Orthodox Biz Blog

Back in September 2007, a poster on the Website Orthodox Circle wrote an impassioned plea. He and his wife are adult converts to Orthodoxy. They have visited our church in the past, but are now attending a mission closer to their home. The gentleman wanted to know, in regards to growing the Orthodox Church, “How can we inform the masses about our church, so that it doesn't seem so strange to the protestants?”

That is a common question, even from converts who themselves have embraced the Orthodox Christian faith. The general feeling is that Orthodoxy is somehow foreign. It is strange and different, so unlike anything American that it is bound to be incomprehensible to an American audience.

The fact that this idea is common among Orthodox Christians in the United States, however, does not make it true. In fact, the theory and practice of Orthodoxy is not hard to explain to Americans in a cultural context which they can understand.

While practicing authentic Orthodoxy can be hard, explaining it isn’t. That is, if you use cultural archetypes that Americans can readily understand. This isn’t a new idea, of course, Jesus Himself did the same thing. After all, didn’t He use pastoral and agricultural imagery such as lost sheep and fields of grain to explain his message to a largely rural audience?

How can this be applied in the real world? Let’s examine that, and begin with one of the most ‘foreign’ things about Orthodoxy, the veneration of icons.

We Orthodox venerate icons. This is an action that is frequently misperceived by Protestants, most of whom are iconoclastic and associate religious images with idolatry. Given his own lack of sacred images, how can one explain the veneration of icons to an American without resorting to long lectures on the 7th Eucemincal Council?

Simple. Americans, all Americans, do have at least one sacred image. It’s called the Flag of the United States. Military personnel salute the flag, even when it is simply flying on a flagpole and they are all by themselves. A flag can’t know they are saluting it, but yet they do it anyway. Why?

Americans in patriotic settings, such as the funeral of a veteran, kiss the flag. It’s simply a scrap of cloth, isn’t it? Why kiss it? And, Americans use the flag to hallow various occasions by facing it, placing their hand over their heart, and reciting a national creed known as the Pledge of Allegiance.

The power of this symbol to provide a focus for our love of America is, of course, why so many patriotic Americans are incensed by the idea of burning a flag or abusing one in any way. In fact, as any Boy Scout knows, there are distinct rules about how a flag can be treated, and even how an old flag can be destroyed.

Americans see nothing wrong with venerating this secular image in exactly the same ways in which we treat our icons. When carrying out any of those acts, Americans know that their honor and veneration are for our homeland and its culture. They understand that they aren’t paying homage to a mere yard of fabric, but to the reality that it makes present.

This cultural fact of high devotion to an icon like the flag is a bridge to explaining the use and, in fact, the need for Holy Icons. Just as the patriot needs a tangible representation of his American nation, so do Christians need tangible representations of our faith.

Beyond the flag, of course, the need for icons is attested to universally in our culture. Need to get an audience’s attention at work during a presentation? The first thing you do is create a PowerPoint to go along with the spoken word. Truth be told, the same thing is happening in officially iconoclastic churches. Studies tell us that 80% of all mega-churches use visual aids during worship. The Protestant pastors running the show instinctively understand that something is missing, and they are trying to fill the gap. Some are even turning to permanent artwork to meet the need, as a trip to many mega-churches will reveal ‘inspirational’ murals and other decor.

Besides the veneration and use of icons, many Americans consider the veneration of relics to be strange. When this comes up, I often ask, “Would you rather have your grandmother’s ring, or a ring worth 10 times as much?”

The answer is almost always, “My grandmother’s ring, of course!” But why? What is so special about your grandmother’s ring? The answer is obvious, because it was your grandmother’s. Even the most secular American or the most raging Protestant instinctively understands that physical objects are affected by the person with whom they are in close proximity. Almost everyone would treasure owning something that belonged to a dear relative or friend, even if the object itself is trivial.

It also goes the other way as well. Almost no one would want to own an article of clothing worn by Hitler. In fact, one study found that people even objected to owning an article of clothing woven from fabric taken from an article of clothing owned by Hitler. They didn’t even want to so much as come into contact with the thread itself.

People feel, instinctively, that great sentiment, or great evil, can become attached to inanimate objects and can somehow affect them. The Bible is complete with such stories, such as when Elisha used his master Elijah’s cloak to divide the water of the Jordan River. How much more, of course, would a Christian value an object that had actually been touched by Jesus Christ, such as the True Cross? Or, why should we not feel blessed to touch that which is associated and transformed by being in close proximity to a holy man or woman?

The Orthodox use candles as a form of prayer. What is the first thing that everyone does after a tragedy of some kind? They organize a candlelight vigil. We Orthodox worship in a liturgical fashion with high ceremony. Did you ever attend the rituals conducted by a fraternity or sorority, many of whom were founded by religious Protestants? Ever wonder why so many Baptists are Masons? While they eschew liturgy in the Church, they embrace it in the Masonic Lodge. Even on a national scale, did you witness the high ritual of Ronald Reagan’s funeral?

Many are even finding a sense of mystery and liturgy in the Occult. It is no accident that most Pagan practices look more like a liturgy than a Protestant revival, and it isn’t because Liturgy is evil. Rather, it is that those who do not have meaningful liturgy in Church are desperately seeking it wherever they can find it, even at the hands of a Pagan priest.

To sum everything up, far from being foreign, Orthodoxy is in fact the religious faith that is most normal for mankind, whether of the American or Russian persuasion. That Orthodoxy appears strange or alien to our fellow Americans is not their fault. It’s ours. We’ve failed to understand the essential harmony of our faith with the nature of man as God intended him.

In fact, Orthodox practices are what people everywhere do naturally, when left to their own devices. Properly explained, Americans can get this fact.

After all, didn’t many of us?

Originally printed in the Martyr Magazine October 2006 Edition.

Glen Chancy is CIO for corfun.com and publisher of Orthodox Biz. You can contact him here .