Orthodoxy’s Wandering Evangelists

Anyone engaging with Christian content online will have noticed an interesting discursive trend following the pandemic: the increasing visibility of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Figures including David Bentley Hart, Kallistos Ware, and Rod Dreher have maintained the tradition’s presence in the public square for years, but in recent memory “online Orthodoxy” has exploded in popularity, inundating the discourse with the faith’s rich history, iconography, and theology, often presented as a traditional alternative to perceived liberalism in the modern Protestant and Catholic churches.

Although this is an interesting, and to an extent exciting development, it is also cause for concern, namely because many of Orthodoxy’s most virulent internet evangelists are not Orthodox Christians in good standing with the Church. The quest to rediscover ancient Christianity has not only led some of Orthodoxy’s most vocal advocates outside of the Church, but also outside some of its most central beliefs.

The enduring presence of these rogue evangelists serves as a cautionary tale for proponents of traditional Christianity not to sacrifice Christianity in favor of tradition for tradition’s sake.

Perhaps the most identifiable figure in the sort of conservative, militant, and anti-modernist Orthodoxy that has taken the internet by storm is Father Peter Heers. Heers’ name may not be well known, but his projects have made up much of Orthodoxy’s public face in recent memory. He is the founder of Uncut Mountain Press, whose publications are often touted as premier Orthodox Christian texts, and his short-form outlet, Orthodox Ethos, is regularly cited as a canonical Orthodox news source. Furthermore, Heers has been consulted by Crisis magazine, Infowars, and a series of smaller outlets as an expert on the Orthodox perspective.

Despite his popularity and position as Orthodox spokesman, Heers is not claimed by any of the dozen Orthodox jurisdictions operating in the United States as one of their own. Further, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, a consultative body encompassing Orthodox Christians across America, have noted that Heers’ ministry is firmly “outside of the Canons,” that is, outside of the Church. Heers’ teaching has also been accused by many of heterodoxy. His insistence on the rebaptism of Catholic and Protestant converts has proven a significant wedge issue, placing Heers on the opposite side of not only the Church but some of her most widely renowned saints of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Stepping even further from the structure and doctrine of the Church is an internet influencer styling himself as “Brother” Nathanael Kapner, who purports to be an Orthodox monastic and street evangelist in the Russian tradition. Aside from being something of a local fascination in Boise, Idaho where his street ministry is based, Kapner has achieved significant clout with his short-form video content, which regularly scores over 100,000 views on Tiktok and Instagram.

Kapner has also made a splash online for being one of the most vocally antisemitic voices orbiting Orthodoxy online. Kapner’s blog, Real Jew News, claims its mission as to “warn how Jewry is destroying Christianity throughout the world.” Kapner’s website has also repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories about the veracity of the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, and a variety of other topics reflecting Kapner’s monomaniacal hatred of the Jewish people.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), which Kapner claims to be affiliated with, has harshly condemned him and his public statements. The ROCOR Synod of Bishops statement, issued in 2013, writes that “profoundly saddened by the state of his soul, we call upon Nathanael (Kapner) to refrain from posting on the Internet, to a life of repentance of peace in Christ.” Although a far more radical departure from the teaching of the Church than Heers, Kapner represents the same phenomenon of those firmly outside of the Orthodox Church claiming to speak for it and its doctrine.

The phenomenon of an unorthodox online Orthodoxy is not restricted to the United States. Based in Australia, Mar Mari Emmanuel is a bishop formerly associated with the Ancient Church of the East, a denomination derived from the historic Church of the East, which broke from Chalcedonian Christianity after the Council of Ephesus in 431. This Ancient Church of the East defrocked Emmanuel in 2015 over doctrinal and disciplinary matters, after which he promptly founded his own congregation, Christ the Good Shepherd Church.

In focusing his ministry on appealing to spiritually confused young people, Emmanuel has become known as the “TikTok Bishop,” amassing a large following on the platform and similar online spaces. Emmanuel’s ministry has also been controversial for his harsh rebuke of the LGBT movement, the coronavirus vaccine, and President Biden. Although Emmanuel’s Church of the East patrimony is well known, the comments of his videos are teeming with Protestant, Catholic, and especially Orthodox Christians praising the prelate as one of their own. Emmanuel has historically utilized this image to boost his status as an internet guru, his church often being styled as “Assyrian Orthodox,” a very unusual term for Churches of the East to use, but one that endears him to his Oriental and Eastern Orthodox audience.

Regardless of how he prefers to be described, Emmanuel is, and always has been, squarely outside of the Orthodox Church.  

The consistent presence of figures on the fringes of Orthodoxy evangelizing on behalf of the faith is not only a disquieting trend in Orthodox circles but has implications for Christians across denominational identities. The pursuit of authentic “traditional Christianity,” although noble, when pursued imprudently, leads out of the church and into heterodoxy.

To conservative members of other denominations, let these wild years of American online Orthodoxy serve as a lesson. Let no amount of aesthetically pleasing liturgical garb, appeals to the mystical past, and certainly no number of social media followers deter from the fundamental mission of Christianity, that is, to preach Christ crucified and to do so in community, a community steeped in living tradition, not internet charades.