>>24657271
Claiming Orthodoxy is just a political tool doesn’t really hold up when you look at the history and theology. Governments have interfered with the Church just as they did in Catholic Europe with state churches and political control, but that was outside pressure, not the faith itself.
The sacraments are ancient and consistent: baptism, confession, marriage, ordination, the Eucharist, all rooted in Scripture and the early Fathers. Their importance has never been downplayed in the Church. Differences in practice like how converts are received or how often confession is expected come from the balance between akribeia and oikonomia and not from indifference.
On abortion and contraception, the teaching has been clear from the beginning even if some modern bishops have failed in practice, and again the same can be said of Catholic bishops in certain eras.
Married clergy go back to the apostles and weren’t created to make priests easier to manipulate.
And the claim that Orthodoxy never evangelized is flatly wrong, its missions shaped the Slavic world, Rus’, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and later Alaska, Japan and Africa. The Church's theology and sacramental life has stayed intact throughout centuries despite the political domination it's had to endure; just like Catholicism, basically.
I said I wouldn't get into a fruitless debate but it's important to clear up the fact that you’re essentially criticizing the Church for isolated incidents, many of which have parallels in Catholic history, while nitpicking details to retroactively justify a preconceived opinion
Again to anyone reading this exchange I strongly recommend
>Thinking Orthodox by Constantinou
to actually understand Orthodoxy instead of basing yourself on misconceptions and internet memes
