Well of course I'm a heretic. Have you looked at my profile? That doesn't mean I don't find value in my church's teaching merely that I disagree with it. Which is what a heretic is really. Why would I reinvent the wheel when I can ust increase the diameter and maybe add some better spokes? The branch theory gained traction in the Roman Catholic Chruch ; we call it Protestantism. I just have more patience with my narrow minded church ; it's like having a parent you repect even though they are abusive and foul tempered at times.

The excuse is that if you are a convert you have the luxury of being certain. People born into the Eastern Churches do not claim that they are perfect , or philisophically superior or any of that; you take the Church as she is with all the human traits, drunken prests, power mad bishops, and wretched historical occurences that go with her. I don't defend the existence of my Church it has as much a right to exist as any other religion and visca versa. What the blood of the faithful has bought you would dismiss as indecisive.

The excuse is that a convert has the ability to be enchanted by a religion. They can ignore the stagnation in favor of the bells and incense, dismiss the misogyny and cultural superiority complex as being sympoms of having found the truth. When you are born into the religion you know that Mrs. X has been denied communion for 20 years because she divorced her husband who beat the hell out of her and that she is practically a saint. You know that Mr. Z is gayer than Christmas but is the trustee and lives with his cousin "" and they throw really good parties. You know that the Vladiko is importing priests from the old country because therre hasn't been a native vocation in six years.

Converts get to ignore all these things because culture and religon are not bound together for them. I could spend the rest of my days going to an Episcopalean Church hat accepted me and my beliefs and not be any less Greek Catholic, it's part of who and what I am as much as my blood. A convert is Orthodox based on a rational thought or a choice I'm Greek Catholic based on the fact that I exist. A convert gets to pick and chose what to believe while a person born into a faith has to choose what not to believe in

So the excuse is that if you are a convert you might just be delusional from your conversion exprience and not a bigot.

Folks, let's be frank here; For any of us to say the Lord only accepts Orthodox Christians is the height of pride, and pride goes before the fall.
My spiritual father says, we know where the church is, but we do not know where the church is not, meaning we know our Orthodox way is right, but we cannot say much about anybody else's way, that is for God to judge and not us.
For my part, one of the great reliefs of becomming Orthodox was that I could stop debating with other churches, and just wish them well. I hope God DOES accept them, but I'm not going to turn from what I know to be truth to sample their ways. But, we should hope that they are acceptable. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and we should not either.