On a post on another blog, the writer posted a whole note on why he is happy to remain a Protestant. He starts out by saying:
Because I’ve been wrestling with Protestant/Catholic issues through-out this past year, I receive a lot of email from those who have moved outside of their lifelong evangelicalism and somewhere within sight of the catholic tradition, if not the Roman Catholic church. Some of that mail takes me to blogs and the writing of people who are in a tortured state of mind and heart. . . .
As I read his post, I found myself thinking that he was indeed making some good points. And, I think that one or two of those points may have to do with one or two of our weaknesses. So, I posted the comment below on his blog. See what you think.
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 Let me put in that some of the “tortured” souls that come into Orthodoxy continue to be “tortured” souls, particularly when they find all our weaknesses and sin. Some of those who come in waving the banner of the True Church have been incredibly shocked that not every jot and tittle of an Orthodoxy that they read about in a book is followed by the Orthodox today.
The priest most responsible for bringing me into Orthodoxy is a convert himself, and a former Director of a region for Campus Crusade for Christ back in the 1960’s. He is old now and will not last much longer. Yet, to this day, he speaks of his gratefulness for his Southern Baptist heritage. As he puts it, he learned about Jesus there; he went to seminary through them; he learned a love for the Word of God that he would never deny. BTW, he is also one of the translators of the Orthodox Study Bible.
As for myself, who was raised as a typical Latino Roman Catholic, that priest of whom I talk brought me to the Lord while he was still a Southern Baptist pastor, but after he had left Campus Crusade for Christ. I, too, am grateful for both the Roman Catholicism that I learned at my mother’s bosom and for the evangelicalism that I was taught when that pastor first reached out to me. Both are part of me, even now that I am an Orthodox priest.
In fact, it was an influx of Evangelicals into the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese that brought about much of the growth in us over the last 20 some years. Perhaps that influx points to a better way. You see, the tendency of the “tortured” souls is to completely reject what they have left for what they are joining. Not understanding the weaknesses of the place to which they are going, they arrogantly judge the weaknesses of the place they are leaving.
But, in the influx of 20 some years ago, both the “Orthodox” side and the “Evangelical” side were able to see the strengths of each one and join strength to strength, so that the “valley” of the one was filled by the “mountain” of the other, and the way of the Lord was made a much smoother road.
I would suggest that this is one of the ways forward. I am fully convinced that the Lord wants One visible Church. But, I suggest that there is more of a chance that we will get there if we learn to join strength to strength into that One visible Church, so that the strength of each covers and fills the weakness of the other. Relating to each other by matching arrogance to arrogance is only a recipe for even more schism.
“You see, the tendency of the “tortured†souls is to completely reject what they have left for what they are joining. Not understanding the weaknesses of the place to which they are going, they arrogantly judge the weaknesses of the place they are leaving.”
Fr. Ernesto,
Your words quoted above was me until about 5 years ago. I left Catholicism and joined a Southern Baptist church at age 21. I went in eventually convinced that Catholicism was a cult and that I had finally found Christian utopia in the SBC. Almost 30 years later I am still an Evangelical but the RCC is not near as “reprobate” as I once thought and the SBC is not near as utopian. May God help us to keep a keen hold on the truth while being amazingly graceful in all other matters and toward all other Believers.
Thank you for helping us to stay balanced.
How much of our resistance to becoming RCC or Orthodox is rooted in our fear and loathing (American? human?) of authority?
Reading the post at iMonk and conversing with other evangelicals about my own desired pilgrimage to the East, I get the sense that most of us “kick against the goads” because we want to be the boss. Michael’s “happy enough” post carriers the whiff of individualism. Just thinking that through…
We have become hyper-individualists in the USA to the point that it hurts us culturally. Most people are surprised to find out that countries as liberal as France have the family written into their Constitution and have laws supporting an entity called the family. We do not, and every time we try to approve such laws, the main arguments against such laws are that they would restrict the rights of the individual.
I am not talking about laws regarding the family that are right-wing oriented. Remember that I cited France, a country that also has strong gay rights legislation. Rather, just the simple idea that the family may need to be recognized as an entity that needs protection is considered to somehow be wrong, in and of itself.
But, here is the funny part. We do recognize entities that are not individuals. They are called corporations. In some ways, corporations have more legal protections in this country than families. It is not that way in France or in several other European countries. Sad, is it not?
So, culturally, we do tend to kick against the idea of someone outside ourselves, such as the Church, having the authority to speak into our lives.
Scott, if I may respond, I believe that individualism is a huge obstacle to many converting to Orthodoxy or the RCC. A structured hierarchy or Magisterium is a scary think to many evangelicals. One could argue that the RCC Magisterium is too structured and cumbersome. Many within the RCC would agree. However, one could also argue that the evangelical’s utter lack of structural authority, beyond the local congregation, can and indeed often is chaotic. A lot of truth there as well.
If the Lord wanted us to have “one visable Church” don’t you think we would have it by now?
What’s He waiting for?
Free will choice. We may not like it that He gave us free will, but then there it is.
There will come a day when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. . . .” However, even then, some will do it willingly and some unwillingly. And, there will come a day when our choice will be confirmed and the dross shall be wiped from our souls, and we shall obey as freely and without restraint as do the angels in heaven.