One of the reasons why Orthodoxy has attracted evangelical Protestants is that there is a teaching in evangelical circles that the Orthodox Church is True, Original, New Testament Christianity.
I remember hearing this teaching over and over again for years back when my husband and I were evangelical Protestants. I remember when we went to the March For Life, we were told to "Watch for the Orthodox Christians who will be up on the podium. These men are the “True, Original Christians.” We believed this.
What’s interesting is that a lot of evangelicals believe the teaching, but they don’t become Orthodox. Isn’t that strange?
But I think the reason is that a lot of evangelicals know absolutely nothing about Orthodoxy. My husband and I sure didn’t.
We thought, and they still THINK that Orthodoxy is “Heavy” Evangelical Protestantism. Of course we know it isn’t. Orthodoxy is very simliar to Catholicism. But evangelical Protestants don’t know this. They have no idea.
I remember when my husband and I were looking into Catholicism, we also looked into Orthodoxy, and we were completely shocked to learn what the Orthodox Church teaches. Marian doctrines?! I think a lot of evangelical Protestants don’t realize this at all! If they did, they sure would not be calling Orthodox Christianity “the Original Christianity!”
One of the main reasons why evangelical Protestants get interested in Orthodoxy and “trust” it more than they Catholicism is that several very prominant and revered evangelicals have converted to Orthodoxy.
The main one is Frank Schaeffer, the son of the absolutely beloved and even adored Francis Schaeffer (who started L’Abri in Switzerland, and wrote the classic, How Shall We Then Live: The Rise and Fall Of Western Culture And Thought).
I’m not sure if I can convey to non-Protestants the incredible influence of Francis Schaeffer; to this day, many evangelical Protestants, and even some mainline Protestants, consider Schaeffer the Consummate and Ultimate Intellectual of the Christian (not just Protestant, but Christian) world. I can still remember the day he died–our church was in mourning. Many were sobbing over the passing of this great man.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, his son Frank Schaeffer became known as “the angry young man” of Christianity. He wrote several scathing books about the sorry state of Christianity, which were snapped up by those of us who were young (especially teenagers). There was a lot of debate in evangelical Protestant circles about whether Frank was merely a bratty curmudgeon, or whether he was the successor to his brilliant and beloved father. (Frank was hard to love!).
But no matter which side you took, you still respected him mainly because you respected anyone conceived by the great Francis Schaeffer!
So when Frank Schaeffer converted to Orthodoxy, it created huge shock waves among evangelicals, and many who trusted the Schaeffers decided that if Frank Schaeffer could convert to Orthodoxy, then it must be the Truth.
Another very prominent evangelical Protestant who converted to Orthodoxy was Peter Gilchrist. This man is not quite so well-known among evangelicals, but he was certainly a heavy-weight, and wrote several excellent books that I still have in my library.
Evangelical Protestants tend to “jump on bandwagons” and follow “the latest fad” in Christianity. They say that they “search the Scriptures” and “test the Spirits,” but all too often, they really don’t. They rely on “who they trust” rather than actually studying what those people teach.
When you think about it, it makes sense, since in evangelical Protestantism, there is no “body of teaching” that is considered “authoratative” Christianity" (like there is in Catholicism). Evangelical Protestants believe that the only authority is the Holy Bible, and they believe that the Holy Spirit leads every believer into truth as they read the Bible. Well, we can see that this doesn’t work out in real life (many hundreds if not thousands of denominations that teach different things about Christianity).
I know that quite a few evangelical Protestants have become Catholic in recent years, but to my knowledge, there are no heavy-weights who have converted. People like Tim Staples, Jeff Cavins, David Currie, etc. were all unknown pastors before converting. They were not renowned and beloved authors and speakers like Frank Schaeffer and Peter Gilchrist.
IMO–and I hasten to emphasize that this is only my opinion and I have not read this elsewhere–if and when a prominent evangelical Protestant converts to Catholicism, the floodgates will open and many evangelical Protestants will follow.
I’m talking about heavy, beloved, trustworthy evangelical Protestants people like Dr. James Dobson, or Billy Graham (who is still alive), or Franklin Graham, or Phillip Yancey, or John Ortberg, or Anne Graham Lotz or Beth Moore (although I’m not sure if the women evangelical Protestant celebs would have as much influence as the men–interesting question).
So IMO, Satan is working triple double quadruple overtime to prevent the conversion of prominent evangelical Protestants to Catholicism. Pray for them and be a strong Catholic witness to them if you get the chance.
Nowadays, I’m betting that a lot of evangelical Protestants will be learning all about Othodoxy from the internet. Before the internet, there was no way that evangelicals could learn much about Orthodoxy because there wasn’t a lot of material out there within easy reach. Many cities don’t have an Orthodox church, so it wasn’t possible for Protestants to go visit.
I hope these comments provide useful and throught-provoking information.
