Defining oneself in the negative

Defining oneself in the negative

A profile in Sunday’s Boston Globe starts off promisingly, describing Anthony Hughes, a priest of the Antiochian Orthodox Church who started off his life as a Southern Baptist and was once a student at the fundamentalist Oral Roberts University.

Unfortunately, rather than exploring the very interesting phenomenon in which so many Protestant ministers are leaving their denominations for the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, it quickly devolves into an opportunity to bash Catholic doctrine. In fact, to read this piece, you’d get the impression that the flood is bypassing Rome altogether and going only to Constantinople.

Why does the columnist Sam Allis mention the remarkable fact that during Anthony’s three years at ORU three decades ago, about 30 other students studying for the ministry left for the Orthodox Church and then never explore why? What caused that flood? Was there a single point of influence or did they all come to that conclusion separately? We’ll never know.

But it’s the Catholic-bashing that catches your eye.

The Orthodox Church, sensibly, is not wed to celibacy. Its priests, unlike their Catholic brethren, can live normal lives and have families. [emphasis added]

Insecurity

Technorati Tags: | | | | | | |

Share:FacebookX

Archives

Categories