Art of Persistence

"The art of love ... is largely the art of persistence." -Albert Ellis

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Almost Ready for Orthodoxy

Driving home from Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified gifts last night, I was listening to Protestant radio. There was an interview with the pastor and author Dr. Warren Wiersbe that I found interesting. I will admit that my attention drifted away for a moment, so I didn't catch the transition, but Dr. Wiersbe was lamenting the "killing of history" that has taken place in much of the Evangelical Protestant community. In explaining what he meant by this, he pointed to the elimination of hymn books in most congregations. He also related that when young seminarians hear the names Harry Ironside, Peter Marshall and other preachers from previous generations the response is typically, "Who's that?"

I shouted at the radio (in good cheer), "John Chrysostom! Who's that? Whatever happened to Ephrem the Syrian?"

This is not the first time I've noticed older, thoughtful Protestants lamenting the changes, and forgetting of history in their churches. This is not the first time I've thought, "They're almost ready for Orthodoxy." Almost, because chances are (if they have any idea of Christian Orthodoxy), they would suffer from the usual Protestant conflation of Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. It's a shame that they're lamenting the nature of the religion that they've been practicing for decades (some of them their entire lives) without realizing that that's what they're doing.

2 Comments:

  • At 10:00 PM, Blogger Trebor Nevals said…

    It's funny. Somehow, I read this whole post but the one thing that stuck out at me was the mention of 'Protestant Radio'. Do all the various divisions of Christianity have their own radio stations? I'd be willing to speculate that they do but I guess I never paid quite enough attention.

     
  • At 2:24 AM, Blogger Rich said…

    Well, Protestants like to call their radio stations "Christian radio stations", but since all they play is Protestant speakers and music I figure I ought to be honest about it.

    Catholics also have their own radio stations. This seems to be a relatively new phenomena spearheaded by Tom Monaghan of Domino's Pizza fame.

    The Orthodox have a couple of internet radio stations. See the link to Ancient Faith Radio in my links section.

     

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