# Frank Schaeffer Article



## Scott

Article in SF Chronicle from Frank Schaeffer, Francis Schaeffer's son: With God on their side. 

It is sad to see where he ended up.


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## DanW

I've been reading his first novel on his family. I can only conclude that he is very angry at his father and mother, has no respect for Protestantism, and is probably a nominal Christian at best. I actually think that he isn't a Christian, although I suspect that he would claim to be one.

I really like Francis and Edith Schaeffer, so I find this hard to take. I read on Amazon that Edith Schaeffer was still alive when Frank Schaeffer betrayed both his family and the Lord, by publishing this novel. I hope that I am not sinning by reading it.

We should pray for Frank Schaeffer.


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## Scott

I also think that Frank is angry. His anger seems to be very general. He is angry at allot of what he finds in his new home, Eastern Orthodoxy too.


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## DTK

> _Originally posted by Scott_
> I also think that Frank is angry. His anger seems to be very general. He is angry at allot of what he finds in his new home, Eastern Orthodoxy too.


Yes, sometimes the "poster boy convert" methodology backfires. It has always been my impression that the link to his father is what provided him with a public voice to be pressed into the service of an apologetic agenda.

DTK


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## DanW

> _Originally posted by Scott_
> I also think that Frank is angry. His anger seems to be very general. He is angry at allot of what he finds in his new home, Eastern Orthodoxy too.



What is his complaint with Eastern Orthodoxy?
In his novel Portofino Frank Shaeffer rips his dad for being an angry person. He seems to have inherited the trait.

[Edited on 4-27-2006 by DanW]


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## Scott

Dan: Here is an article by Frank with some of his complaints against Orthodoxy. I read a book of his on the subject awhile back, Letters to Father Aristotle or something like that. 
__________

