Important caveats:
- This is Dean’s List. I do not speak for the Orthodox Church.
- I love the people and forebearers of my Protestant heritage.
- I believe some Orthodox are going to hell, and some non-Orthodox to heaven. This is about truth and love, not eternal destiny.
- I like to have a little fun when I write.
1. Orthodoxy provides the only valid reason to follow their authority.
2. The Orthodox do what the early church did.
3. You can enjoy apostolic tradition without being Roman Catholic.
4. Sound, sane morality is preserved.
5. Orthodox leaders have cool beards like hipsters.
6. Orthodoxy affirms art.
7. You get to join a traditional culture, the land of the normal.
8. Orthodoxy is multicultural and international.
9. Orthodoxy is peace-loving, not militaristic.
10. Orthodoxy majors on the majors, like love.
11. You can actually point to a place for people to go be a Christian.
12. Orthodoxy is not a personality cult.
13. You get to drink wine at church.
14. You get to drink wine at church.
15. You actually are allowed to know God personally.
16. Orthodoxy sets a high standard for “manly men.”
17. Women share the stage.
18. Our tradition is one of much suffering.
19. We believe in miracles and healings, but without the weirdos.
20. We believe in real stuff, created things, bodies, and fun.
21. Orthodoxy provides the only valid reason to follow their authority.
1. Orthodoxy provides the only valid reason to follow their authority.
Here is the issue: you are sitting in church (or you never got there), and the leaders are telling you the following:
1. You should be attending this church regularly.
2. You should be supporting this church financially.
But why? Who says? Catholics will say the church authority—the Pope ultimately—says you must, and he is in the line of the Apostles. (Actually, he’s not anymore. Later in this List I deal with the Pope.) Protestants will tell you that the Scriptures tell us to go to church.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. (Heb. 13:17)
These leaders will tell you that the Scriptures are the final authority. Sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone” in Latin). Well, what if I don’t think the Scriptures are as clear as that guy in the pulpit asking for my money thinks? I don’t see anything about weekly services, or ten percent, or long sermons, much less anything on robes and choirs and creeds. (Or, for those in cool churches, nothing about guitars, rock music, large crowds, power point presentations, or skinny jeans.)
What if I just say, “I don’t see it the way you see it. Why should I do what you say?”
Intellectually honest seekers will rightly question why they shouldn’t just start a church themselves in their own home … or just have church by themselves.
The shallow Protestant pastor will say, “Because I’m in charge and you should obey your authority.” The more thoughtful pastor will say, “Because the Scriptures seem to teach church attendance and financial support.”
You can see how the authority is already dwindling (along with church attendance in America). Worse than that, their argument for the authority of Scripture is also weak. Why does the pastor think the Bible is God’s word and the final authority? He will say, “Because it was handed down to us from the Apostles and the Church Fathers.”
But those same Apostles and Church Fathers insisted that church attendance and support was mandatory, not suggestive. They also believed in confession, liturgy, the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, icons, and a lot of other things most Protestants reject today. They also said you can’t leave the Orthodox Church. Why is their authority valid for picking the books of the Bible but not the other matters?
Ultimately, Sola Scriptura does not work. It sounds like a choice between Scripture and Tradition, but it’s really a choice between one smart Christian’s view of the Bible and the consensus view on the Bible from thousands of even smarter Christians, likely more prayerful, over a couple thousand years. The one guy inevitably disagrees with the other smart Christian that lives next door, and unity in the church becomes impossible.
The better path to authority, I argue the only path, is by sticking with ordination, the laying on of hands, and the solemn order of succession in Christianity that started with Jesus ordaining his disciples. Those Apostles ordained their followers (such as Titus and Timothy) and they continued that valid leadership—excluding the ones drummed out—until today. This is called Apostolic Succession.
I used to think I must be a Roman Catholic to enjoy this authority (see #3). As a Protestant I had given up hope for such a thing. But it is still alive and well. The Orthodox Church, with several hundred million followers, is the second largest expression of Christianity in the world.
Ultimately, this first point will be the subject of a separate blog post. (Here’s an excellent piece I will refer to.) This is the first and most important point in deciding which gathering of Christians you will be a part of, if any. I have 19 more on this list that are interesting, compelling, even humorous, but none of them ultimately matters without this first point: the question of authority.
2. The Orthodox do what the early church did.
Do some serious historical scholarship and you soon find out that the Apostles and early Christians were into bishops, liturgy, sacramental mystery, robes, and all the things that make modern Christians recoil. They did not hold ad hoc sessions with bibles on their laps using folding chairs circling the center of the room.3. You can have apostolic tradition without being Roman Catholic.
