington’s overseers.
A stretch? Maybe, but not by much.
Under Communism the Eastern Orthodox Church establishment was used for KGB espionage for more than 75 years. It drove the Russian Orthodox Church in the US nuts for decades
There may actually be some fire under the smoke Zelensky is chasing. The fine points of morality or respect for the boundaries of religion are of little moment in espionage as we have demonstrated in the Twitter revelations right here in the US.
Merry Christmas and thank you Larry for all your work. and great story,
however, the story is unfinished..
you are killing us!!!
the suspense is unbearable!!
so who was responsible for the drug trafficking! (lol).
As a practicing Greek Orthodox Christian, I would like a few word myself. First Merry Christmas to all and as we say here in Greece “Chronia Polla” (live many years). The official date for us for celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior is today 25th Dec standard calendar. As for the difference between the Greek Orthodox Church which really is the head of all Orthodox Churches (since Cyril and Methodius brought the Slavic nations to the Church), I must say we consider the others heretics. In our “Pisteuo” (I believe) we say we believe in one Saint Catholic and Apostolic Church (undivided) as created by the Apostles and the Great Fathers like Vasilios Megas and John Chrysostom. Our belief of the Orthodoxy being the one true Christian faith comes from the multitude of miracles and acts performed by our many Saints even in the 20th and 21st Century. Anyone who knows about Nectarios of Aegina (watch the movie The Man of God), Joseph the Hesychast, Paisios of Mount Athos, Ephraim of Arizona (yes in Arizona US), Ephraim of Katounakia , Lucas the Russian Doctor, Sofronios of Essex UK , Tychon the Russian of Mount Athos, Seraphim Rose in the US and many others can testify to that.
Zionism is an ideology. Judaism is a religion. They have absolutely nothing in common. The state of Israel does not represent the Jewish people as the Zionists want the world to believe.
https://youtu.be/Tvn_R4vsIl8
I went to the English-language Catholic Mass here in Minneapolis today (Christmas). Sparse attendance, maybe because it was -4F (-20C) and maybe people had gone last night. The two Spanish-language later today masses will be packed. I always devote special adherence to the Epiklesis, since my Orthodox brethren deem that the most important instant of the sacrament. As an apostolic Church, I pay special respect to Orthodox teachings. The priest prayed for the people of Ukraine (fine) and then prayed for the Russian soldiers even though they were “doing evil deeds by following the direction of an evil dictator”. It was all I could do not to scream. If he saw my body language, he would know I disagree. If any Russians are reading this, please know that there are some Americans who support Russia because we understand that elements of our government want to see Russia destroyed. I prayed today for Russian victory. To call Putin a dictator is ironic since our president is of dubious legitimacy. Also “Pope” Francis is an antipope and heretic. The real pope is still Benedict XVI. So we have a fake president, a fake pope and a fake foreign policy. The “Empire of Lies” is a fitting description.
People of Russia – please understand that everyone in the West is so propagandized to hate Russia and its people that most of the people (80%+) are beyond reason. You can not trust our governments – at least for another generation, if ever. You need to rely on yourselves and other allies like India and China. Stay strong and persevere.
Christmas, so last season.
Its all about the New Year, time and natural cosmos. Nothing about some Middle Eastern family traditions. Sorry.
No Christmas for me, no strange traditions from those people. I`m out.
“We (Orthodox) do not discount anyone’s salvation, but we acknowledge that they are outside the true Church. But God has raised up Saints (even among the Protestants–I have met a few)”
So, you consider that we (few true Protestants left) are “even” found amongst the saved ones.
It is strange, but understandable, that a religious group like Orthodoxy should consider itself the true church of Christ – dismissing the Roman religion (in many ways doctrinally very similar to Orthodoxy) and the Protestant churches (doctrinally following exclusively the Christian Book) as outside such church.
