Transcript for the Piece Audio version of The Free Monks

The Free Monks
Jon Miller

INTRO: Jonathon Miller reports on the rock band The Free Monks -- a group of Greek Orthodox monks who use their music to spread a message of faith to Greek youth. The Free Monks have made four CDs since they burst onto the Greek pop music scene in 2000. Their songs take a hard line against foreign influence -- part a larger debate about national identity among the Greeks

CHURCH MUSIC (men's voices) SNEAK UP UNDER INTRO AND BRING INTO CLEAR BEFORE FIRST TRACK...

MILLER: This is what the monks of the Monastery of Saints Augustine and Seraphim Sarof sound like on a typical Sunday morning...

CHURCH MUSIC UP BRIEFLY, X-FADE UNDER NEXT SENTENCE WITH ROCK SONG...

MILLER: And THIS is what they sound like the rest of the week.

ROCK SONG 1 UP long enough to hear "O Kosmos Allazei", then fade under...

MILLER: The song is "O Kosmos Allazei" off the latest CD from the band called "Eleftheri". In English they're known as the Free Monks. To their Greek fans they're the "paparokades," or rocking fathers.

ROCK MUSIC IN CLEAR SEVERAL SECONDS (until they start grunting)...

MILLER: O Kosmos Allazei means "The World is Changing". That's also the name of the album. And it's the reason the Free Monks are in the rock-and-roll business in the first place -- to warn young Greeks about the dangers coming from outside.

MUSIC X-FADES WITH GIRLS DOING CHEER... girl/camp sound continues until next song comes on...

MILLER: Every year about 400 teenagers spend part of their summer at the Free Monks' monastery, perched high on a hill with spectacular views of the Gulf of Corinth. The camps are just a small part of the monks' master plan to deliver their message to Orthodox teens.

CHRISTODOULOS: We will go and find, as the gospel said, the sheep which has run away. And the gospel says that there are 100 sheep, and 99 of them are in the church and one has run away, but in our days things have changed, and one is in the church and 99 have run away.

MILLER: Father Christodoulos met the monks in Australia when he was a teenager, and moved to the monastery at the age of 18. He's 25 now. Like all 13 of the monks here he wears a beard, a pony tail and a simple black robe. He says the Orthodox Church has gotten lazy when it comes to youth. The monks HERE are anything but. They put out pop albums and music videos. They publish two magazines, and broadcast daily call-in shows on radio and TV. Sometimes they show up unannounced at clubs and bars.

CHRISTODOULOS: A lot of young people are afraid of walking up to a priest, they see him as somebody who is higher. So by going to cafes, to bars, that changes inside them, and it makes them feel that the monk or the priest who goes there is one of them.

ROCK SONG 2

MILLER: Church leaders were a little suspicious when the Free Monks burst on the scene with a hit record in 2000. But lately they've been more receptive. It could be because of the spin the monks are putting on the very idea of Orthodoxy.

CHRISTODOULOS: The Orthodox Church is the church of freedom. Somebody might think, how is it the church of freedom when there are restrictions? It's the church of freedom because you follow those restrictions by your own free will.

ROCK SONG 3: The Little Chip...

MILLER: *Freedom* comes up again and again the Free Monks' songs. This one's called The Little Chip. It's about a device that's implanted in people's brains to track their movements and control their thoughts. It's a metaphor for western culture, the melting pot, the "new world order". The monks say the entire country is in danger.

CHRISTODOULOS: Those who are enforcing the new world order are trying to eliminate the characteristics of different nations, hoping to create one nation, one way of thinking, one monetary policy, one way of eating, that way destroying the characteristics of all of these nations. Thru our songs we try to pass thru that message that you are Greek, you have a history which has been for thousands of years, don't let someone come along and erase that for you.

MILLER: That line of thinking makes some Greeks nervous. Lina Molokotos Liederman is a sociologist who has studied the Free Monks.

MOLOKOTOS: When there's this equation made between Greek nationality, Greek identity and Orthodoxy, what will become of the rest? Especially nowadays when Greece is becoming a place of immigration, when you're gonna have more and more nationalities, eventually the immigrant families will become Greek nationals. How will these Greeks that are not Orthodox be integrated?

ROCK SONG 4: "Freedom Lies in Heaven" -- begins quiet under next track

MILLER: The Free Monks have an answer. They say their message is universal, not just for Greek Orthodox -- although they also say that Orthodoxy is the only way. To reach a broader audience, they've written two songs in English. This one's called "Freedom Lies in Heaven."

ROCK SONG 4 UP at full volume: In the name of God, in the name of Heaven, let's break the chains and set us free. We have to be united to fight back the beast....

MILLER: Some of the Free Monks' critics say they represent the most intolerant side of Greek society -- that they're nationalistic and paranoid. The monks shrug that off. They say the threats are real, and if you want to fight back the beast, you need to learn to play its instruments.

ROCK SONG 4 RUNS...

OUTRO: That piece was produced by Jon Miller for Worlds of Difference, a series on global cultural change.