The Seduction of Orthodoxy
Let me speak frankly to my friends who may be seriously considering the historical claims of the Orthodox Church, or who already Orthodox, but are perplexed by the state of the Church today.
The Orthodox Church in the United States is, at present, in a state of some considerable disarray. This, in a way, is a "normal" situation! The Orthodox Church claims to be the True Church, but not the perfect Church. Yet one particular situation deserves some attention. Our problems seem to me to be due to two reasons: In the first place, the Orthodox Church is under constant attack by the secular, pagan, Westen culture that surrounds her, and secondly because, unlike the ancient Orthodox Churches in various lands-Palestine, Africa, Greece, the Ukraine and Russia-the Orthodox Church in North America (with the exception of Alaska) is an wholly immigrant church.
Newcomers
We Orthodox are relative newcomers to America. The fact that the Orthodox Church in the United States is composed of recent immigrants from various national backgrounds, who (with the exception of St. Herman of Alaska) did not come to America as missionaries but rather as immigrants seeking "the good life," means that a peculiar historical situation has arisen: the Orthodox Church in our country is under the jurisdictional guidance of various national, "ethnic" Orthodox Churches which were transplanted to our shores. This situation is atypical of the rest of the Orthodox Church. For instance, in Greece or Russia, believers do not think of themselves as being "Greek" or "Russian" Orthodox, but simply as members of The Church in the same way as residents of Italy do not describe themselves as "Italian Roman Catholics" but simply as "Catholics."
The Immigrant Church
In the United States, because of the Church's immigrant non-missionary and non-evangelistic origin, various jurisdictions, languages, and ethnic backgrounds unintentionally separate Orthodox Christians from one another. This is so even though the various Orthodox communities are in communion with one another. At least in theory, they recognize each other as co-equal partners in the historic Orthodox mission.
While measures are being taken by the Orthodox bishops of the diverse national jurisdictions to bring unity, and hopefully eventually to create one American Orthodox body, nevertheless there remain at the present time real and regrettable ethnic divisions between the various American Orthodox. These differences tend to make us virtual competitors and such competition has contributed to what might be called the "Protestantizing" of Orthodoxy in America. As a result, one hears various Orthodox people refer to themselves as being part of the "Greek" or "Russian" Church rather than as "Orthodox."
The Protestantizing of Orthodoxy, while not as advanced as the near-total Protestantizing of the American Roman Catholic Church, nevertheless has resulted in various un-Orthodox forms of thought and behavior. For instance, many parish councils, which are constituted by those lay people charged with the practical, day-to-day running of the local Orthodox parishes, seem to operate almost autonomously-as if they were Protestant Congregationalists rather than true Orthodox! Such "Congregational-style" Orthodoxy has led to a de facto situation in some churches in which the Orthodox faithful are hardly responsible to, or effectively part of, the ancient Orthodox Church. For instance, there is squabbling between a number of local parishes and their various Orthodox diocese about the financial obligations that local churches have to support their diocese in order that the Orthodox mission of the Church in North America be maintained. Sometimes there are disputes within local congregations, especially those arising between parish councils and priests, which are unwholesome and disrespectful of the priest's role as standing in the place of the bishop, and ultimately of Christ-as Holy Tradition teaches that bishops and priests do. Many an underpaid, overworked priest in many an Orthodox parish is treated more like an "employee" than with the respect that a priest, even an imperfect one, should be accorded.
Ethnic Clubs
Another problem that has arisen, which is peculiar to our American situation, is that some Orthodox Churches seem to be more like ethnic social clubs than missionary-minded, evangelical representatives of the universal, ancient Church. The historical Orthodox Church became known for reaching out, not for looking inward! It evangelized huge portions of the globe; all of the Slavic countries, the whole Middle East, Alaska, huge tracts of Africa, Europe and Asia, including the world's greatest land mass, Russia. Yet in some American congregations today the petty maintenance of native languages, customs and national festivals, often seems to take precedence over welcoming outsiders, seeking new converts and, most important of all, teaching the faithful the basic doctrines of Orthodox theology, worship, confession, and moral living!
Closed Doors
It is not too far fetched to say that there are some "Orthodox" in America that even regard converts with hostility! In August of 1992, I received a letter from a fairly recent convert to Orthodoxy. It speaks eloquently. I have, of course, chosen to keep his name confidential.
________________________________________
Dear Mr. Schaeffer, 
As I indicated in an earlier letter, I have struggled greatly since becoming an Orthodox Christian a year ago.
