We ain’t skeered … but they are

Alleged “scholar” verbally attacks Christian missionary organization. Slanders founders. Receives pushback. Gets butt hurt. News at 11.

It sounds like a Babylon Bee story. But it’s apt framing of a recent essay posted at Public Orthodoxy, the website of Fordham University’s “religious studies” program. My compatriot Monomakhos has been studying Fordhamite subversion for years and describes the Jesuit institution as a place where “freedom of expression runs from the far Left to the extreme Left.” Talk about systemic bias.

The screed was scratched out by Aram Sarkisian. Remember him, the paid propagandist posing as a historian and religious studies “expert” who in December wrote a hit piece defaming the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship? (Here was my response to Aram’s first hatchet job, in case you missed all the fun.) Well, he’s at it again.

Aram was shocked –⁠ shocked, I tell you! –⁠ that he had cast a wide net and nobody took the bait. Nobody. In fact those assailed by him doubled down. Bullies don’t like it when people stand up to their “rapidly-escalating patterns of hate and derision” veiled as “conversation.” Thus, rhetorical smackdowns twinge their malignant-narcissistic feelz.

So let’s breakdown this newest article, shall we? [Trigger warning: I’m a journalist, so proceed with caution, socialist scaredy cats.]

As a retired mainstream journalist and newspaper designer, current blogger, and web admin of two sites, I understand the importance of image choice, so let’s start with Aram’s feature photo. Interesting that he (or maybe his Fordham editor) chose this particular monument of Gen. Lee (below left) to illustrate Dixians’ “inherited privilege as white southern Christians.”

Maybe Aram is clueless and doesn’t know that the statue was removed from Charlottesville’s Lee Park (now renamed “Emancipation Park” because the Jacobins want you to think monument-razing is about freedom, not progressive power) and has been sold to an “African American Heritage Museum.” Instead of caring for and displaying the object, which is the main job of a museum, the Schadenfreude shysters plan to melt down the sculpture and reconstruct it into bronze ignots.

Or maybe Aram chose the image as a Dixian humiliation ritual and delights in the debasement of our history and heroes. Pouring salt in the wound of those living through the Southern cultural genocide makes a nihilist smile and a pretty penny to boot.

Or maybe Aram snagged the first Marse Robert photo he could find. I mean, Aram is busy writing agitprop, y’all. One can’t expect too much integrity from a “scholar.”

Speaking of images, Aram is tweaked that the fellowship homepage (of which he doesn’t even provide a link) includes a famous Dale Gallon painting of Stonewall Jackson praying. That’s some profound pearl-clutching there, folks.

Check out this response by Fr. John Whiteford, who like me is a fellowship co-founder. He takes on Aram’s Jackson bashing and discusses in part the Confederate general’s Christian influence on black Virginians. Although that is one beautiful aspect of Hill Jack’s enigmatic life, I say we mustn’t peer solely through the black lens to see also that he was a great American, a military genius, an utterly fearless man, a loyal husband, and a virtuous person of faith on many other levels.

Just check out my eldest son’s paper on Jackson, my essay about my family’s Jackson history trek, or my interview with a grad of VMI, where Jackson taught. You’ll be fascinated by his story because it is our story, and it’s one that deserves real study and reflection. A “historian” should get this.

Perhaps the callow professor is just historically clueless. After all, he didn’t seem bothered by our homepage images of “The Fighting Bishop” CSA Gen. Leonidas Polk, or Lee’s Headquarters Flag which Lee flew during the Late Unpleasantness, or Billy Graham, who the feminists claim was a misogynist. Aram also somehow missed the Jackson quote on the fellowship’s Memory Eternal page –⁠ further proof that research isn’t his strong suit.

Aram uses the above video as his indictment that Fr. John is pro-segregation yet again doesn’t provide a link for people to make up their own minds about the outlandish claim. Therefore, I have above, since I don’t treat my readers like children. We Dixians don’t “plausibly deny” anything, Aram. This is a stupendous interview that we think everyone should watch!

