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christianity misogyny rape rape culture

Retired Greek Orthodox bishop: “A woman does not get raped without wanting it”

The Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Dodoni has a big mouth

A prominent retired bishop in the Greek Orthodox church — known honorifically as the Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Dodoni — has caused a bit of a stir with some bizarre comments about rape.

In an interview with Skai TV, the ex-bishop mused about rape, declaring that there can’t be rape without consent. “A woman does not sit and get raped without wanting it,” he told the interviewers, who apparently tried to explain to him how exactly rape works.

The ex-bishop also declared that women can’t conceive as a result of rape, so there is no need to make abortion legal in the case of rape. Oh, and no one should use contraceptives, because the whole point of sex is to make babies.

The ex-bishop’s remarks were quickly condemned by politicians and Greek Orthodox church officials, with the Holy Synod, the church’s ruling body, saying that his comments on rape were “unacceptable for an Orthodox cleric and offensive for human beings and especially for women and victims of rape.”

I wonder what Roosh, who is some sort of Orthodox Christian and who once proposed that rape be made legal on private property — would think about all this.

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D.R
D.R
2 years ago

I was Greek Orthodox until a few months ago.

This is evil.

Crip Dyke
Crip Dyke
2 years ago

Kiwi Farms apparently just went down b/c CloudFlare hosting was getting tired of dealing with complaints about them.

Maybe an interesting follow up for David?

TacticalProgressive
TacticalProgressive
2 years ago

@Crip Dyke

Finally, bout time that the Kiwi Farms ilk got yeeted into the trash where they belong and are getting at least some cummupance for their cyber-criminal atrocities.

It wont ever erase they pain the caused people, the lives they runied and destroyed. And the people who died, sent into graves because of the ceaseless and malevolent torment those barrels of boiler sludge were responsible for…

But I can take solace of the fact that their Karma-Houdini warranty has finally run out and everyone finally decided to unite and rally to ensure these garbage people’s feet were held to the fire

It may not be enough in my opinion; but at least it’s a start

Last edited 2 years ago by TacticalProgressive
Makroth
Makroth
2 years ago

And now KF is using DDOSguard.

Gerald Fnord
Gerald Fnord
2 years ago

Roosh would probably say the hierarchy had been infiltrated by the wrong sort—maybe he’d blame it on the married priests’ being ‘whipped’.

jy3
jy3
2 years ago

Is there an Orthodox equivalent to sedevacantism?

Elaine The Witch
Elaine The Witch
2 years ago

Well now I’m upset

.45
.45
2 years ago

I wonder what his views are about male rape. If someone were to rape him, would he have to concede he wanted it?

Chris Oakley
Chris Oakley
2 years ago

@David:

“A bit of a stir”? That’s like saying the Hindenburg experienced some slight turbulence on its final approach to Lakehurst.

Lumipuna
Lumipuna
2 years ago

Roosh would probably say the hierarchy had been infiltrated by the wrong sort—maybe he’d blame it on the married priests’ being ‘whipped’.

I’ve noted before that Roosh’s Armenian Orthodoxy is an entirely different branch of Christianity compared to eastern Orthodoxy. Besides, the Greek Orthodox Church is just one of the churches within the Eastern Orthodox community (which is currently badly splintered over the Russia-Ukraine conflict).

But ultimately, it boils down to this – that large religious communities are culturally (and usually also doctrinally) diverse. Even in nominally centralized churches, individual members often find it easy to dismiss their leadership view when convenient. Generally, in modern world, conservative cranks across Christendom seem to be putting aside their doctrinal disagreements to unite in a war against modernity.

The bishop himself doesn’t seem very internally consistent, arguing that a) rape is fundamentally like normal sex, with some degree of consent always involved b) rape is somehow different from normal intercourse, and thus cannot result in pregnancy.

sunnysombrera
2 years ago

Is it bad that when I hear such balls-to-the-wall statements like this my first thought is: “How many women has he raped?”

