<\/a>Source: Koinonia<\/a><\/p>\n Much like the Catholic Church, Mainline Protestant<\/a> denominations and Evangelical Christians, the Orthodox Church is struggle to decide whether or not Christ has called us to take an active or a passive role in the world. By his example, Metropolitan Jonah<\/a> has said we should be active–even proactive–while his critics, either out of fear of, or agreement with, the spirit of the age have opted for passivity. This at least is the conclusion that I would draw from the recent Washington Post profile piece about his Beatitude (you can read it here<\/a> and my post on it here<\/a>).<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n It seems clear that the Orthodox Church in America<\/a> is internally divided between those who would rather not step out into the public square with the Gospel and those like his Beatitude are ready, willing and eager to do so. As in every human decision, people do or don\u2019t do for a mix of reasons and just because two people agree on a course of action doesn\u2019t mean they have the same motivation or goal. Some Orthodox Christians do not want to step into the public square because they are timid. But others really and truly want to see a naked, secular, public square. Yes, as in the wider culture, abortion and homosexuality are the hot button issues, but the underlying issue<\/strong> is the role of the Church in a civil society. The Metropolitan’s critics are arguing the Church has no role in the public square or, if it does, it must be subservient to the larger society.<\/p>\n What concerns me is not simply that there is a (hopefully) small minority in the Church who support a naked public square, legalized abortion and gay \u201cmarriage.\u201d While I know there are senior clergy and lay leaders who simply reject the moral tradition of the Church on these issues, I think that their gentle apostasy has taken hold not because their arguments are convincing but to fill a vacuum. Having served in Rust Belt<\/a> parishes, I know that many of the communities East of the Mississippi are simply afraid for their futures. Especially as the economy has shifted they’ve seen their own incomes drop and their children move away. Whether intentionally or not a minority is exploiting those who are afraid.<\/span><\/p>\n I’ve read the critics. Frankly their position is based in fear. Again and again they offer a variation of the argument that in some, unspecified way, Metropolitan Jonah is destroying the OCA. They don’t offer any proof, much less a concrete alternatives save to remind us that the best thing to do what we\u2019ve always done. This is the same argument you hear in so many of our shrinking parishes. There people hold to the understandable, but false, hope that, somehow, we can go back to the days when the mills were running, the economy humming, our parishes were full and we could hope to see our children\u2019s children marry and raise a family. Saying that we just need to do what we\u2019ve always done is cruel because it exploits the fears of those who have already lost so much because of economic dislocation and demographic shifts.<\/p>\n It is worth noting that with maybe one or two exceptions, Metropolitan Jonah\u2019s critics are from the former centers of American Orthodoxy. His Beatitude’s supporters on the other hand come from the South and West, areas of the country where the Church is growing. Like it or not, in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and throughout the Rust Belt and the Mid-West, gone are the days when Orthodoxy was a cultural and familial given. So yes, there is certainly a liberal\/conservative dynamic in all this. But I think we should not discount the pain and fear of people who have suffered economically as well as spiritually. It is a sad irony that in rejecting Metropolitan Jonah, the suffering Orthodox Christian communities in New England, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the formerly industrial Mid-West are rejecting an approach to Church life that offers the best hope for the long-term viability of their parishes as well as for keeping their children and their children\u2019s children in the Church.<\/p>\n Whether or not the Orthodox Church has a future in America\u2014and I think it does\u2014it only does to the degree that it looks like Metropolitan Jonah. Like it or not, and there are those who don’t like it, his face is the face of the Church’s foreseeable future. What he brings to the table is an approach to Church life that is frankly and unapologetically entrepreneurial and not managerial. More to the point, it is an approach that builds the Church numerically and spiritually. Let me explain.<\/p>\n