On the one side, the Orthodox Church, while offering true worship, historic continuity, the sacraments, and Apostolic order, also presented coldness, aloofness, nominalism, lack of evangelism and a missionary spirit, and ethnicity. Although my priest has been an enormous support to me, only one couple has really welcomed me into the church (out of an average of 350 per Sunday!) For the most part I worship alone from week to week. I am not really a part of this corporate worship. It's such a contrast to my former evangelical denomination where you could hardly enter or exit the church without a swarm of people pumping your arm, thrusting a visitor's packet in newcomer's hands, and begging you to stay for coffee in a fellowship time afterwards. In addition, there appears to be very little effort made to reach out to the community (really-no evangelism, period!) . . .
Now the other side of this coin. My wife is openly hostile to my conversion. After a year of my attending the Orthodox church she has no intention of ever accompanying me. In a nutshell, she thinks Orthodox Christians are arrogant, quarrelsome, and Catholics (in the Roman sense-worship icons, Mary, pray to saints and for the dead, etc.) No amount of explaining on my part has helped. . .
Well, it's been TOUGH! About once every second month or so I accompany her to her Reformed Church (for years we were Christian and Missionary Alliance). My wife is now the pianist for a Reformed church. Of course, she never reciprocates, but so be it. . .
Do you know, in a way I'm frustrated that I have come to Orthodoxy and in spite of all its warts and blemishes have experienced true worship. Now that I have seen, tasted and heard the truth, how can I return to Protestantism, even though being Orthodox is hard for me? . . .
________________________________________
While it is understandable that, for historical reasons, the original languages-modern Greek, Arabic, Church Slavonic, etc.-are employed, to one degree or another, in various local Orthodox Churches in America, nevertheless it seems as if language is often used as a barrier with which to keep out "outsiders." This may be unintentional, but is nevertheless highly unfortunate, anti-Christian and un-Orthodox! After all, consider the fact that Saints Cyril and Methodios invented a whole new alphabet (the Cyrillic alphabet) in order to evangelize the Slavs! Had they insisted that the illiterate Slavs had to learn Greek, Orthodoxy would have never spread beyond Byzantium and the false Roman Catholic claim that the Orthodox Church is the "withered branch" of the historical church, would have proved true! 
Because of clinging to the languages of the country of origin, many Orthodox Churches are even losing contact with their own children! Second and third generation ethnic Orthodox often do not speak or understand Greek, Arabic or Church Slavonic. This has led to a whole generation effectively lost to the Church because they know more about ethnic holidays and folklore than about the basics of Christian living.
Dead Wood
A far more serious problem in the contemporary American Orthodox Church than the petty squabbles over jurisdiction and language, is the fact that the Church seems to contain many lay people, and even some priests, who are far from fervent. To be honest, it seems to me that the Orthodox Church in America seems to be rather full of what appears to be "dead wood" of the hardest and driest kind. Nevertheless, in the midst of this forest of dead wood, otherwise known as "nominal Christianity," there are many tender green shoots, people who are following and imitating Christ. The good news is that, through faithfully living sacramental lives, there are many ethnic Orthodox and converts who are truly fervent. Nevertheless, to the new or prospective convert, perhaps used to the enthusiasms, false or misdirected as they may be, of some of the Protestant sects, some Orthodox congregations will seem to be places in which Greeks, Ukrainians, Palestinians, Russians or others gather to eat national food, speak in their native language, encourage their children to socialize (and marry), and where the fervent Christian sacramental life in Christ has been all but forgotten. To put it another way, the naive convert looking for Mount Athos may well be more likely to find a local "church" that is nothing more than an ethnic version of the local Elks Club!
Evidence of this tragic deadness can be seen in how few of the American Orthodox faithful truly avail themselves of the life-giving sacraments in our Church. For instance, many "Orthodox" do not confess regularly to their priest. Thus, they have no spiritual father and are not in good standing sacramentally in the Church, however they may feel about it. This dramatic break with the Holy Tradition is not so much sinful as sad and foolish. Our secular culture spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year counterfeiting the benefits of authentic confession. Millions of dollars are paid for psychiatric and psychological care alone. Yet we who have access to authentic confession often take no advantage of this divine gift!
In some Orthodox Churches the sacrament of communion is rarely taken by the majority of the people on each Sunday. Some Orthodox are now so nominal that they have fallen into the habit of taking communion only once or twice a year! In addition to this, some priests seem to have accepted the status quo of an Americanized, Protestantized, nominal Orthodox "church." Because of this, they appear to be failing to teach confession, Christian morality and the sacramental life lest they offend their secularized parishioners! Given the power of some local parish councils to twist the priests' arms financially-to stop paychecks and otherwise intimidate them-perhaps it is understandable that many priests seem to lack the moral courage to do more than preside over Greek, Russian, or Arab social clubs in which their priesthood has degenerated into simply being the local "ethnarch." It seems that some bishops have been similarly reduced to becoming ecclesiastical bureaucrats, hungry for inclusion in "respectable" American secularized society, instead of spiritual fathers. This is a tragic loss to the Church.
