Author: Lawrence B. Wheeler

B.A., M.Div. Former Anglican priest, convert to Orthodoxy.

Back-to-Back Anniversaries of Atrocities

I write this from my cottage deep in the woods of the Japan Alps. A generation ago, before the advent of modern telecommunications deprived us of real and true isolation and the respite it brings, I would not have been as engaged with current affairs as I am now. I might watch the NHK (Nippon Hohsoh Kyoku) evening news and perhaps pick up a newspaper to stay in touch with the netherworld, but the reflection that came so effortlessly in those times suffers interference from the rat-a-tat-tat of posts on X and Substack and Facebook. Karl Barth, the renowned evangelical theologian, said “Take your Bible and take your newspaper and read both, but interpret your newspaper from your Bible.” I can’t ignore what is going on in the world.

A good Christian is a good citizen, and a Christian in a democratic republic under siege, the way our American republic is, had better pay attention. His prayers, his advocacy, and his vote may seem to be insignificant, but not participating is a posture even more insignificant.

Today back stateside it is the first anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The juvenile delinquents on Tik Tok call it the “Kirkiversary” or “Kirkmas” as though it were a holiday to be celebrated. Charlie engaged in the sort of “conversation” that leftists purport to promote, but Charlie’s reward for going one-on-one with college kids and dialoguing with them got him a shot in the neck that stopped him dead in his tracks.

It’s already September the 11th here in Japan. Twenty-five years ago this morning, a colleague from church called me and told me to turn on my television. The scene on every channel was of the burning effects of the collision of the first jetliner that plowed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Then we watched live as the second plane smashed into the second tower.

That was a Tuesday. I remember going with ny wife to a certain Episcopal parish for the Eucharist on the following Sunday and hearing the former Catholic priest, now Episcopal priest, say something extraordinary in his homily. There is no personal evil, he said, or words to that effect. I am sure that he meant to say that there is no Devil, and I concluded that he probably meant that Mohammed Atta and his band of 19 terrorists were not influenced by demonic voices, that Satan was not responsible for ginning up the murderous hatred in their hearts toward our united States and her people.

Despite the demythologizing bent of Episcopal clergymen and -women, one can say with confidence that Islam is demonic. There is no need to separate run-of-the-mill Muslims from “Islamists” or “radical Muslims” when we speak of the theology of that belligerent ideology. Jesus had said that the Devil is come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Islam is a cult, a death cult, whose ridiculous claims stem from the contradictory delusions of a seventh-century bedouin who raped, pillaged, and slaughtered his way through Arabia. Just like his father, the Devil. Their “Allah” is decidedly not the same spirit as the Allah whom Coptic Christians worship. Their Allah is Satan himself.

It was Satan who compelled Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers to commit mass murder and destruction twenty-five years ago today, just as it was Satan who inspired a young man named Robinson to take down Charlie Kirk with one shot twenty-four years later. Muslims who recall with fondness the atrocities of 9/11 and twisted kids who dance at the first anniversary of Charlie’s murder are enemies of our society by their own choice because they listened to that same dark voice from the enemy of mankind from the foundation of the world. They used their God-given human agency to go over to the dark side.

Neither Islam nor Leftism is a force for good in the world. May they both be utterly defeated and eliminated, and may God’s will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Satan is up to no good, but Jesus Christ is come to grant life, and that more abundantly. All praise be to Him now and forever unto ages of ages.

A Sparrow on the High Wire

It was a chilly day toward the end of May in Japan’s Alps. Three days it had taken my wife and me to get back here from stateside, but we were still a long taxi ride away from our cottage.

Waiting for the car in the warm hotel lobby, I spied a sparrow up on the power lines. It sat there all alone, a dark spot of feathers, balled up against the chill, motionless, staring off toward Mt. Yatsugatakè shrouded in clouds.

What a noble bird, taking no regard for its lack of a companion, shivering on the wire. The most insignificant of birds, sparrows are, but even a sparrow’s demise never goes unnoticed in heaven.

That unlikely sparrow braving the cold somehow helped me make a connection with heaven’s grace and rendered me misty-eyed. It must have been the sparrow’s courage to fly out on its own, brave the cold alone with nary a word of complaint that urged me to press on.

There it sat perched in full control of itself, staring off toward Yatsugatakè, waiting for sight of the majestic peaks to break through the rain clouds.

What Did Your Pastor Have to Say?…

…About Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

I’m back in Japan for a few months. My wife and I are up in the Japan Alps, where fall has already arrived. The Christian population in Japan may squeeze in at under 1% of the general population, but there are small churches all over the country. Orthodox parishes are few and far between, however, and the closest one is half a day away from us. I have to admit that I have been attending the worship services of our Christian brethren (cousins?) while we’re away from home. My wife is Catholic, so she and I have gravitated to parishes in that community while we are here. Like Starbucks or McDonald’s, there is always a Catholic parish not too far away. There are three parishes in towns down the mountain and a monastery to boot. I just pray to myself while at mass, and I never receive communion.

This past Sunday, just days after the shocking murder of Charlie Kirk back home in the States, my wife and I went to an evangelical Protestant church. I expected to hear the local preacher mention the tragic event and render some words of wisdom. After all, Charlie was a prominent evangelical Christian and his assassination had gotten a mention on NHK, the national public television network. That’s a big deal.

