The Squad

L to R: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)

The recent racist gauntlet thrown down by President Donald Trump against four United States Congresswomen of color has been met with an interesting menagerie of justifications by the Right. But I think we can identify one congruity that most share. It’s the unasked question which should be important to anyone for whom moral considerations run deep: How can we—tribal, divided, and angry at each other as we are—agree on a definition of what racism is?

It should also be an important question for Orthodox Christians and Christians in general. Both have a sketchy human rights record in history, but more recently the Christian Right has exhibited head-splitting silence regarding the plain immorality of kenneling men, women, toddlers, and infants at the US-Mexico border.

The inevitable outrage among those same Christians (I’m thinking of Vice-President Mike Pence) if those human beings suffering in dog kennels were white is worth advisement. Read More

Rod Dreher and friends fretting over the African barbarian invasion of Europe

A number of Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers felt deeply touched for a few seconds before they realized that their brother Orthodox Christian Rod Dreher’s latest piece at The American Conservative—Trump Summons Demons—falls short of anything like a change of heart. Who wouldn’t be moved by his profession of concern for the life of Rep. Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (D-MN) in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s latest of many, many Naziesque rallies this past Wednesday in Greenville NC?

Yet Dreher’s own record of telling life-threatening lies about people he doesn’t like casts doubt on his sincerity. As we noted a year ago in the addendum to Rod Dreher Glorifies Colonialism, Adds African Barbarians to List of People who Terrify Him: Read More

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On July 12, 2019 at the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada in Vancouver, a motion to amend the marriage canon to include same-sex marriage failed in its second reading. It received the required two-thirds majority in the Order of Clergy and the Order of Laity, but failed by a tiny margin in the Order of Bishops.

It is our understanding that individual bishops retain the prerogative to authorize same-sex marriages in their respective dioceses. The Anglican Church of Canada already has many same-sex married laypersons and priests, and at least one same-sex married bishop of which we know.

See the Anglican Journal for a more detailed account of the Synod’s vote and the onsite reactions.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue proposes to host a discussion of this development. Our readers around the planet know that the question of same-sex love, and the possibilities and conditions for its sanctification in the Church’s sacramental economy, have come to occupy a place of prominence in our publishng record beyond anything that we had initially planned.

We welcome articles written in a fraternal spirit, reflective of all sides of the issue, from Anglicans and non-Anglicans alike. Read More