One symptom of this "nominal Christianity" is that many parishes are chronically short of funds because so many Orthodox have such bad habits when it comes to financially supporting their church.
Two Churches
Because of the "nominalism" in much of the Orthodox Church, one can say there are in fact two Orthodox Churches in America! The one is the historical Orthodox Church, the other a sort of social-ethnic club.
Of course, these two churches exist side by side, like the wheat and the tares in Christ's parable. No one has the right to judge the heart of another individual. Nevertheless, there are some practical realities about our contemporary Orthodox communities that new-comers to Orthodoxy will find shocking, even appalling.
One such reality is the pervasive lack of financial commitment by many "Orthodox" to their parishes. There are isolated acts of generosity-especially if the donor's name can adorn an icon, building or some other object-but most parishes are strapped for cash. This is not because they are particularly poor, but because too many "Orthodox" have become nominal in their faith and/or have developed terrible habits with respect to giving to the Church.
For instance, many Greek Orthodox who came to America had become accustomed to a state Church. (In Greece, the Orthodox Church is the "state church.") They seem to be waiting for someone else to pay the parish bills! This habit results in the fact that many parishes always are trying to sell something rather than pay their own way. Rather than just donate regularly to the Church, the parishioners seem to be bent on making a spectacle of themselves with food festivals, bingo, and the like. Typically, this is because of a level of stinginess that most Protestants would find incredible. If most Orthodox simply gave two to three percent of their income, let alone tithed, all the bills of most parishes would be paid!
With the chronic shortage of funds come other problems like a lack of money to educate children, have a Church library, pay for good instruction and so on. So a double price is paid. First, the witness of the Church is non-existent because the ony time people in the non-Orthodox community ever hear of the Church is when they are having a fund-raising event. Second, the energy of the parish is spent on secular fund-raising rather than spiritual outreach and growth. Young people growing up in such an environment get the idea that their dad's new car, or mom's new job, is a good deal more important than his or her Church! After all, he or she make much larger car payments than donations and seem to think his or her duty is done when he or she gets up early one morning a year to help roast a lamb at the "food fest."
The irony is that the same parents who "can't afford" their church will then lament their children's departure from the faith and probably blame their priest! To illustrate the magnitude of this problem, consider the fact that a priest at a Greek Orthodox parish I was visiting confided in me that over a third of the annual budget was being provided by the donations of six families, out of one hundred and twenty families! All six were converts who were tithing their income and they were not, by any stretch, the weathiest people in the Church. In fact, the reverse was the case.
The Quest for Truth
However, to the seeker of truth none of the very real imperfections in the present American Orthodox Church should dissuade his or her search. Unlike the modern person, who feels like the world owes them niceness, fulfillment, and "sensitivity" at every turn, the seeker of truth will pursue that pearl of great price even when it hurts to do so. In fact, according to the Fathers, mistreatment-even at the hands of our so-called fellow believers-is a good source for learning spiritual humility.
The seeker of truth will hopefully find an Orthodox congregation that will open their arms and receive him or her. But if the convert is not as well-received, as they should be, the authentic seeker will pursue Christ, even if the door keepers are less than helpful. He or she should be grateful to have a place in which to partake of the authentic sacraments, pray, participate in the liturgy, go to confession and follow Christ, regardless of the imperfections in any given local Orthodox community.
I was most fortunate in finding a local Orthodox Church only minutes from my own house in which the strength of Greek ethnic tradition manifested itself in welcoming outsiders and providing a nurturing environment for familes. I was welcomed and adopted as if I were a long lost cousin! I was welcomed long before anyone in that church knew I had once been "somebody" in Protestant circles. Thankfully, such places exist and in great numbers.
The hard-working immigrant founders of many Orthodox Churches provided them with a rich tradition of warmth, personal generosity, community and family togetherness that is a rare treasure indeed in modern America. The convert must always express his or her gratitude for having been taken in from out of the storm and for the perseverance of the often uneducated, hardworking people who, by the sweat of their brows, built the hundreds of Orthodox churches here in America. It has been a remarkable feat that outweighs all the very real deficiencies in contemporary Orthodoxy.
