The Church has a responsibility to fight superstition, irrationality, and conspiracy theory.
Too many times, scapegoats have suffered and died, because the Church did not do enough. Ask the Jews. Ask the Roma. Ask the Chinese, before the Cold War. Ask the Uighurs now.
Conspiracy theory has left horrible stains on history. Think of the aftermath of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Think of the recent ugliness festering from the Turner Diaries.
I don't think this trend toward dangerous irrationality and "mob epistemology" is just an internet or social media phenomenon. The demonic "Turner Diaries" -- and I'm serious about that description -- came out in 1978, and by itself it created a sub-culture of militia-ism and survivalism that is more pervasive than what we’d care to believe.
All along, the Church should have insisted, in fidelity to Holy Tradition, upon rationality, theology, and humanism and universal charity, and should have always fought proactively against the forces of demagoguery, contempt, and mob violence.
That “Christ crucified” is “folly to the Gentiles,” and that “God has made foolish the wisdom of the world” has nothing to do with reason and clear-thinking.
There is a direct correlation between the willingness to imbibe esoteric histories and sociologies, and the rise of strong man demagogues (and totalitarian regimes). We cannot simply laugh off flat earth theorists, lunar landing deniers, “pizzagate” Q-theorists, and New Apostolic Reformation heretics.
In the past, when we failed to attack the irrational language of anti-semitism, Tsarist pograms were unleashed upon the Jewish community. In the end, the Holocaust emerged from an atmosphere of people who were intelligent and well-educated, but had fallen into the madness of scapegoating rage.
I have to believe that the Church -- Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant -- could have done much more to protect and promote reason. There should have been a steadfast witness against some of our own well-known Orthodox clergy, who uttered anti-semitic language. The irrationality and anti-Christian nature of such language was known then, just as such language is known now.
And just in case you may have heard this before, no, the Bolshevik Revolution did not occur as a divine punishment for Tsar Nicholas permitting the erection of a Jewish synagogue in Moscow. And no, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were not ritually executed by a Jewish squad. And no, the Beast in the Apocalypse of St John is not going to be a Jew -- as is stated in more than one systematic text.
You haven't lived until you've suffered at least 10 iterations, strung out over 5 decades, of what "666" can mean, and how the State is going to plant a marking/controlling device in your right hand and your forehead.
Eschatology (especially interpretations from the book of Revelation) has long been like a Body Farm (like the one near Knoxville) for the growth of homicidal conspiracy nitwittery.
The sophiological understanding of eschatology, especially as explored by Bulgakov in Bride of the Lamb (despite my misgivings about his treatment of the Millennium), is what's needed here, and it needs promulgated in pastoral teaching a whole lot more. That may be the prophylaxis called for in this mad moment.
Christianity should have always been able to sniff out the stench of scapegoatism, whenever and wherever it's reared its ugly head.
After all, we know the Ultimate Scapegoat of all, and we do not revile Him. We worship Him.
Orthodoxy and QAnon cannot co-exist in the same soul.
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