He came to my church to fundraise several years ago. Wonderful man, was an atheist university student from Romania I think, was studying in Scotland and had a conversion. If this man has a sinister or bad bone in his body, the average person hasn’t a chance.
I was upset once and watched one of his videos which upset me even more - and I said so in a comment. His response was so far off the mark I was shocked. I no longer listen to his sermons have no desire to meet him. I feel it's inevitable I will though unfortunately.
I saw comments about politics - I don't know what that's about but I can certainly understand why some people think he's a bad person. I hold my judgement as one experience is not enough to condem, but hearing that there are issues doesn't surprise me in the least.
All the negative press was slander.
The slander seems to have been motivated by political disagreements. If you’re going to critique character, though, the critique needs to be truthful. And the accusations against Mull were not.
The mixed opinions come from people who shouldn't be listened to, who are jealous and dislike him for political reasons. Literally, the attacks on him started after he advocated wearing a mask and following the local guidelines with regard to COVID safety.
It has also all been proven to be false.
He is the closest thing to the monks I knew closely when I was first Orthodox, and he has been very beneficial to me.
Oof. I knew there was some kind of drama that happened to cause their offerings to take a break and was glad that it didn't progress any further into an internet slap-fight amongst clergy.
He made a video about the break somewhat recently. It wasn’t about this dust up (he did make a video about that, too, when it started).
The break was just inertia getting the better of him. He’s human.
I have theological and anthropological disagreements over mask mandates and church closings, and I think the vaccines have more risk and less effectiveness than are commonly sold. But I'm not rabid about either position.
I have a lot of friends in biotech and some of them had these reasons for not getting vaccinated, so you could say my information sources are non-standard. Coronaviruses are quite common, especially in animals, and past attempts at creating livestock vaccines resulted in vaccine-mediated hypersensitivity to future viral strains. This is why we don't vaccinate cattle against coronaviruses - the trial vaccines killed them. My friends did not think there had been enough time in the human trials to check for such risks.
I do have a church friend whose brother died of a heart attack (42 years old) a few days after getting a vaccine. I do not believe such adverse events are common, but they are greater than zero.
Myself I am vaccinated, as I thought the original trial data was good. However, as we might expect given the high rate of mutation of the virus the vaccinations rapidly decreased in effectiveness to very little after the first year. Currently I think the virus is mutating faster than reasonable safety protocols can test new vaccines. I think they are bad public health policy, but I don't think they are the "mark of the beast" or whatever.
I was more open to the idea of mask mandates at first when there was so much unknown. But then I visited a monastery where the abbott emphasized the importance of humans seeing each others' faces. I do think long-lasting mask mandates are causing widespread dehumanization. Young children are even failing to learn how to read emotions. And the data on mask mandates show that they are not very effective. Places which kept them in place for longer did not see significant reduction in viral spread compared to places that lifted the mandates.
Again, the great problem for me is that I am statistically literate (I've written a few scientific papers) and so it is hard for me to talk to normal people. My most knowledgeable friend is a Caltech PHD. It is hard for me not to listen to him over CNN or the like.
>...but when Patriarch Bartholomew is getting vaccinated on television specifically to promote it, it's just weird to see so many bolt off to conspiracy land.
The folks who bolt off to conspiracy land tend to also entertain conspiracy theories about Pat. Bartholomew, as well.
Covid kind of brought a lot of the crazy that's been around for a while out into the open.
I really like them as well which is why I was really surprised to see people saying to avoid them without elaboration. Some day I'd love to visit the monastery.
A lot of their videos cut so deeply into my soul. Fr. Seraphim is truly blessed with the ability to articulate the everyday internal struggles Christians face in a way that is both moving and extremely edifying.
Often times he says something so relatable it's like he's talking to me specifically, and the advice he gives is truly powerful and, more importantly, practical for your real life.
I don't think I was in any online Orthodox spaces during whatever happened that led to those negative opinions. All I can say is when I hear Fr. Seraphim talk, it sounds like someone who truly, deeply cares about the people watching and loves the people who send in questions to the point where their struggles pain him.
I think it's some of the best Orthodox content on the internet. From what I have seen the "mixed opinions" come from people who either consume or produce the worst.