With regard to the Catholics, you adhere to the same essential doctrines, namely, apostolic succession, oracular confession, partial celibacy for ministers, worship of images, etc. The one difference that is significant is the existence of the pope, which you don’t have.
With regard to Protestants, you assert that we are further away from the true church than Rome. That is very revealing and very sad and very false.
Very revealing because you sail on the same boat as the Vatican, concerning this matter. It is quite understandable due to the fact that your anti-Biblical doctrines and practices are very similar.
As described above, the so called apostolic succession is nowhere to be found in the New Testament.
Concerning confession of sins the Word of God directs His children to come to Him directly in confession and repentance, and to go to our brethren in mutual confession of our mutual offences.
If we speak of celibacy, that is a doctrine of devils, since the Lord Jesus Christ clearly stated that making oneself a eunuch is only for those God gives the grace to, not for a whole caste of priests (the fruit of such fiendish doctrine is the centuries of priestly abuse of females and males amongst their parishioners, with never ending discovery of graves of infants under convents all over the world). In fact, all the disciples were married, except possibly Paul.
And what of idols? God expressly condemns the making of any image in order to bow down and pray to it, or worship it. It is a complete degradation of man as a spiritual creature, that communicates with his Creator spiritually, because God is spirit, and all those that worship Him will do so in spirit and in truth.
It is very sad because you live in spiritual self-delusion, since your doctrines contradict God’s Manual in essential matters.
And it is very false because, as stated above, the Truth cannot be found anywhere but in the Word of God, which you have to twist or ignore whenever your doctrines are at variance with God’s decrees.
No wonder that some Orthodox believers proudly dismiss and treat with contempt our Protestant adhesion to Sola Scriptura. The tragedy is that we are safe under God’s Manual for life, while you and Rome have gone out of God’s pure pasture to eat the poisoned herbs of error.
According to Wikipedia, “Stepan Bandera was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Galicia, into the family of a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera), which may also explain the religious antipathy with which the Ukrainian nationalists regard the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Christians. For an additional source on Bandera and the OUN see also, https://www.voltairenet.org/article218395.html.
Yep. A strong ideology is required before going to war against Russia. It turns out it is not enough.
“Stepan Bandera was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Galicia, into the family of a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,/i>
So, it was Ukrainian Catholics genociding Polish Catholics at Volhynia then. Daddy didn’t teach him much about Christianity I guess.
A small contribution. I am Jewish and my father was from and born in Morocco. I grew up in Casablanca until I graduated from High school.
Many years later, 34, to be exact, starting in 1999, I started to travel to Casablanca again, going there every year until about 8 years ago, or so. My father had passed away and the people I visited where all from his circle of friends. (My own contemporaries had all left.) He lived in the US, having left Morocco in the early ’70’s, but returned regularly with my mother, every year.
His friends, now mine, are mostly all businessmen of one type or another.
The unofficial population of Morocco, a few years ago, was estimated at some 35 million. Official figures are lower.
The official population of Casablanca, as given a few years ago, was at about 7 million. The unofficial population, 10 million.
A few years ago when I was last there, I was told by my Jewish friends that there were no more than about 2500 Jews left in all of Morocco, with about 1500 to 1700 of them in Casablanca.
2500 Jews in a country of 35 million Moslems….
And they live together in peace, side by side, and do business with each other.
Of course there is sometimes violence when the Arabs get worked up about some violence in the Middle East.
Over the years a few Jews have been killed.
But no one, anywhere, in any country, is safe from a maniac with a dagger.
Now: my Moroccan Jewish friends swear to me that in their heart of hearts all Moslems despise the Jews. I really had difficulty in believing that but they insisted that it is true. They also admit that there is no people more racist than the Jews.
This is of course not to deny that neither all Arabs nor all Jews are like that.
The Moroccan government and their justice system do not recognize any difference between whatever nationality, ethnicity, religion the peoples inhabiting Morocco have. As far as the law is concerned, they are all subject to Moroccan law, and equal under it.
