I have found that it is possible for a person to be Orthodox, in the sense that they are baptized, chrismated, do penance, and receive communion, and yet not be Christian. Likewise, it seems possible for an organization to be an Orthodox Church, but not be a Christian community. This will seem controversial, but I think it’s so.
I have witnessed one atmosphere of hyper-correctness and emotional and physical abuse, with strong sociological characteristics of a cult. I have witnessed another atmosphere that was anti-clerical, anti-ethnic, vaguely neoconservative, and spent a lot of time plotting to manipulate their image to the bishop, and affect the reputations of various clergy based on what ‘camp’ they were in. I have witnessed another atmosphere working to integrate Orthodoxy with things that can never be integrated, collaborating with emissaries from gnostic groups and roving hyper-ecumenists. I have listened to clergy explain how they are working with people to oust monks and priests who have the ‘wrong’ attitudes, and are barriers to the union of a world-christianity, and the evolution of Orthodoxy into a cultural instrument. I have witnessed a community that is working quite consciously to de-asceticize Orthodoxy and build a kind of system of religious affiliation that is devoid of personal devotion but maintains control through a kind of corporate power structure. Some people are likely not to believe I’ve seen these things, or will question my interpretation of them; there’s little I can do about that.
What I have concluded, however, is that there is a very real trend in religious life, to which Orthodoxy is apparently not immune, to recreate all the worst religious ideas ever imagined or invented. In other words, if it was a bad religious idea, and we think we’ve learned from it that it’s harmful, it will nonetheless be reproduced somewhere by someone in some Orthodox form. This is a hard thing for Orthodox to hear. We have long and widely, and with good reason, considered ourselves effectively immunized from the same processes that have gone to work on the other Christian confessions and indeed other religions, such as Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
Our critics would say Orthodoxy has always had the same set of problems as everyone else; I would strongly disagree; I think that’s an assumption born out of only superficial analysis. It is certain, however, that at least since 1920, we have indeed seen problems formerly considered merely Western or American become our problems. In fact, some have observed that this started with an unparalleled activity of emigration to the West and accompanying missionary efforts. One could reasonably ask the question who is converting whom?