Invasion of the Body snatchers

I wasn't going to publish this post, because it seemed too polemical, and I don't want my blog to become a billboard for my internal struggles.
But maybe others are going through similar things.
Though the post is unfinished, here's as far as I got.
I don't know if I'll leave it open to view permanently, so if there's anything here you want to keep, best copy it to your PC.
And don't let the Body snatchers get you!

I hope this is not the case where you go to church, but this is what's happening in select locations of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas, a phenomenon I call "the invasion of the Body snatchers." It's not something out of a science fiction movie, though it could be. It is something that our Lord, Jesus Christ, told us would happen (Matthew 16:5-12), and something that the holy Apostles warned us about (2 Peter 2:1-22). "Certain people have infiltrated among you, and they are the ones you had a warning about, in writing, long ago, when they were condemned for denying all religion, turning the grace of our God into immorality, and rejecting our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude 1:4 JB) One thing more, this is not a phenomenon only of modern times or of America, or even just of the Orthodox Church, but a perennial invasion, what Sergei Fudel calls "the dark double of the Church" whose crimes are not of the Church, but against it, even while it claims to be the Church, but it is not! (Revelation 3:9)

The invasion of the Body snatchers.

What Body? Why, the Body of Christ, His Bride, she who waits for her Lord's coming, His parousía. She waits, but she is told, "Well, where is this coming? Everything goes on as it has since the Fathers died, as it has since it began at the creation!" (2 Peter 3:4 JB) The Church is told anything to get our minds off the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as we blow the words, "I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come." We are told anything, and then we're given a task list of things to do, busy work, fund raising, intellectual navel gazing, and best of all, partying.

"They" have been despatched by the father of lies to snatch the Body, to abduct the Bride, and moments before the Bridegroom arrives.

How does this look locally, and in Greek Orthodoxy?
Where once nothing was done for show, everything is done for show.
Where once our faith was not for sale, cheap grace now is for sale.
Where once we gathered to feed on the Word of Life, we are now penned to feed the vainglory of a speed-speaking talk show host.
Once a people partaking as one Body of the resurrection of Christ, now simply stage extras and a captive audience watching a New Age drama.

I take back what I said before. Maybe it IS something out of a science fiction movie… or maybe all a bad dream.

I used to dream of waking up in church, as a little boy.
Everything as it must be,
at home with Jesus.