622. Is Orthodoxy conservative or liberal?

 

 

That was a trick question.  The answer is Yes and No and Both and Neither, depending.

Here’s why. Orthodoxy is Traditional, grounded in the Holy Tradition of the Church. While everything else in the world keeps shifting, mutating, coming and going, moving right and left, the Church is unchanging.

Well, almost unchanging. But change here is never radical, always comes very slowly. Example: While other churches made great changes in the texts and forms of their worship in the Twentieth Century, here was our only: We now pray for those who “travel by land, sea and air…” That’s it! Also, English is now gradually coming to be used here instead of the old country languages – but for the same Liturgy, celebrated in almost the same way as it has been for the past 1500 years. In fact, Orthodox who argue for change always try to ground it somewhere in the Church’s ancient Tradition.

In the world, the meaning of the terms liberal and conservative change with the times, mean different things in various places. So compared to the world, are we Orthodox liberal or conservative? It depends on who or what we are comparing Orthodoxy to, and when and where.

Also are we talking here about religion? or particular social issues? or politics? or political parties. Here is where it can really get confusing. For one example, in Australia, which political party is considered the more conservative? The Liberal Party. In Canada the Conservative Party favors national health care – as do the Liberals.

Let’s go back and start with the basics, so we don’t get confused.

Definitions

As the great philosophers insist: First let us define our terms, so we’ll have some idea what we’re talking about.

These are taken from Merriam Webster:

Conservatism is the inclination to preserve what is established : belief in the value of established and traditional practices in politics and society.

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that values traditional institutions, customs, and gradual development over sudden, radical change. 

Liberalism is the inclination to be open to ideas and ways of behaving that are not conventional or traditional.

Liberalism is a philosophy based on belief in progress and stressing the essential goodness of the human race, freedom for the individual from arbitrary authority, and protection and promotion of political and civil liberties.

Are those acceptable working definitions? In what follows, I’ll take only a few examples. If you think I apply them wrongly, as I well may, please comment below.

Is the Orthodox Church itself liberal or conservative?

Within the Church, do we hang onto our Tradition? Yes, like fury! Do we believe in radical change? You know the answer to that! *

• I promised never to tell the Orthodox version of this old joke again, but for the sake of you new to Orthodoxy: “How many Orthodox does it take to change a light bulb?” “CHANGE……?!” Please forgive me.

However, look at it the other way: Like liberals, we also “believe in the essential goodness of the human race” * and favor “the freedom of individual persons from arbitrary authority” – like from the Russian Communists and the Ottoman Turks or anybody else similar.

• That is a foundational Orthodox teaching.

Also (I don’t know how to describe this, but I’ll try), when I was a Western Christian I found myself increasingly hemmed in, oppressed, trying to conform myself to what I thought were the prescribed doctrines of the Faith, but also trying to be obedient to a Church and to bishops who were muddling away from the Faith. But when I became Orthodox, I suddenly felt free!

Here, I think, was why. I hope this isn’t a silly analogy. Previously I had been trying to play the game in a place where the rules and the parameters kept changing, where everybody was just making it up for themselves. I’d just figure out where I stood, and suddenly we’d have a new liturgy or a new teaching and some people would follow it, and some would not. One day the priest (in good standing) from the suburb just south said to me, “You know, I still have people in my church who believe Jesus is God” – while two miles north in the same denomination, I was trying to teach what I thought was the Catholic Faith.

In Orthodoxy we have a fixed “playing field” and established rules, so here we’re free to “play the game.” Does that make sense? Anyway, as an Orthodox Christian, I feel a sense of freedom that I never knew before. If that is one characteristic of liberalism, then Orthodoxy is also liberal.

Regarding moral and ethical matters: We believe homosexuality is “disordered”, and homosexual behavior is wrong. We believe abortion is wrong under almost all circumstances. However these were certainly not the chief moral failings in the New Testament. So far as is recorded, Christ never mentioned either of them, and Paul condemned homosexual behavior only three times. Read Matthew 25:31-46 for the list of the sins which will send us straight to hell.

As I just wrote *, the Orthodox Church is conservative about the environment – which in certain circles makes us arch-liberals today.

• and readership went down, just as I predicted

The Church is opposed to racism.  See: https://oikoumene.org/news/orthodox-bishops-in-usa-condemn-racist-violence   I’ll leave it to you to determine which races have long been dominant in America and which have long been discriminated against.