When young Arabic (–that is to say, Moslem Moroccan) punks have desecrated Jewish cemeteries and overturned tombstones because they were unhappy about something happening in the Middle East, i.e. Israel (natch), they were, when caught, given 8 to 9 year prison sentences. A Jew or anyone else doing the same would receive the same sentence.
During the second WW, when Morocco was a French Protectorate, and the French Vichy government administered Morocco, they at one moment decreed that all Jewish residents would henceforth wear a yellow armband. The Sultan took to the airwaves that same night and said – more or less – We are all Moroccans here and will therefore all of us all wear yellow armbands tomorrow. That was the end of that story..
There were about 500,000 Jews in Morocco ca. 1950. Starting about 1956, when Morocco was given its independence by the French ( I was there and saw the Sultan make his official entrance to Casablanca), there was a massive exodus by the Jews to Israel, mostly, and mostly by the poorer ones, but also to France, Spain, Canada, the US. They were afraid. How was life going to be under an Arabic Moslem government?
To a certain extent their fears were justified, but not at all in the sense of crazed Arabs with daggers taking to the streets, hunting for Jews. It was, rather, the government that made life difficult for all foreigners and Jews as well. I do not know the details, but one very significant law was that Moroccan citizens, both Arabs and Jews, could not send any money out of the country. It still holds.
My father traveled to the US sometime in 1941. He wanted to see the US and had some distant relatives living in Boston. My mother was part of that circle and that’s how he met her. While he was there Pearl Harbor happened. He could not go back to Morocco (German submarines). At some point he, a Moroccan national, decided to volunteer and enlist. The recruiting officer told him he was not subject to the draft and could sit out the war, doing whatever he wanted. He enlisted anyway.
Assigned at one point to some artillery outfit, they were lobbing shells at a target and missing every time. The commanding officer asked if anyone knew how to use a sliderule. My father did – he was the product of an excellent French schooling. ( As I understand it, the arc is calculated using spherical trigonometry, hence the sliderule.) He did the calculation, shoot, bullseye. He was promptly yanked out of the outfit and sent to – I forget the name – the accelerated officer’s training school ( the famous 90-day wonders). He ended the war as a Second Lieutenant. He was present at some kind of command or communications center near Sacramento, where I was born, when the order came through to begin the battle of Midway He was eventually assigned to Counter-Intelligence because of his language skills: Spanish, French, Moroccan and Classical Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Latin, Classical Greek, and some Portuguese. He crossed the Rhine with General Patch’s 6th Army. Was at some point in charge of the crossings between Germany and Austria – no on could get through without his signature. After the German surrender a German General presented himself to his command post and formally surrendered to him, handing over his sidearm ( a Walther .32 PPK).
I read your column everyday, Larry, with great enjoyment. We were neighbors. I lived in Florida’s most beautiful city, Sarasota, for about 22 years. Now in Cali, Colombia, so you have at least one reader in Colombia!
Best wishes to you.
George
https://nationalvanguard.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/casablanca.jpg
https://rg.ru/2022/12/25/nashi-liudi-nasha-zemlia-nasha-pravda.html
Medvedev: illusions are exhausted. Between us and West there are more of things separating than of things connecting.
Feliz Navidad, Larry ! y Feliz año Nuevo !
Gracias Miles por este Blog !
“Paz en la Tierra a los hombres de buena voluntad ”
Deep Thanks, Larry !!
Two points. You ever been married and a woman is picking fights over nothing? You are already divorced. You just don’t know it. The UkroNazis jacking with the church is someone focusing on minutia when the big thing is done. They know they’ve lost. They’re just fucking with someone while they can. Point 2. The heartwarming Jewish merchant. I read Exodus as a child. Read about the Holocaust. One of the reasons I joined the Army. I never wanted this horror to reoccur. And now Israel has turned the West Bank into a open air concentration camp. The Mossad invented the technique of the dancing bedsprings. Take bed springs and wire it to electricity and tie the Palestinian down. And laugh. ANYONE in power becomes a tyrant. Anyone. If you handed me a trigger to a bomb that killed the human race and left dogs alive? I’d die with an erection. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all and may you prosper and be in good health in the coming year.
