Jesus Christ Superstar – coming to the Holy Mountain
This is World Orthodoxy! This is how people like Jonathan Jackson and all those who are seeking an easy, worldy form of Orthodoxy, one that can accommodate both Hollywood and Mount Athos, are helping hijack True Orthodoxy. If Jonathan would have found True Orthodoxy, he would have left the show-biz industry long ago …
How is praising Bob Dylan (directly from the radio station of Vatopedi Monastery – sic!), the one who himself admited he had sold his soul to the Devil who he serves (in his own words), and sell that as Orthodoxy and promote rock music as a form of prayer, is impossible for us to comprehend.
As for elder Ephraim of Vatopedi – well, we are deeply disappointed, but not all that surprised that it happened at Vatopedi – after all they are the most open to modernism … including the adoption of the papist calendar. Mount Athos and Hollywood look like doing business together. It may be that soon those few still true Athonite monks struggling to live a true Orthodox life are going to have to flee …
Luke 18:8
“I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
The very Charismatic spirit we have strived to show as trying to take over Orthodoxy is so evident, how can’t they see it? Under this new trend prayer is not lamenting about one’s own sins any longer, but about Charismatic experiences. Tragic! Here it is in their words:
Internet radio broadcaster Pemptousia FM of Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, helped produce the album. “Bob Dylan said that the highest form of song is prayer. And I believe that. And Bob Dylan and Bono and some of those artists also said that the best songs are not written by us. They’re discovered. They’ve already been written and we just discover them. So, we are dependent on God walking in the room, so to speak, in order to make something of real value. And the prayer for me is for the music and lyrics to create an atmosphere, for some kind of healing to take place, some kind of awakening, yearning. So it’s not written just for people that are Christians, it’s for anybody. And I want the music and lyrics to speak to people no matter where they are,” Jackson said to Pemptousia FM.
With all this being said, Jonathan Jackson is very new to Orthodoxy and if his intentions are true, he is about to clash with powers which will test his sincerity and truth soon enough. There seems to be a connection between Fr Herman Podmoshensky’s and Fr Seraphim Rose’s “Death to The World” and what Jonathan Jackson is doing. His current songs seem to be geared to the US youth who are despairing and suicidal, hence even if one can be prevented from this, then he would have done a great thing. It is possible that this may be the reason why Elder Ephraim is letting him into the inner circle to a certain degree … we need to be patient to see how this pans out. The fact that Jackson has a family adds importance to his life, and a new spin on how convert families will develop, as they will have to follow him into the arena as well. “Death to The World” found a good nitche in Orthodox literature and this is what Jackson needs to do to progress the Truth to modern youth, who just will not usually take the traditional path.