I always wanted to be part of a Christian tradition that went all the way back to Christ and the Apostles. But I thought to do that you had to be a Roman Catholic. It turns out that’s not the case. The Orthodox call the Pope “the first Prostestant,” because he protested and rebelled against the original church.Let me provide a brief church history, terribly truncated by me and certainly from my perspective: Jesus laid his hands on the Apostles and actually began the institutional church (now a dirty phrase!) and “the gates of hell have not prevailed against it.” It continues today in the form of the Orthodox Church. In around 1000 AD the Patriarch of Rome broke off from the rest of the Patriarchs because he wanted to change the Council of Nicea of A.D. 325.. And, of course, he wanted to be in charge. For a thousand years, the church had been “ruled” by hundreds of bishops coming together in a full council to decide the core truths of Christianity. No one man was in charge. They did this less then ten times in 1000 years. From these councils we crystallized the teaching of divinity of Christ and divinity of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, the divine and human natures of Christ, and other foundational Christian beliefs.
Rome’s break really screwed up Christianity. The other bishops said the councils cannot be changed, and they certainly did not believe one man should be in charge. 500 years after this “Great Schism,” as it is known, the Reformers like Luther and Calvin rightly rebelled from various false teachings and practices committed by the Roman Catholic Church that had strayed from its authority—problems like indulgences, papal infallibility, and crusades. They also invented new doctrines like the Immaculate Conception (which teaches that Mary was born without original sin). The eastern Orthodox never committed these false practices.
4. Sound, sane morality is preserved.
Evangelical Christianity has spent a century or more fighting the good fight to keep their churches and the culture around them from sliding into moral decay. Whether the problem be divorce, abortion, sexual immorality, homosexuality, proper male and female roles, or whatever the new weirdness is, good Biblical Christians have been trying their darndest to keep the ship from splintering apart. It’s not working.5. Orthodox leaders have cool beards, like hipsters.
Bishops and monastics tend to have long, fluffy beards. Hipsters love this. It sounds like a small thing, and it is. But it makes the point that Christians should be setting the standard, not the culture. On some points, the culture will view ancient Christian practices as weird or offensive. In other ways, Orthodox Christians will be ahead of the curve. So it’s time to quit trying to be relevent and just be authentic. Let fashion catch up to you.6. Orthodoxy affirms art.
Attend your typical Orthodox service and you will see images everywhere. Icons on the walls, patterns on the vestments, Crosses on every neck, and a lot of color. 7. You get to join a traditional culture, the land of the sane.
8. Orthodoxy is multicultural and international
Everybody these days wants to think globally and with diversity. Orthodoxy has always done so. While somewhat sparse in the West, the historic church is quite strong in Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia, in Arabic countries like Syria and Lebanon, the Caucasus of Georgia and Armenia, in African countries like Egypt and Ethiopia. There is a strong presence in Southern India. In America, Orthodoxy has by far it’s highest concentration in Native American Alaska.9. Orthodoxy is peace-loving, not militaristic.
Just a few decades after the Roman Catholic Church left the Orthodox Church in 1054, the Pope announced the First Crusade. This is likely not a coincidence.10. Orthodoxy majors on the majors, like love.
Left to ourselves, we are so quick to be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph: 4:14) Protestant Christianity seems to be based on the idea of peddling a certain pet doctrine in order to justify your existence, otherwise why wouldn’t you be worshipping with the people across the street? 11. You can actually point to a place for people to go be a Christian.
As a Protestant, I was always a little embarrassed by the church. I made sure that I was going to a place that was decent, and I could always recommend that someone come to MY church if they wanted. But beyond that, it was like, “well, being a Christian isn’t about going to church.” 12. Orthodoxy is not a personality cult.
“Where do you go to church?” “Who’s the pastor there?” That’s usually how a conversation goes for an Evangelical. Modern day Christianity reminds me of a traditional continent with thousands of tribes. The ones with the most charismatic chiefs do the best. I like to view Orthodoxy as more like a constitutional country where things still flow somewhat smoothly even if a terrible President is in power like Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton (pick your favorite whipping boy). 13. You get to drink wine at church.
Paradigm shift. While there a number of weird things Orthodoxy brings to the table, no longer is “we don’t drink alcohol” one of them. That was a ridiculous burr the Fundamentalists put in the Christian saddle for a century or so, but it’s fading fast, and Orthodoxy demolishes it. (Note: I like Fundamentalists in general, especially as co-laborers in the culture wars.) We drink wine at major feasts, at Easter (lots of it), and certainly enjoy it in generous doses away from church as well. Russians bring a lot of vodka to the feasts. We don’t overdo it. No one’s faculties get impaired or anything.14. You get to drink wine at church.
