My Circumstance and Motivation[1] My name is Noah Jefferson; I am a convert from Protestantism to holy Orthodoxy and hold a Master of Theological Studies with a Concentration in Orthodox and Eastern Christian Studies from Trinity College, University of Toronto. I am publishing this article only after receiving permission to do so from my Archbishop, parish priest and spiritual father.
May 15, 2023·edited May 15, 2023Liked by The Open Ark
Dyer's responses to this have predictably been about ecumenism, Bulgakov, etc., without answering the very damning evidence of his vicious behavior toward any who resist his narcissistic cult. He posts about "Gamma Male" behavior while desperately messaging people who happen to "like" the article on Facebook.
"Don't look at me -- this is about Bulgakov!" No one cares about Bulgakov, kid.
Opposing the demonic behavior outlined in this post (with the screenshots to prove it) doesn't require being an ecumenist, Fordhamite, Wheelie, etc. One can oppose overreach in COVID policy, sexual immorality, etc., and ALSO oppose the evil of the DyerCult -- it just takes being a Christian who reads the Scriptures and listens to the Church Fathers and the divine services.
He claims to be following the Fathers, but which of the Fathers ever threatened people who disagreed with them?
It's not Dyer's opposition to ecumenism (etc.) that inspires resistance to him. It's that he acts like the useless, parasitic baby he is and teaches others to do the same. Has the guy ever contributed anything constructive to anyone, or has he just spent his life offering his half-baked opinions on why everyone is wrong except him? People can smell a basement-keyboard-warrior miles off, including people who also regard religious compromise as garbage.
Dyer also likes to write it all off as people unhappy that he is "mean," but threatening to dox someone goes beyond mean, beyond even harassment, to actual illegality and incitement to violence. His cultists do this stuff, too, because he encourages it (https://twitter.com/thelongvoyageMD/status/1657942052783509505).
Dude is just as much an adherent of cancel-culture as anyone on the left, just as much a purveyor of the politics of identitarianism and resentment. He hides behind a veneer of conservative theological and political positions for self-aggrandizement -- just like the liberal wackos he claims to oppose do with their own veneers.
Don't let Dyer smokescreen away from the actual point here -- he is a blight on the Church, and his modernist Reformed-style, self-serving money-making scheme is just as innovationist as anything that the likes of Riccardi-Swartz, Papanikolaou, Demacopulous, etc., are doing. This isn't just the guilt-by-association BS he peddles against other people; it's about his real, documented behavior.
It's a poisonous cult on all sides, and clergy who associate themselves with identitarians and renovationists, whether they go by "progressive" or "conservative" labels, are leading their sheep not to the waters of spiritual renewal but rather to a toxic waste dump of noetic carcinogens.
You've done the Church a great service writing this, and I pray it circulates widely. May a more mature, less petulant and childish, Orthodox ethos begin to thrive on the internet. God bless you, and continue to shake the dust off your feet when the children throw a fit over this.
May 11, 2023·edited May 11, 2023Liked by The Open Ark
That Dyer is running a sectarian, cancerous, deceptive, abusive, anti-Christian, Reformed-discernment-bloggerish, possibly illegal (what with the threats, etc.) mini-Mark-Driscoll-style cult will unfortunately take back seat for many with the language here about ecumenism, especially because it's undefined in this text as to what is meant by "ecumenism."
Especially given his extensive list of religious affiliations, including (but not limited to) Judaism (featuring apologetics against the Trinity), Calvinism, Sedevacantist Papism (a wonderfully ironic bunch) (including apologetics against Orthodoxy), Wicca, the Occult, and whatever religion he is now (which clearly is not Orthodox Christianity, given what the Scripture says about being Christian), Jason Scott Dyer is possibly one of the most "ecumenical" people out there. (I'm personally looking forward to his incipient career as a FAIRMormon apologist.)
No, surely, you say, THIS TIME his movement into a new religious community and making a bunch of money off it will be sincere and repentant, etc. He's really, **truly** become Orthodox this time, after formerly spitting in the face of the priest who condescended to chrismating him then skipping town right after it happened. Plausible. I mean, you can't know his home life! Never mind that his public life is so vile -- don't judge! I mean, it's okay to judge if you're aiming your judgment somewhere else, but not at the "based" cult leader.
