Orthodox Reflections

By Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

I had been Orthodox a few years when, bowing to family pressure, I attended a Pentecostal service at the church I had grown up in. One of my nieces was getting an award for her volunteer work, and the entire family had put the hard sell on me to attend. So I did. Reluctantly. I got through everything in a stoic manner until the sermon.

The passage was from the New Testament. The pastor read it, then started out by saying, “There it is! In plain English! Anyone can understand what this means.” But, even though everyone, in his opinion, could understand the meaning of the passage – he still proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes explaining it to all of us at the top of his lungs.

Interestingly, the NT passage in question had been the subject of the homily at Divine Liturgy just the week before. So I had the Orthodox Catholic understanding of it fresh in my mind as the pastor proceeded to shout his own interpretation at us. An interpretation that was absolutely, catastrophically wrong.

The pastor, having done no research other than consulting with the Holy Spirit, had no idea that his beloved King James Version had gotten the original translation slightly wrong. Nor did the pastor realize that he was reading 400-year-old English through a modern lens. English is one of the most changeable languages in the history of the world. That is why we need guidebooks or teachers to properly understand certain passages in Shakespeare. A fact that is totally non-controversial, but one which is completely overlooked when the KJV is involved.

Further, the pastor did not bother to read the passage in the context it was written, or in the context of the scriptures as a whole. He plucked it out, and proceeded to enlighten us as to the true meaning as delivered to him personally by God.

I actually laughed. I tried not to. I really did. But it was just too tough to hold it all in. Luckily all the shouting drowned me out, and I was sitting towards the back anyway. Hopefully everyone just thought I had “gotten the Holy Spirit” or something.

Which brings me to an online kerfuffle that has broken out over some comments by Fr. Stephen DeYoung about trying to use solely translations of the Bible and the Church Fathers, combined with an untutored intellect, to reach theological conclusions.

Stephen DeYoung says it is a sin for English speakers to try to teach about Church Fathers. Says English speakers cannot understand Church Fathers. pic.twitter.com/8oDDAHI2ae

— Louis (@Louisfzjx) June 15, 2026

To say his comments have been twisted and misinterpreted is an understatement. However, what Fr. Stephen is saying actually is spot on, as my own experience in Protestantism makes very plain. When the blind lead the blind, both fall in the ditch.

Let’s be clear. Orthodoxy has absolutely nothing against translations into the vernacular. The Church is not against laity reading the Bible in translation. The Church is not against laity availing themselves of all the Patristic texts available online and in books. This is not new. It is the Tradition of the Church. This openness to vernacular was one of the things that first impressed me when I was originally studying Orthodoxy almost 30 years ago. When preaching to the Inuit, the missionaries created a whole written language for them. Same thing with the Slavs. In China, Orthodox missionaries are actually creating new words to express Christian theological concepts as part of the translation efforts into Chinese.

As a practical matter, if I didn’t believe this, then our blog would not be publishing newly translated Akathists and lives of saints from the original Romanian. Our humble blog is actively participating in a project to increase the amount of Orthodox literature in English. We want Americans to have access to more Orthodox material, not less.

The Church is very open to Americans both reading and discussing scriptures and the Church Fathers. However, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify” (1 Corinthians 10:23). Just because you are free to do something, doesn’t make it a good idea. Not everyone should dive deep into Patristics and Biblical scholarship. For some, doing so is extremely counterproductive.

Let me give you an Orthodox example to explain what I mean. At coffee hour, a young catechumen sat down next to me and wanted to discuss The Orthodox Confession of St Peter Mogila. This young man, not even old enough to drink, had run across a discussion of the “Latin Captivity” of the Orthodox Church on social media. Interested, he’d ordered the Confession and was engrossed in reading it. His reading, combined with incessant online discussions, was leading him to certain interesting conclusions that he wanted to discuss with me.

I stopped him cold. I asked him if the Father had instructed him to read this book as part of his catechism? He said no. I asked him if he had a background in academic theology? He said no. I asked him if he understood the historical context of 17th Century Kiev in which Mogila was writing, and how that context might have affected his defense of Orthodoxy? He agreed he had no real understanding of that, but had read a few articles on the subject. I then further asked him if he spoke Latin, the language in which the work was originally written? He said no, but he had taken a few years of Spanish in high school. Well then, I asked, how sure was he of the translation he was using or that he understood this work in the overall context of 2,000 years of Church history – both before and since the original publication? He hadn’t actually researched the background of the translation. He’d just ordered the first one that popped up online. He continued that he was unsure how to integrate, or not integrate, what he was reading with his own catechism classes. Further, he had no idea what councils / other saints had to say on the various topics in the Confession.