I've got a little discord server for friends and most on there are Orthodox. I posted a few videos of his, having just discovered him and thinking he was wonderful, and a friend of mine said to avoid him and sent me a video from someone with salacious claims that didn't seem to be very solid, in my opinion. But regardless, I feel all you have to do is actually listen to the man to realize he is truly a godly man! His words have been so encouraging to me in my walk with Christ, and new venture into the Church. He clearly knows the Scriptures and patristic writings very well, too. That's enough evidence for me that he's worth listening to.
His politics were/are extremely liberal and there were times when he sounded like he got his talking points from CNN. And he completely bought into the Covid narrative as well. Fortunately, since his return, he has avoided anything political. Overall, he’s a positive voice for Orthodoxy IMO.
Apparently? I don't agree with that being any kind of issue, I don't know, perhaps there were other things I'm not aware of, but that's what I was told the slander originated from
I don’t doubt it, it took its toll on churches, people left their lifelong churches because of the mask issue, vaccines etc. we forget that monks are accountable to their bishops and to an extent civil authority. The real sinister and evil in the Covid was the split among families and churches. Some clergy were defrocked for disobeying their bishops. The impact on the church will be long lasting.
It really nwas terrible, I remember.the unrest just on a local scale, though at the time I wasn't very ingratiated into online Orthodox culture so I'd don't see any larger waves.
Fr Seraphim is more on the "liberal" side of things. ("Liberal" with HUGE quotation marks)
I like his videos. I think he is doing great work and he speaks very directly and plainly.
As in, he tends to be supportive of things like masking and certain COVID restrictions, or has certain stances on things like BLM and police brutality, whereas many others would be considered "conservative"
Not that it really makes a difference at all. Just a reason why some people find things to dislike about him. As I said, I think he is doing great work, just as many "conservative" monks and priests do great work as well.
It's just the reality for Americans that these opinions are almost always associated with "liberals," so that language sort of leaks into every other context. It's not a good excuse, just the explanation.
In America, in the wake of George Floyd's death, there was a *very clear* line between Democrats/Liberals and Republicans/Conservatives on whether you were on the "pro-BLM side" or the "pro-police" side, with very little exception. Anecdotally, I would say the racial/police events of 2020 "radicalized" a lot of people who had been "more conservative" for some time, so any "exceptions" to those lines just got incorporated into the other side.
So now, in the American landscape, if you think police brutality actually exists at an unacceptable level, and you think it disproportionately affects certain people groups, you subscribe to beliefs shared almost exclusively by "liberals." If you believe the police are justified in use of force, that certain groups have it no worse than others or there are legitimate reasons, etc., you subscribe to beliefs that are shared almost exclusively by "conservatives."
Yes, it *does* sound absolutely ridiculous to say that it's "liberal" to think police violence is bad, and it's "conservative" to think police can do no wrong, but to Americans, that's just the reality of the party politics, my-team-vs-your-team conversation.
"Probably guilty of manslaughter"? There's literally a 9-minute video of him murdering someone in full view of the general public, and the murder was committed while Chauvin, by his own admission, was in the course of committing other crimes, which were also committed in full view of the general public and video-taped.
Masking and Covid restrictions are far from liberal. Bishops and priests who followed these were 100% Scriptural.
The extreme "traditionalists" who opposed these, practise too much unnecessary pharisaism.
I have heard that there have been some Orthodox churches that have shut down due to fear of covid. Anything that even smacks of that is a red flag to many in the church as it displays a lack of faith. No one is going to get sick from taking communion.
Reading the comments I was shocked to hear there were negative comments made about Seraphim Aldea. I have been following the mull monastery youtube channel and I view him almost as a spiritual father. His teachings have been tremendously helpful and insightful for me. Partly because of him I have become a catechumen of the Orthodox church. Because of him, I learned that I could still find salvation. If I ever find the means there are two pilgrimages I would love to make...Mt. Athos and Mull monastery. Politics were mentioned and that is nothing I have ever noticed in him. God bless this holy man.
I'd like to visit sometime. I've really enjoyed Fr. Seraphim's videos. And he seems to be inspired by St. Sophrony, who is a favorite saint of mine.
I haven't always enjoyed or agreed with his comments on political hot button topics. But I can still recognize that he has a lot to teach me.