There will always be Dyers out there. What's become quite clear, though, is that it is a toxic thing for any clergy to be associated with him in particular -- and very well could open them up to lawsuits or even criminal charges themselves, being enablers and sponsors of this behavior. (How's that going for the RCC these days?)
Does Metropolitan Jonah really know what he's having his name and reputation used for? Does Deacon Ananias Sorem's hierarch, Archbishop Nathanael, know what kind of vulgarity and buffoonish cruelty he is protecting?
These guys don't even pretend to act like Christians publicly, though, so it's no surprise that they hypocritically benefit from the very things they claim to oppose. This is always how religious cults go, though -- big, loud moralism as a veneer for debauchery and hypocrisy.
May 14, 2023·edited May 17, 2023Liked by The Open Ark
Thank you for writing this article. The threat that Jay Dyer and the Patristic Faith set pose to Orthodoxy in America is significant and needs to be addressed head on. A few comments: first, while it's true that the majority of those affiliated with Patristic Faith are members of ROCOR, the rigorist approach to Orthodoxy that characterizes Patristic Faith has infected all Orthodox jurisdictions in America to varying degrees, including the OCA. The common denominator appears to be conservative Protestant converts who have never actually been formed in the Orthodox faith. Throw in some Christ the Savior Brotherhood/Holy Order of Mans converts and you have all the ingredients for a rigid, insular, and judgmental faith.
Second, one of the reasons for the growing influence of Patristic Faith and the brand of Orthodoxy they spew is the fact that our bishops and priests do not speak out about this problem. Given the antisemitism, Lost Cause ideology (John Whiteford), COVID denialism and anti-vax conspiracy theories they push, the silence of our hierarchs and priests is unacceptable. While I'm glad your Archbishop gave his permission to you to publish this, he and his fellow bishops need to do more to oppose this. Our Church depends on it.
I saw a link to your article on Twitter through @WholesomeHenri and am glad I clicked it as your article is so eye opening!
Honestly, I like Jay Dyer's videos and have learned a lot from him, but something always felt a little "off" to with him. I don't mean to say he's a bad guy or anything, but something just felt off, and reading your article was so eye opening.
I like that you didn't even really attack Dyer, you just exposed his poor theology, and your PDF attachment with all your receipts was the cherry on top, as you prove everything you said in your article is all true.
I hope Dyer's Bishop and priest and spiritual father sit him down, rebuke him, demand he repent for threatening to dox you, and for his bad theology, as I really do like him and think he has done and can still do a lot of good with his videos, but he needs to repent too.
Anyways, I'm glad I read your article and plan to recommend it to people at my Church for sure.
This is a remarkable article and I applaud you for having the courage to expose Jay Dyer's "church within the Church", as many people know just how nasty and downright ruthless Dyer and his gang can be with those who don't bow to their pretend authority. I'm going to pray for you as my guess is that they will come after you with a vengeance, rather than take your article to heart, search their souls, and repent.
However I also think you deserve a ton of credit for how well written and scholarly your article is, as usually "whistleblower" type articles are just gossip and mud slinging, but you don't attack Dyer on emotional grounds, rather, you completely shred his faulty theology and expose him as a theological hack.
My guess is Dyer or his gang will try to destroy your reputation by just calling you names, but that none of them will have the ability to actually deal with the serious theological and ecclesiastical issues you raise, as it seems clear to me that you are right.
I hope Dyer has the guts to actually repent and allow your letter to be a blessing to him, rather than just attack you, and I am praying for him and for you, and of course, for the Church as a whole.
Hi! I'm Katja, and I'm a convert to Orthodox Christianity. Nice to "meet" you! I've been Orthodox 20 years now, and as I was becoming Orthodox, and in the first couple years that I was Orthodox, I was living in a place where it was impossible to have any sort of English-speaking Orthodox community. The Orthodox groups that I found online, mostly through LiveJournal, were a huge help. (Ironically enough, Fr. Andrew Damick was part of that.)
