Opening
by modestinus
In the best of circumstances, the Orthodox Church, as it subsists in North America, is at a crossroads; but the reality may, by an order of magnitude, be much dimmer. Despite the musings of a vocal minority that this, the eighth century in which the Christian religion has, in some form, been present on this continent will be an “Orthodox Century,” the loose and often quarreling jurisdictions which comprise this ancient iteration of Christianity show no evidence of returning to the numbers they enjoyed only a few decades ago. The surge of Protestants and cultists that helped bolster the ranks of the Antiochian Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) respectively is unlikely to be replicated. Conversions continue, but they are hardly noticed. Those few Orthodox who pay attention to such things and have, bravely, opted to forego the implausible expectations of the aforementioned vocal minority are quick to drop down into several banal “defenses” of this phenomenon, ranging from “numbers don’t matter” to some less cliché-sounding admonition that it’s “always darkest before the dawn.” A more courageous response runs something like this: The afflictions which currently beset Orthodoxy, including its inability to meaningfully draw in converts and retain cradles, is evidence that it must be doing something right or, stronger put, that Orthodoxy is the “only Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” For if Orthodoxy “had it easy” like, say, mainline Evangelicalism, then it would be clear that Orthodoxy wasn’t the Church, that is, that it wasn’t living up to its “Apostolic Mandate.” This sort of “cultish” Orthodoxy has some base appeal, at least insofar as it pulls at the same sensitivities which draws people to become Straightedge in their teen years and members of the Green Party in their 20s. It’s the “counter culture” element, superficial and transient though it may be, which probably accounts for why you can find more than a few folks who equate being “Orthodox” with dressing like a 19th C. Eastern European peasant before Sunday Liturgy and failing to brush their teeth to boot.
You can’t tell Orthodox this stuff, of course. If you do, you’re being “uncharitable” or “trading in stereotypes.” However, because of a Crusade which was conducted without Papal approval 800 years ago, every Orthodox in the planet, including those who joined up last Pascha after spending their formative years singing “Shine Jesus Shine,” can denigrate 1.1 billion Catholics as heretics. Moreover, they are also entitled to tell you, by way of referencing figures, ideas, and events which sprang into history over a millennium ago, that Orthodoxy embodies everything from a “universal vision” of Christianity to an “authentic Christian humanism” predicated on a “true understanding” of Classical culture and the Gospel. In other words, because some monk in the deserts of the Middle East read Plato 1,500 years ago, it is absolutely incorrect to speak of those monks who inhabit famous mountains in Greece as superstitious and ignorant. Such absurd examples are not in short supply, nor do they originate in only the stupidest, most embarrassing, sectors of Orthodoxy in the way “New Earth Creationism” and “God Hates Fags” emanates from the stupidest, most embarrassing, sectors of American Protestantism. In fact, the more learned an Orthodox Christian is, the more likely he is able to reach back through 2,000 years of history to find idiosyncratic incidences and long-dead trends which can be brought forth to “prove” that the Orthodox Church does not, on a wide scale, suffer from maladies ranging from ethnic insularity to nationalistic enchantment to quasi-Gnostic spirituality.
Some Orthodox might respond at this point by identifying similar problems which afflict Catholicism, but so what? Catholicism comes packaged with problems the Orthodox haven’t even heard of. The difference is that no Catholic living anywhere in the world can deny this while Orthodox, particularly in America, can retreat into blissful ignorance, foolish fabrications, or some admixture of the two. Granted, so-called “cradle Orthodox,” those who have grown up in their confession and still clung to it despite the evident problems (many of which, I admit, I haven’t even named), aren’t blind, but their voices are rarely raised or listened to. Cradles, as a certain popular tale goes, are mostly “like Catholics” in the sense that they are apparently apathetic and lazy when it comes to their religion; they don’t eat saw dust during Lent, thus they are not as righteous as the convert bloated on boca burgers. And those cradles which do take their confessional commitments seriously are, in the main, “ethnocentric.” Because they want their services in Greek or Church Slavonic, they’re not “truly Orthodox”; rather, they want “museum Orthodoxy” rather than the “Evangelical Orthodoxy” espoused by some. Because “cradle Orthodox” have “cradle parishes” they can ignore (and be ignored/despised by) the “other realm” of American Orthodoxy, that is, the one inhabited by people who write and read web-logs (or, absent that, listen to Ancient Faith Radio, purchase Conciliar Press titles, and still read C.S. Lewis).