Moreover, the ethnicity of many local congregations has been a sort of protection, even if unintended as such, from some of the worst ravages of secularism that have infected so much of the world today. Given the aggressively Protestant, Roman Catholic and secular climate that confronted the Greek, Palestinian, and Slavic Orthodox Christians who emigrated to America, the fact that many Orthodox communities have tried to isolate themselves is understandable. In this sense, the language barrier has been a blessing in disguise.
But the tragedy is that by isolating themselves, some Orthodox, have taken a head-in-the-sand attitude in regard to the effects of secularism on their children and on them. Rather than confronting the realities of American culture they have tended to accommodate themselves to it. This has resulted in second and third generation Orthodox being insufficiently trained (or forewarned) regarding the anti-Christian onslaught they face in the larger world. The sad truth is that a whole generation of Orthodox have been and are being lost because their parents, and perhaps their priests, have put a greater priority on being "good Americans" than they have on being concerned with becoming good Orthodox Christians. Perhaps in this regard, it is therefore not entirely coincidental that a number of highly secularized, even pro-abortion, politicians have come forward who have "Orthodox" ethnic backgrounds. Nor is it surprising, given the premium put on "success" in the American culture by some Orthodox immigrants, that some bishops and priests have been eager to cozy up to secular, even anti-Christian, politicians.
Seduction
We Orthodox Christians in America have not often been overtly persecuted as have the Orthodox in Russia or Turkey. Rather, we have been seduced by a combination of secular materialism, Protestant pluralism, and the desire to "make it" in America. We have unthinkingly adopted a secular world view while keeping an outward show of "Orthodoxy." We Orthodox have come to see ourselves, far too often, as just one more "denomination," another ethnic "special interest" group, rather than the inheritors of the one, true, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
We Orthodox have been seduced by the materialism, money-grubbing consumerism and desacralization of the age. We have failed to meet the Protestant and secular juggernaut head on. Our Orthodox young people have been battered by the sort of fundamentalist Protestants who tell them they are not "real Christians" because they are not "born again" or "saved." Orthodox young people have also been assaulted by aggressive secularists, for instance, in the schools and universities, who have taught Orthodox young people to question, mock, or, at least, to minimize not only their faith but all religious ideas and ideals.
Between Protestants, who tell Orthodox people they are "not real Christians" because they cannot articulate a confession of a so-called born-again experience, and secularists, who have debunked all traditional Christian sacramentality and transcendent ideals, our ill-prepared Orthodox young people have been sent out as cannon fodder into our secular Sodom.
Many Orthodox young people are also understandably confused by the mixed signals that come from some in positions of Orthodox leadership. They are told to live holy, sacramental lives on one day, then on the next, they see their Orthodox leaders "schmoozing" with pro-abortion or pro-homosexual politicians. They are told that the Orthodox Church is the authentic, unique depository of Christian truth on one day, then on the next they see some of their Orthodox leaders participating in an ecumenism of unbelief with other "Christian theologians," some of whom deny the Virgin birth, the divinity of Christ and the moral teachings of Scripture! With such confusion muddying the Orthodox witness in America, it is hardly surprising many Orthodox have lost their faith or relegated it to the level of a cultural experience. Many more have been reduced to mere nominalism, their faith choked by the pursuit of materialistic "happiness" and the cares of this world, their chief interest in life reduced to a desire to "get ahead," to "share in the American Dream," rather than to be steadfast Orthodox Christians seeking to imitate Christ.
Fortunately, in spite of our problems and unlike Roman Catholicism or today's Protestant denominations, Orthodoxy does not stand or fall by any particular generation, "leader," bishop, priest, pope or national group's dedication to the cause of Christ, or lack thereof. It has not, and will not, be prevailed against. The worst it can be accused of, at present, is deadness and inward-looking ethnicity in some of its parts, and of wasting its time and squandering its reputation by seeking favor from secularized politicians and by being involved in the so-called ecumenical movement.
Not all Orthodox leaders have been duped by the ecumenical movement. Yet even some of the very best, like the late Georges Florovsky, had high hopes that "ecumenism" would produce results it has not. In hindsight, these hopes seem rather pitiful. Florovsky writes,
I regard Orthodox participation in the Ecumenical Movement in the same way as missionary action. The Orthodox Church is specifically called to play a part in ecumenical exchanges of ideas, precisely because it is aware of its own role as guardian of apostolic faith and of Tradition in their full integral shape, and it is in this sense the only true Church; since it knows that it holds the treasure of divine grace through the continuity of the ministry and apostolic succession; and finally because in this way it can claim a special place among divided Christianity.[1]