Confident no Public Orthodoxy followers will look into the matter for themselves, Aram breathlessly assures us that he’s simply doing his own small part in dismantling the “staggering historical falsehoods.” In case we plebs forgot, he reminds of that he has “academic training and expertise.” No need to question. Just believe.

Academic myth-makers like Aram and his ilk will never tell their students about Northern black codes. Or the late economist Walter Williams’ take on segregation or that of retired professor Shelby Steele. Why bother yourself with contrary research and analyses, when it gets in the way of spreading your ideology and confuses the sheep.

Likewise, Aram doesn’t link to my podcast with Brother Augustine or even say who was the guest. Why, that might accidentally lead someone to listen or watch the thought-provoking conversation (it’s one of my favorite interviews to date!), as well as stumble upon the fact that Brother Augustine happens to be 100% Ashkenazi Jew. Whoops.

Facts are like kryptonite to Aram who prefers to decree untruths into existence by merely uttering isms and ists. A gulag of the mind is much more comfortable, fashionable, and profitable to the progressive prima donnas than is the marketplace of ideas.

This reminds me of the recent exchange when an abnormally honest White House reporter pressed a State Department goon for actual evidence (gasp!) regarding a speculative statement he made about Russia. Proof? Who needs proof? We bureaucrats and scholars speak things into existence, don’t ya know? Nothing to see here, folks.

Aram complains that “far-right coordinated online attacks … reclassify scholars as journalists.” Allow me to translate: a “humanities researcher” like him should be given carte blanche to write and disseminate any unhinged editorial he pleases, make baseless accusations, and be given immunity from criticism. And oh yeah, merely commenting or writing your own essay is akin to being in the Klan.

Self-identified MDiv diva and native Texan Summer Kinard is part of Aram’s far-left cabal. While we traditional Christians want to preserve, honor, and build up, the irksome cultural-Marxists want to corrupt and destroy. It’s their sole purpose to never let you alone if you dissent to the “mad, mad world.” We’re a grassroots bunch, whereas they’re well-funded and system-approved. A tangled-web indeed.

Phil’s another sycophant purposefully hand-wringing in order to keep a manufactured crisis reverberating throughout the echo chamber. It’s part of his shtick as a reformer who (I’m pretty sure hails from Indiana) to swoop down South and save us ignorant crackers from ourselves. Who says Reconstruction ended in the 1870s?

But fewer and fewer people are being deceived by carpet-bagging arrogance, scalawag opportunism, and woke lunacy. And these noble folks are increasingly willing to take a stand.

Above you can see an great example of people repelling the lefty obfuscation. Hold your ground, brothers and sisters! Here’s another.

The delusional dupes who coddle the anti-Dixian miscreants are horrified. Good.

If Grace wasn’t so occupied crafting a pretend “edifying” comment, she may not have missed that it’s Aram who is obviously angry. We who’ve been denigrated are amused by the elites’ gaslit projections and deranged proclamations to their shrinking audience. The irony seems to be lost on the poor gal.

This is why progressives are so “alarmed.” Their safe space of groupthink and ivory-tower golf claps is now being threatened and their delicate egos cannot handle it.

This is exactly what happened to Aram when challenged with critical thinking. He threw like a girl from his glass house and then had a petulant hissy fit when people took those stones and handily pelted them right back at him.

Cross-examination of Aram’s fictional thesis and defamation tactics raises his ire. “Why, these haughty hicks aren’t just sitting back and taking our rhetorical assaults anymore. And they’re not just defending themselves; they’re going on the offensive!”

“Don’t these yahoos know they’re supposed to be cowering in the margins, afraid of their own racist shadows? We’re the gatekeepers of information! How dare they!” screech the progressives in Greta Thunberg-ese.

In the pre-launch interview, Sisco asks asks his guests if the fellowship will be trashed. “Yes, but it won’t be for any of the content on the site,” Fr. John rightly responds. To the pseudo-intellectuals, it’s never about substantive arguments.

And employing vague trigger terms is one of the tools of this malevolent methodology. Cue the predictable bludgeon of “anti-Semitism.” Aram doesn’t define the tedious trope. Leftists never do. But I have.

