Fr. David Hanna

Fr. David Hanna Priest at St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church located in Palatine, IL. Fr. David Hanna is a priest at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Palatine Illinois.

Blessings on blessings!! Day 3 in Old Cairo & Mokattam and Day 4 in Luxor
10/25/2025

Blessings on blessings!! Day 3 in Old Cairo & Mokattam and Day 4 in Luxor

Blessings on blessings!! Day 1 @ El Baramous Monastery & Day 2 @ St. Makarious Monastery
10/24/2025

Blessings on blessings!! Day 1 @ El Baramous Monastery & Day 2 @ St. Makarious Monastery

10/06/2025

Dear Beloved,

C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, insightfully warned that the devil loves to use theology & politics to disturb & divide the Church.

The senior demon, Screwtape, instructs the younger demon, Wormwood, saying:
“Looking around your patient’s new friends, I find that the best point of attack would be the border-line between theology & politics.”

My hope is that I have at least provided a concise framework for how we should engage with that border—not in a divisive way, but in a meaningful & edifying manner, through an Orthodox Christian lens. On every issue, we must first extract the biblical principle & then allow space for debate on the rest.

As someone who has personally engaged on both sides of the political spectrum, I have always appreciated a good discussion. When I was in college and graduate school, political debate used to be fun, thought-provoking, and genuinely engaging. Sadly, today it has become polarizing, hateful, & filled with emotionally charged individuals who hold their political opinions as gospel.

Politics is not the gospel. Regrettably, on both sides of the political aisle, politics has become a religion. We wake up not to pray the Agpeya or read the Bible, but to check what’s happening in the world of politics.
As a society, we have become more passionate about political discussion than we are about studying the Bible. We’ve become so consumed with our political identity that we’ve forgotten our identity in Christ.
Our religion, our faith, & our biblical principles are non-negotiable, but our politics should be open to debate.

Debate, when done in the right spirit, is essential. It sharpens minds, challenges assumptions, & sometimes even changes hearts. Whether you agree with Charlie Kirk’s positions or not, we can all agree on this: our society desperately needs more honest debate.

Thank you all for listening—thank you for all the encouragement I have received, to all those who worked with me, challenged my positions, & edited my arguments. It’s been a fun project, & I hope you enjoyed & benefited from this important series. My prayer is that you feel encouraged to engage in political debate in a constructive way.

10/03/2025

Dear Beloved,

There are at least two modern-day issues that are impossible to reconcile with Biblical teaching: the acceptance of abortion and support for the LGBTQ+ movement. It is imperative for Christians to recognize the timeless, orthodox teachings on these issues.
Other churches may twist Scripture, omit passages, or reinterpret verses to justify their political or personal views. However, the reality is that these ideologies are fundamentally opposed to what the Bible teaches and will always be considered sinful, harmful, and contrary to God’s will. That said, it is important to underscore that God’s love is unconditional, and He loves all people regardless of the sins they have committed. At the same time, all people are called to the knowledge of Truth. This calling should convict each person to continually conform their life to that Truth.

People are free to live as they choose, and governments will always pass laws that reflect the shifting moral compass of society. But as Christians, we also have the right—and responsibility—to express grief when that compass moves away from God. This does not make me “homophobic,” “transphobic,” or attempting to “oppress” anyone. It simply means I am working from a different moral framework: the Word of God.

If the Word of God calls something evil, how can we, as a society, celebrate it, welcome it, or even endorse it? This applies not only to abortion and LGBTQ+ issues but also to many other sins modern culture has embraced and normalized—such as po*******hy, prostitution, profanity, and divorce.

What makes abortion and LGBTQ+ issues uniquely polarizing is that they are at the center of organized, powerful social movements. We do not see public campaigns urging people to divorce their spouses, but we do see large-scale, well-funded efforts to redefine marriage, sexuality, and even life itself. These changes are not only promoted but presented as virtues, with society telling us we must not view them as sinful. Instead, we are expected to have “pride,” be an “ally,” and embrace them as normal, good, and virtuous. This forced normalization is deeply problematic.

(1/2)

10/02/2025

Dear Beloved,

Scripture commands us to care for the stranger: “The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Lev. 19:34). “Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19). Our Lord Himself said, “I was a stranger and you took Me in” (Matt. 25:35). The biblical principle is hospitality—opening our homes and hearts to those in need.
But does this principle mean that a nation should have no borders or immigration laws? In the Old Testament, Israel had borders, and each tribe within Israel had its own boundaries. Jerusalem had a wall, and Nehemiah rebuilt that wall. To argue against borders would be like saying we should have no laws against theft simply because our Lord said, “If anyone takes your tunic, give him your cloak also.” My point is not to equate immigration with theft, but to highlight a principle: Christ’s radical personal commands—whether to give up one’s cloak or to show extraordinary hospitality—do not erase the legitimacy of civil law. Our Lord called his followers to detach from material attachments and to be generous - He was not instructing governments to abolish laws that uphold order. In the same way, one can practice genuine hospitality toward strangers while also affirming the necessity of borders and immigration laws.

Whether one supports stricter immigration laws or more open borders is a matter of policy, and it should be freely debated. What matters most is that Christians themselves—more than their governments—embody hospitality: opening their homes, their tables, and their checkbooks to the stranger.

A person may be entitled to believe that allowing 15–20 million people into the country was unwise. That is an opinion, not the Gospel. It belongs in the realm of free debate, and holding such a view does not automatically make one a racist or a fascist.

Should all citizens of developing countries—say, from Egypt—be allowed to claim asylum in the United States because of poor health care, high inflation, or Islamic persecution? To answer “no” is not a violation of the biblical command to be hospitable to the stranger.

(1/2)

10/01/2025

Dear Beloved,

The Scripture teaches that in Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). From its very beginning, the Church has been a model of true diversity, equity, and unity. On the day of Pentecost, people from every race, language, and social standing—including slaves and the free—were gathered together to worship the Lord. They equitably shared their possessions so that “there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). St. Paul later rebuked the Corinthians for failing to live out this principle in their own community (cf. 1 Cor. 11).

For this reason, no Christian should have an issue with the general principle of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). These values are not foreign to our faith; they are rooted in the Gospel itself.

If you support DEI initiatives, that is commendable, so long as they align with biblical principles. Conversely, if you question certain DEI policies, that does not automatically make you racist or prejudiced, so long as the biblical principles of love and equality are upheld.
We should feel free to debate practical questions such as:
• Is affirmative action the best way to achieve equity?
• Are hiring quotas an effective or fair approach?

These are policy discussions that should be open to debate, not treated as litmus tests for someone’s faith. Holding one view or another does not make you a better or worse Christian.

At its core, being a faithful Christian with regard to DEI means valuing every human being as created in the image and likeness of God. This is the non-negotiable biblical principle.

09/28/2025

Dear Beloved,

The biblical principle regarding taxes is simple: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). Christians are called to pay their taxes honestly—whether those taxes are high, low, or even unjustly punitive (as was the case with the jizya).

Whether you support higher taxes to fund social programs or lower taxes to encourage economic growth is a matter of social policy and economics, and these questions should be freely debated. The Bible does not prescribe a specific tax policy, and differing views on taxation should be respectfully considered.

Paying more or fewer taxes, or supporting one tax policy over another, does not make you a better or worse Christian. The logical implication of believing otherwise is quite dangerous. This viewpoint would imply, for example, that a young college student who pays no taxes but supports higher taxes would be considered a better Christian than a wealthy executive who pays more taxes in an absolute sense but supports lower taxes.

I hope you will agree that there is not enough evidence or information to support such judgments about a person’s faith simply based on the tax policy they support.

If paying higher taxes were truly noble, why does everyone—regardless of political leanings—seek to minimize their tax burden? If it were so virtuous to pay higher taxes, then we should encourage people to donate to the government in the same way we encourage them to give to charity.

Some may support higher taxes, seeing the government as the best charity worthy of support, while others may prefer the freedom to choose which charities to support. This is a matter of politics—not theology—and should be openly debated, as it is ultimately up to citizens to decide how their tax dollars are spent.

Any attempt to use Scripture to justify one side of the tax debate or condemn the other runs the risk of misapplying God’s word and distorting the true biblical principle.

