Orthodox Out of the National Council of Churches

The National Council of Churches has long been active in liberal politics. They support a homosexual clergy, gay marriage, Cuba, they supported the Soviet Union (responsible for the murder of 10 million Orthodox Christians), they equate conservatives who support the President with those same Stalinist communists and with German National Socialists (Nazis) preparing the Holocaust. They support all manner of immorality and corruption.

As a result, the Antiochian Archdiocese did what all Orthodox Churches should (obviously) do, they quit the NCC. Good for them.

From the excellent Touchstone Magazine, NCC Exit Poll:

The NCC’s politicization and defense of immoral causes was a frequent complaint that the AOA had considered for quite some time. Last summer, however, a line was crossed with the release of a fundraising letter written by Edgar, a United Methodist minister and former Democratic congressman. The letter identified the NCC with the political left and characterized his opponents—mostly religious conservatives—in terms that were at best unbecoming to an ecumenical organization like the NCC, and at worst crass party politics.

The letter compared President Bush and his supporters to “committed Communists” who had “liquidated” millions, “convinced National Socialists” who had prepared the way for the Holocaust, and “Islamic fundamentalist suicide bombers.” It also boasted that the NCC “worked closely” with the leftist groups MoveOn.org and TrueMajority.org.

At its Archdiocesan Assembly in Dearborn, Michigan, last summer, the archdiocese decided it was time to pull out.

And all of the other achdiocese should make the same decision, but they won't. They've been bribed.

Among the other Orthodox jurisdictions in America, the Greek Orthodox Church is still active in the NCC and resistant to calls for withdrawal. One reason is that the Greek Church’s ties to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople elevate international politics over the moral divide in American culture. Its hierarchy has been criticized for their support of Greek Orthodox Senators Paul Sarbannes and Olympia Snowe despite their advocacy of partial-birth abortion and other culture-of-death positions.

The NCC remains useful to the Greek Orthodox Church, but in return it remains vulnerable to the politicized agendas of the NCC. Recently the NCC authored a curriculum that highlights “peace-making” and other shibboleths of the political left, intended for use in Orthodox Sunday schools. The NCC has a public record of coddling totalitarian regimes (Cuba in particular, North Korea more recently) and lays the lion’s share of the blame for international conflicts on America’s doorstep. Whether Greek Orthodox priests will use the curriculum as the political orientation of the NCC is clarified remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the debate in the Orthodox Church in America remains out of sight, although insiders report increasing support for withdrawal from the NCC. Prominent OCA clergy have been involved in the NCC and support continued participation (Kishkovsky led the search committee that appointed Edgar).

Some Antiochian observers believe that if the Antiochian withdrawal had preceded the OCA’s national convention, the OCA would have withdrawn as well. The puzzle to outsiders is how the OCA—with members who experienced Communist tyranny first-hand—could support the NCC, given its history as an apologist for Marxism.

Too many compromises where there should be none. Good for the Antiochian Archdiocese. Now the rest should follow them.

Go read the entire article, there is a lot more there than what I have discussed above like, who are the NCC's biggest donors, for instance.