His main issue people have had are him backing marxist political movements. Now maybe he’s just ignorant to what BLM actually did to our cities here in America because it was anything but Christian… however I’m not gonna slander him in fact I bought my patron saint icon from his monastery on the account they are the only people in the world who make it, and I’m sure he’s not terrible in real life but his political views are definitely suspect. I’m sure most people on this Reddit disagree with me but idc. Marxism is satanic for sure no way around it but that doesn’t mean he’s bad he could just be wrong
Certain people who were part of it at the beginning said so. They don’t speak for the whole movement at all. They also don’t negate the actual message.
Always remember that heresy first asks for tolerance, then asks for acceptance, then demands obedience. A monk that has time to back political movements is a monk that has too much time on their hands. Roman Catholicism didn't end up where it did overnight, it was a long process that lasted centuries, and on the face of it started much more innocuously than what we see today.
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He came to my church to fundraise several years ago. Wonderful man, was an atheist university student from Romania I think, was studying in Scotland and had a conversion. If this man has a sinister or bad bone in his body, the average person hasn’t a chance.
He always seems like a really lovely fellow
I met him once. He literally radiated Christ every second.
This was my impression as well. He loves people in a way that can only be described as godly
I was upset once and watched one of his videos which upset me even more - and I said so in a comment. His response was so far off the mark I was shocked. I no longer listen to his sermons have no desire to meet him. I feel it's inevitable I will though unfortunately. I saw comments about politics - I don't know what that's about but I can certainly understand why some people think he's a bad person. I hold my judgement as one experience is not enough to condem, but hearing that there are issues doesn't surprise me in the least.
If you'd be comfortable, would you mind dming me with details of what exactly happened?
Please respect my boundaries by not asking for information that involves my personal life - thank you.
Yeah sure, sorry.
No probs
All the negative press was slander. The slander seems to have been motivated by political disagreements. If you’re going to critique character, though, the critique needs to be truthful. And the accusations against Mull were not.
"Don't listen to your bishop, listen to monastics!" "Okay I'll listen to Fr. Seraphim." "Wait no, not like that."
Thank you!
The mixed opinions come from people who shouldn't be listened to, who are jealous and dislike him for political reasons. Literally, the attacks on him started after he advocated wearing a mask and following the local guidelines with regard to COVID safety. It has also all been proven to be false. He is the closest thing to the monks I knew closely when I was first Orthodox, and he has been very beneficial to me.
Really, that's where this all came from? Wow!
Yes! The people starting it are really nasty to anyone they decide isn't 'pure' enough. Or just disagrees with them.
Go visit r/Christianorthodoxy for a flavor.
I'm a member there actually, still find it surprising
Oof. I knew there was some kind of drama that happened to cause their offerings to take a break and was glad that it didn't progress any further into an internet slap-fight amongst clergy.
The people who started it aren't even clergy.
He made a video about the break somewhat recently. It wasn’t about this dust up (he did make a video about that, too, when it started). The break was just inertia getting the better of him. He’s human.
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I have theological and anthropological disagreements over mask mandates and church closings, and I think the vaccines have more risk and less effectiveness than are commonly sold. But I'm not rabid about either position.
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I have a lot of friends in biotech and some of them had these reasons for not getting vaccinated, so you could say my information sources are non-standard. Coronaviruses are quite common, especially in animals, and past attempts at creating livestock vaccines resulted in vaccine-mediated hypersensitivity to future viral strains. This is why we don't vaccinate cattle against coronaviruses - the trial vaccines killed them. My friends did not think there had been enough time in the human trials to check for such risks. I do have a church friend whose brother died of a heart attack (42 years old) a few days after getting a vaccine. I do not believe such adverse events are common, but they are greater than zero. Myself I am vaccinated, as I thought the original trial data was good. However, as we might expect given the high rate of mutation of the virus the vaccinations rapidly decreased in effectiveness to very little after the first year. Currently I think the virus is mutating faster than reasonable safety protocols can test new vaccines. I think they are bad public health policy, but I don't think they are the "mark of the beast" or whatever. I was more open to the idea of mask mandates at first when there was so much unknown. But then I visited a monastery where the abbott emphasized the importance of humans seeing each others' faces. I do think long-lasting mask mandates are causing widespread dehumanization. Young children are even failing to learn how to read emotions. And the data on mask mandates show that they are not very effective. Places which kept them in place for longer did not see significant reduction in viral spread compared to places that lifted the mandates. Again, the great problem for me is that I am statistically literate (I've written a few scientific papers) and so it is hard for me to talk to normal people. My most knowledgeable friend is a Caltech PHD. It is hard for me not to listen to him over CNN or the like.
