I posted this a while back and then this a few days after that, but apparently it’s necessary to go over this issue a bit more.
The most important reasons for not converting to Rome or Constantinople or Atlanta or Houston or Moscow have nothing to do with icons, apostolic succession, sacraments, or liturgy. The reason you shouldn’t convert is because you are required by God to love your neighbor as yourself. John says, ‘how can you say that you love God whom you have not seen if do not love your neighbor whom you have seen?’
The fact of the matter is that most people who end up “converting” do not do it because they have been actively involved in hospitality, serving at the local soup kitchen, evangelizing their neighbors, and volunteering any extra time they have to assist the deacons at Church. People who convert are not generally busy giving themselves away. People who are taking up their cross daily, people who are dying to themselves, don’t have time to ask stupid questions like, “Am I really in a true church?”
Who is your neighbor? What’s his/her name? How many children do they have? Where do they work? What are their hopes and dreams? What are their needs? If you’re having trouble sleeping at night because you think there mightof, shouldof, maybe ought-to-of been a processional, robes, incense, a bishop with a big hat, or some such nonsense, you don’t understand the gospel. You’re busy tithing all manner of mint and dill, and you haven’t even begun to understand the weightier matters of the law which are justice and mercy and faith.
People need to realize that the weightier matters of the law are not apostolic succession, old liturgies, or paedocommunion. Love you neighbor and stop your whining. Take up your cross and learn how to die. Stop bowing down to that idol in the mirror.
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