Who wouldn’t want to be a part of all of that? Well, a lot of people actually. And this is one of the great tragedies of the American Orthodox confederacy: Its collective inability to understand why a vast swathe of American Christians who, despite holding to the same modern sensibilities as those in the Orthodox Church (regardless of what they might say), don’t want anything to do with the magic and mystery that they are selling. This is perhaps why Orthodox or, at least, those who troll on web-logs, grow offended at the idea that people might enter Orthodoxy expecting ‘A’ and flee for their lives after being pummeled with ‘B’ thru ‘Z.’ What rings strange is that these Orthodox care at all. Don’t they have some prostrations to do? Isn’t there another fast just around the corner for them to prepare to fail in spirit (if not in letter)? Goodness, a loosey-goosey Catholic can clear through the Liturgy of the Hours in under 90 minutes a day; it takes at least three times as long to get through the Horologion. So where do they find all of this time to get outraged? It’s as if that Athonite peace and Russian holiness they’re always going on about hasn’t penetrated their souls, illumined their minds, and caused them to levitate and see God. But if none of that is happening, one wonders why they’re even Orthodox. The Catholic route seems so much more sensible: Avoid Hell and limit one’s time in Purgatory; after that, Jesus awaits.
Someone I once corresponded with had more than a few humorous (and mildly irreverent) remarks on Catholic/Orthodox phenomena, the most powerful of which was that Orthodox or, more accurately, a certain brand of Orthodox (“vocal minority”) simply cannot comprehend why someone would want a grown-up religion like Catholicism. Because at some point you have to stop playing pretend. I would extend that view to Protestantism as well; for despite my deeply held belief that Protestantism represents an aberration from the core truths of the Christian Faith, there’s very little of it which demands childlike ignorance. Protestants fabricate boldly and without compunction. That’s a very adult thing to do. And even those few Protestants (like the Anglo-Catholics) who try to get back in touch with their Apostolic/Patristic roots are aware that they are reverse engineering; but they believe the end more than justifies the means.
At first blush this may come across as a strange, even deeply confused, way to “launch” a blog. I disagree. A backhand over the bar to those who want to belly up uninvited strikes me as an entirely prudent method of redirection. There are whorehouses across the street for getting one’s jollies; this is a family establishment.
I’ve been meaning to comment but have refrained because I don’t have enough time / energy to think out a response. Maybe that means I should just shut up, lol. But I do hope to say something soon. I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seat, dying of suspense.
Ah hell, if you want to say that a lot of this “american” orthodoxy is ridiculous, I’ll be the first to buy your newsletter. But really, that’s like shooting fish in a baptismal font. I’m of the school that most every Orthodox/Catholic spat arises out of cultural differences, so my view of Orthodoxy in America is also one of culture.
Someone else recently said that American Orthodoxy is a solution in search of a problem. I think that’s true to a certain extent. Orthodoxy is so immersed in Greekish (in the sense that Catholicism is “Latinish”) that there are certain fundamental differences which become impossible to ignore. The most striking example of these, at least to me as one who straddles between a very living Old World history and a very present life in These United States, is the difference between how the two cultures approach something beautiful, sacred, or important. The greekish sense is to build it up, to adorn it, to lavish it, but the American sense is to strip it down to its very core, and remove anything that could possibly be considered excess. I think its why your average american convert (whether to Rome or the east, to be frank) is much less likely to pray to the hosts of the saints than to Jesus or Mary.
The long term “solution”, or to be more accurate, likely destination, of Orthodoxy on these shores is that of an alternate sub culture. The one redeeming quality of this country of mine is that it generally tolerates people who want to clump up in isolated groups. Sure, I’m not going to advocate for an unmissionary, esoteric path. I like people, and the more the merrier. But I’m also going to agree that its very unlikely that Orthodoxy will ever be a fringe religion.
I suppose the only difference is that I grew up in this fringe religion, so I’m sorta ok with the idea that my religious sensibilities and practices are completely divorced from everything around me. I mean, it would be great if I lived down the block from a church, but I don’t and I never have and I likely never will. Why is that an issue?
Pardon the typos. I meant to say that Orthodoxy will never be _more_ than a fringe religion.
Your posts remind me why I have never had any issues with Cradle Orthodox. Some of the converts drive me buggy, but cradles like you warm the cockles of my heart. (Yes, even when they’re handing me anti-papist tracts in the bookstore at the Greek Festival, lol.)
When I left the Episcopal priesthood I searched for a home with Rome. It was a natural direction to move, but the nun that catechized me was so liberal in all her views, so in favor of the very innovations that I was fleeing, that I realized that Roman Catholicism, at least in America, was not in my future.
Rome, particularly in America, is what you make of it. I’ve never seen anything approaching a unified conception of “American Catholicism,” though I suppose it’s possible to distill some idea of “normative Catholicism” in these lands (though such enterprises run the risk of selection bias).
Is there any normative difference between the prattling or a liberal Dominican sister and a know-it-all with three sememster’s at St. Vlad’s under his belt?
Yeah, one’s a lot cuter.
I’m not going to tell you which, though.