The Church is sympathetic to the needy. And to immigrants: naturally, because many our members are first or second generation immigrants, who entered the country legally, of course – which is now increasingly impossible. (I think of all the good, devout people I know who would probably not be here to be members of our parish today.) A few years ago, Milwaukee Orthodox set up a committee to welcome and help settle refugees from Syria, whose country was being torn apart by war. They were never allowed to enter the USA.

The Church is opposed to offensive war. I wrote about this many years ago with our late Metropolitan Philip’s “imprimatur”. Part One is accessible at the bottom of this Post. See also: https://www.saintjohnchurch.org/orthodox-teaching-on-war/

So is the Orthodox Church liberal or conservative?

Is Orthodoxy liberal or conservative re: The Roman Catholic Church

Compared to most teaching and practice of the Roman Church, the Orthodox Church is conservative. With them, we cling closely to the early Tradition: to the  Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the authority of the Scriptures and the Councils, the three fold sacred Ministry, belief that abortion and homosexual behavior are wrong, that care for the poor and oppressed are required, not optional.

In fact, we are more conservative than the Roman Church. We oppose Latin innovations such as altering the Nicene Creed, Papal primacy and infallibility, the teachings that belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and her Assumption into Heaven are necessary for salvation.

We are conservative!

However, regarding certain moral issues, the Orthodox Church is more liberal. For example, the Roman Church teaches that most birth control methods are sinful. Most Orthodox patriarchs and bishops allow birth control, so long as it doesn’t involve abortion. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that marriages cannot be ended. * The Orthodox Church allows divorce and remarriage, with permission of the local Bishop.

• I understand they have their ways around this.

So we’re liberal!

Is Orthodoxy liberal or conservative compared to Protestant denominations?

Oh, help.

I’m not going to go deeply into this, other than to describe the situation, because there are about 9.000 (nine thousand!) official Protestant denominations in the world, and more are appearing all the time. *

• On Holy Thursday Our Lord Prayed “that they all may be one”. How did that work out? Actually quite well, but let’s not go into that today.

So can we stick to the major groups? * Baptist, Pentecostal/Charismatic, Lutheran, Reformed/Calvinist, Methodist/Wesleyan, Anglican/Episcopal – ignoring other major historical groupings: Anabaptist, Adventist, Quaker –  and Non-denominational churches under no external authority which are growing rapidly today. Their doctrines are all over the place.

Does this make it simpler to deal with? No, because… well, take the Lutherans here in Cedarburg. They come from three Synods, as different as day and night, none in Communion with the others.

The ELCA have become liberal Protestant with, for example, gay pastors and gay marriages.

I’m no expert on this, but the Missouri Synod seems to continue traditional Lutheran doctrine, including:1 The Faith is founded on Sola Scripture, only Bible, no Tradition. 2 Mankind has a sinful nature. 3 Salvation is by Faith alone. Good works (how we act) has nothing to do with it.

The Wisconsin Synod is even more conservative and so suspicious of the other two that they don’t allow common prayers – not even at table meals like Thanksgiving! I once got acquainted with a very nice Wisconsin Synod woman who said it really troubled her that so many of her friends and relatives were going to burn in hell.

So are we Orthodox liberal or conservative compare to today’s Lutherans? The answer is we are conservative compared to all three (our doctrines are more ancient) and also we’re more liberal (for example, we actually allow God to decide who is saved and how He does it!) compared to traditional Lutherans. Take your pick.

There’s the same problem with the Methodists and the Presbyterians who are now dividing institutionally into two denominations: liberal and conservative. Anglicans and Baptists have long had many theological divisions within the ranks. These folks also are forever shifting and changing. *

• Do you want to know why? I know the answer, but let’s not go there today.

It is even more difficult to describe our stance in relation to the modern independent Evangelical movement. Their kind of Evangelicalism is barely recognizable compared to the Evangelical tradition I was raised in many years ago. We sang quiet reverent hymns to the Lord. Today rock bands up front entertain the people. Our pastors dressed formally and preached Jesus Christ as Lord. Today some ministers in blue jeans! preach all kinds of things, some good, some crazy.  (I’ve tuned in.) Some speak in tongues, despite the fact that Saint Paul said not to do this unless there is an interpreter. Some wealthy pastors have private jets! Most notably 1 Most Evangelical congregations seventy years ago were denominational, under external authority. 2 The Evangelical movement then was completely a-political. Today… I don’t have to tell you.

