Appalachian Orthodox Chant

Appalachian Orthodox Chant

Just a fascinating video description I found, written presumably by an American Orthodox Christian. Well worth the read:

"A snippet from "God Is With Us," an ancient Orthodox hymn based on the prophecy of Isaiah, chanted here in traditional Appalachian Bluegrass style. It's wonderful because it sounds ancient yet has an authentically Americana sound. Orthodoxy never subverts the cultures it comes across, but rather grafts the wholesome elements of those cultures onto Holy Tradition to give glory to God. In an age where Protestant and Catholic churches in America are hemorrhaging people, Orthodoxy is slowly growing, and this particular hymn provides a hopeful glimpse at what genuine American Orthodoxy could be. This actually makes me feel really patriotic. America has a great sin; a kind of prelest born out of its rejection of monarchy. The forefathers had their reasons and their good intentions for rejecting it, but they had an ignorance of the Orthodox understanding of the symbolic need for a submission to monarchal hierarchy, and the Protestant individualism that ensued has led to the present relativism, which could potentially be our demise. America stands in a quite ambiguous place. But God, who mercifully "desireth not that the sinner should die, but turn from his wicked ways and live," sees our good intentions and knows that America, despite our long-foolhardy ignorance of the Orthodox way, has always called upon the name of Jesus Christ. And maybe, for that, He could forgive us."

Here's the video if ur interested:

I particularly love the respect and love for good parts of American culture (which absolutely do exist), and the hope embodied in the overall message. I'm not orthodox and certainly no monarchist, but I think anyone can see that rampant individualism has made us angry, divided, and lost people. I hope you can take something away from it even if you don't agree with it all. Some beautiful and relevant prose there. Despite everything, God is truly with us. He is slow to anger and rich in love.

Elmer Gantry is a really amazing example of a book that does this well - I read it specifically because it was banned across America (for being too accurate). But it knows what it's about! It's a critique of performative religion, nominal cultural Christianity, sensationalist prosperity gospel preaching, etc.

Iron sharpens iron, and awareness of the issues in the church is much more useful, and narratively satisfying, than 'Christianity Bad' media.

I mean if we're really getting into it, most problems with people creating stories to critique Christianity boil down to either a. They do absolutely zero research and think "why do bad things happen" is unanswerable for anyone who believes in a fundamentally good deity, b. They assume that the religious beliefs of two churches in Missouri run by an abusive pastor are the religious beliefs of 3 billion people, or c. They're actually critiquing cultural systems which utilize Christianity to uphold oppression (good! Critique that!) but they conflate that with the religion itself which often leads back to the first two points, meaning they make factually incorrect statements about actual religious teachings and approach faith as inherently evil (wrong! Read the Book!)

I do believe you can write a story critiquing faith or religious systems or religion and do it well but unfortunately 90% of the time this is how people do it. Which is poorly done and useless.

NEVERTHELESS MENTIONED WOOOOOOOOOOO

Matthew 26:39 (NKJV) - He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,     make straight paths for him.’"

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

-Matthew 3

And I hope no one gets mad about me calling God wild. I don't mean it in a bad way. As someone who came from a pagan faith, the one thing that kept me crawling back to it again and again was me feeling too "wild" for the Christian faith. Like, you can have a deep and abiding love for nature and respect for your place in it, and still love God. I say again, God made us and nature. What's not to love about the home He lovingly crafted in perfect balance for us? Nature is filled with daily miracles!

And He made us in His image. When I see a child jumping in puddles on a rainy day, I see the love for life that God has imbuing that child. When I see someone climbing a sheer cliff face, I see God's strength and tenacity and determination fueling that rockclimber onwards and upwards. So if you are primal and wild, that's okay. You're not some heathen; God made you that way.

think it's a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. that there isn't their life and our life. nor your life and my life. that it's just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us, are entangled w it as deep as entanglement goes. v neat i think.