Komsomolskaya Pravda came a few hours ago with a scoop: a review of a completely new tank T-14 ‘Armata’ (tank manager). https://www.kp.ru/daily/27488.5/4698301/
– I had the honor of being the first Russian military journalist who was allowed by the Minister of Defense to visit this tank. I wrote about it in KP. I was a tanker in my first soldier’s life. When I climbed into the “Armata”, the first impression was about the same as if from a rural tractor, one that has such levers everywhere, I would move into the cabin of a modern superliner. I did not see any wheels, no levers, no brakes, no gas. The instructor who was with me says: you are behind the times, you work with a joystick, – said Viktor Nikolaevich.
Now the T-14, according to Solovyov, is in combat coordination. What will happen next?
– This tank is being tested for a long time. And I think that he will be slowly pulled up to the battlefield. Our testers are now “killing” it at Russian test sites in various modes – in cold, hot, mud, sand, and so on, – said Colonel Baranets.
What is good tank “Armata”
– The first difference between this tank and all classic tanks is that the crew is located separately from the shells. If an enemy shell hits an ordinary tank, it explodes, the crew explodes. Here the crew is separated by powerful armor from shells. Shells are supplied automatically. The soldier pressed the button, the commander took aim, fired. All this works.
The tank has a powerful engine. Moreover, it may have 1300 “horses”, or maybe 1500. It has an interesting 125-mm cannon, which, while the tank is being tested, can develop into a 152-mm one. From the same cannon you can shoot a guided missile. This tank has a very powerful defense. First, dynamic protection. The body of the tank is lined with special plates. When the American Javelin flies up to our Armata, then, perhaps, this plate will even fly towards it at the very last moment. Or this plate will explode along with the warhead of the Javelin. And the crew will not suffer. Maybe he’ll just shake it up there , ”says a military observer.
– Another feature of “Armata” is the “Afghanit” system. When the adversary shoots at the T-14 tank, the Afghanit system instantly detects the projectile that flies into the tank. And she sends her projectile towards him, which either undermines him or knocks him off the trajectory. But that’s not all. Any tank’s weakest point is the turret. Both Javelins and aircraft missiles are trying to aim there. And then our golden heads from the defense industry were provided. They put here not only an automatic anti-aircraft machine gun, but also a system that will be able to reflect the shells that fly into the tank turret. I don’t know of another tank in the world like the Armata, which would be so crammed with electronics.
When I spoke with the designers, they pooled together to make a tank. Someone was a truck, someone was an engine, someone was a cannon, someone was cooking steel. They themselves were amazed that the end result was an intelligent tank. This tank will appear on the battlefield not just as a combat unit. It will be a network-centric tank. Because he will observe the situation on the battlefield and transmit to the T-90 or T-72 tanks both the situation on the battlefield and the targets that these tanks must destroy in the first place. “Armata” will also shoot. We are getting the T-14 no longer just as a combat iron, which has specific tactical and technical characteristics, but also as a tank manager
Seems like it’s not all Jews that can’t get along with all Arabs and Persians and such — mostly just the Israel ites of the Zionist persuasion. I could be wrong of course.
So who was responsible for the cocaine?
* It’s pretty simple — Zelensky is simply attacking the church for three main reasons:
1) It advocates faith in God instead of government propaganda (this is why liberals hate it)
2) Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches aren’t waging bitter war against each other (go figure the Orthodox community have more “brotherly love” than enmity towards one another)
3) It’s a powerful organization in society that can potentially oppose (be aligned against) his calls to war (if it has not done so already)
I read this great article from Russia Beyond, “The Great Schism in the year 1054 divided Christians into Orthodox and Catholic churches and the division still exists after almost a thousand years. Russians observe Russian Orthodox rites. Here are the main differences of these rites from Catholic ones.” Merry Christmas !!! https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/335081-7-main-differences-orthodoxy-catholicism
What separates Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox is their sins of pride and that thing that encourages it.
