You know why I’m mad distressed about these conservative Orthobros?

I think often of the Parable of the 10 Virgins. All had invitations, knew the Master. All were paragons of idealized virtue, and despite having “nothing wrong with them,” five were told:

“I do not know you,” and the doors were shut on them.

The Orthobros who spend their lives (!!!) saying, “People who have abortions are going to hell” and “Communism and the Democratic Party are anti-Christian” and “Gay people are disgusting”...

And who spend their Sundays in Church and have God’s Name on their lips in every other tweet will be the same to imagine their “idealized purity” of the holy chanter who reads St. Augustine and goes to Bible will automatically be with God.

And it’s a sad fact of life that these same churchgoers who are aggressive and violent about their faith, posting quotes from Church Elders, but not caring for the widow or the orphan, will be invited and then be told, “I do not know you.”

It’s a harsh reality that there will be many who imagined that they were inseparable from God because they read and quoted, but in reality, they never met Him and walked beside Him while they breathed on earth.

The very people you ridicule for abortions are Christ; the very people you tell to get a job are Christ; the very people who are in prison for possession are Christ; the very people you mock and jeer as undocumented are Christ.

And what a sad day that instead of bowing before Christ and serving Him, you spent your life posting quotes and bowing before an icon every Sunday and chatting with Abouna and feeling you are the paragon of Christianity when the oppressed are.

I really want Orthobros to really consider themselves, their words, their actions. Is Christ really side by side with you? Have you met Him? Have you looked into His eyes and smiled back? Have you felt His love?

Or just your own self-righteousness?

Will you be told, “Dear servant, come into the arms of your Lord,” and know immediately the smile of someone on earth? Or will you be told, after all, “I do not know,” and watch the doors close?

Will your theological arguments and harassment of community members and rebuking of sinners get you to hear those words we yearn for: “Come into the rest of your Father”?

Or will you just remain blind?