Aram thinks adhering to the progressive protocol of citing the ADL will make his cringe claim more believable. But with sources like the anti-Christian ADL and pro-infanticide Fordham, it just makes his fake moralizing seem all the more pathetic.

Another term Aram bandies about is “Christian nationalism.” But what exactly is it?

If Aram was intellectually curious, he could effortlessly find out from a Christian nationalist himself and learn more about others’ opposition to it. Instead, he purposefully uses such imprecise language to conjure up images of that evil “Russian Orthodox nationalist” Vladimir Putin, who he knows is an easy target among the unwashed Murican masses. Putin + populism = white man bad.

This sly maneuver also sounds similar to “white nationalism.” Aram knows this and so further tried to codify the “deplorable” stereotype of the fellowship and our mission. Summer’s tweet proves my point, as well.

While the fellowship is not a Christian nationalist organization, we are for the Gospel being preached to all the nations, with our particular mission field being the Southern “nation.” We’re also not hyper-focused on black folks and we’re not discarding white folks. We’re bucking the status quo because it’s unmistakably heretical.

You won’t find us coddling blacks by capitalizing the “B” and subsequently belittling whites by keeping it with a lowercase “w” the way Aram does. We know that none of us are worthy, but all are icons of Christ.

In a private Facebook thread from December, a man named Daniel offered up this spot-on critique of Aram’s initial article:

Sure, this exchange is anecdotal, but at least it’s a starting point for gathering hard evidence, unlike Aram’s baseless assertion that there are actual Americans fleeing the Orthodox Church due to racist ideologies (aimed at anyone other than whites, of course). If there were such pariah parishes, he should name them so that Christians of good will can avoid them. But he doesn’t … because they don’t exist.

What we do know for a fact is that there are many (too many) Orthodox clergy and laity who loathe white Dixians. The malicious and honestly stupid reactions to the fellowship is all the proof you need to see that the only illogical fear and intolerance going on in Christianity is “Confederaphobia.”

This is why Aram is shaking in his boots. He’s astonished by the outpouring of support for the fellowship. Anti-Dixian elites are knocked off their high horse when people don’t bend like reeds in the wind to their agitprop.

Take the “lost cause.” Below is what occurred after Christian author Jonathan Jenkins tweeted support for the Lee-bashing media darling Ty Seidule who makes big bucks off the pejorative.

Although Aram isn’t involved in this exchange, it’s indicative of what cultural-genociders do when they get pushback: they fall like the house of cards that they are. Case in point: you can see I published my tweet at 6:20, but by 6:45, Jenkins had already blocked me. Such “courage.”

Progressives are scared that we’re not scared. Not only because they need Southerners and conservatives of all stripes to play along with their sick game in order to advance the ball down the globohomo court, but also because Dixians are more resistant than other Americans to the progressive onslaught. We’re not just a convenient scapegoat, we’ve always been a painful thorn in their side.

“The cause of the South is the cause of us all.”
— CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens

This is why the totalitarian teeth-gnashers say we suffer from “Confederate nostalgia” and even “Orthodox nostalgia,” as if we’re Jessica Tandy from “Driving Miss Daisy,” pining for saccharine sentimentalism and overthinking the Church Fathers. “Adhering to tradition is racist!” they demand. “And a tool of the patriarchy!”

Oh, never mind. My analogy to the 1989 flick doesn’t work because Daisy was Jewish and she (like her black chauffeur) was also the victim of racism at the hands of those hateful ol’ honkies. Yep, the system has been manufacturing the anti-Southern narrative for a long time.

Fortunately, those who believe in the pursuit of truth – like my friend Ilana Mercer, who happens to be Jewish and an ardent anti-Lincolnian hailing from South Africa – know exactly to what “cause” Stephens was referring. It’s about rejection of the nation-state’s “sundering the soul of the American federal system: the sovereignty of the states and the citizenry,” Mercer explains.

Similarly, the slur “neo-Confederate” has become a naughty word only because we’ve let it. I say, we embrace the ad homs. It’ll take the weaponized wind right out of the left’s sails.

