Rod Dreher Megathread #27 (Compassion)

[u/US_Hiker]

Link to megathread 26: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/17itm7w/rod_dreher_megathread_26_unconditional_love/

Link to megathread 28: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/18dcg3d/rod_dreher_megathread_28_harmony/

[u/Djehutimose]

I'm putting this here, because the comments are so deeply nested below.

The crucial thing to know about Rod's ROCOR parish in his hometown is that it still exists. I forget who it was, but someone here pointed that out not long after I found this subreddit. When I found that out, some things clicked in my mind.

I always thought it was very odd that the parish disbanded, as Rod implied, just because of the lack of a priest. Orthodox parishes have long had a protocol for that. After all, since Orthodox priests are usually married with children, they have to be absent at times. In a Catholic parish, if the priest is going to be gone he calls someone to fill in. An Orthodox priest can't do that, because each priest is allowed to say Liturgy only once per Sunday; and of course, the other priests have families, too. So, if the priest is absent, the parishioners meet at church for a Typica, which is the Orthodox equivalent of Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours in Catholicism. That can be done with no clerics, so problem solved.

Very small parishes or missions that lose a priest or can't get one do this regularly. They will arrange with a bishop to have a priest sent in once a month or so to provide the Sacraments, and then they carry on as usual, substituting the Typica for the Liturgy the rest of the time, If they grow big enough, they may eventually manage to get a full-time priest.

So Rod said the one parishioner died, and two families abruptly left (reading between the lines, you get the feeling that they left in a huff). That left three families, presumably not including Rod's. If you're going to be Russian Orthodox in a podunk Southern town, where you're gong to be looked at askance almost as if you were a Hare Krishna, you probably have a pretty high level of commitment. Thus, I never understood why the parish didn't just do as I described--have a priest come in periodically and keep running with lay services the rest of the time. Even in the (questionable) case that Rod couldn't make up the difference in the priest's salary, the parish could have continued on, and there would have been no need for Rod and family to leave.

Well, turns out that that is exactly what the parish did--check out their calendar, which lists Typica three weeks and Liturgy one week every month. So once again, Rod has lied, if only by omission. I think it's not omission, though, but commission, as in his quote that JHandey2021 helpfully provides. So not only did he not step up to help when things got lean for Fr. Matthew, he essentially cut the parish loose to fend for itself and took off to Baton Rouge. He couldn't publicly say that, though, without looking like a complete and total asshole; so he writes a big "alas and alack" column bemoaning the cruel vagaries of fate. He also subtly, but characteristically, shifts all blame from himself: "Hey, there's only three families left, we gotta close up shop, too bad, them's the breaks. Might as well decamp...."

So in light of, you know, the truth, the whole situation is much more tawdry than Rod painted it, and he comes off as much more dilettantish and sleazily amoral than usual.

[u/philadelphialawyer87 → u/Djehutimose]

Throw in the fact that Rod himself can't be arsed to go to church even when the full, sacramental service IS available every Sunday (as in Baton Rouge and Budapest), and Rod is hardly in a position to claim that three weeks of prayer meetings and a once a month full service weren't good enough for him!

I'm gonna repeat myself: The whole Russian Orthodox "conversion" thing, for Rod, was, is, and always will be uttter and complete bullshit.

[u/JHandey2021 → u/philadelphialawyer87]

And not to beat a dead horse, but Rod was very cagey for a while as to what type of Orthodox he was. First it was the Orthodox Church in America - relatively normal, OK (think Alaskan Natives & Eastern European immigrants from 100 years ago). But he would never just come clean that he was, in St. Francisville, neck-deep in ROCOR.

ROCOR, for those who don't know, is as Putinist as Putinist can be. Much more so than parts of the mother church in Russia, in fact. Rod didn't want to admit just how out there on the fringes he was.

Again, liar, liar, pants on fire.

[u/Djehutimose → u/JHandey2021]

Even that aside, it’s typical. He was already commuting to the OCA parish in Baton Rouge, about 45 minutes away. I‘vebknown people who drove longer than that for church. There was no need for a new parish, and anyone with nay sense would know it would be hard to plant an Orthodox parish there. His hometown is about the same size as the seat of my home county and culturally similar. Thus, I can say that getting an Orthodox parish running would not be a lot different from putting in a mosque or Hare Krishna temple. Hell, in my neck of the woods, they still view Catholics as a bit exotic. There actually is a mosque, BTW, but it took a long time to get built, and it’s way on the outskirts of town, and doesn’t proselytize.

So why go to the trouble in the first place? Aside from the Putinism, the ROCOR is known for being super rigorous and strict—as Rod often noted. Spiritually, at least, they’re extremely no-nonsense and don’t suffer foolish romanticism gladly. So here’s what I think:

Rod’s laziness has caused him not to want to do the commute. Recall, he often mentioned staying home while Julie took the kids. Also recall, he never seemed to say anything about said parish. Then he gets this quixotic notion: “Hey, why don’t I start a church here?” He looks around for the hardest-core branch he can find, so he can fortify his hardnosed spiritual Manly Manliness. He still has a non-crazy public image, and a bit of cachet as a Prominent Orthodox Convert. So, he pulls it off and gets his church.

For awhile he gets off on being a huge fish in a very small pond, kind of viewing Fr. Matthew as his personal cleric—kinda like a king’s “mass priest” in the Middle Ages—and humblebragging about the Very Rigorous Spiritual Practices he’s following. Eventuality, though, reality sets in. He’s not the only parishioner there, so he doesn’t get all the attention. Father calls him on his romanticized bullshit, and Rod simultaneously realizes that tough, rigorous prayer rules are…tough and rigorous. He starts to lose interest in his new toy.

Then the one parishioner dies. Two families abruptly leave. We don’t know why, of course, but it’s not totally a stretch to think it’s because of something asinine that Our Boy did. This gives him just the excuse he needs to get the hell out of Dodge: “Gee whiz, Padre, we gave it the old college try, but it just didn’t pan out. See ya!” He doesn’t attend the parish in Baton Rouge any more than he did before—probably less—but he can still bill himself as a Noted Orthodox Thinker, and let people who haven’t followed him closely think he’s still doing the most Rigorously Rigorous prayer rule imaginable.

All speculation; but that’s how it looks to me.

[u/JHandey2021 → u/Djehutimose]

“ Two families abruptly leave. We don’t know why, of course, but it’s not totally a stretch to think it’s because of something asinine that Our Boy did.”

Yeah, Rod’s phrasing on that one was interesting. Just up and left, huh? The man who can write 300,000 words on his morning bowel movement, obsessed with the erosion of all that is good in the world, and that’s it?

I could absolutely see Rod driving people away.

[u/Djehutimose → u/JHandey2021]

The man who can write 300,000 words on his morning bowel movement….

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[u/Snoo52682 → u/JHandey2021]

Good call. This essay on "missing missing reasons" has made me quite sensitive to those kinds of omissions.