15. You actually are allowed to know God personally.
I know this sounds crazy, but Western Christianity—starting with the Catholics and continuing with the Protestants—believe, on paper, that you can’t actually know God himself, only about him. Western Christianity’s great theologian Thomas Aquinas differentiated between “seeing the Divine essence” and “comprehending the Divine essence.” The idea was that God himself is so different from us that we can’t see him or know him, like Adam knew Eve. But you can know about him intellectually. And thus the great heroes of Western Christianity are often intellectual giants (Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, etc.) rather than martyrs and ascetics.
Great Orthodox thinkers will affirm that the biggest difference between Eastern and Western Christianity is neither papal infallibility nor changing the creed (the “filioque” controversy—Latin for “and the Son”—which lessened the Holy Spirit by attributing one of His unique qualities to Christ). Rather, it is the West’s exaltation of reason or rationality over heart and spirit. The East emphasizes mystery. One of Orthodoxy’s great saints argued against the idea that God cannot be known and experienced directly. St. Gregory Palamas affirmed what the church had always taught, that God can be known and experienced directly, not in his essence, but in his uncreated divine energies.
Palamas debated a 14th Century Western scholar who said Eastern monks would be better off studying about God instead of praying all day, valuing knowledge over revelation. Palamas said encounters with Christ like the Apostles at the Transfiguration were direct experiences with the Divine that others can also experience. Palamas was far-sighted in saying that the Roman change of the creed, harming the Holy Spirit’s uniqueness, and the subsequent inability to acknowledge encounters with God’s uncreated energies directly, would ultimately lead to atheism. Great novelist Fyodor Dostoyevski said the same. (Start at 3.00 for an excellent podcast tracing the atheism and occultism of the West to this medievil philosophical tipping point.)
16. Orthodoxy sets a high standard for “manly men.”
Orthodox Christianity is difficult. You stand during church. You fast for 40 days before Easter and Christmas, abstaining from meat and all dairy products. (You also do this every Wednesday and Friday.) You don’t eat or drink anything before taking Eucharist on Sunday (fellow coffee addicts be warned). You go to confession about once a month and share your dirt. If you ever get faithful in those areas, you can up your game by visiting a monastery, or even joining one!
18. In Orthodoxy, women share the stage.
18. Our tradition is one of much suffering.
Orthodoxy looks and smells like Christ. Most of the history of the church is one of suffering, struggle, and even martyrdom. Syria is a stronghold for Orthodoxy. Russia and Eastern Europe all persecuted Orthodox Christianity there before Communism’s fall 25 years ago. Greek Christians were persecuted by the Turks for several hundred years—impaling was the preferred form of execution—before they gained liberation in the 19th Century. Ethiopia, the poorest country in the world, is majority Nicean Orthodox and arguably the first nation to declare itself Christian.19. We believe in miracles and healings, but without the weirdos.
20. We believe in real stuff, created things, bodies, and fun.
Modern Christianity is under a large dose of Gnosticism, an early heresy that says what really matters are spiritual things. Physical, earthly, created things are okay, but somehow lesser than the spiritual things we do. Or maybe the physical stuff is actually evil.
A recent TIME magazine poll showed that only a third of Christians who believe in the resurrection think they will have an actual, physical body in eternity.
21. Orthodoxy provides the only valid reason to follow their authority.
As I wrote at the beginning of this piece, the question of whether to be Orthodox begins and ends with the question of authority. Everything else builds from that point. I thoroughly believe that a true seeker who is intellectually honest will end up embracing Orthodox Christianity. It is the only way to answer the question, “Says who?”
My Father—God rest his awesome soul—used to shake his head at those who supported their particular belief by saying to him, “We’ve always done it this way.” Granted, the people he was arguing with were Protestants, and somewhere back there, they weren’t doing it that way. But, for me, as an Orthodox, that argument is now consistent. They really have “always done it that way.”
Awesome article! I read it in its entirety and I must say this is a great gift to those of us Orthodox who are frequently confronted with the question, “Why Orthodoxy”? This article provides that answer. Bravo!
And BTW, love the new website!
How can the patriarch of the Syrian Orthidox church visit any of his flock who happen to be in Jerusalem?
Why are the various expressions of Orthodox at the church of the nativity in Bethlehem split into somewhere around 7 different ones if there’s only one Orthodox church?
St John was not a Holy Fool (yurodivyi).
Greg, the St. John of San Francisco monastery implies that he is a holy fool (http://www.monasteryofstjohn.org/?p=about_st_john) as does this site on the lives of the saints:
“… this holy man of God, was a well known theologian, and by many as a Fool-for-Christ.”
http://www.serfes.org/lives/stjohn.htm