I then asked him if he had read the entire Divine Liturgy on his own? He had not, but he planned to. Next, I asked him if he was praying a rule of prayer on a daily basis? He said he was trying. I finally asked him what he was doing to serve the parish as a volunteer? He admitted he was doing nothing to serve the parish.

So I then pointed out that he was in the exact same position as a severely obese man who suddenly decides to run a marathon with zero preparation. Whether he wanted to hear it or not, I added, he was years away from participating in any kind of discussion like this. In fact, he might never be ready for such a discussion, and that would be just fine. The amount of basic theology the average lay person actually needs to follow Christ is much less than what can be ordered from Amazon. The Last Judgment is not a theological examination. Which is a good thing, because most of us would fail it.

No one questions the need of an athlete to extensively train his body before entering the field of contest. Yet, how many enter into spiritual matters after little prayer and even less fasting? 

I recommended that he put all that away, discuss it with the priest if he felt he needed to, but to focus more on his own soul and less on theological disputes online. I also recommended he spend more time in prayer, and way less on social media. Further, I emphasized to him that it was okay for him to just follow his bishop and his priest on theological matters, as he clearly lacked the academic and spiritual background to draw conclusions on his own. We have shepherds for a reason. To be honest, he actually felt relieved. He is no longer Protestant, which means he no longer has to be his own Pope.

Fortunately, he listened to the advice. Not all youngsters do. Particularly online, you can run across recalcitrant individuals who have read some Church Fathers, and now feel fully prepared to lecture other Orthodox Christians on various theological topics. Original Sin and various models of atonement seem to be hot button topics among some younger people for whom theology is something of a hobby. Such tadpoles will often tell you, straight up, that they know Orthodox Theology better than their priests or their bishops.

That is, of course, absolutely mental, and is exactly what Fr. Stephen DeYoung is trying to prevent happening. Those with no education, and even less discernment, get hold of texts and then jump straight off various Internet cliffs. Next thing you know, whole debates are raging online, or even worse at coffee hour, over what this saint taught versus that saint or this council versus that council or whatever.

What even is the point of arguing with fellow Orthodox Christians who are accurately representing what they were taught in catechism? Is a typical Orthodox Christian really going to abandon what his priest taught him, just because a youngster posts quote memes of a Russian saint he has never heard of?

In the Protestant world, a man forms a new opinion based on his own ignorant interpretation of something Paul wrote, and a new denomination is formed. In a hierarchical church, that is impossible. But factions can still form, which can cause people to leave the Church or never join to begin with. Hard truth – if you can’t manage basic kindness and humility, you aren’t in a position to teach anyone anything.

Now, let’s take a breath here. This is Orthodox Reflections and we, as a blog, have been extremely hard on some bishops. However, let’s examine what we have been hard on them about. Our asks for bishops (and priests) could be summed up as follows:

• Don’t close Churches.
• Don’t change Orthodox liturgical practices out of fear.
• Don’t push pharmaceuticals.
• Don’t kowtow to the LGBTQ and other socio-political agendas in transparent attempts to curry globalist favor.
• Don’t equivocate on abortion. It’s not a political issue. It’s murder.
• Don’t be Zionist. Consistently proclaim the truth – the Orthodox Catholic Church is the Israel of God.
• Don’t recognize schismatic churches.
• Don’t cover up, or enable, Orthodox Christian persecution as a favor to the U.S. Deep State.
• Don’t punish priests for purely political beliefs. Not everything is dogma.
• Preserve the Faith as generally understood and practiced.
• Don’t ordain women.
• Don’t be ecumenist. As in, don’t give gay Episcopal “priests” an honored place in services, don’t go to Hindu temples, don’t have Roman Catholic bishops bless your congregation, etc.
• Don’t embarrassingly suck up to various governments, including the American one.
• Don’t live in America with an American-based flock, while publicly working for the benefit of a foreign nation. Any foreign nation – that includes Greece.
• Don’t be corrupt, nor tolerate anyone earning a paycheck from the Church who is.
• Don’t take money from people who are trying to influence the future direction of the American Orthodox Church in a negative way.
• Plant missions, encourage positive parish life, and welcome converts.
• Work towards eventual Orthodox jurisdictional unity in the U.S.
• Don’t try to run the Church as a corporation instead of the Body of Christ.