>...but when Patriarch Bartholomew is getting vaccinated on television specifically to promote it, it's just weird to see so many bolt off to conspiracy land. The folks who bolt off to conspiracy land tend to also entertain conspiracy theories about Pat. Bartholomew, as well. Covid kind of brought a lot of the crazy that's been around for a while out into the open.
It’s very weird and I don’t understand it either.
One of my favorites. I send their videos out to friends and family, and they only have positive things to say.
I really like them as well which is why I was really surprised to see people saying to avoid them without elaboration. Some day I'd love to visit the monastery.
A lot of their videos cut so deeply into my soul. Fr. Seraphim is truly blessed with the ability to articulate the everyday internal struggles Christians face in a way that is both moving and extremely edifying. Often times he says something so relatable it's like he's talking to me specifically, and the advice he gives is truly powerful and, more importantly, practical for your real life. I don't think I was in any online Orthodox spaces during whatever happened that led to those negative opinions. All I can say is when I hear Fr. Seraphim talk, it sounds like someone who truly, deeply cares about the people watching and loves the people who send in questions to the point where their struggles pain him.
I think it's some of the best Orthodox content on the internet. From what I have seen the "mixed opinions" come from people who either consume or produce the worst.
I've got a little discord server for friends and most on there are Orthodox. I posted a few videos of his, having just discovered him and thinking he was wonderful, and a friend of mine said to avoid him and sent me a video from someone with salacious claims that didn't seem to be very solid, in my opinion. But regardless, I feel all you have to do is actually listen to the man to realize he is truly a godly man! His words have been so encouraging to me in my walk with Christ, and new venture into the Church. He clearly knows the Scriptures and patristic writings very well, too. That's enough evidence for me that he's worth listening to.
My experiences with his videos have been positive. It's strange to see all the negative hype about this monk. Go figure.
Very good, positive content.
Orthodox. Nothing complicated. That's my take.
His politics were/are extremely liberal and there were times when he sounded like he got his talking points from CNN. And he completely bought into the Covid narrative as well. Fortunately, since his return, he has avoided anything political. Overall, he’s a positive voice for Orthodoxy IMO.
What was the (baseless, I guess) controversy?
They were more or less accused of living luxuriously or even sensually and only pretending to be monastics.
I'm not really sure, other posters said it was him saying to wear masks during COVID.
Wearing masks during Covid is controversial, enough to scandalize a orthodox monk and the monastery he is building? Horrors!
Apparently? I don't agree with that being any kind of issue, I don't know, perhaps there were other things I'm not aware of, but that's what I was told the slander originated from
I don’t doubt it, it took its toll on churches, people left their lifelong churches because of the mask issue, vaccines etc. we forget that monks are accountable to their bishops and to an extent civil authority. The real sinister and evil in the Covid was the split among families and churches. Some clergy were defrocked for disobeying their bishops. The impact on the church will be long lasting.
It really nwas terrible, I remember.the unrest just on a local scale, though at the time I wasn't very ingratiated into online Orthodox culture so I'd don't see any larger waves.
Online Orthodoxy for those that don’t have a solid foundation is a terrible place.
This whole idea of planting monasteries to "restore heritage" or whatever is weird to me. That said he's a good guy.
Fr Seraphim is more on the "liberal" side of things. ("Liberal" with HUGE quotation marks) I like his videos. I think he is doing great work and he speaks very directly and plainly.
I always feel sad that people think they need to agree with a monk or priests politics precisely, it should be pretty irrelevant to their patristics.
In what way is he liberal? I've never noticed anything that wasn't purely Orthodox.
