Just an anecdote but I'm seeing more people in my circle turn to Orthodoxy as protestants do their usual thing and we see some serious issues in the Catholic Church. Here are some nice 'anti-modernist papal encyclicals' if the low IQ approach of protestantism or the growing modernism in Catholicism is bothering you:
I'm eastern orthodox and we are definitely accumulating a lot of disaffected catholics and ex-evangelicals. I think the intense structure appeals to a lot of people from the second group, since they're coming from traditions that leave a lot to the individual which can be stifling in its own way. Plus the aesthetics obviously.
IMO this is a new challenge for the church though and one we're not addressing adequately. A lot of people are coming to EO because they are on some culture war RETVRN bullshit and considered us "based" or whatever. Priests often aren't effectively catechizing them and they still hold doctrinally evangelical beliefs completely foreign to the orthodox tradition.
And too many priests are naively subscribed to "any growth good growth," while a good handful of priests are openly aligning with the protestant far right and diving deep into culture war issues themselves.
It's good to see more young people in the church but the whole thing has me worried. I think there's a real possibility we become just another american christianity, compromised in the same ways, active for the same causes, but with icons and incense.
I am quite happy with having converted to Orthodoxy (baptized as a child, raised in Reform Judaism) and there are some wonderful Church communities in the Bay Area. Happy to discuss my experience if people want to contact me - I credit my faith with saving my life from addiction and homelessness. I’m now getting married next year and planning our family.
In all my decades of studying within the faith never have I found anything high IQ about any of it; protestant, Orthodox, Catholic, etc. Lots of big words, tomes of wasted ink, and authoritative names though.
IMO this is a new challenge for the church though and one we're not addressing adequately. A lot of people are coming to EO because they are on some culture war RETVRN bullshit and considered us "based" or whatever. Priests often aren't effectively catechizing them and they still hold doctrinally evangelical beliefs completely foreign to the orthodox tradition.
And too many priests are naively subscribed to "any growth good growth," while a good handful of priests are openly aligning with the protestant far right and diving deep into culture war issues themselves.
It's good to see more young people in the church but the whole thing has me worried. I think there's a real possibility we become just another american christianity, compromised in the same ways, active for the same causes, but with icons and incense.