I’m guessing the St. Vlad’s grad. Most feminunzis look like diesel dikes. Sorry for bluntness, but it’s true. Boxy business suits and sensible shoes. And those butch haircuts. I just want to shake them and scream, “Sister, put on a freaking VEIL. You will look ten thousand times better.”
Thankfully, these graying sisters are an endangered species. Meanwhile, the conservative religious orders are attracting tons of young girls, many of them very pretty, while the libtard orders are in their death throes. But you can’t tell that to the Orthodox who are convinced that every Clown Mass, however rare (to the point of extinction), is completely representative of American Catholicism. People see what they want to see. If the eye is not sound, the whole body will be full of darkness.
Ah, and Orthodoxy, particularly in America, is also what you make of it. (Which, given that you feel the same way about the Latin church in these parts makes me wonder why you go on so at length railing at the Orthodox.)
Given the state of our culture, in many ways more degenerate than the pagan culture of Rome in the first and second century, shouldn’t all Christian confessions be counter-cultural? On that score I think we Orthodox out-do you Latins even if we have trouble getting our act together thanks to the evils of jurisdictional disunity.
How are the Orthodox “counter-cultural” or, at least, more “counter-cultural” than the Catholics? Because some of your services are in semi-dead languages and convert parents name their sons Justinian and Constantine? I would agree that there are some Orthodox who believe they are “counter-cultural” because they are Orthodox: they shop at granola-y stores; they don’t vaccinate their kids; they dress like 19th C. peasants when they go to church; etc. But a lot of that is superficial and/or a conflation of “being Orthodox” with something akin to Dreherite Crunchycon-ism. To me that’s no more “counter-cultural” than being straightedge in high school or liking professional wrestling when you’re in your 30s.
All of that aside, I don’t think I go to any “great length to rail against the Orthodox.” This stuff is ready-at-hand and it’s not much different than what I wrote/said when I was Orthodox. Of course I was “part of the club” then, and so maybe it was “ok” to point some of this stuff out. Moreover, I suspect that at least some of my former co-religionists assumed I was kidding around back then. That’s only “natural,” given the context.
There’s another difference worth mentioning, I think, and it goes something like this: Catholics don’t care when they are criticized by the (American) Orthodox, either because they’ve heard it all before or they couldn’t care less what some minority band of ex-Protestants have to say. (In my experience, most cradle Orthodox are indifferent toward Catholics at worst and genuinely friendly toward them at best.) (American) Orthodox, on the other hand, can’t imagine that a Catholic could have anything negative to say about them, either because they really believe there is nothing wrong with their confession (and definitely nothing as wrong as that which one finds in Catholicism) or because Orthodox believe, oddly enough, that we’re under strict orders from the Pope not to say an ill word about the East. (I was told by one person that Catholics who criticize the Orthodox “think they’re more Catholic than the Pope.”) My take is that there are overlapping problems in both confessions, though they sometimes manifest themselves in different ways and to different degrees across time and culture. I think a lot of (American) Orthodox are kidding themselves when they act like their worst problem is that they have to be in communion with Bartholomew of Istanbul, but so be it.
Alice, one kooky feminunzi should NOT ever ever ever define your view of Catholicism. The radical nuns are a dying breed (quite literally); they are increasingly few and far between. They are NOT the future of the Church, no, not even here in America. Don’t write off Catholicism for your future based on an experience that does not reflect Catholicism’s future. Please.
Also–look beyond such superficials to more important issues. Is there any church on planet earth that stands more visibly and publicly for the Culture of Life vs the Culture of Death? The Catholic Church in America is under direct, relentless attack right now from the Obama administration. (See the recent HHS ruling..google it if you haven’t heard of it.) The Culture of Death leaves the Orthodox alone, but it has its sights trained on us Catholics. There is a reason for that, and it has something to do with Jesus, Peter, and the Keys. Just sayin’.
Roman Catholicism has a higher profile and poses a more powerful threat to the culture of death, to gay activists, and to radical feminists than Orthodoxy, but in time they will go after the Orthodox also. In fact, they have already begun.
That’s true in the West, I suppose. I would argue that some of the national Orthodox churches, particularly the Moscow Patriarchate, is capable of taking a strong stance against all of those modern ills. The problem is that very little of what is proclaimed in Russia trickles into the Orthodox Church in the U.S. What little engagement you find in American Orthodoxy with secularist culture tends to be transplanted Evangelical politics. Not all of that is bad mind you, but more than a bit of moral authority is sacrificed along the way.
What’s funny is that even American Orthodox who take a hard line against abortion, etc. don’t want to deal with what is being said in the “old world.” A rather famous Orthodox priest took the time a few years ago to pen an article blasting the Serbian Orthodox Church for not “making the grade” on those issues despite the fact that its recently reposed Patriarch was one of the most outspoken leaders in world Orthodoxy against the culture of death and secularism. Ah well. This American priest also pens apologias for the Assad regime in Syria…