How noble a sentiment the late Father Florovsky, of blessed memory, articulates. Yet how sad to think that such a great mind and spirit as Fr. Georges Florovsky could have been so blinded by his own innocent good will-as to the true nature of the Protestant debacle which has resulted in the disintegration of Western civilization, the acceptance of abortion on demand, the ordination of women, homosexuals and lesbians, the apostacy and heresy inherent in "liberal" Protestant theology. How ironic that the very elements of Protestantism, the "liberal" elements that have had the most to do with ecumenism, are the very elements that have become the most secularized and which represent less and less people as their numbers dwindle, plagued by the attrition of "liberal" Protestant doubt. How strange that the only Protestants, evangelicals and fundamentalists, with whom Orthodox theologians like the late Georges Florovsky actually have much in common, are the very Protestants who on principal have had nothing to do with the blighted and failed ecumenical movement.
It is clearly time for the Orthodox, even those with a considerable investment of time and prestige in ecumenism to admit the truth: the ecumenical movement is a failure from the Orthodox point of view. It is a sordid fiasco on a par with the ill-fated League of Nations, another product of eartly twentieth-century utopianism run amok. Orthodoxy has not "leavened the whole lump." Indeed, the apostacy of liberal Protestantism and the Protestant denominations acceptance of immorality and perversity has grown exponentially during the ecumenical era!
In hindsight, it seems to be clear that the innocent good will of the Orthodox in the ecumenical movement has been abused. The true result has not been to leaven the lump or to bear witness to the truth, but to confuse the faithful as to the true character of apostate, secularized Protestantism. Even more ironic is the fact that the thousands of disgruntled Protestants who have converted to Orthodoxy, including numerous ministers and priests from diverse denominational backgrounds, have not come into the Orthodox Church through the actions of the Orthodox "witness" in ecumenism, but quite the contrary. The wave of recent Protestant converts have come into the Church not because of its modern efforts at "dialogue," but because of its ageless, Patristic and Apostolic witness, including those portions of that witness that most forcefully claim the exclusive nature of the true Church to be the true Church.
Former Protestants, such as myself, have not come into Orthodoxy, at great personal cost, in order to have a "dialogue" and to be told that "we are all one happy family of Christians," but in order that we might find the truth. Fr. Florovsky, whom I believe to have been misguided in regard to ecumenism but who, nevertheless, was one of the great Orthodox Christians of our age, sums up the very point I am trying to make.
In the early Church the preaching was emphatically theological. It was not a vain speculation. The New Testament itself is a theological book. ... What we need in Christendom 'in such a time as this' is precisely a sound and existential theology. In fact, both clergy and the laity are hungry for theology. And because no theology is usually preached, they adopt some 'strange ideologies' and combine them with the fragments of traditional beliefs. The whole appeal of the 'rival gospels' in our days is that they offer some sort of pseudo theology, a system of pseudo dogmas. They are gladly accepted by those who cannot find any theology in the reduced Christianity of 'modern' style. [2]
A Call to the Orthodox
The call to those in the Orthodox Church, whether born into the Church, raised in the Church, or new converts, is the same. It is not, I believe, to invent a "new and better" American Church, and therefore to simply become one more self-invented Protestant-style "denomination," madly trying to be "relevant." It is not to "update" the faith, or make it "easy," even "entertaining," in the way that the American Roman Catholics have unfortunately done by trivializing their liturgies, music and worship practices beyond all historic recognition, not to mention good taste. And it is certainly not to form committees of lay technocrats-so-called clergy/laity groups-to "reorganize" the Church, to make it more "efficient" or worst of all, to "democratize" the Orthodox Church and make its Apostolic leaders "accountable" to the whims of ignorant, nominally Orthodox, Americanized lay people who these days know hardly anything of the Orthodox tradition.
The last thing the Orthodox Church needs is a dose of Protestantized "efficiency" or slick Wall Street-style managerial techniques which will further undermine its unique apostolic authority. The Orthodox Church is not, and must not become "politically correct." Even less should it strive to be a "democracy." Its job is not to be "efficient," but to remain steadfast. It must please God, not desacralized American fashion. The Orthodox Church must resist those who have a lust for political power, like the feminists and other special interest groups, as they try to seize control of one institution after another to remake in their image!
The Orthodox Church was, is, and always will be governed by an apostolic hierarchy whose wheels grind exceedingly slowly and in which change is mercifully difficult to realize. The Church's time table is not a human timetable. There is no room in the Orthodox spiritual vocabulary for change for its own sake.
