Drive-By-Bloggers or DBBs

A RECENT COMMENT FROM A DBB AFTER READING

"'FREEDOM IN WORSHIP' OR IS ORTHODOXY CHARISMATIC?"

"Well good for you! So glad you've found yet another true way to worship. So long as you don't expect everyone else on the planet to bow in sync with your bow, more power to you. Not everyone is willing to give up the way they worship, the way that's right for them, because it's not right to you. Your truth is not everyones truth, and with so much left before you're fully integrated into the orthodox faith can you truly be giving advice, and telling people in such an open forum that this is the right, the truth, and the only way to go. Lets just say this has been hashed and rehashed in your lifetime and its to your discredidation." ANONYMOUS

As you might understand, due to the public nature of this BLOG, I, upon occasion, receive several negative Comments. Anyone who has made the Journey To Orthodoxy has dealt in some measure with rejection and personal attacks. This is especially true of those who make the drastic shift from some form of Protestantism. I hesitate to post negative Comments like the one here, especially when they are Anonymous. The motives of the author are always in question. I call them drive-by-bloggers or DBBs. They want to shoot at you and run without sticking around. They aren't even sure if their bullet hit the target. It seems to do them good, somehow, just to pull the trigger. One of the most significant differences between me and this DBB is the fact that I put my name on my public forum and take responsibility for what I say. I also am under the authority of my priest who has visited my BLOG and because of my submission to him, he would be given the power of edit if he so chose. In fact, I recently submitted to him a BLOG article that I am withholding from posting at his recommendation until I can gather more information on the topic. So, the DBB does raise at least one valid question concerning my authority to BLOG. Unfortunately it is difficult to appreciate the validity of DBB's Comment due to the noise of DBB's whizzing bullets. But I'll try.

DBB, You are right to point out that I have "found yet another true way to worship". By that I understand that you have knowledge that, in my Journey To Orthodoxy, I have been passionate about truth and worshipping the Lord relative to the knowledge that I had, and that I shared, taught, and expressed, according to that knowledge, and that sometimes that knowledge was wrong. So, your inference would be correct if you are suggesting that once I believed that and now I believe this. Isn't that the way of a Journey, especially one so deep as the pursuit of God? Do you not come upon paths that you didn't know existed, only to discover that the path you were on, that seemed to be the way, was not even near the main road? I understand how, in observing my path-finding toward the main road of Orthodoxy, I might have appeared to be meandering. My own Protestant Father referred to my Journey as the "Religion of the Month Club." But, if one reaches the destination,the main road, can't one's willingness to meander be given a measure of credit for the outcome?

DBB, You are right to acknowledge that I have taught others to "bow" in certains ways that seemed right at the time. It is also true that I carried a "bow" and my quiver was full of arrows with my own monogram. I must confess that I sincerely, but presumptuously, used my bow to pierce the hearts of others with what I believed to be the truth. I sincerely, but at times arrogantly, thought myself a warrior for God. I was wrong. God's arrows are sufficient and his bow is far superior to mine. Since you visit my BLOG, I would hope you would read my articles on Truth and Authority. If you do, you may understand that one of my most significant paradigm shifts is the fact that I no longer hold as a right, my own opinion on anything. My BLOG is not an advice column and it is certainly not a place to express my own opinion on what truth is. Truth has already been established by the Fathers of the Faith. I am sharing the existing truth I have discovered not the new truth I have created. So you are on target on this one. My "truth is not everyone's truth", unless the truth I espouse is that which has been handed down by the Apostles. There is only ONE truth.

DBB, In my article to my daughters I express the fact that they can bring up any number of wrongs I have committed and they will probably all be true. You may be able to do the same. I am a sinner saved by grace, but I am a sinner in a continuing process of repentance. "Hashing and rehashing" is a good thing. It would behoove anyone to spend a "lifetime" doing so. To cease to hash would be to my "discreditation." Fortunately, and by the grace of God, my most confusing hashing days ended in April 2006 when I was Chrismated into the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. It was there (See my 50 Year Journey article), that one of my new brothers in the faith said these words, "Welcome Home." My entire hashing Journey has been about finding the Faith of Our Fathers. Everyone who makes it to their moment of Chrismation in the Orthodox Church says the same thing, "There is no place to go after this. There is no other destination." Part of the Orthodox Liturgy contains this prayer which we pray every week, 

"We have seen the true light. We have received the heavenly Spirit. We have found the true faith. Worshipping the undivided Trinity, for he has saved us."