Mind you, I think people ought to be zealous about their faith, about Orthodoxy, etc. That's a good thing. However, if it's not done in love, it's "but a clanging cymbal..." This is what the Orthobros forget. Sure, there's a time to talk about and discuss theology, but if you're not letting your faith change your life, if you're not loving God and others, if you're not serving them, it's just a bunch of silly, empty debating by people who want to be "right" all the time. ( And they wonder why women aren't attracted to this type of Orthodoxy!) Rod Dreher just wrote a piece that tangentially touches on some of this; the impetus for the piece was the conversion of a woman academic who studied Christianity deeply actually coming to faith with the Southern Baptists. One of the lines there from Dreher, who is Orthodox, was "I would like for everyone to be Orthodox, but more than that, I would like them to know Jesus with all their hearts and minds." He's not a theologian, he's not an evangelist, but he's brought a good number of people to Orthodoxy (and a few to church, period) just by writing about his life as a believing, Orthodox Christian. We need that kind of witness badly, because "internet Orthodoxy" isn't going away any time soon.
Jay is right about any critique he may give about the horrendous and modernist OCA. The author of this article was probably not properly rooted in Orthodox tradition.
All I know is that a bunch of homosexuals, liberals, modernists and ecumenist leaders are ruining the churches everywhere. They don't even believe in the Orthodox faith, but somehow got into their positions, by Satan, I presume.
Don’t follow the Dyer clan, but the author of this article is obviously a liberal and politically biased. Not only had the author’s extreme liberal politics led him to be ignorant of geopolitics, but ecumenism. Additionally, the term “conspiracy theory” is puzzling. Jesus was accused of conspiracy as well, so the author loses that argument. It’s obvious the left, especially liberal left, are ignorant as they can’t observe how the USA has invaded dozens upon dozens of nations, toppling them illegally allowing multi national corporations to steal resources. The USA did this in my country, and France does this all over Africa; which is why African nations want Western Europeans OUT.
Before coming to Christianity, I was decently versed in geopolitics, Covid measures obviously were a joke and scientifically invalid. Puzzling for an extreme far leftist to be so anti-science and a lover of big governorment. I do agree that Christ works outside his Church on individuals as evidenced by millions turning to Christ around the world. But your extreme leftist ecumenical views and biased atheist politics (leftism is atheism to its core) is NOT Orthodox, period.
The world isn’t the care bares and the Bible lays it out nicely. As for Russia, no point to bring it up but liberals got to liberal. Illegal 2014 coup by America and since then the atheist Ukrainian government has slaughtered millions of Orthodox in Eastern Ukraine. How do I know? My country borders Ukraine and the American puppet state subjugates our people in Ukraine and forbids their language and church (I’m not Russian). You have the typical American leftist mindset steeped in ignorance, and need to use pejoratives to slander others. The leftist media is good at labeling anyone a “conspiracy theorists” to discredit valid arguments, and you run with that same tactic. Shameful.
When I was an inquirer, I watched some of David and Jay’s theological videos. They did help introduce me to theological topics I was not aware of and I do like how Jay explained TAG (Transcendental Argument for God). However, I was always put off by Jay’s abrasive debate style. It always bugged me because I felt his points themselves were good, but he was losing on optics (which is important for public debate). I never joined the server and I’m glad I didn’t from reading this. I’m sorry you were treated this way.
Dyer's responses to this have predictably been about ecumenism, Bulgakov, etc., without answering the very damning evidence of his vicious behavior toward any who resist his narcissistic cult. He posts about "Gamma Male" behavior while desperately messaging people who happen to "like" the article on Facebook.
"Don't look at me -- this is about Bulgakov!" No one cares about Bulgakov, kid.
Opposing the demonic behavior outlined in this post (with the screenshots to prove it) doesn't require being an ecumenist, Fordhamite, Wheelie, etc. One can oppose overreach in COVID policy, sexual immorality, etc., and ALSO oppose the evil of the DyerCult -- it just takes being a Christian who reads the Scriptures and listens to the Church Fathers and the divine services.
