Are you an Orthodox Christian with friends or relatives in or around Damascus, Syria? Do you belong to the Antiochian jurisdiction, and so have ties to Syria that way? If so, you might want to notify all your Syrian contacts that Damascus, ancient seat of civilization and the home of the Patriarch of Antioch along with thousands of Christians, is about to be destroyed by Israel.

At least, according to the latest theory in vogue among Christian Dispensationalists. According to author Bill Salus:

For those unfamiliar with the Old Testament prophet, he foretells in Chapters 38 and 39 the coming of a Russian - Iranian-led, nuclear-equipped coalition that invades Israel in the last days. For a litany of recent newsworthy reasons, all indicators point to this enormous episode occurring in the very near future.

Indeed Russia and Iran are ready to make their moves, but what about Syria? Oddly Syria, who today panders alongside Iran for Russian affections, is not included among the elite nine members of the Ezekiel 38 and 39 consortium of attacking nations. Why not? What knocks their quiver of missiles out of the Ezekiel military equation?

As I have documented in my recently released book, "Isralestine, The Ancient Blueprints of the Future Middle East," the Bible makes quite clear that in a distinctly separate Psalm 83 episode Damascus, the capital of Syria, soon ceases to be a city, and subsequently shortly thereafter Russia and Iran advance against Israel.

This short snippet from Mr. Salus presents several religious beliefs which are common among members of what is termed, in the United States, the Religious Right. To summarize the ones presented here:

• Russia is a tool of Satan that must be opposed at all costs.
• It is the will of God that at least one center of Orthodox Christianity in the Middle East be obliterated by nukes. Don't try to stop this, God has willed it!
• The U.S. is God's Chosen People, the last, best hope of mankind that is the most uniquely Christian state ever founded and has, as its primary mission, the defense of Jews living in the State of Israel - who are also, somehow, God's Chosen People. (God loves people so much, he has two special tribes of them!)
• The U.S. is mandated by God to support any aggressive moves made by the State of Israel against anyone, anywhere, anytime.
• Horrible events presage the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
• True believers will be spared the pain and suffering of these events, because they will be caught away from the Earth in the ‘Rapture' of the saints.

These beliefs are all part and parcel of a Theological system called Dispensationalism. (A good introduction from the Orthodox point of view can be found here.)

The vast majority of Americans are not, strictly speaking, Dispensationalists. Not all Evangelical conservatives are either. In fact, I'm a big fan of an Evangelical pastor named Chuck Baldwin, who ran for president in 2008.

However, the influence of Dispensationalism on both US foreign and domestic policy is immense. Dispensationalist literature sells widely in both Christian and general bookstores. The Left Behind series of books had worldwide total sales of 65 million dollars. The most widely recognized and influential Christian preachers are Dispensationalists such as John Hagee and Pat Robertson. Dispensationalists form the core of the Religious Right, and in this capacity have a profound influence on the Republican Party.

Many prominent politicians, such as Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, are also Dispensationalists. Pound for pound, Christian Dispensationalists pack more punch than any other faith group in the American political system. Which is why even Roman Catholic and Episcopalian politicians, when running as Republicans, often sound downright revivalist, particularly when talking about the Middle East and Russia.

All of this makes being American, politically conservative, and Orthodox a tough thing to pull off. It is not easy to sit in Republican Party meetings and be true to one's Orthodoxy. I could give numerous examples of this, but one representative anecdote should suffice.

In early 2008, I was the speaker at a Republican Club dinner. My speech was centered on the topics of terrorism and the treatment of Christians in Muslim states. After my talk, during the Q&A period, the president of the club stood up and proclaimed that Israel had a right to obliterate Lebanon to get at Hezbollah. The sentiment, "Kill ‘em all and let God sort them out!" comes close to describing the gist of what she said.

She got an ovation for that.

A standing ovation.

I responded that, leaving aside the fact that mass killing is just plain wrong, there is also the sticky problem that 33% of the population of Lebanon is actually Christian. My comments were greeted with silence.

Angry silence.

The fact is that Orthodox Christians are a bad fit for the Religious Right, and the Republican Party which it dominates at the grassroots level. Many of us try to get along with the current core of the Republican Party, mostly because we really feel like we should be doing something about abortion, fiscal irresponsibility, bloated government, and preserving personal liberty.

But it isn't easy. I've been clashing with other Republicans the most lately over Russian policy. I consider Russia to be just another great power, somewhat in decline, that is acting normally concerning its sphere of influence in neighboring countries. Many of my Republican Party cohorts consider Russia to be spawned from Hell and destined to unleash the Antichrist.

It makes co-operation on issues of mutual concern difficult, to say the least.

This is not to say that many Orthodox haven't bought into the Religious Right. Many big name conservative, Orthodox Websites and authors are enthusiastic about carving out a niche for Orthodoxy somewhere between Eagle Forum and the Christian Coalition. Orthodox of this mindset focus singularly on certain domestic issues such as abortion, gay marriage, Euthanasia, and tax policy to the exclusion of almost anything else.

When the Orthodox of this disposition do focus on foreign policy, they tend to focus on the Clash of Civilizations with Islam, and tend to avoid questions of policy towards Serbia, Russia, Kosovo, and Georgia - though some Orthodox writers did wade neck-deep into the whole South Ossetia morass. These same writers/activists also tend to think of the United States in messianic terms, even though Orthodoxy provides them no religious basis for this attitude (unlike certain strains of Evangelicalism).

