Orthodox Christian Churches are Drawing in Far-right American Converts: NPR

A recent report from NPR explored the expansion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) and that a tradition that was primarily a religion brought to the United States by immigrants and had few domestic converts. The rise in converts to Russian Orthodoxy was fueled by people leaving other denominations over concerns about the changing cultural landscape. In ROCOR, they found a church that was resistant to that change, especially on issues relating to sexuality and Transgender people. The article also highlights research that found that among these converts, there are "strong strains of nativism, white nationalism and pro-authoritarianism, evidenced by strong admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin."

This expansion of ROCOR is interesting because this shows another example of the ways white nationalism gets bound up within religion, where it becomes a sacred duty to carry out white nationalist imaginations. Another angle in this is how this highlights a part of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia - that there is a white nationalist agenda fueling this conflict and that ROCOR is an aspect of that domestically.

The article ends with a quote from Aram Sarkisian, a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Northwestern University's Department of History: "'It is definitely an arm of soft diplomacy, and ROCOR is a really important part of that,' Sarkisian said. 'Putin is really interested in the church for its purposes for amplifying a particular aspect of Russian history politically, religiously, culturally.'"