He claims to be following the Fathers, but which of the Fathers ever threatened people who disagreed with them?
It's not Dyer's opposition to ecumenism (etc.) that inspires resistance to him. It's that he acts like the useless, parasitic baby he is and teaches others to do the same. Has the guy ever contributed anything constructive to anyone, or has he just spent his life offering his half-baked opinions on why everyone is wrong except him? People can smell a basement-keyboard-warrior miles off, including people who also regard religious compromise as garbage.
Dyer also likes to write it all off as people unhappy that he is "mean," but threatening to dox someone goes beyond mean, beyond even harassment, to actual illegality and incitement to violence. His cultists do this stuff, too, because he encourages it (https://twitter.com/thelongvoyageMD/status/1657942052783509505).
Dude is just as much an adherent of cancel-culture as anyone on the left, just as much a purveyor of the politics of identitarianism and resentment. He hides behind a veneer of conservative theological and political positions for self-aggrandizement -- just like the liberal wackos he claims to oppose do with their own veneers.
Don't let Dyer smokescreen away from the actual point here -- he is a blight on the Church, and his modernist Reformed-style, self-serving money-making scheme is just as innovationist as anything that the likes of Riccardi-Swartz, Papanikolaou, Demacopulous, etc., are doing. This isn't just the guilt-by-association BS he peddles against other people; it's about his real, documented behavior.
The dude rejected Orthodox Christianity before (http://web.archive.org/web/20080724160848/http://nicenetruth.com/home/2008/06/my-retraction-o.html), and there's little doubt he would do it again, especially if his Alex Jones, Jr., stuff pays more.
It's a poisonous cult on all sides, and clergy who associate themselves with identitarians and renovationists, whether they go by "progressive" or "conservative" labels, are leading their sheep not to the waters of spiritual renewal but rather to a toxic waste dump of noetic carcinogens.
You've done the Church a great service writing this, and I pray it circulates widely. May a more mature, less petulant and childish, Orthodox ethos begin to thrive on the internet. God bless you, and continue to shake the dust off your feet when the children throw a fit over this.
That Dyer is running a sectarian, cancerous, deceptive, abusive, anti-Christian, Reformed-discernment-bloggerish, possibly illegal (what with the threats, etc.) mini-Mark-Driscoll-style cult will unfortunately take back seat for many with the language here about ecumenism, especially because it's undefined in this text as to what is meant by "ecumenism."
Especially given his extensive list of religious affiliations, including (but not limited to) Judaism (featuring apologetics against the Trinity), Calvinism, Sedevacantist Papism (a wonderfully ironic bunch) (including apologetics against Orthodoxy), Wicca, the Occult, and whatever religion he is now (which clearly is not Orthodox Christianity, given what the Scripture says about being Christian), Jason Scott Dyer is possibly one of the most "ecumenical" people out there. (I'm personally looking forward to his incipient career as a FAIRMormon apologist.)
No, surely, you say, THIS TIME his movement into a new religious community and making a bunch of money off it will be sincere and repentant, etc. He's really, **truly** become Orthodox this time, after formerly spitting in the face of the priest who condescended to chrismating him then skipping town right after it happened. Plausible. I mean, you can't know his home life! Never mind that his public life is so vile -- don't judge! I mean, it's okay to judge if you're aiming your judgment somewhere else, but not at the "based" cult leader.
There will always be Dyers out there. What's become quite clear, though, is that it is a toxic thing for any clergy to be associated with him in particular -- and very well could open them up to lawsuits or even criminal charges themselves, being enablers and sponsors of this behavior. (How's that going for the RCC these days?)
Does Metropolitan Jonah really know what he's having his name and reputation used for? Does Deacon Ananias Sorem's hierarch, Archbishop Nathanael, know what kind of vulgarity and buffoonish cruelty he is protecting?
