Fr. Thomas Marretta (GOC-K) has published on his website a sermon for St. Demetrius’ day entitled “An Account of the Passion of the Holy Great Martyr, and About Our Sacred Duty of Obeying the Civil Authorities”. We have no problem with the general principles expounded in this sermon. But we have serious misgivings about the way in which he appears to be applying these principles. By comparison with the persecutors of pagan Rome, says Fr. Thomas, “most of our contemporary American politicians would seem to be paragons of uprightness. Yet, Saint Demetrius and the other early Christians submitted to the authority of such rulers and obeyed it, except when these men were specifically commanding something that indubitably contravened incontrovertible principles of faith. This is difficult to comprehend for many modern-day Christians, whose inclinations tend more to suspicions and insubordination, not to say fantastical political theories than to the devout spirit of subordination, cooperation, respect, and obedience. Yet the early Christians were acting precisely in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures here, the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments.”