The whole world is watching and responding to Charlie’s death. Japan has a non-religious society, but people in more Christian nations around the world are saying that they’ve been to church for the first time in their lives, or that they’ve returned to church for the first time in years in the last few days.

Regardless of that, there was not one word from the pulpit about the event at the service we attended . No one mentioned it at tea following the service, either. I got the sense that the pastor and the small congregation live in a pious bubble. I was disappointed.

Sunday rolled around a day later in the U.S., so I checked the livestream recording of the Divine Liturgy from my own Orthodox parish. Nope. Nothing about Charlie, his murder, or the tremendous effect that it has had inside and outside Christian churches. I was disappointed again, but hope that perhaps next week the clergy will say something about it. I have noticed that Orthodox churches tend to navel-gazing as well, so I won’t expect any mention, yet I’ll be happy to be surprised.

One exception has been Fr. Josiah Trenham, whose gracious tribute to Charlie is on YouTube, and which I have shared abroad via email. Fr. Josiah will be a guest with Tucker Carlson soon, so let’s stay tuned. Here’s the tribute:

Charlie Kirk was larger than life and his willingness to proclaim the good news to young people on college campuses and debate the moral issues of our time was effective. I suspect the Holy Spirit is moving mightily now and a great harvest of souls is beginning now that Charlie’s earthly life has been cut short.

Tell me: Did your preacher speak about Charlie last Sunday? If so, please say something in the comments below.

A Blessèd Pascha to Everyone!

Christ is risen!

The Apostle Saint Paul tells us emphatically that without the resurrection our faith is worthless, arguing a priori that if the concept of the dead rising from the dead is mere wishful thinking, then the event could not have occurred:

 I Cor. 15:13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

Not to worry. Jesus Christ did indeed rise from the dead:

20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

St. Paul lists the witnesses to Christ’s resurrection:

5 … he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

The Lord is risen indeed. Glorify him!

Finding a Key in an Unexpected Spot

US Hwy 395 used to be a frequent route for me, up the backside of eastern California, through the high desert, past Owens Lake –or what used to be its site, once 100 sq.mi. of water, 200′ deep, with laden barges, now a dry bed of salt & toxic wind-born dust– & past a state historical marker directing to old charcoal kilns that made me always think of my hero, St Alexander the Charcoal-Burner, Bishop & Martyr, as I headed to or from the town of Bishop! Those kilns kept the smeltery at Cerro Gordo blasting for decades, producing a river of silver flowing on down to Los Angeles that made a city possible there, before silver screens were even known, before the water of the lake was hijacked…. In my years in Owens Valley, I never ventured up the long, steep, gravel road to Cerro Cordo, quite desolate in my day. [BTW, Does anyone know if he is the ‘Alexander’ in the old Roman Canon among its forty named martyrs?]

Recently I got the book, “Ghost Town Living” by the new “Mayor” of Cerro Gordo, one Brent Underwood. It was a thrill to read his modern Odyssey, poetically set out in four sections, Earth, Water, Fire, & Air. –You’ll easily know the roots of a classical mind! So it does not come as a complete surprise when traces of liturgy turn up in his digs, musings, & adventures. 

Petroglyphs are part of the desert landscape. Some tell of a “Great Pluvial Period,” when Death Valley held over 700 ft of water; it flowed out then to the Colorado River, & tribes of people hunted animals now extinct on its shores. Owens Lake was part of a watercourse that flowed into it. That’s not part of Brent’s epic, but it does give background for his reference to some of the area’s hidden petroglyphs, some dating more than 8-10,000BC!

He writes, “There are some who believe that the painters were not honoring themselves with the paintings but their prey, imagining that by sacrificing their most precious commodities, food & warmth & medicine, {& time,} to etch the image of these creatures into the stone, they were granting these creatures immortality, & guaranteeing that the next harvest would also be bountiful. In that interpretation, it’s not the painting but the *ACT OF PAINTING* that’s sacramental. They were ritually participating in that ongoing act of Creation, … *The ritual was what mattered.* The paintings that we find now are just an echo of that ritual, like the reverberation in a church right after the organ has finished.” [caps mine]

It strikes me that Brent has touched something fundamental about the painting of the holy Ikons. So I wanted to share his inspiration & insight with this readership, and encourage others to investigate his labor of love and restoration from his kind of “desert skete” in eastern California. Some will find his YouTube series, “Ghost Town Living,” also of beauty and value. 

An Ikon-Writer uses strokes much like a scribe practices the forms of Letters in copying a Gospel text, let’s say.  The Scribe strives to be “letter-perfect” in copying the Gospel, to pass on EXACTLY the Sacred Text.  So, too, the Ikon-Writer. “Free Invention” has no real place, though Inspiration is not ruled out.  Prayer & Fasting, & humble submission, guide a good Ikon-Writer away from deviancies of that sort.  The Holy Spirit can then bring true Freshness to the work that ‘mere Pride’ will not!

____________________________________________

Guest contributor, Christopher P. Kelley, is an Anglican priest who received his seminary training at the General Theological Seminary in New York. Fr. Kelley was ordained in 1974 by the late Lord Michael Ramsay, 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. Fr. Kelley later did work for a doctorate in Byzantine Christian studies with an interest in Biblical archeology and iconography.