Similarly, has anyone "followed the money" with regard to this crew? Sorem teaches at Carroll College, which has an active LGBTQ+ presence (https://www.carroll.edu/event/lgbtq-lived-experience-panel). Is Sorem out there protesting against it? Is he quitting his job? Or does he continue to take money from an institution that sponsors this evil? (And it's even supposed to be Catholic!) He's also a member of IOTA, which is full of left-wing academic types (https://carroll.academia.edu/ErikSorem/CurriculumVitae) and (you guessed it!) takes money from all kinds of interesting sources (https://iota-web.org/major-supporters-and-co-laborers/).
What about Dyer himself? He's taken money from Fox News and Alex Jones -- both massive mainstream media conduits for all kinds of foundation money, dark money, and various beneficiaries of government funding. Does his wife still make money from her occult/wicca/new age business and books, wherein she outlined her own system of magic (https://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/1so63v/i_am_jamie_hanshaw_author_of_weirdstuff_operation/ https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Stuff-Color-Operation-Creation/dp/098909880X/)?
These guys don't even pretend to act like Christians publicly, though, so it's no surprise that they hypocritically benefit from the very things they claim to oppose. This is always how religious cults go, though -- big, loud moralism as a veneer for debauchery and hypocrisy.
Thank you for writing this article. The threat that Jay Dyer and the Patristic Faith set pose to Orthodoxy in America is significant and needs to be addressed head on. A few comments: first, while it's true that the majority of those affiliated with Patristic Faith are members of ROCOR, the rigorist approach to Orthodoxy that characterizes Patristic Faith has infected all Orthodox jurisdictions in America to varying degrees, including the OCA. The common denominator appears to be conservative Protestant converts who have never actually been formed in the Orthodox faith. Throw in some Christ the Savior Brotherhood/Holy Order of Mans converts and you have all the ingredients for a rigid, insular, and judgmental faith.
Second, one of the reasons for the growing influence of Patristic Faith and the brand of Orthodoxy they spew is the fact that our bishops and priests do not speak out about this problem. Given the antisemitism, Lost Cause ideology (John Whiteford), COVID denialism and anti-vax conspiracy theories they push, the silence of our hierarchs and priests is unacceptable. While I'm glad your Archbishop gave his permission to you to publish this, he and his fellow bishops need to do more to oppose this. Our Church depends on it.
WOW!
I saw a link to your article on Twitter through @WholesomeHenri and am glad I clicked it as your article is so eye opening!
Honestly, I like Jay Dyer's videos and have learned a lot from him, but something always felt a little "off" to with him. I don't mean to say he's a bad guy or anything, but something just felt off, and reading your article was so eye opening.
I like that you didn't even really attack Dyer, you just exposed his poor theology, and your PDF attachment with all your receipts was the cherry on top, as you prove everything you said in your article is all true.
I hope Dyer's Bishop and priest and spiritual father sit him down, rebuke him, demand he repent for threatening to dox you, and for his bad theology, as I really do like him and think he has done and can still do a lot of good with his videos, but he needs to repent too.
Anyways, I'm glad I read your article and plan to recommend it to people at my Church for sure.
Have a great day,
Vladimir
This is a remarkable article and I applaud you for having the courage to expose Jay Dyer's "church within the Church", as many people know just how nasty and downright ruthless Dyer and his gang can be with those who don't bow to their pretend authority. I'm going to pray for you as my guess is that they will come after you with a vengeance, rather than take your article to heart, search their souls, and repent.
However I also think you deserve a ton of credit for how well written and scholarly your article is, as usually "whistleblower" type articles are just gossip and mud slinging, but you don't attack Dyer on emotional grounds, rather, you completely shred his faulty theology and expose him as a theological hack.
My guess is Dyer or his gang will try to destroy your reputation by just calling you names, but that none of them will have the ability to actually deal with the serious theological and ecclesiastical issues you raise, as it seems clear to me that you are right.
I hope Dyer has the guts to actually repent and allow your letter to be a blessing to him, rather than just attack you, and I am praying for him and for you, and of course, for the Church as a whole.
Christ is Risen,
Peter
Christ is Risen!
