thodox) Romania and Bulgaria shouldrnnever be allowed in—and Greece shouldrnbe ejected!rnhem: The Sunday magazine of a leadingrnnational newspaper depicts, in appropriaterniconographic style, with thernKremlin looming in the background,rna mounted Saint George as a black-shirtedrnmember of the extremist Pamyatrn(“Memory”) organization.rnReviewing American media coveragernof a series of ethnic conflicts in EasternrnEurope—Ukrainian Uniates vs. UkrainianrnOrthodox, Hungarians vs. Romaniansrnin Transylvania, Croats and Albanians vs.rnSerbs in the former Yugoslavia, BulgarianrnTurks vs. Bulgarian Bulgarians—St.rnSophia Quarterly editor Fr. AlexanderrnWebster, author of The Price of Prophecy:rnOrthodox Churches on Peace, Freedom,rnand Security, observed in a 1990 WashingtonrnPost op-ed that historical complexitiesrnare invariably reduced to identificationrnof “oppressor and victims,” withrnthe Orthodox contenders predictablyrnwearing the black hats. The messagernis clear: the Orthodox East is the homernof troublemakers. “They” (Americansrnare told) are evidently not like “us”—andrnthe difference is not for the better.rnThere is an odd consistency to slanted,rnsnidely anti-Orthodox, Western observationsrnof Eastern European phenomena.rnFirst, one seldom if ever sees overt, explicitrncondemnation of Orthodoxy as arnreligion or of Orthodox national culturesrnas such. (But there are those who comernawfully close. Christopher Hitchens inrnthe Nation has made it his specialty tornpepper his commentaries with gratuitousrnslaps at the “Serbian fundamentalistrnOrthodox”—whatever that means—rnand the presumed victimization ofrnMuslim Chechens and Bosnians by “arnsort of neo-czarist and Christian Orthodoxrnimperium.”) Generally, though,rnthere is the use of images (the viciousrnbears, the Pamyat Saint George, thernubiquitous editorial cartoon villain labeledrn”the Serbs”) that drive home thernnotion that “the Orthodox are bad.” Orrna mood is woven with seductively vaguernlanguage: Romanian culture, wroternRobert D. Kaplan, author of BalkanrnGhosts, in 1993, is “a blend of Latin sexualityrnand flair, Eastern Orthodox mysticismrnand superstition, and Byzantine intrigue.”rnNow, he doesn’t actually claimrnthat “mysticism” and “superstition” arernmore or less the same thing, both equallyrn”Orthodox.” Nor does he come outrnand say Romanians are lecherous, irrational,rnand deceptive, but his reader willrnhardly miss the point. Or the broadcastrnmedia routinelv and pointedly (one hasrnto assume this is deliberate) matchrnfootage of Bosnian Serb officials attendingrnchurch, crossing themselves, exchangingrna threefold kiss, in the companyrnof what to Western eyes must look likernoutlandish, if not threatening, hirsuternfigures wearing garish clerical robes—rnwhile the voice-over recounts the atrocitiesrnthe officials are accused of havingrncommitted.rnSecond, it doesn’t seem to matterrnwhether the Western observer is Protestant,rnRoman Catholic, or Jewish (orrnmost likely, not religious at all, thoughrnsome might identify with one creed orrnanother). The sense of the Western “us”rnversus the Eastern “them” is identical.rnLikewise, the specific religious identityrnof the presumptive victimized populationrnjuxtaposed to that of the supposedrnOrthodox oppressor likewise seems tornmake little difference. Whether thernconflict is with Roman Catholics or withrnMuslims, the Orthodox are in the wrong.rnThird, to the extent that the historicalrndimensions of current conflicts are notedrnat all, any past sins committed againstrnthe Orthodox are well past the moralrnstatute of limitations. The annexation ofrnthe Ukrainian Uniates by the RussianrnOrthodox Church “counts,” but thern”Union” of Brest doesn’t. The last tworncenturies of Polish subjugation by Russiarnis a moral reflection on the latter, but therntwo centuries before that, when the shoernwas on the other foot, are irrelevant. Romanianrndiscrimination against TransylvanianrnMagyars (betvvcen the wodd warsrnand since 1945) is a disgrace, but Hungarianrntreatment of Romanians underrnl:he Habsburgs and the Arrow Cross isrnforgotten. Serbia’s repression of the AlbanianrnMuslim majority in Kosovo sincern1989 is roundly condemned, but the violentrnmeans employed by the Albaniansrnunder Turks, Nazis, and communistsrnalike to become the majority are overlooked.rnThe “international community”rnfairiy cheered when the renascent fascistrnregime of Franjo Tudjman in Croatia,rnwith American and German assistance,rnblasted their way past U.N. peacekeepersrnand depopulated the Serb Krajinas in thernsummer of 1995. But of course the Serbsrn”had it coming” for having had therntemerity to take control of the Krajinas inrnthe summer of 1991, on the flimsyrngrounds of being the majority populationrnin the disputed areas. Convenientlyrnomitted from news coverage was anyrnmention of the horrendous slaughtersrnperpetrated against the same Krajinarn(and Bosnian) Serbs during World WarrnII, or even the reminiscent expulsions ofrntens of thousands of Serbs from Croatiarnin the spring of 1991 even before Croatiarndeclared its independence.rnFourth and finally, the Orthodox canrnbe defamed with impunity. Call usrnnames, mock our icons, ridicule our clergy,rndemand we be bombed, applaud ourrneradication—it’s all in good fun. Nornjournalist or camera-jockey fears a lawsuitrnfrom an Orthodox Christian versionrnof the Anti-Defamation League, muchrnless a fatwa of the type placed on SalmanrnRushdie. Even a letter of protest to therneditor of the offending publication isrnunlikely to be published. We are a softrntarget.rnTo what do we attribute this phenomenon?rnFor that matter, is it a singlernphenomenon—more than just a combinedrnSerbophobia, Russophobia, Hellenophobia,rnetc.? We might simply callrnit Pravoslavophobia, thus pinpointingrnthe Orthodox religion, with its distinctiverncultural stamp.rnIn his aforementioned WashingtonrnPost essay, Fr. Alexander suggested thernseeming anti-Orthodox slant in mediarncoverage “is due largely to an affinity ofrnreporters and pundits for ‘Western’ culture,rnmeaning Western [i.e., Protestantrnand Roman Catholic—or even post-rnChristian] Europe and often only NorthwesternrnEurope. These cultural blindersrnpreclude recognition of the full rangernof Western civilization, which includesrnByzantine political and religious culturerntoo.”rnUndoubtedly, that factor—an affinityrnfor one’s own Western experience coupledrnwith ignorance of the separate culturalrndevelopment of Orthodox EasternrnEurope—is important. But there seemsrnto be more to it than that. To start with,rnmany of the Westerners who denigraternthe Orthodox have not even the slightestrnidea who we are or what makes us differentrnfrom the West. Even a semi-educatedrnWesterner (and probably most OrthodoxrnEasterners) could take a stab atrnexplaining, say, Roman Catholicism asrnhaving something to do with the Pope ofrnRome and Protestantism as a Biblebasedrnprotest against papalism. Butrnwhen they come to Orthodoxy, theyrndraw a blank. They can’t really hate us,rnbecause they don’t even have any clearrnidea who we are. In fact, most seriousrn44/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn