I once thought that Parson Goat was harming us as much as he possibly could by closing Christ’s church, but I admit I was wrong: he often hurts parishioners even more as he re-opens according to Leviathan’s dictates rather than the Lord’s.

“Larry” is a dear brother attending my former church and a single, middle-aged man who’s pretty much alone in the world. He considers his fellow-worshippers family and loves them accordingly, so he was heartbroken when Parson Goat summarily suspended meeting last March.

But now that Goat has resumed services, he’s just as deeply offending Larry by not only buying the hysteria over COVID19 from “public health” bureaucrats but re-selling it. “Everyone at church is so scared,” Larry reports, “that they’re most of ’em staying home still. Plus, no one’ll talk to me anyway, everybody just keeps to themselves, and they don’t wanna hug or shake hands—they just scurry out of the place as soon as service is over. Oh, and you have to wear a mask, which I hate. Aren’t we supposed to be bold in the Lord and not fearful? Why don’t we trust the providence of God ‘stead of wearing masks? Pastor makes me feel like a leper, like we’re all too dirty to associate with each other. And he keeps claiming this is how we show our ‘love’ for each other, by staying far apart. Well, that ain’t no love that I ever saw!” Larry told me that they’ve sung only once these past weeks, and then it was outside the church. “And service is only an hour on the dot. No more Bible class; no more fellowship at Coffee Hour after. I can’t get all I need to keep me going for the week in an hour.” Larry shook his head. “I’m starving here for God’s Word!”

So are multitudes of others. An Orthodox mother of “four children here, and one in Heaven” mourns that “in the last three months, I have not heard one bishop, or directive from a bishop, speak about our children. Not one. The ONLY reference to children has been that if they cannot distance themselves properly, they will need to remain home.”

Here we go with more of abuse of God’s people. Parson Goat seems to mistake us for petri dishes of germs rather than invaluable souls saved through Christ’s blood.

Mom continues,

I am deeply grieved by this and, quite frankly, angry and I believe rightly so. My husband and I, like many other Orthodox parents, have struggled and done the hard work, week after week, year after year, for twelve years now, to take our children to church and teach them our faith.

And with one virus, that we are learning is not nearly as deadly as it was reported to be, they have pulled the thread out of not only our twelve years of work but thousands of years of work combined, by all Orthodox parents, all diligently working to pass on our precious and unique faith to our children, as our parents and grandparents did to us.  This is all wrong. … We will not take our children to any church where they see adults in face masks, are not allowed to kiss icons, or see different spoons used for communion. I have no explanation for this to my children. None. This is not Orthodoxy. It is not our Faith.”

Nope. It’s Leviathan’s. 

The Best of Becky Akers