Hi! I'm Katja, and I'm a convert to Orthodox Christianity. Nice to "meet" you! I've been Orthodox 20 years now, and as I was becoming Orthodox, and in the first couple years that I was Orthodox, I was living in a place where it was impossible to have any sort of English-speaking Orthodox community. The Orthodox groups that I found online, mostly through LiveJournal, were a huge help. (Ironically enough, Fr. Andrew Damick was part of that.)
Mind you, I think people ought to be zealous about their faith, about Orthodoxy, etc. That's a good thing. However, if it's not done in love, it's "but a clanging cymbal..." This is what the Orthobros forget. Sure, there's a time to talk about and discuss theology, but if you're not letting your faith change your life, if you're not loving God and others, if you're not serving them, it's just a bunch of silly, empty debating by people who want to be "right" all the time. ( And they wonder why women aren't attracted to this type of Orthodoxy!) Rod Dreher just wrote a piece that tangentially touches on some of this; the impetus for the piece was the conversion of a woman academic who studied Christianity deeply actually coming to faith with the Southern Baptists. One of the lines there from Dreher, who is Orthodox, was "I would like for everyone to be Orthodox, but more than that, I would like them to know Jesus with all their hearts and minds." He's not a theologian, he's not an evangelist, but he's brought a good number of people to Orthodoxy (and a few to church, period) just by writing about his life as a believing, Orthodox Christian. We need that kind of witness badly, because "internet Orthodoxy" isn't going away any time soon.
Sorry you had to endure this. Nowhere in Scripture does it encourage you to be a jerk.
Thank you so much for your well-written article bringing this to light. I am so sorry that you experienced this. -Ita
Good article. I’ve found more or less this to be the same that I’ve noticed about all the named individuals.
Jay is right about any critique he may give about the horrendous and modernist OCA. The author of this article was probably not properly rooted in Orthodox tradition.
All I know is that a bunch of homosexuals, liberals, modernists and ecumenist leaders are ruining the churches everywhere. They don't even believe in the Orthodox faith, but somehow got into their positions, by Satan, I presume.
Don’t follow the Dyer clan, but the author of this article is obviously a liberal and politically biased. Not only had the author’s extreme liberal politics led him to be ignorant of geopolitics, but ecumenism. Additionally, the term “conspiracy theory” is puzzling. Jesus was accused of conspiracy as well, so the author loses that argument. It’s obvious the left, especially liberal left, are ignorant as they can’t observe how the USA has invaded dozens upon dozens of nations, toppling them illegally allowing multi national corporations to steal resources. The USA did this in my country, and France does this all over Africa; which is why African nations want Western Europeans OUT.
Before coming to Christianity, I was decently versed in geopolitics, Covid measures obviously were a joke and scientifically invalid. Puzzling for an extreme far leftist to be so anti-science and a lover of big governorment. I do agree that Christ works outside his Church on individuals as evidenced by millions turning to Christ around the world. But your extreme leftist ecumenical views and biased atheist politics (leftism is atheism to its core) is NOT Orthodox, period.
The world isn’t the care bares and the Bible lays it out nicely. As for Russia, no point to bring it up but liberals got to liberal. Illegal 2014 coup by America and since then the atheist Ukrainian government has slaughtered millions of Orthodox in Eastern Ukraine. How do I know? My country borders Ukraine and the American puppet state subjugates our people in Ukraine and forbids their language and church (I’m not Russian). You have the typical American leftist mindset steeped in ignorance, and need to use pejoratives to slander others. The leftist media is good at labeling anyone a “conspiracy theorists” to discredit valid arguments, and you run with that same tactic. Shameful.
"Free thought" shouldn't be allowed. That's a modernist ethos.
There is only one reason to become Eastern Heterodox or Roman Catholic: being a feminist who wants to worship a goddess and go to hell.
When I was an inquirer, I watched some of David and Jay’s theological videos. They did help introduce me to theological topics I was not aware of and I do like how Jay explained TAG (Transcendental Argument for God). However, I was always put off by Jay’s abrasive debate style. It always bugged me because I felt his points themselves were good, but he was losing on optics (which is important for public debate). I never joined the server and I’m glad I didn’t from reading this. I’m sorry you were treated this way.