 

Now, I can, in my admittedly feeble way, spend my next 50 years learning what the Church has taught about light, truth, and worship, for 2000 years.

Finally DBB, The familiarity of your Comment and the fact that you desired to remain Anonymous, suggests you might personally know me and that at sometime along my journey I offended you. If this is the case, I am compelled of heart to ask you to forgive me a sinner and to not hold to my account the wrongs I may have done to you. I also ask that you allow me to make recompense to you personally. Will you put down your weapon DBB and sup with me? May the grace of our Lord be upon you and your family.

"Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."

It's All Relative

I received a comment from one of my sisters recently. She had recently read my article "Where I blew it with my children: A Father's recompense." (You can read her comment there). In my Journey To Orthodoxy I have refrained from discussing these things with any of my family members because I innately understood the propensity for my relatives to internalize my comments, making them a personal affront to their spirituality. (But alas, with this BLOG the cat is out of the bag.) Such is the nature of any dogmatic discussion, but more so when those you love are involved. One who makes this journey must expect to wade through a myriad of emotional responses, personal accusations, misread intentions, and extremes. I am an idealist at heart and an analytical thinker. I often make the miscalculation that others approach a discourse in the same way. I am often disappointed when that doesn't occur. For instance: The doctrinal theme of my article was: God as Punisher vs. God as Redeemer, The Total Depravity of Man vs. The Damaged Soul of Man. My sister wondered "what parents I had" and if I was saying she "was going to Hell". I fully understand the conclusions she has drawn but also see them as very unfortunate. I, too, saw my Protestant parents as loving and caring-the best in many ways. They brought me up in the church and taught me the respect of God and the meaning of life. It was my father who taught me the gospel message.

It was my mother who showed me what it was to be a servant. I do not credit them for any of my weaknesses or propensity to sin. However, my journey has held a unique dilemma. My father was also my pastor and it was from his pulpit, among other venues, that I gained my understanding of doctrine and world view. The fact is, Baptists believe and teach through the doctrinal filter that man is totally depraved, as guilty as Adam and Eve and God is the punisher of sin. Although there is a measure of truth to these things, this is not the Orthodox Faith or ethos (Please reread the article for comparisons). To say that I heard these things preached throughout my life is a fact, to say that I am indicting my parents as the personal perpetrators of this doctrine in my life is not. It is a puzzling dichotomy that the home and the church should have two such differing influences. But in my case as a preacher's kid it is reasonable that I would not be able to separate the two.

I do not have the right to characterize the state of anyone's soul, thus their eternal destiny. I do not even have the right to my own personal doctrinal opinions. That is not Orthodox. What I do have is the responsibility to seek out the truth of the undivided church, that which was "taught at all times, in all places, by all the Church". That is Orthodox. By necessity, some of these discoveries will smack in the face of some Protestant doctrinal stances and ideologies and therefore smack in the face of those family members who still hold to them. Smacking is not the heart or intent nor is it the Orthodox ethos. I have found the Orthodox ethos to be one of love and inclusion. For instance, when I was received into the Church, my baptism was accepted as authentic. This was the baptism by immersion administered by my own father. Entry in to the Orthodox faith "completed" what was begun in my years of Protestantism (*See UPDATE Below). Orthodoxy means "right belief". One aspect of that belief is the reticence to condemn other Christian individuals or groups. But another aspect is to proclaim loudly the Faith of the Apostles. It is in that proclaiming that the fires of dissent can ignite. The attitude of the Orthodox Christian should be "I know where the Church is but I don't know where it isn't". One can only hope to continue a dialogue with those relatives who will, and pray that there will be an absence of inferences and accusations and that no one brings a box of matches. It may be a formidable task, however, because "It's all relative."

* UPDATE 7/21/14: This article was originally written on 6/6/06. I subsequently learned that, although the reception of my Baptist baptism may have been a sign of "love and inclusion" by the Antiochians, that practice is highly irregular and is not in keeping with the canons of the church. For more on this read Why We Left, Where We Went.