It’s not that we Dixians “fail to understand” the “harm … words can inflict.” This isn’t an issue with mental capacity. Rather, it’s that we don’t believe in thought crimes. And we don’t believe you, “scholars.”

“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Consider Aram’s alleged “dox.” First, he misuses the word. A dox is to publicly identify someone’s anonymity (Aram’s a public figure); or to publish private information about someone (info on Aram was found via readily available public sources); or to reveal personal info like SSN, address, phone number, aliases, etc. (none of this occurred).

Nor should the irony be lost on us wise media consumers that Aram published his essays at a site with “public” in its name. Heck, I wouldn’t even know who the guy was if he hadn’t written a ridiculous article (and then another) on me and my colleagues and our worthy mission.

Aram says I “scrubbed” his social media for personal details. Hmm, that’s a totally Sarkisian way of describing my simply taking the time to look and easily find his many woke Facebook posts and tweets. It’s really not that hard. But to him, it’s an outrage that I “use details gleaned from the internet.” Seriously, his entire feet-stomping deflection is laughable.

“Truth is treason in an empire of lies.”
— George Orwell

In addition to insulting our intelligence, Aram himself showcased my name in both his articles, and “gleaned” the internet for info on me. But the difference between me and him is that I’m not afraid. I wear my heart on my sleeve, as do many good Southerners. You know where we stand ’cause we’ll tell you straight to your face. Backbiting isn’t our thing.

Plus, I got legit doxxed in May 2020 when my anonymity was divulged to the Twitter-verse by a highly financed Antifa chick whose adored throughout academia. Her diabolical post with all its ensuing dark comments was retweeted more than 700 times!

What did I do? I pulled up my big girl pants, added my real name to my “about” page, and dealt with it. I hate to break it to you, Aram, but me linking your faculty bio at Northwestern is not a dox, nor is pointing out that you’re not even a member of the Orthodox Church.

This isn’t news to Aram. He knows he risks nothing by spouting lies, but that people on the right do. This is why Aram mentions that Sisco’s show is “available on major podcasting platforms.” It’s a barely veiled threat at getting Sisco canceled, whereas Aram will probably get a raise and win a humanitarian award. Aram’s just employing the fallacy of appeal to emotion. How, oh how will the pretentious “endure”?

Aram asserts that he was “threatened.” Again, where’s the proof?

Ah, I see what he did. Aram begins his article by attempting to connect the fellowship to a neocon of all people because he knows that by planting a seed of a Trump-supporting “firebrand” in readers’ minds, they’ll immediately think “Insurrectionists!” This will hammer home the mistaken notion that Confederates were “Traitors!” What a sneaky Pete!

Even in the few instances when Aram does offer up links to support his claims, they’re specious in that they tell only half a story or outright lies. And since he claims that words are violence, it’s incumbent upon me to challenge his rhetorical aggression, systemic privilege, and appeals to pity with these additional sources:

White Southern Christians were …
• “never dehumanized to the status of property” 👉 “1619 Lies Matter;”
• “never barred from schools and universities on account of their race” 👉 “Are Facts White Nationalist?“
• never “knew they would never experience the terror of the lynching tree” 👉 “Lynching Statistics from Tuskeegee Institute 1882-1968;”
• “never asked to count bubbles on a bar of soap so they could vote” 👉 “How Ex-Rebels Lost the Vote During Reconstruction;”
• or “never had to hold their bladder until they found a ‘colored’ bathroom” 👉 Well, since the cultural Marxists pushed rainbow potties down our throats, now you can hold your bladder to avoid getting raped in the bathroom.

Thank the Lord there are still Orthodox who have a heart for the South and care about the salvation of her people. We want to love our neighbor, not in spite of him being a Dixian, but precisely because he is one. When such agape love unfolds is when we’ll bear witness that the gates of Hell shall not prevail.

So, let’s celebrate! Rejoice and be exceedingly glad! The Evil One is scared. We ain’t. This is a good thing. Onward, Christian soldiers!

Feature photo: “Charge of the Tarheels” – The North Carolina Brigades reach Emmitsburg road during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg.