Clayton McDonald

Orthodox Christian. UVa Alum. Husband. Father.

[Aaron Andrew Hickman @hickman0000]

“America is your cradle and your earthly motherland. It is a wonderful God’s country, and you are expected to be wonderful God’s people in this country. Remember that our greatest contribution to America is of a spiritual and moral nature. And that is precisely what America needs today. That is what every Christian country today needs most of all—in boundless measure. For all nations, especially the Christians nowadays traveling as if in a wilderness of confusion created by senseless materialism and its blind daughter atheism. I offer this to what leading American men and women are saying: ‘The only hope for us and for the world is to return to religion.’ Again I say: ‘Our hope is in the Church.’ You ought to listen to these words, too, and to ponder them. We live in very tragic times, which are made more tragic by easy-going and self-indulgent people who have never read the story of Sodom, of Laish, or of Capernaum.

“If I am correct in my observations, the greatest struggle of America these days is the struggle for the priority and superiority of spiritual and moral values over techniques and technological lordship: in other words, for predominance of the spiritual over the material, of goodness over cleverness. The Serbs often say of a clever man: ‘He is clever as the devil.’ They never say: ‘He is good as the devil.’

“America is constantly sounding the sympathetic watchwords: ‘dignity of man’ and ‘liberty of men and nations.’ But the deepest meaning of these watchwords can be found in the sacred teaching of Him without Whom we can do nothing. That meaning is found most explicitly in the threefold program of our Orthodox Church: spiritual vision, moral discipline, and competition in doing good.

“For the dignity of man—in other words, the superior value of man—has real and eternal meaning only if you know and acknowledge the Kingdom of Heaven as the true fatherland of all men, from which we originated and to which we are returning as children of one common Father, Who is in heaven. And freedom is most useful, joyful, and sacred if you exercise moral discipline over yourself and practice competition in doing good.

“These are the fundamentals upon which you can build your individual and communal happiness. And you have received these fundamentals as a glorious heritage, never to part with. By practicing this spiritual heritage in your daily life, you will become an adornment to America. And through you all Americans will come to know and appreciate our ancient Church of the East and her spiritual heroes, whom we are praising today.”

- St. Nikolai Velimirovich

[Orthodox Christian @orthodox_33ad]

A court hearing has been scheduled with the aim of abolishing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) under Metropolitan Onufriy of Kiev.

According to the lawyer of the UOC, Mykita Chekman:

"On July 2 at 10:00, in the courtroom of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, the hearing will take place in case no. 855/11/25, following a lawsuit filed by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), with the aim of terminating the activities of the Kyiv Metropolis under Onufriy and, by extension, the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the UOC."

If the court upholds the lawsuit, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine will face legal elimination, losing its status as a legal entity, its bank accounts, as well as its legal rights to administer churches and monasteries.

This biased persecution is a blatant violation of the religious freedom of the vast majority of the Ukrainian faithful. Ukraine today is the most characteristic case of violation of believers’ rights in the world. We see attacks against priests in Ukraine, criminal prosecutions against them, as well as seizures of churches. The Ukrainian authorities have unleashed the largest wave of persecution in the country’s modern history against what constitutes the largest religious community in the country.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@CutsfromCorner Hope he trained others under him in our program.

Memphis sorely needs him with all the injuries they had last year. Ty must be happy!

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@UVaHoopsRiffs Looks like he has some legit speed and skills. Nice.

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

If you are not sick, and if you do not suffer, it is not because you are lucky, but because the Lord calls you to participate in the suffering of others. You should be eyes for those who are blind, ears for those who are deaf, and feet for those who cannot walk. You must be an assistant to people with disabilities, those who cannot move themselves, so that the love of Christ is revealed in this ministry.

~St Luke of Simferopol and Crimea

[Orthodoxy Above The Clouds @noetic_healing]

I love the terminology that the Holy Spirit chose for this passage. They did not write “John” but a phrase that applies to every Christian.

If you are a disciple who Jesus loves “behold your mother”

“When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”

[Grok @grok]

**Yes, there's a substantive connection here worth noting.**

The Charlie Kirk Show is syndicated as a podcast (and was on radio) via Salem Media Group / Salem Podcast Network, which maintains its partnership with Turning Point USA post-Kirk's assassination.

Salem Media's Chief Strategy Officer, Brad Parscale, owns and controls Clock Tower X LLC. That entity registered under FARA (#7649) on Sept. 18, 2025—just days after Kirk's death—as a foreign agent for Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The $6M+ contract covers strategic communications, media services, digital campaigns targeting Gen Z (including podcasts/social), and explicitly includes "integrating narrative messaging with Salem Media Network."

So the distributor has direct high-level overlap and active collaboration with a registered Israeli foreign agent. Not "the show itself is the agent," but the ties are real and public via DOJ FARA filings.

[TheOrthodoxWay @_theorthodoxway]

“Stay small in your own eyes and God will make you great in His.”
- Elder Arsenie Papacioc

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@KalebAtlanta @HabemusMalleum Right. Like multi-trillion$ deficits, endless war, swamp-scams, not prosecuting pedos, and spying on Americans and taking away our Constitutional rights. Massie being True “Americans First” just made the others look bad, so had to go.

[Shawn Ryan @ShawnRyan762]

$32 million dollars and an entire administration mobilized to destroy one congressman.
His crime?
Demanding answers about Epstein class abuse networks, and refusing to let child predators hide behind political cover.
If that level of firepower doesn't tell you who's being protected, nothing will.
Go Massie!

