Iāve noticed Orthodox tend to look quite sternly upon the distinctive Catholic doctrines that everyone argues over, yet remain nearly silent about the innovations of Protestantism that cause such discord in the North American Christian community.
You donāt know very many Ethiopians, do you?
I think it is all relative to how much of an impact or influence Protestantism has had on the people. So, since Protestantism is not very big in places like Russia, Bulgaria, etc., you wonāt find many who address it directly. But if you look at Ethiopia, where Protestants have grown quite a lot at the expense almost entirely of the native Orthodox Christians and their Church, youāll see many, many people addressing it directly. Granted, they address it usually in Amharic, so I donāt know what theyāre saying exactly, but there are lots of videos like
this one that apparently show the efforts of Ethiopian Orthodox to fight against Protestantism in their country and among their peoples, in very explicit terms (I am familiar enough with Amharic and general Semitic languages that I recognized āProtestantawi Jihadā being referenced thereā¦yikes).
The Copts, I am sad to say, are somewhat behind the curve on this stuff (having only encountered Protestants in significant numbers outside of Egypt, in the recent and growing diaspora), though
some are addressing it already, and also
HH Pope Shenouda III has addressed it to some degree (canāt remember exactly where, but in addition to the bit near the end of the interview, there is some point, perhaps in part 1, where he talks specifically about Jehovahās Witnesses; since I canāt remember where, maybe you should watch both parts.
)
I expect because many would view Protestants as āthe wayward children of Romeā and have an attitude of āwe didnāt create the problem, so we donāt have to fix itā. With Protestant so-called missionary efforts in historically Orthodox countries being underway for decades now, this complacency has to be discarded. If I were fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, I would gladly head down to Latin America and set up shop among the Pentecostals.
This is certainly a sensible view from an EO perspective, given the much longer history they have with Rome than we do.
There is great missionary work being done in Latinoamerica by EO and OO alike. as you can see by
videos like this, and
this, and
this, and
this, etc.
The church at which I was baptized, St. Mark COC in Arizona, gave a presentation when I was there by two of the young servants (teenaged girls) who had served the people in Bolivia. It was very inspiring. Apparently over 400 native Bolivians attend in La Paz every week, and the Orthodox work among people in the countryside well outside of the capital where nobody visits. They have found the people there to be very appreciative, but most importantly very dedicated to God. One of the girls said that there is a young boy who now lives in the orphanage who took over upon their leaving, so much was his love for the Church. So the missionary effort is yielding good fruit throughout the world, glory be to God. Incidentally, I speak Spanish more or less natively, since age 3 or 4, and that was the first thing they recommended: āOH, GOOD! You can come with us when we go back, then?ā I had
just been baptized about two hours earlier!