I believe that the true call of the Orthodox Christian, and by extension the Church, begins with the only "change" that counts-the slow, difficult change of our hearts, minds, souls and habits of daily life. The true call of the Orthodox, who wish to see authentic spiritual life uplifted within our Church, is not a reorganization of the Church or updating of the Church, but rather a return to the basic patristic teachings found in our precious sacramental Holy Tradition and a rigorous defense of Orthodoxy against the pluralistic, political, materialistic and secularizing impulses of our age.
The Quiet Revolution
It seems to me that Orthodox Christians must work together to revitalize our spiritual life. As the late Fr. John Meyendorff of blessed memory said, we must work in pan-Orthodox projects acting as if Orthodox unity has been achieved in America, whether it has been officially realized or not. Most important of all, the dead wood in the Church must be given new life, not by political means, but by passionate spirituality within the Church as practiced by those who do care about their faith, their children, their Church and the defense of its unique sacramental tradition.
Those who love Orthodoxy, and treasure its inheritance, will take advantage of the great mercy the Church offers them by going to regular confession, by weekly partaking of the Eucharist, by honoring their priest, by keeping the Church's calendar of prayer and fasting as best they can, by giving generously to their local parish, and by finding a spiritual father (who may not necessarily be the same priest as one's local parish priest), and being accountable to him. Above all, those that love Orthodoxy will refuse to be seduced by the materialistic evil engulfing us or to demand a "perfect" Church.
We who love Orthodoxy will learn from and obey our imperfect, sinful priests. We will gird ourselves against the insidiousness of the secular culture around us, against its Protestantizing schismatic effects and the secularistic scourge which comes to us packaged as "choice," "pluralism," and "democratization." We will reject the lack of moral absolutes which we are constantly urged to adopt in the name of "pragmatism," "political correctness," "tolerance of diversity" and "sensitivity."
The true call to the Orthodox faithful today is, I believe, that of a quiet revolution. This is a revolution of the spirit against the horror of today's relativism which renders all things unstable, inhuman and unworkable. It is a revolution in which, step by step, convert by convert, the failures of the corrupted Roman Catholic Church and the reactionary "Reformation" it inevitably spawned are lovingly but firmly corrected. Individual Protestants and Roman Catholics must be invited to come home to the true, ancient Church; the Orthodox Church. Our altars are clean, our liturgies are intact, the Spirit dwells within our sanctuaries. We must share this living water with a thirsty world! We Orthodox Christians should have the courage to stand on our feet and no longer be those who make the Orthodox Church invisible, "the best kept secret in America."
The Monastic Imperative
It seems to me that one of the things that Orthodoxy in America needs most desperately is a legitimate and indigenous monastic movement. If Orthodoxy is to bear witness to the truth it needs centers of Christian life, witness, teaching and inspiration available to it. Monasticism has always been the strength of the Church and our desacralized age is crying out for the very things that monasticism offers. As the Abbot of the monastery of Osiou Gregoriou on Mount Athos writes,
The priority which monasticism gives to the worship of God is a reminder, both in the Church and in the world, that if the Divine Liturgy and worship do not once again become the centre of our life, our world will be unable to be united and transfigured. It will be incapable of surpassing its divisions, its imbalance, its emptiness and death ... in spite of all the prideful, humanistic systems and plans intended to improve it.
Again, monasticism reminds us that the Divine Liturgy and worship are not simply one thing in our life; they are its centre, the source of its renewal and its entire satisfaction. [3]
Unfortunately, many modern American Orthodox Christians seem to have developed their spirituality into what amounts to a quiet, subservient, almost Lutheran-style pietism, the very opposite of the bold monastic witness. How else to explain the lack of vigorous Orthodox moral leadership against abortion on demand, or the lack of evangelical outreach to millions of confused Protestants? How else to comprehend the insipid compromise with the worst of the neo-pagan Protestant sects in the so-called ecumenical movement, or the failure to actively challenge the inhumanities of our secular culture? How else to account for what is most tragic of all, the gross failure to teach future generations of Orthodox to think for themselves, to reject the materialism and consumerism of America; to be Orthodox first, good Americans second?
Today, in America, the Orthodox Church faces its sternest challenge. I do not believe that so severe a test was faced even by the persecuted Russian or Ukrainian Church under Communism. The Communists showed the Orthodox Church the respect of putting some of its faithful adherents against a wall and shooting them! However backhanded that "compliment," at least it implied that religious faith mattered enough to kill, or imprison, people for! In America, in our pluralistic culture through which all religion has been diminished to mere interdenominational squabbling or "personalized" therapeutic religiosity, there is a more deadly and insidious form of "execution" being performed daily against the Orthodox faithful; religion has been relegated to a nether world of irrelevance! The message of the American Knowledge Class is not, "we will shoot you for your faith," but rather "your faith does not matter. There is no such thing as truth. It's all just a matter of personal opinion. You may worship Christ, or Buddha, or nothing at all, so long as you also worship Caesar!"