This leads some Orthodox to develop an angry mentality in which sinful people, who need to be led to Christ, are treated as political maggots in need of squashing. This inevitably results in Websites, magazines, and other media which are angry, bitter, shrill, and nationalistic. The ideas on-offer read the same as if they had been published in pamphlets distributed by the Christian Coalition.

There seems to be no effort among such Orthodox to speak truth to power, or to stand for the witness of the historic faith. Rather, many online and print efforts seem to break down into partisan apologetics - whatever is Republican is good, whatever is Democrat is bad. Never mind the fact that both parties are frequently wrong. Whatever is put forward by the guys with the ‘R' next to their names must be the way to go. And if you aren't with the program, by opposing the Iraq War (for example), then prepare to get hit in the face with two-tons of pure venom.

This is has been too much for a lot of politically conservative Orthodox who can't get into this Born-Again, hyper-partisan mindset. Some are leaving political activity altogether to focus more on Orthodox Evangelism. Others, like me, soldier on in the Republican Party, and hope for better times in the future. We make our disagreements known, and when possible, support candidates (Ron Paul in my case) that speak to our worldview.

But others, like Frank Schaeffer, seem to be jumping off the right-wing ship entirely. Frank Schaeffer, writing in the Huffington Post, was one of the most pronounced Orthodox supporters of Barack Obama in the last election. For this, Schaeffer has gotten roundly pilloried in many corners of the Orthodox world.

As you can probably tell from what I've written earlier, I can sympathize with Schaeffer. He came out of the Religious Right, as did I, but now seems to have rejected the conservative agenda entirely. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, since much of the conservative agenda, at least as defined by the Bush Administration, really needs to be rejected.

In his last blog on the Huffington Post, Schaeffer seems to lament the passing of the old Republican Party:

Pre the Religious Right take over the traditional focus of the Republican Party had been on foreign policy issues, the economy, military preparedness and a generally libertarian laissez-faire view of the world-things William F. Buckley, and Barry Goldwater would have recognized.

I would have to agree with that assessment, though I'm not sure how this equals to full-throated support for Obama.

To say that Obama is the most openly pro-homosexual rights and most pro-abortion president ever elected is probably an understatement. That supporting abortion rights and normalizing homosexuality are non-Orthodox positions should be indisputable. However, I understand that in politics you usually have to settle for a quarter-of-a-loaf, instead of the whole thing.

That being the case, I would have been willing to overlook Obama's manifest flaws if I actually thought that he would initiate a foreign policy that would:

• Stop the U.S. bombing of foreign civilians.
• Close military bases overseas.
• Defend our own border.
• Cut wasteful military spending we can't afford.
• Stand up for Christian rights in Muslim countries.

The fact is, however, I don't expect anything like that out of Obama. I expect Obama's foreign policy to be just as belligerent as that of President Bush, if not more so. I expect more wars in places like Africa, more military spending, and more military bases overseas. I expect him to be aggressively anti-Serb and anti-Russian, and to keep rolling NATO right up to the Kremlin's front porch, even if this lands us into a war. Hillary Clinton, after all, appears to be headed for Secretary of State. (Anyone mistaking Hillary for a peacenik has been in a coma for 20 years.)

You add all that to his support for abortion on-demand and his other questionable social policies, and to me, Obama is a total wash. Schaeffer doesn't see it that way, and perhaps he is right. Time will tell in the end, and I would love to be pleasantly surprised by some good moves on Obama's part.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

What is more evident than ever, however, is that on questions of public policy, Orthodox Christians need to find their own voice. On some issues we are on the same side as the Religious Right, but the natural Orthodox style of dealing with those issues is markedly different.

Orthodoxy is not shrill. Orthodoxy is power and truth. Our bishops rarely yell. They usually speak softly, but they do so with authority and with love. But while our style is very different, this fact doesn't equal some kind of capitulation to the world. Rather it speaks of greater spiritual maturity.

But on many issues we are not at all on the same page as the Religious Right. Trying to pretend that we are means that we have to compromise ourselves as Orthodox Christians.

The same thing happens with Orthodox who try to fit into the Religious Left, like Schaeffer seems to be doing. While they may fit in on some issues like environmental policy, the commitment of the the Religious Left to normalizing aberrant behaviors like abortion has got to be as unnerving for Democratic-leaning Orthodox as it is for me to put up with the mad bombers.

Many Orthodox, like me, find themselves holding a complex assortment of positions which defy easy characterization as left or right, liberal or conservative. We are simply not at home in the current political landscape, because we defy the normal stereotypes. Which, to me, indicates the need for Orthodox Christians to actively transform the political dialogue.

It is time for Orthodox Christians to start leading the discussion, instead jumping up and down in the crowd yelling, "Me too!" That means that our online forums for discussion need to stop mirroring the anger, bitterness, and blind partisanship of a Daily Kos or a Redstate.com. We need to speak truth to power, and to embrace the moral tradition of the Church, even if it is inconvenient politically for our side, whichever side that may be.

It also means that we need to stop excoriating Orthodox Christians, like Frank Schaeffer, who have made political choices we don't agree with. We need to assume that such choices are made prayerfully, in good faith, and with valid reasons. If we can talk to each other sensibly, as Orthodox Christians, and quit trying to conform to external influences, then perhaps, just perhaps, we can start to build a consensus as to what our civic duties and responsibilities are as Orthodox Christians who are also Americans.

Glen Chancy is CIO for corfun.com and publisher of Orthodox Biz. You can contact him here .

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 [Orthodoxy and the Religious Right]

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