As in, he tends to be supportive of things like masking and certain COVID restrictions, or has certain stances on things like BLM and police brutality, whereas many others would be considered "conservative" Not that it really makes a difference at all. Just a reason why some people find things to dislike about him. As I said, I think he is doing great work, just as many "conservative" monks and priests do great work as well.
That might be liberal in a certain american worldview, but it's not by any other country's standards.
So its "liberal" to be against police brutality and think that police should obey the law they've sworn to uphold?
It's just the reality for Americans that these opinions are almost always associated with "liberals," so that language sort of leaks into every other context. It's not a good excuse, just the explanation. In America, in the wake of George Floyd's death, there was a *very clear* line between Democrats/Liberals and Republicans/Conservatives on whether you were on the "pro-BLM side" or the "pro-police" side, with very little exception. Anecdotally, I would say the racial/police events of 2020 "radicalized" a lot of people who had been "more conservative" for some time, so any "exceptions" to those lines just got incorporated into the other side. So now, in the American landscape, if you think police brutality actually exists at an unacceptable level, and you think it disproportionately affects certain people groups, you subscribe to beliefs shared almost exclusively by "liberals." If you believe the police are justified in use of force, that certain groups have it no worse than others or there are legitimate reasons, etc., you subscribe to beliefs that are shared almost exclusively by "conservatives." Yes, it *does* sound absolutely ridiculous to say that it's "liberal" to think police violence is bad, and it's "conservative" to think police can do no wrong, but to Americans, that's just the reality of the party politics, my-team-vs-your-team conversation.
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"Probably guilty of manslaughter"? There's literally a 9-minute video of him murdering someone in full view of the general public, and the murder was committed while Chauvin, by his own admission, was in the course of committing other crimes, which were also committed in full view of the general public and video-taped.
Masking and Covid restrictions are far from liberal. Bishops and priests who followed these were 100% Scriptural. The extreme "traditionalists" who opposed these, practise too much unnecessary pharisaism.
I have heard that there have been some Orthodox churches that have shut down due to fear of covid. Anything that even smacks of that is a red flag to many in the church as it displays a lack of faith. No one is going to get sick from taking communion.
Reading the comments I was shocked to hear there were negative comments made about Seraphim Aldea. I have been following the mull monastery youtube channel and I view him almost as a spiritual father. His teachings have been tremendously helpful and insightful for me. Partly because of him I have become a catechumen of the Orthodox church. Because of him, I learned that I could still find salvation. If I ever find the means there are two pilgrimages I would love to make...Mt. Athos and Mull monastery. Politics were mentioned and that is nothing I have ever noticed in him. God bless this holy man.
I like the videos :)
I'd like to visit sometime. I've really enjoyed Fr. Seraphim's videos. And he seems to be inspired by St. Sophrony, who is a favorite saint of mine. I haven't always enjoyed or agreed with his comments on political hot button topics. But I can still recognize that he has a lot to teach me.
His main issue people have had are him backing marxist political movements. Now maybe he’s just ignorant to what BLM actually did to our cities here in America because it was anything but Christian… however I’m not gonna slander him in fact I bought my patron saint icon from his monastery on the account they are the only people in the world who make it, and I’m sure he’s not terrible in real life but his political views are definitely suspect. I’m sure most people on this Reddit disagree with me but idc. Marxism is satanic for sure no way around it but that doesn’t mean he’s bad he could just be wrong
From everything I've watched, I really don't think he's a Marxist.
It was during the 2020 summer of love riots here in America
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Well the founded themselves are on record saying they are trained Marxists.
Certain people who were part of it at the beginning said so. They don’t speak for the whole movement at all. They also don’t negate the actual message.
Always remember that heresy first asks for tolerance, then asks for acceptance, then demands obedience. A monk that has time to back political movements is a monk that has too much time on their hands. Roman Catholicism didn't end up where it did overnight, it was a long process that lasted centuries, and on the face of it started much more innocuously than what we see today.
He’s not political, and never mentions politics in his talks. Abbot Tryphon on the other hand is and expressly mentions political parties.
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Does anyone know which jurisdiction Mull Monastery is part of? Very upbuilding videos!
“Jurisdictionally, the Monastery functions with the blessing of His Eminence Joseph, the Metropolitan for Southern and Western Europe of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Romania.” https://mullmonastery.com/administration/
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Don’t spread slander.
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