If this post stirs up controversy, good.
If it invites self-introspection, better.
If it gets me labeled names like "ecumenist" or "Ameridox", then I struck a nerve.
You see, I love the Orthodox faith, which is why I chose to join the Orthodox Church. I left the Roman Catholic Church, but not because I was disgusted with a sex abuse cover up. No, I left because I had serious doubts about a dogma called the Immaculate Conception. I questioned the doctrine for years before officially deciding to leave Rome and become Orthodox. I could not join a Western Protestant branch because of their refusal to acknowledge the importance of the Theotokos and the communion of the saints. I might have joined the Orthodox Church earlier if I had been shown the faith, but as it was, my first experience in any Orthodox Church was in Red Square in Moscow at St Basil's. I was so overwhelmed once inside that I knew I was home, but it still took me eight years of learning and praying to make the step to join.
Like any convert, I was full of zeal, and what better place to be zealous than the internet. A place where I could find like minded people and show just how dedicated I was to the faith and a place to share my new found knowledge.
Oops.
What I have seen recently online makes me so happy that there was no Facebook to participate in while I was a catechumen, for if there were, I might never have converted. There is no lack of triumphalism, nationalism, and even malice among those who are on such pages. One page recently had a man post a picture of a goat and ask is this was what America was trying to make Orthodoxy (it was apparently a story about bestiality). Many other pages love to mock the Roman Catholic Church with meme's of the Pope with some horrific sayings that show no love for their fellow man. Sure, I get it. Rome and the East have a theological chasm that is at least as wide as the Grand Canyon and twice as deep. No reunion is ever going to happen until Rome addresses and renounces its heresies, including the Immaculate Conception, the Filoque, Papal Supremacy, and other issues like proper communion, and many others. In this, the Orthodox Church is correct.
What about the Orthodox faithful, however? Why is it when Rome apologizes for a sin they committed against the East, many of the faithful, rather than accept the overture, point out other hurts caused by the Schism? Why are many Orthodox faithful gleeful about the scandals of the Roman Church when the Orthodox church has their own sins to attend to? In my opinion, do you know what the only difference between the sins of Rome and the sins of the Orthodox church is? Press coverage. Media outlets pick on Rome because the are an easy target. What might happen if the media decided to focus on the Orthodox church for its sins, however? How would the faithful have reacted if the OCA received the media scrutiny between 2002-2008 that Rome received for the priest sex abuse issue? I wish I could answer that question, but as it is, since the media did not cover it to the lengths that they do Rome, we will never know and I refuse to speculate.
As I answer many people who question my loyalty to the Orthodox Church, I left the Roman church, but I did not leave its adherents. I left Roman dogmas, I did not leave those who still hold them. I did this of my own choice, and I do not regret that choice at all. I know so many wonderful priests, all of whom have helped me in one way or another, and all of them, even in their firm rejection of Rome, never once showed ill will to anyone who was a Roman Catholic. With some of the posts I have read about Rome from Orthodox Christians, I question not only what they are being taught, but by whom.
This brings us to nationalism. Lately, I have seen many nationalist Orthodox who denounce the USA as trying to modernize the faith, and change it to America's liking. Many confuse the secular politics engulfing the USA and the fights over them with the idea that America is trying to change the faith and allow such ideas to enter the Holy Church. The saddest part is that nothing you say to them will change their minds, and even worse, their words show the hardness of heart I am trying to escape from by being Orthodox.
Another issue is should America have its own Patriarch. This past winter, I had a debate with several people who think that my statement that the USA is not ready for its own Patriarch was an attempt to keep jurisdictions divided and that I was un-American. Being un-American is nothing new for me, as I have been called worse names because of my tastes for ice hockey over any other sport, and a preference for the CFL (Canadian Football League) over the NFL. To be called that by Orthodox Christians, however, because I stated the idea that the USA is not ready for its own Patriarchate was a punch that caught me by surprise. In their own zeal, many of these people were showing that truly, it wasn't the USA they wanted to have their own Patriarch, but rather, their Patriarch presiding over the church in the USA. Further, those that did not show that zeal did not ask such probing questions like "Since Metropolitan Tikhon is Metropolitan of all North America and Canada, do you think Canada will be willing to be under the umbrella of the US Patriarchate?". The most popular answer to that question was "Who cares?". Obviously, we didn't discuss Mexico.
The more I think about it, the more I am certain to have been blessed with several of the priests I have had since my catechumate. Every one of them, to a man, has advised me to just pray for the unity of the Holy Churches and not worry about bureaucracy and politics. They have advised me to pray to have Jesus enter my heart and cleanse me of my sins. They have advised me to be faithful to Christ, His church, and to those in my community who need Christ as much as I do.
One piece of advise they didn't give me, however, was to leave those Facebook Orthodoxy pages. They didn't have to.
God Bless.
