ArmenianJohn
Politically Liberal Christian Fundamentalist
- Jan 30, 2013
- 8,962
- 5,550
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Oriental Orthodox
- Marital Status
- Single
- Politics
- US-Democrat
I'm pretty sure my theory is correct. I think Orthodox monks who are secluded like those on Mt. Athos would not interact with Catholics and it would be natural that they'd have little affinity for anyone else since they don't really know anyone else.I’m not sure your theory is true that ex Protestants underscore differences with Roman Catholics more than cradle Orthodox. I have spoken to a number cradle Orthodox monks on Mt. Athos who showed little affinity for even dialogue with Roman Catholics.
I think Army Matt’s explanation is more plausible: Roman Catholics have recently been whitewashing differences between the two churches due to modern Popes talking about the “two lungs” of Christianity. Remember than pre Vatican II, Orthodox were considered outside of salvation by dint of not belonging to the RCC.
But my experience is with both cradle EO (mostly Greek) and converts (mostly American) in the US and Canada. I'm not going to take the Roman Catholic position and defend it and I don't know their history re pre-Vatican II etc. but I do know that Roman Catholic people and clergy as well as cradle EO/GO have never given me a hard time in terms of accepting me as a Christian brother; all my negative experiences have been with converts who have, um, strong opinions, to put it mildly. I see it in these forums as well.
I am certain it comes from their protestant backgrounds since I had spent much of my childhood involved in a protestant church and school. The zeal and rigidity is familiar to me as coming from that background. I remember another Armenian brother and sister in my school who were the only others aside from me and my brother and sister, and many considered them not to be real Christians because they were in the Armenian Church whereas my family was accepted because we had become members of the Baptist Church. I myself had that kind of rigid mindset except in the case of the Armenian Church because my parents taught us otherwise.
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