TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS

(The following article is composed of two e-mails that were part of a correspondence between Frederica Mathewes-Green, author of Facing East, Tania Bouteneff, a parishioner at Holy Trinity Church in New Britain, CT and the poser of some difficult questions. It is reprinted with the gracious permission of all the participants. ­ Ed.)

I received these two e-mails from a woman who is interested in Orthodoxy, but has some very tough questions about what she sees of it. In some of this, I just have to admit she's right. My response was "Join anyway, put up with it, because you have to have the sacraments," but some of her questions are still deserving of consideration. I'd like to hear any response any of you have.

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Dear Frederica,

I have read Facing East and thoroughly enjoyed your realistic and honest portrayal of Orthodoxy. I am a frustrated Protestant; I have exhausted the resources of Protestantism and have found them lacking. Orthodoxy has appeal to me due to the historical traditions, the sacraments, and an appreciation for the disciplines of fasting, prayer, and the ascetic struggles of trying to live out Christianity.

However, when I visit the Orthodox churches nearby, I am appalled at the general malaise, lethargy, lack of attentiveness and casualness displayed by the parishioners. The children are very ill-behaved, and the majority of people entered the worship service 30-45 minutes into the service and then proceed to take communion as if they had participated in the entire service. So the conclusion of spectators like myself is likely to be: can this be the pearl of great price that I have been seeking?

My desire to be Orthodox is to enable me to gain greater intimacy with Almighty God and to worship Him in a way that will please Him and benefit my own walk in godliness. Is this the right goal to be pursuing? Or is there a better reason to desire Orthodoxy? I am married with 5 children, and my husband is very set in his Protestant thinking, so I don't even know if becoming Orthodox is an option for me right now. But I have prayed that God would enable us to become Orthodox if that is His will.

How can Protestants like me, who come from churches with well-behaved children, a reverence for worship, a vast storehouse of memorized Scripture, and many hours of Bible Study under our belts learn to appreciate the Biblically-ignorant, haphazard, attention-deficit-disordered type of worship that Orthodoxy so often exhibits? (I actually attended a Father's Day service where cigars were passed out to all the fathers and they lit up in church!) Can this cultural barrier be hurdled by American cradle-Protestants?

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Dear Frederica,

You recommended joining the best Orthodox church available even if it didn't please me, because you are so compelled to draw near the sacraments. And mentally, I can see how the Orthodox historical-connection makes it the only "valid" version of the sacraments that are described in Scripture.

But in reality, it doesn't "appear" that this is evidenced in the lives of most Orthodox parishioners that I have observed. If the sacraments are so central and powerful and important, then why aren't the people who regularly partake of them more godly and Christ-like?

And conversely, why are so many Protestants who have never partaken of the true Orthodox sacraments so godly and Christ-like in their daily living ­ out of Christianity? Shouldn't there be a more visible verification that the sacraments are the life-changing elements that they are supposed to be?

I hope that this doesn't sound blasphemous or disrespectful. But it is a question that keeps nagging me in the midst of this whole dilemma of how to make the jump into Orthodoxy. My Orthodox friends insist that one should just follow the Nike advertisement and "Just Do It." But I guess that flies in the face of everything that a rational, protestant American has grown up doing which is to try to figure everything out first. How do you make a decision to do something (like become Orthodox) which doesn't make much sense to someone before they have been Orthodox for awhile?

Another question I have is why Orthodox Christians don't (generally) apply their Christianity to every area of their lives in much the same way that Francis Schaeffer espoused? Many of the Orthodox are raising their children in public schools, and aren't aware of moral issues in politics, allow unlimited TV time in their families, and are pretty status quo in the decadent culture that surrounds them.

This is contrasted to the evangelical Protestants where my family attends church that homeschool their children, are very aware of moral issues in politics, are very conscientious about their children's spiritual upbringing, and are willing to be different from the culture around them.

So how can I entice my husband to look into a church that externally appears to be clueless in applying what they believe to their daily lives when we are in a church that is far beyond that in living a disciplined Christian life?

My Orthodox friend said that this is because the Orthodox people expect the monks, nuns, and priests to be the "really spiritual" examples and that their prayers allow the rest of the parishioners to be a little more lax because the parishioners know that their bases are covered. They don't try to be strict on fasting or weekday services or anything, because it isn't really expected of them if they aren't specially called to it as a vocation. That seems kind of lame as an excuse, but maybe that is the reality of the mindset.

I would be interested to know your thoughts on these two questions. Thank you for taking the time to listen.