Conclusion
I believe that pluralistic secularism, in the long run, is a more deadly poison than straightforward persecution. In our country the Church is not so much being persecuted as seduced by the selfish, grasping "American dream." Orthodox Christians must stand with courage on religious, sacramental, moral, and ethical issues. We, like the Church's martyrs, must be willing to be true to our rich inheritance. We, of all people, must recapture the sense of the sacred. This does not mean that there is an Orthodox political platform, or that the Orthodox Church must launch innovative social programs to repair the ravages of sin in society. Far from it! It seems to me that the quest of the Orthodox Church, in our culture, must be that the Church be true to itself, true to the love its martyrs died for, true to Christ, as were our forefathers and foremothers as they stood up to Turkish persecution and Communist martyrdom.
While everything else in our culture changes, the Orthodox Church must have the courage to be timeless. Far from "updating," and making things more "relevant," the Church must have the courage to stand uncompromisingly for goodness and, in the eyes of the world, to be "irrelevant!" If need be, I believe that the Church should even be, like St. John the Baptist, obnoxious in her defense of the timeless, as she reminds the world of the difference between good and evil. This may soon result in active persecution by our ever-expanding, aggressively secularized state; America's state-endorsed godlessness-for instance, in the form of the feminist and homosexual movements -- is on a collision course with all true Christians in various arenas, from education to social policy on abortion, prenatal testing for "imperfect" babies, sex education, and "gay" rights.
Hope
Just as the collapse of the Soviet Union proved that the Communist style of secularism could not triumph forever, so in our own country, American godlessness will, I believe, finally be thrown back on its heels. This is because secularism must always fail; its world view does not describe reality as it is. It strips people of spiritual meaning. It is already showing signs of strain. It may even be that many Protestants, Roman Catholics, and even some secularists, will soon be challenged to look anew at the spiritual truths their forefathers squandered: truths that are non-negotiable, above debate, vote or "democratic" discussion. If that time comes, the Orthodox Church must be ready to rise from the secularist ashes, as it has done so remarkably in what was once the Soviet Union, and as it did when the Turkish bondage in Greece ended.
The Orthodox Church must be distinguished, not by its modernism, "ecumenism" or "political correctness," but by its steadfastness and purity. The Orthodox Church must be seen to have stood firm when all else was shaken, changed and swept away. The Church must be the one true thing, the pearl above price, untarnished. It must hold faithful to its original sacramental and evangelistic call. We must be willing to pay the price, even to be ridiculed, persecuted and rejected, because we stand for love, beauty and mercy in a loveless, ugly age.
We Orthodox Christians would do well to defend our children against the secularizing influences of our age by striving to become living examples of Orthodox piety and observance. We Orthodox would do well to treasure the unique inheritance we have, by going to regular confession, and realizing that while the congregationalist attitude, of arrogant, politicized, secularized "parish councils" may be a way to operate a Protestant "church," it is not the Orthodox way! Orthodox Christians must work hard at being faithful to what we believe, at being beacons of light in a darkening world, at training our children, largely by our own faithful, loving, sacramental example, to resist the secular Protestant onslaught and the new Dark Age which I believe has now arrived.
Those lost and confused secularists-Protestants, Roman Catholics and others-who are looking for something transcendent, sacred and steadfast in a confused, desacralized world, must be welcomed back into the Church-the One, Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church of the ages. True, lasting, ecumenical unity will occur when all true Christians come home!
I believe that the "program" of the Orthodox Church is to be Orthodox! If this is done then the rest will take care of itself. I believe that the true unity of the American Orthodox Church can only be found in the unity of a common evangelistic purpose, not in grand schemes or signed documents. True oneness will come from the unity people have when they share an important task: the task of turning our immigrant church into a missionary church, the task of evangelizing America with authentic Orthodox Christianity for the first time.
1 Georges Florovsky, The Collected Works, vol. XIII, Ecumenism I (Vaduz, Flanders: Buchervertriebsanstalt, 1987), p. 160.
2 Georges Florovsky, Bible, Church Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View, p. 15.
3 Archimandrite George Capsanis, The Eros of Repentance, (Newbury, MA: Praxis Institute Press, 1993), p. 52.


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## Scott

"It has always been my impression that the link to his father is what provided him with a public voice to be pressed into the service of an apologetic agenda."

That is my impression too. He routinely mentions that fact. Even in the article I cited in the original post.


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