Faithful Heretics

Archpriest Michael Gillis | 11 August 2016

What does an Orthodox Christian do when faced with the manifest godliness and piety of a heretic? Certainly the first thing you do is acknowledge that it is indeed godliness and piety. The picture on the left is a popular Mennonite image of a Mennonite refugee who, being chased across a frozen river, stops and returns to help one of his pursuers who has fallen through the ice. The pursuer is saved and the Mennonite is captured and burned at the stake as a heretic. The image is iconic of the Gospel and could easily take a place beside the icon on the prodigal son or the publican and the pharase as a faithful image of the Gospel teaching.

I am often asked by Orthodox teens how they are supposed to interpret their observation that some pagans and other non-Orthodox seem to be more righteous than the Orthodox Christians they know. I have an answer, but it is not very satisfying. It is already an indictment that such an observation is so commonly made. No amount of explaining really helps. “We have found the true faith,” and yet we don’t live it.

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.

Related articles
Can We Know for Sure Who…

There are a number of people who are fairly certain that they can know—not guess, but…

Do All Non-Orthodox People Go to…

Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky was even bolder when he wrote, "Outside the Church there is no…