To be perfectly honest, we really don’t feel like we are setting too high a bar here. We are also willing to listen to criticism when others think we got any of the above wrong. And boy do we get criticism. All of which we read and usually publish. Even when we don’t want to, which is often.

What most of us aren’t doing here, typically, is getting into the trenches on deep theological topics. Why? Most of us aren’t equipped for that and we know it. We have published material from seminary grads / theologians that did get into deeper theological topics. Articles which generated, shall we say, more than a bit of controversy in Orthodox circles? The jury is really still out as to whether or not those were a mistake, or a positive addition to inter-Orthodox dialogue. In any case, not our usual modus operandi.

As for myself, I especially don’t try to write on complex theological topics. I design financial systems for a living. In my past, I was heavily involved in American politics. I write what I know – systems analysis, finance, economics, sociology, politics (particularly political dysfunction), foreign policy, historical analysis, and living in Orthodox parishes (some successful, some not) for the last almost three decades. You could fill zettabytes worth of storage with all the things I don’t know, particularly concerning theology.

Like most Orthodox Christians, I am still struggling with the basics. I have enough trouble just loving my neighbor as myself. Heck, even loving my children is a challenge some days. Why would I, spiritual midget that I am, try and figure out (to make an example of a recent online controversy) what to make of the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 and how its teachings relate to unbaptized babies going to Hell?

I don’t want to, and I don’t need to. I baptized every single one of my children, because the Church, following Christ and His Apostles, teaches the necessity of baptism. I tell everyone else to baptize their children. For the same reason. What I do and what I advise are under my control. What happens to the children of others, who perhaps made poor choices for them, is not under my control. Further, even if I believed unbaptized babies went to some kind of “Hell,” I would never say that to parents who had lost a child prior to their conversion, or who had a child miscarry in the womb.

I get it, some theology geeks are trying to win a debate point on “Original Sin.” So to do that, they appear willing to emotionally destroy others, even grieving parents. It makes me want to ask them, “Just how far are you willing to go to win a meaningless, online debate?”

The Apostle John told us all that, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (John 4:7-8)

Theology geeks should take that lesson to heart. Or, if they don’t like that one, then perhaps they can try the words of Our Lord, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

So a cautionary word to amateurs debating theology with other Orthodox Christians. If you are actively trying to rip another Orthodox Christian apart, who is accurately representing the faith he was taught by those placed over him in the Church, what kind of love is that exactly? What is your “debate” win going to cost in real human suffering? If you “win” a debate with a Protestant, you might motivate him to investigate the Orthodox Church. If you “win” a debate with an Orthodox Christian, and thereby invalidate his catechism, where are you convincing him to go? Out of the Body of Christ altogether?

Good luck with that at the Last Judgment. “Sure, Lord Jesus, I drove people out of Your Church, but I did so in an effort to get them to properly understand the concept of Original Sin! Surely You are okay with that?”

I often encourage younger Orthodox to sit and talk to the cradle Orthodox great-grandparents in the parish. Most of them have never read a single theological book in their lives, but decades of hard living and hard prayer have given many of them a heart for God we can scarcely comprehend. The Orthodox Faith is not a body of intellectual knowledge to be studied and memorized. It is a path to be walked. Too many academically-inclined young people get that twisted at the beginning.

Most amateur theologians, especially the young ones, should find better hobbies than eating Doritos while arguing with other Orthodox Christians over theology on social media.

I am reminded of a story a bishop once told me. As a young seminary student, he had the opportunity to drive an elderly bishop to a parish visit. Wanting to appear intellectual, the future bishop posed a question that he believed would be a lively discussion topic. He asked, “Do you suppose Satan can be saved?” The elderly bishop snapped back, “See to yourself.” They did not speak again the entire drive.

Let God be God. Let Him take care of sinners, those with incomplete understanding of the Church Fathers, and unbaptized babies as He wills. Theological conclusions are best left to those with long experience and education in the Orthodox Faith. Unless something is so patently off that a child can recognize it (such as almost anything published by Fordham-aligned academics) – see to yourself. That is the best advice I could ever give to new Orthodox Christians. That and avoid Doritos, because those things are toxic.