Mwerry Christmas Everyone! Had a few Fireballs, ha ha.
The correct answer to when you celebrate Christmas is always December 25th (and up to the leavetaking on the 31st)
The question of distinction is which calendar do you follow: The Papal Calendar or the Orthodox Calendar
Merry Christmas, Larry, from this Russian Jew from Kiev, grateful for all your work and thoughtful commentary.
As a Calvinist Protestant, but, at one time in my life a spiritually blind and ignorant Roman Catholic, I can now say that Christmas is NOT a holy day. Absolutely no warrant for it in the 66 Holy Spirt-inspired books of the Holy Scriptures (King James Version best). The only real holy day is the Lord’s Day — Sundays, the Christian Sabbath.
That having been said, and even though Christmas is actually a Popish holiday with pagan roots, still, in a way, it does serve the purpose of telling the whole wide world (including Jews, Mohammedans and Marxist atheists, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Mark 1:1), the Judge of all mankind (John 5:22), the Creator of the universe (John 1:3), and God manifested in the flesh (1st Timothy 3:16). Yes, that baby born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago is not only Israel’s Messiah, but He is the Savior of this fallen, sin-cursed world. All those who place their faith in Him alone will have their sins blotted out, and be saved from the wrath to come (1st Thessalonians 1:10). Amen.
Heck of a story about the CFZ and Jose, Larry. So, did DEA free him from suspicion? We stopped into our Greek Orthodox church up here near NH last night. It’s our routine, if you will. We aren’t particularly devout, but being half-Greek gets me in, unlike my Greek Orthodox church in Peabody, Ma., St. Vasilios. They’re too full. My Mom and three of my siblings were baptized there and my Greek grandfather (who came to Peabody, Ma. in 1902) helped build and maintain the thing his whole life. It’s actually highly populated by Portuguese these days. An old matriarch of the family had her funeral there in 2016 and I finally got in. It’s the most beautiful building I was ever in or ever saw and I’ve seen a few, including the Vatican. I took a lot of pictures, but there’s no way to share them here. The art in the dome (easily 150′ in height), the stone and marble work in the floors, the construction and of course the connections back to my family deeply affected me for a time. Where I go now for Christmas is also a stunning piece of work. The depth of imagination, craft, art and beauty is overwhelming in the Orthodox Church realm. I see why Vladimir Putin defends it.
Thanks for the story, Larry. I know you probably have a million of them you can’t share, but this one was pretty interesting. Who knew one could hire out for such consulting? It’s no longer Christmas as I scribble this, so I’ll say Happy New Year. And many, many thanks.
Oh yeah, Brady pulled out another 6-for-6 comeback to win in overtime. I guess I still follow him because I’m in the Tampa region half the year. He’s the last reason I still watch any football, the game I played my entire young life in sandlots and high school, watched with my Dad back in DC, went to the games when Gibbs was running things (RFK was a hell of a place for football, very Roman Coliseum-like, you must have gone to one). Major piece of of the last bit of sporting Americana. They’ve so politicized it against us today I can’t stomach it. The rest of it can go to hell. Maybe that’s just me.
Thank you as ever for your excellent work, Larry. However, it is giving a misleading impression to start your blog talking about enmity between Catholics and Orthodox in Ukraine, as if that had anything to do with the current persecution. It doesn’t.
What is going on right now is a cynical attempt to break the power of an organisation which still binds Ukrainians to the greater Slavic world, and provides a source of moral courage and traditional values. Ethical behaviour and courage are a threat to a regime which is increasingly dependent on threats of violence to maintain its authority.