[Steve Baker @SteveBakerUSA]

I have no delusions that I might have enough “on the fence” Kentuckians who follow my account that I can affect the primary election between @MassieforKY and @EdGallrein today, with anything I have to say. The only thing that’s assured … is a few hundred people who otherwise agree with me 95+% of the time will quit following me, and a handful of those will call me a “traitor” or some otherwise vulgar phrase on the way out.

As I’ve always said since the beginning of the Trump era (circa 2015) … “TDS is a double-edged sword, cutting both ways.” Both his haters and his most ardent supporters often behave and react to Trump’s words and deeds with total suspension of logic and reason. It truly is the most unique political phenomenon in my lifetime.

Some of us who have supported Trump in one, two, or even three elections still have the ability to call individual ‘balls and strikes’ on his policy positions and actions. We can actually disagree with the President 10% or even 50% of the time while still acknowledging how superior his overall administration is to the horrifying specter of another Biden or Obama in the White House. Having and stating those differences does NOT make me or Massie a “traitor.” As has been recently pointed out, one can prefer Massie’s policy positions while still supporting Trump. But TDS cuts both ways, so for a large percentage of MAGA, that rationale is incomprehensible.

And speaking of the math and percentages …

You’ve heard it claimed that Massie votes with Trump and “the Party” 90% of the time. Let me better define Massie’s voting record:

Massie votes with the President and the GOP caucus more often than does 90+% of all other GOP Congress members. (Let that sink in.) He - often labeled as a “libertarian” - also votes according to “conservative” principles more often than … well … almost ANY other Congress member. (Many have forgotten what “conservative” values and votes are in the Trump era.) To quote Ronald Reagan:

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism … The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”

If Massie votes with the President and his own Party more often than does 90+% of the rest of GOP members (and that math is correct), then where is the ire of the President against those other members? If you’re MAGA, why is your own ire and social media political criticisms not focused on those GOP Congress Creeps who vote with the President far less often than does Massie?

Why? Because TDS is a double edged sword, so the math and logic doesn’t matter if Trump tells you it doesn’t matter.

To my friends and supporters in Kentucky … it is possible to vote for Massie today and not be a traitor to the principles of MAGA as they were defined to us during the 2024 election season. In fact, Massie’s voting record in just the last year better reflects what Trump told us were MAGA values than how Trump has since directed his current administration.

Massie for Kentucky … and America.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@DianeKamer @HosannaHosannaa @blackhawkraptor Careful now, your own judgement & condemnation are showing. Not to mention your ignorance of history.
Your online name seems appropriate and honest, however, so I give you a point for that.

[Jason Miyares @JasonMiyaresVA]

Enough with the false flag operation that you are desperately pushing @SpanbergerForVA

You told Virginia voters last fall that you wouldn’t redistrict our state and silence millions of voters, but you lied and tried to do it anyway.

You knew from the very start that your scheme was illegal and unconstitutional.  You had my official AG opinion which laid out in clear detail why each action was unconstitutional, but you ignored it and pushed ahead with the referendum anyway.

When a judge halted the referendum because he found it had violated the state constitution, the AG and your legal team appealed his ruling to the VA Supreme Court and argued that the case couldn’t be heard until AFTER the vote had taken place. Then, when the VA Supreme Court ruled and said you had violated the law, you lied about why you lost the case (and then some in your party even hatched a plot to remove all of the Justices as retribution).

Now the US Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision, with Biden and Obama appointees agreeing, unanimously ruled that you broke the law and the entire process was unconstitutional from the beginning.

Enough with the bait and switch, Governor. It’s time to be honest with Virginians for once.

You and your fellow Democrats tried to illegally and unconstitutionally strip millions of Virginians of their voice in congress, costing taxpayers millions, dividing our state and pitting neighbor against neighbor, all to seize political power.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@KalebAtlanta @GermanCarranza3 Post the citation. Perhaps there’s some translation error involved? 😁

The point is that a sinless God-man entered Hades and destroyed death. He did not pay anyone a ransom, he broke down the gates and freed the prisoners.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@KalebAtlanta @GermanCarranza3 You didn’t read the second part of what I wrote. It wasn’t about anyone being owed anything, it was about destroying death’s hold on us.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@KalebAtlanta @GermanCarranza3 2/2 had no hold on Him and He destroyed its power over mankind, freeing the captives and destroying death by death.

No ransom. No atonement. Just action by a loving and merciful God.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@KalebAtlanta @GermanCarranza3 This is wrong. God (The Word) in His unfathomable love for mankind, condescended to become incarnate, eternally uniting God and man.

Then, though He himself was without sin, He took on our sins in order to voluntarily suffer death, which is the result of sin. But Death
1/2

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@AndrewWood1919 @RBFKnowsBall Good to know; I couldn’t take even 20 seconds of it.😣
lol.

[Clayton McDonald @mcmcpacfa]

@DanSiegel_ Backup PG may be a group effort. No one mentions this but Carrere has also filled that role on occasion. I trust our coaches in evaluating talent and getting what they need out of their guys. Looking forward to seeing how things play out and who really steps up.

[Jim Jatras @JimJatras]

Re "That's why our inability to relate on this very important topic is disappointing."

Just so! We can bat it back & forth forever & get nowhere.

We like to think that facts and arguments change minds. They don't, really.

Or at least not often. Most of the time, they are superficial epiphenomena of something in the heart (nous), not the brain.

All I can say at this point is that the #OrthodoxChurch in America today is full of former Protestants and Roman Catholics who, for some reason invisible to us, had a change of heart allowing them to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

That's not an individual intellectual event. It's a realization beyond human intellect and emotions.

All we Orthodox can do is say #ComeAndSee the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as She has lived for 2,000 years, turning neither to the right nor the left, neither adding like the papalists nor subtracting like the Protestants.

"This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" Indeed!