Blessed is He Who is Not Offended in Me

This is a short post on a topic many would consider of minor significance in comparison to the great problems facing the world today, and by comparison they would be right. However, when relatively minor efforts to benefit the least of these are attacked, the evils infecting a culture can be made even clearer than when focusing on admittedly much more severe and world-changing problems.

A minor but welcome step towards greater care and justice for the least of these within the Orthodox Church is being taken by the Greek Orthodox Church of America in its latest conference titled Gathered as One Body: Disability, Accessibility, and Inclusion in the Orthodox Church, a conference bringing together the hierarchy and laity to effect change for the greater inclusion of the disabled and those in various ways lacking accessibility to Church life and specifically the liturgy. It is plain to anyone that this conference, premised on the necessity of realizing the full accessibility of its members to communion and the catholicity that results, is motivated by growing and strengthening the eucharistic vision of the Church among its laity. This obvious fact, however, escapes the uncaring, perpetually afraid and myopic mind of the neo-traditionalist, specifically Ben Dixon, a pro-Russia anti-Ukraine apologist who works with The Philip Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship which promotes historical revisionism regarding the Civil War and the union of Orthodoxy with Southern (Confederate) culture.

Ben Dixon in reaction to the Gathered as One Body conference, has written a Substack article to warn of the dangers, even danger of heresy, of these efforts to make Church life more accessible. DEI, after all, is condemned by the Ten Commandments, and without Dixon’s warnings who knows how many might be struck by lightning for letting a leper into the temple. For Dixon, the prospect of including ASL (sign-language) interpreters in the liturgy is fraught with danger of misinterpretation and is only allowable if done by a member of the clergy, never mind that Dixon is aware the education requirements for GOARCH clergy do not include training in counseling let alone sign-language (and in other jurisdictions there are almost no standards). Christ says a sign of the Gospel’s truth is that “the deaf hear (Mtt 11:5-6),” not on Dixon’s watch! The use of hypoallergenic incense at least gets a grudging pass, but only because Dixon thinks incense isn’t sacramental, unlike St. Dionysius the Areopagite for whom every sensible reality used in liturgy was a theurgic mysterion. If he was a little more “traditional,” well, Timmy the asthmatic had better get ready to breathe in as much allergenic incense as possible under Dixon’s watchful, pious gaze.

The greatest danger however, “the real scandal—the one that may skirt the line of heresy,” is the proposal of using Food Sensitive Eucharistic Gifts or, what Ben Dixon deduces they must be while trying to hold back a sackcloth-muffled wail to the heavens, gluten-free bread in the Eucharist. According to Dixon this proposal hearkens back to that dark period of Church history when faith in Christ’s humanity waned and the Church’s existence hung on a thread, that is, it reminds him of the period of the Covid pandemic when various Orthodox jurisdictions complied with government measures and made changes around the Eucharist… essentially no different from changes that were made in previous centuries when plagues threatened a community, and reflective of the common-sense belief that natural processes can effect people in the liturgy and the Eucharistic gifts, which motivated ancient procedures around dealing with mold and using a spoon at all. I could go on with the mockery, richly deserved, of Dixon’s nonsensical fideism and conjuring of new authorities such as the unchangeable, baked-the-same-everywhere-always-and-by-all, “ancient and sacred prosphora baking traditions,” which are so set in stone that every new parish I have visited has bread of differing taste and texture, sometimes different week to week. But the most serious issue is a simple one; Ben Dixon and those like him do not care about the least of these.

… all because maybe one percent of Orthodox Christians lack the faith to believe that we who are but wax and grass partake of the very fire of Divinity. Perhaps the burning we feel is not some largely imagined allergy, but our sins!

And to speak plainly to those who say, “But I really do suffer from this”—let me ask: is a little fatigue, bloating, or discomfort not worth your eternal soul?

The above are Ben Dixon’s words. This one percent who have gluten intolerance, which according to his calculations may be roughly 16,000 people today, and he does not clarify if this number includes those suffering from Celiac disease as well, are Orthodox Christians just the same as him. Orthodox Christians who, through no fault of their own, may come away from the Eucharist feeling physically unwell, a fact that would result in a reluctance to take the Eucharist and see it as life-giving. If they have Celiac disease, they may not only have immediate symptoms such as vomiting, fatigue, bloating and diarrhea, but consuming gluten can result in serious long term health defects, especially in children. True, the majority will likely not have any adverse reaction, but for Dixon a change made for the benefit of the few that do suffer is worthy of scorn simply because they are the minority. Dixon is of course parroting the thought of political conservatism today according to which the few and different are not only to be ignored but must be purposely excluded, conditions must be made worse for them, and they must be blamed for it as being dangers to society or, as Dixon argues above, your symptoms of gluten intolerance or Celiac disease are actually the burning of your sins (if only Jesus had something to say about blaming the infirm’s condition on their imagined sin… oh wait, he did!).

In summary, while it may wear the mask of tradition, and while there may often be theological reasons behind it (e.g., privileging tradition as symbol over person, falsely believing Orthodoxy has magisterial authorities that can bind conscience, etc.), the it we often are dealing with, the problem infecting the hearts and minds of so many today, is lack of love and charity. Christ and the Saints example are of a love as charity that goes beyond the merely natural love of familial, cultural and national relations, it is a love that seeks the benefit of those outside the norm, the few and least of these. Contrary to what neo-traditionalist personalities preach, it is not cold inflexibility in the face of inequality that characterizes someone who isn’t ashamed of Christ. To be ashamed of the unfortunate is to be ashamed of Christ. The blessed are those who do good to the least of these and so do good to Christ, even when the letter of tradition or mere custom has to be changed.