The Orthodox Church vs The Democrat Party: You Cannot Vote Democrat & Be An Orthodox Christian

By Subdeacon Nektarios, M.A.

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As Orthodox Christians we are called to live our whole life in Christ. Everything we do should be weighed in the context of our life in Christ as Orthodox Christians. This includes who and what we vote for. Orthodox Christianity is not a religion, it is an entire way of life in which we live. If we are genuine Orthodox Christians, living the traditional Orthodox Christian life, we must come to the understanding that this cannot be compartmentalized and segregated from the rest of our lives. We cannot claim to be Orthodox Christians on Sunday and shelve our Orthodoxy during the rest of the week. Saint Philaret of New York, the zealous Metropolitan and Confessor of the Faith asks, "Are you Orthodox in all things? If you call yourself Orthodox and are convinced that you are Orthodox, then the triumph of Orthodoxy is your triumph. You must still strive, however, so that the name Orthodox which has been applied to you corresponds to reality" [1].

Archbishop Elpidophoros was invited by the Presidential Inaugural Committee to offer prayer at the Virtual Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service in 2021

If we maintain that Orthodoxy is an all-encompassing way of life and not just a religion like any other religion then we must also vote with our faith. This begs the question, how then, can Orthodox Christians claim to be Orthodox Christians and then during the election season vote for a satanic political party such as the Democratic Party which is the antithesis of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? Unfortunately, within the Orthodox Church there are many people who continue to loyally vote for the Democratic Party (Archimandrite Christopher Calin of the OCA for example) and their politicians either out of old habits and ignorance, or worse; those who know full well what the Democratic National Committee platform contains and knowing that its contents are, in fact, anti-Orthodox but, regardless, place their politics above their Orthodoxy in priority of importance. To examine exactly why the Democratic Party is an anti-Orthodox political party that is absolutely opposed to Jesus Christ and the doctrines of the Holy Orthodox Church, we have to look at the Democratic National Committee's official political platform and examine what they truly believe and teach as a political party. Ironically, we can first look at the Democratic Platform Table of Contents and see a section entitled "Healing the Soul of America."

"President-elect Joe Biden with Father Alex Karloutsos at the 2016 Blue Dream Gala at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons"

Within this section we can see two things that stand out immediately as contrary to the doctrine and values of the Orthodox Church and those are the so-called Rights of Women and the LGBTQ communities. In their platform they state that they will "uphold individual civil rights and liberties [...] and will respect and enforce foundational precedents including [...] Roe v. Wade" which was the unfortunate enshrinement of infanticide into the United States Constitution in 1973 until its final overturning by the Grace of God in June of 2022 by the U.S. Supreme Court [2]. In the same vein under the guise of "Protecting Women's Rights" the Democratic Platform states that: "Democrats will fight to guarantee equal rights for women, including by [...] [being] able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion" [3]. Of course, the support of this by any Orthodox Christian is not just unconscionable but it is also support of a practice that is entirely contrary to the teaching of the scriptures, canons and the teachings of the Saints. In the Book of Exodus we are plainly taught by God himself, "Thou shalt not kill" [4]. In the 91st Canon of the Council of Trullo we read, "Those who give drugs for procuring abortion, and those who receive poisons to kill the fœtus, are subjected to the penalty of murder" [5]. Saint Basil the Great in his 1st Canonical Epistle in the 2nd Canon states, "Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not" [6].

Continuing on in the Democratic Platform is the issue concerning the so-called rights of those within the LGBT community. The Democratic Party advocates for the overthrowing of the God-given natural order of men and women. In this section of the platform, the Democratic Party states that it will recognize multiple fictitious "gender identities" by guaranteeing "transgender students' access [...] [to] facilities based on their gender identity" and "ensure that all transgender and non-binary people can procure official government identification documents that accurately reflect their gender identity," thereby rejecting the God-created biological sexes of men and women [7]. In addition to this they wish to break up the only God-ordained family unit of a married husband and wife and their children, by allowing homosexuals to "adopt or foster children," again destroying God's natural order and the very idea of a Christian family [8]. Within our Holy Scriptures at the first account of creation in the Book of Genesis we read:

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh [9].

Similarly, in the Holy Scriptures in the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Saint Paul teaches us the proper order of the Christian family, which is absolutely counter to what the Democratic Party teaches in their official platform. Saint Paul teaches in his epistle:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband [10].

The entire Democratic Party platform document consists of 92 pages and contains more anti-Orthodox Christian stances which we cannot cover in their entirety here. However, with these few grievous examples from their own official party platform, it makes us think how can anyone in good conscience, who claims to be an Orthodox Christian support the values that are explicitly counter to the teachings of our Holy Scriptures, doctrines, canons, and the lives of the saints? We can only say that if we are to be faithful Orthodox Christians, we have to practice the whole faith, we have to live the whole life in Christ, and not pick and choose as we so desire. Dr Alexander Kalomiros, the author of the classic Orthodox book, Against False Union reminds us that, "When you reckon one element of Tradition as trivial, then at the first opportunity you will consider trivial whatever other things you do not like in the Tradition" [11]. As Orthodox Christians we must always first and foremost listen to the Holy Apostles in the scriptures that speak to us saying: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" [12].

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References

[1]. Metropolitan Philaret of New York, “Triumph of Orthodoxy,” in Metropolitan Philaret of New York: Zealous Confessor of the Faith, ed. Subdeacon Nektarios Harrison (Florence: Uncut Mountain Press, 2022), 143.

[2]. "The 2020 Democrat Party Platform," The Official Democrat Party Website, accessed February 10th, 2023, https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/

[3]. Ibid.

[4]. Book of Exodus 20:15, KJV.

[5]. The Canons of the Council of Trullo, "Canon XCI," in Nicene & Post-Nicene Church Fathers, Volume 14, ed. Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (Peabody: Hendrickson Publications, 1999), 404.

[6].The First Canonical Epistle of Our Holy Father Basil, Archbishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia to Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, "Canon II," in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Volume 14, ed. Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (Peabody: Hendrickson Publications, 1999), 604.

[7]. "The 2020 Democrat Party Platform," The Official Democrat Party Website, accessed February 10th, 2023, https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/

[8]. Ibid.

[9]. Book of Genesis 2:18-24, KJV.

[10]. Epistle to the Ephesians 5:22-33, NKJV.

[11]. Dr Alexander Kalomiros, Against False Union (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1967), 20.

[12]. 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians 2:15, KJV.