One last point. Compared to Protestant fundamentalists, we Orthodox are crazy liberals. We value science and scientific discovery as the gift of God who created the heavens and the earth. Whether He did so in six days or six billion years is not an issue for us.

I think that’s all I know to say.

Is Orthodoxy conservative or liberal politically?

I’ll try hard here to offend everybody equally.

Let’s begin with an extreme example. How would we describe the Greek Orthodox Church in relation to the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Turks?… as conservatives? liberals? No, as radicals! as revolutionaries, literally waging war to regain Greek independence.

So, are we conservative or liberal politically? It all depends. I dealt with this somewhat at the beginning of this Post.

Let’s establish these principles.

1 The teachings of the Holy Orthodox Church are too great, too high, too wide, too profound to fit into the bounds of any human political party. We come from Somewhere Else. As one Orthodox Bishop recently said, If you come here to find [whatever] kind of politics, “please go away”.

2 Though the Orthodox Church has social teachings, the Church does not endorse any secular political organizations. For example, even after fighting for freedom from the Turks, the Orthodox Church did not become the “established” Church of Greece. Instead the Greek Constitution recognizes Eastern Orthodoxy as the “prevailing religion”.

The Orthodox Church does not tell her people how to vote. When I was pastor of Saint Nicholas, Cedarburg, I taught social issues according to Orthodox principles, occasionally upsetting people of various stripes. * I knew my people’s political affiliations were all over the map – and for good and moral reasons, depending on what issues seemed more important to them. We ranged from very conservative Republican (as that was in those days) to old-fashioned Milwaukee Socialist. I considered that their business and none of mine.

• One time a person asked me “Is there any room for Democrats at Saint Nicholas?” Soon after, another person asked me: “Is there any room for Republicans at Saint Nicholas?”  I figured I must be doing something right! To both I answered “Yes”, of course.

If the Church endorses any political party, she’s riding for a fall. I know of Orthodox clergy who themselves are affiliated with political parties and preach that in their parishes. They and their parishes are playing games with fire.

Why?

Because political parties also change with the times. Here are a couple of examples for the instruction of you younger readers who were not there at the time:

We all know the firm anti-abortion stance taken by the Republican Party today. However, Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate for President in 1964, was firmly pro-choice, and publicly opposed the anti-abortion platform adopted by the national Republican Party in 1992. His first wife Peggy was one of the founders of the Arizona chapter of Planned Parenthood.

On the other hand, in 1971, Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, the nearly-successful liberal candidate for President, wrote this: “I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights that must be recognized—the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old. Regarding the issue of human freedom of choice, there are readily available methods of birth control and information that women can use to prevent or delay pregnancy. But once life has begun, no matter what stage of growth it is at, I am convinced that the decision to terminate a pregnancy should not be made simply at will.”

Also, in a 1974 interview President-to-be Joseph Biden stated that the Supreme Court went “too far” with Roe v. Wade and argued that a woman did not have the “sole right to say what should happen to her body”.

When I was young, the Democratic Party was the party of the “working man”. It was comprised of liberals in the North and conservative racists in the South. The Republican Party was the party for more educated people. It favored small government. In the North, there was a strong liberal contingent in the Republican Party. In 1974 liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller nearly won the Republican nomination for President.

Or to be more recent, here is an NBC News report on Donald Trump’s positions on abortion: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-many-abortion-positions-timeline-rcna146601

So you see: Hitch your wagon to a political party or candidate, and someday they’ll probably take you where you never intended to go. I can remember faithful Republicans and Democrats hemming and hawing, trying to justify membership in their parties.

Now, put the Church or your parish in that position, draw people into your parish for political reasons, and sooner or later the people will be hemming and hawing trying to justify why they’re there, and pretty soon many of them will not be.

So is the Orthodox Church conservative or liberal?

Aren’t you sorry you asked?

Never try to fit the Holy Orthodox Church into any merely human category. The Orthodox Church is Who she is, and that’s all: The one original Church of Jesus Christ, built on the solid foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone.

Next Week: Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

Week after Next: Many Things

599. War and Peace, Part One: Christ’s Teachings, The Early Church, The Fathers, The Just War Theory