I’ve interested in comparative religions for a few years, actually, after being irreligious since the second year of college and being burned out by lukewarm Methodism. I practiced Buddhism for a year, and I still am not sure Buddhism is the wrong religion, a great deal of it seems true. I’m actually very good at meditation and I also got into the religious side of Buddhism too- it is more of a private religion in some ways.

I was raised Protestant and am not Orthodox (yet), but I am deeply immersing myself in church history and the writings of the apostolic era. What I can say is that protestantism bears no resemblance to what was taught and practiced by the Apostolic Fathers.

Anyone studying the early Christian Church usually realizes that Christ’s original Church is alive, well and growing in the United States. I am saddened when people look upon things like icons, reverence for the Theotokus (Virgin Mary), the Eucharist, etc. as something other than what they truly are.

The challenge I offer most of these nay-sayers is to read John Chapter 6 and ask yourself why Christ allowed many of his followers to walk away rather than explain “these hard things.” Or to ask why people disrepsect the Theotokus by not honoring her as it is written in Luke and as Christ commandered on the cross? Also — how can one believe the Holy Bible is the sole authority when the Holy Bible itself states that it is not? Peter admonishes us to hold fast to the “traditoins” taught by the apostles whether by “word or epistle.”

For many centuries the Orthodox Church did not exist on this American continent. It is a relative newcomer, but it is gently, quietly and lovingly beginning to make its presence known and felt. Anyone seeking the true Church, the original and first Christian Church is only kidding themselves by discounting the Orthodox Church.