Ultimately, what makes someone a faithful Christian with regard to taxes is paying what is owed honestly and caring for the poor through personal generosity and acts of service.

09/27/2025

Dear Beloved,

In the Old Testament, God made a covenant promise to Abraham, declaring that his descendants, family, and lineage would be blessed. This promise was fulfilled through the nation of Israel, which emerged from Abraham’s descendants, Isaac and Jacob.

In the New Testament, Scripture teaches that in Christ, we have become part of the covenant promise made to Abraham and his descendants. Essentially, Christians are the “new Israel,” not through physical lineage but by faith in the Lord. This new Israel is not confined to a specific location, language, or nation.

Our Lord made this clear to the Samaritan woman, saying, “The hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:21).
Judaism is connected to land (Jerusalem), a temple, and a language (Hebrew). Islam is connected to land (Mecca and Medina) and language (Arabic).

Christianity, however, is not tied to any specific people, location, or language. The altar in our churches is called the “heavenly Jerusalem,” where we are to worship in spirit and truth.

St. Paul writes, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel... but the children of the promise are counted as the seed” (Rom. 9:6, 8). We, the Christians, are the children of the promise because we believe in Christ, who is the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. In the New Testament era, we are the true people of God, the true Israel. As St. Paul further states, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Unfortunately, modern propaganda from the state of Israel, combined with misinterpretations of certain biblical verses, has led many evangelical Christians to believe that Scripture commands support for the modern, political state of Israel. However, this is not what the Bible teaches.

(1/2)

09/25/2025

Dear Beloved,

Before I get into the heart of the matter, allow me to offer a few disclaimers:

It is never right to denigrate, disrespect, or be cruel to another person.

My intention is not to defend Charlie Kirk’s positions. I am not his apologist, and I personally disagree with him on several issues. Yet I believe it is possible and permissible for me to admire his life—his commitment to dialogue, his many achievements, his patriotism and love for this country, and his open profession of faith and love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some have questioned whether it is appropriate for a priest to speak on such matters. I believe it is not only appropriate but essential. In the Liturgy, we pray that priests may “rightly divide the word of truth”—that is, to discern truth from falsehood and light from darkness. St. Paul chastised the Corinthians because they were taking their disputes before secular courts instead of seeking a godly judge (1 Cor. 6). Throughout history, priests and bishops have been looked to as voices of wisdom and discernment—not only for laypeople, but even for kings, emperors, and high-ranking officials. That responsibility has not diminished in our own day.
If anything, the need for such guidance has only grown—especially now, when confusion so often arises from Scripture being twisted or misapplied by people of every political and social persuasion. As a humble student of the Bible, and as a priest of the Most High God, it is my ordained responsibility to share what the Scriptures truly teach.

09/24/2025

Dear Beloved,

Last week, I posted about the terrible assassination of Charlie Kirk. It created quite the stir, and so much reflection and consideration, I chose to take down the post—not because I was persuaded by the criticisms against him, but because I do not wish to become a stumbling block for those who strongly oppose his ideology.

St. Paul writes, “If food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Cor. 8:13). He did not say this because eating meat was inherently wrong, but because it could cause offense.

In the same spirit, I removed the post. Some may say, “Abouna, it is too late,” and perhaps that is true. Still, I ask you to receive this decision as a humble apology for any hurt or offense it may have caused.

At the same time, I cannot ignore that this tragic assassination raises important questions that deserve to be discussed in a constructive and edifying way. The divide in our society is very deep, and I believe it is vital to create spaces for genuine dialogue.

What troubled me most is when, within the Coptic Orthodox Church itself, those who are called to have “the mind of Christ” and to be “of one accord” (Phil. 2:2; 1 Cor. 2:16) still hold such radically different perspectives and even opposing values. I am not suggesting that we must all vote the same way or hold identical political opinions—as I will explain later—but it is concerning to me that some may view Charlie as a decent and faithful Christian, while others consider that same individual to be utterly evil.

This tension is not healthy for the Body of Christ, and it must be addressed with thoughtfulness, patience, and reason. This is my attempt to do so.

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing a series of videos on how we, as Coptic Orthodox Christians, can faithfully engage in politics. My prayer is that these reflections will encourage healthy dialogue and help bridge the painful divisions we see today.

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