It is no accident that the policy was begun a few days after Victoria Nuland visited Zelensky. Only the most naive person could claim that to be a coincidence.
“It is no accident that the policy was begun a few days after Victoria Nuland visited Zelensky. Only the most naive person could claim that to be a coincidence.”
Ukraine and destroying Russia has been Nuland’s project for over twenty years, Anna. They (Nuland and all her proxies) hate the Orthodox for not accepting Western “values” that would help the societal destruction there that WE have in the West today. I for one hope the Orthodox in the East prevail and send her packing. Merry Christmas!
You’re absolutely right…except in small detail. I bet that destroying Russia has been Nuland’s aim for as long as she could lisp ‘Slava Ukraina’ on her dear daddy’s lap..
For most of recorded history Jews and Muslims were best buddies. That only changed in 1948 when the Jews came up with Zionism and colonized Palestine.
But Jews are Jews and Muslims are Muslims, no-one can get on with them for long, there can be no turning the other cheek with those 2 religions, if you tolerate them you will lose your own country, culture and civilization, and deservedly so. Neither of those 2 religions go in peace anywhere, their only aim is to subvert or convert.
That’s Truth, except for the part about coming up with Tsionism in 1948. That stuff is ancient, like the Phoenecian script in which most or all of the torah of no authority* was written before transcription into the Assyrian script. You can find little gobs of Tsionism again and again in any translation of the “Old Testament”, as Christians like to call the older testament of Semitic supremacy. The people who led the modern movement called Zionism have the old nazi religion to thank for the fact that they even knew the word צִיּוֹן or that rabbis were preoccupied with it.
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* There’s some worthy stuff in Mishle (Proverbs) and other works, of course, and one can even find the occasional clue about likely sources. For instance, see the reference in Mishle 22:19-20 to the Egyptian scribe Amen-em-Ope and “a collection of maxims in the Thirty chapters (v. 20) composed for instruction of his children and addressed to a young man who wishes to enter upon a career” (The NAB, 1991, footnote).
“We are told that Muslims and Jews are enemies and cannot get along”…You are told??!! this statement coming from such a knowledgeable person is disturbing! History shows that the main persecutor of Jewish people are Christians…and that if it wasn’t for Muslims, while in their golden age, protecting Jews, they might not exist nowadays. We know how efficient Westerners are when they decide to eradicate an “importunate” population.
Because the Russian Orthodox Church is a vivid reminder while there was a vote to leave the Soviet Union, there was never a vote to leave the Russkii Mir. In fact, the decision to leave the Soviet Union is an expression of the desire of Russian speakers to go back to the good old Russki Mir. This fact has to be suppressed in order to retain the narrative that Russia wants to recreate the Soviet Union, hence the attack on the Church.
The attacks against the Orthodox Christian Church in the Ukraine can be most simply explained by the FACT that Zelensky, and all those that surround and control him are Ashkenazi ‘jews’ whose Total Hatred of Russia, Christians, and Whites in general is based on the fact that these ashkeNAZI (funny, that) Khazar-tribe creatures were Driven Out of the Ukraine by the Russians.
There are any number of the Kaganites, zionist/neocons, “israeli” politicians, and ‘rabbis’ who openly talk about the ‘Return’ of their ‘Tribe’ to its ‘Homeland’ of ‘Khazaria’, and that the Destruction of Russia by their ‘Golem’, the united states, is a necessary part of this plan.
Fortunately, the Russians are fully aware of this, having nearly Expelled the last of the bolshevik/zionist influence in their Nation- that’s the Key Reason for the Hatred they spew at Vladimir Putin. So, sorry Moshe, it ain’t gonna happen. The Bear has Nuclear Weapons.
p.s. don’t bother trolling me with the ‘anti-semite’ crap. None of the people involved in this sh*t are Semite Arabs.
Ze Russians : We want stop de fight for Othodox Chrismass.
Die Ukrainians : It’s a trap !
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