TheKnd
TheKnd
2 years ago

@Gerald Fnord
Roosh doesn’t like priests being whipped? Does flagellation count?

Carstonio
Carstonio
2 years ago

Can’t conceive as a result of rape? I wrongly assumed Todd Akin invented that myth on his own.

Dave
Dave
2 years ago

The can’t conceive as a result of rape myth is something that has been circulating around the Evangelical anti-abortion crowd long, or at least the male leaders of that community, before Todd Akin. The idea is that nothing bad ever happens to good women, so if something did happen, they deserved it. It’s very appealing, because it means you don’t need to take responsibility for your actions, and you don’t need to help people. Those women who are suffering deserve it. I’m sure they also think ectopic pregnancies are the result of promiscuity.

Mediocrites, Longtime Lurker
Mediocrites, Longtime Lurker
2 years ago

@sunnysombrera,
Based on the reaction from the Synod, it sounds like they might be wondering that exact same question, themselves.

A Distracted Medievalist
A Distracted Medievalist
2 years ago

The ‘can’t conceive through rape’ myth is from classical-era biology. The logic is that both partners need to orgasm to release the two ‘seeds’ that meet for conception. Bearing in mind that they couldn’t see what was going on inside, it was a reasonable guess. The upside of the theory is that husbands wanting children have an incentive to give their wives a good time. The many downsides are obvious. But anyway, we’ve known it doesn’t actually work like that for about 200 years now.

Snowberry
Snowberry
2 years ago

Re: Kiwifarms – while Keffals’s swatting and subsequent harassment storm was the one left-wing people were paying attention to, it may not be the straw which broke the camel’s back, resulting in CloudFlare dumping them. They were apparently also starting up a harassment campaign against Marjorie Taylor Greene.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@D.R: Glad you escaped.

@sonnysombrera: I think that’s most normal people’s reaction when they hear something like this. TBF, he might have limited his raping to males. I hope the Synod starts doing some serious detecting, if only for CYA.

@Snowberry: I thought their sort liked MTG?

Snowberry
Snowberry
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob

MTG on Newsmax last Wednesday: “That website needs to be taken down. There should be no business or any kind of service where you can target your enemy. That’s absolutely absurd.”

Full Metal Ox
2 years ago

@Snowberry; @GSS ex-noob:

Cool Girl status is as fragile as cotton candy in a roaring downpour.

Jumpin' Little Guy
Jumpin' Little Guy
2 years ago

@Chris Oakley

He’s being deliberately understated, it’s like the reverse of hyperbole. Why don’t you learn to read?

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@snowberry: Gosh, she says one true and non-heartless thing and wham.

@FMO: Perfect analogy.

Critical Dragon1177
Critical Dragon1177
2 years ago

Wow this guy is disgusting. I hope people leave the church where he is preaching en mass.

Full Metal Ox
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob:

Perfect analogy.

And that cotton candy is catnip and zebra-flavored—guaranteed to be delicious to leopards.

@Critical Dragon 1177:

I hope people leave the church where he is preaching en mass.

http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=rimshot&play=true

Crip Dyke
Crip Dyke
2 years ago

@Jumpin’

First, the opposite of hyperbole is called “litotes”. I agree with your perceptive notation of its existence in David’s writing.

Second, Chris Oakley did not fail to understand that David was using litotes, but rather was sufficiently struck by the actual events / quote upon which David was reporting that Chris Oakley felt inspired to express their own feelings, in this case through hyperbole, or perhaps hyperbole and a half.

We’re a long standing culture here at WHTM and with that comes a trust for others’ perceptions and values. I’ve no doubt where Chris Oakley is, though I can understand that for someone less well conversant in and / or less well fit to WHTM’s idiosyncratic expressions of culture, ethics, and values, it may be hard to decipher any individual’s intent.

On average, however, you’ll do fine to assume that the long timers “get it” and the noobs do not.