The mission of Issues in Perspective is to provide thoughtful, historical and biblically-centered perspectives on current ethical and cultural issues.

In the Pastoral Epistles of the Apostle Paul (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) the phrase “sound doctrine” appears nine times. The Greek term translated “sound” means that which is conducive to health—in this case spiritual health. Paul connects sound doctrine with godly living; in God’s eyes, sound doctrine produces righteous living. For that reason, the church needs to review the command of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20: “make disciples” by going, baptizing and “teaching all that I have commanded you.”  This is the task of the church, and making disciples involves teaching what God has revealed in His Word. How is the church doing in fulfilling this part of the Great Commission? How is it doing in teaching and promoting sound doctrine?

Ligonier Ministries in partnership with Lifeway Research recently published the results of their State of Theology survey. [Every two years, these two ministries take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better understand today’s culture and to equip the church with better insights for discipleship.] The results of this year’s report are stunning. Among other things, they demonstrate that the need for discipleship is staggering. Consider these items:

• More than half of self-identified evangelicals believe that the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a personal being.
• 64% of evangelicals agree with the statement “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.”
• 65% of evangelicals believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
• 28% agreed that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”

These results convey the ongoing need for the church to be engaged in apologetics, helping unbelievers by providing a well-reasoned defense of the Christian faith, and helping believers by strengthening their clarity and conviction regarding why they believe what they do. Additionally, the people of God must continue to obey the Great Commission by communicating the whole counsel of God in biblical evangelism and discipleship. The need is great, but the power and promises of God can equip the church to bring truth and light to a deceived and dark world.

In the broader culture of America another interesting development is unfolding. Ruth Graham, in a recent New York Times article, showed that conservative young men are being drawn to the ancient tradition of Orthodox Christianity: “They are drawn to what they describe as a more demanding, even difficult, practice of Christianity. Echoing some of the rhetoric of the so-called manosphere, new waves of young converts say Orthodoxy offers them hard truths and affirms their masculinity. ‘In the whole history of the Orthodox Church in America, this has never been seen,’ the Very Rev. Andrew Damick, an Antiochian Orthodox priest and author in Eastern Pennsylvania, said of the large groups of young people showing up at many parishes. ‘This is new ground for everyone.’”

She also puts Orthodoxy in perspective:  “Orthodox Christianity [in the US] is by far the smallest and least-known of the three major branches of Christianity, representing about 1 percent of the population, compared with about 40 percent who are Protestant and 20 percent who are Catholic. Orthodox pews here have historically been occupied by immigrants from Ukraine, Greece and other countries with large Orthodox populations. Their American-born children often drift to other churches. But a homegrown Orthodox Christianity is strikingly emergent. Many of the young Americans new to the pews have been introduced to Orthodoxy by hard-edge influencers on YouTube and other social media platforms. Critics call the enthusiastic young converts ‘Orthobros.’”

Why is Orthodoxy so appealing to young men? “The Orthodox Church is the only church that really coaches men hard, and says, ‘This is what you need to do,’” said Josh Elkins, 20, a student at North Carolina State University. “He beamed as he talked about the weekly worship service known as the Divine Liturgy, an hours long affair at which attendees typically stand the entire time, rather than sitting in the pews or kneeling. The Divine Liturgy is just one aspect of Orthodox faith and practice that is unfamiliar to many Americans, including other Christians. Orthodox services include chanting, incense and genuflecting deeply before painted icons. Much of the liturgy takes place out of the sight of the congregation. The church also maintains a strict and complicated schedule of fasting. “It’s so much harder than I thought it was going to be,” said Matthew Herman Hudson, 29, who converted in his early 20s and works in the bookstore in Raleigh. “But it speaks to me in a way that nothing else ever did.”

This trend towards Orthodoxy fits with other observations about Generation Z: They are upending the expectations of many scholars and faith leaders, who watched the country secularizing for decades, with each generation less religious than the last. Some recent surveys suggest that young adult men are defying that trend.  “Orthodox Christians in the United States are younger and more male than many other Christian groups here. More than 60 percent of them are men, compared with 46 percent of evangelicals, according to the Pew Research Center. Orthodox Christians are also much younger, with 24 percent of adult adherents younger than 30, compared with 14 percent of evangelicals. The gaps are the same as those between Orthodox Christians and Catholics.”

Some converts report approvingly that Orthodoxy has a more masculine feel than other traditions. Priests, who must be male and can marry, often have large beards and big families. Orthodoxy asks practitioners to make sacrifices like fasting, rather than offering them emotional contemporary music and therapeutic sermons, which critics describe as the typical evangelical megachurch experience. “Young men need purpose, whatever that is,” said Jerod Stine, 26. “Young men are struggling to find jobs, they’re struggling to get into schools, and they’re really being told by society, ‘We don’t really need you.’”

How should we think about this trend of young men embracing Eastern Orthodoxy? Daniel Clendenin describes a typical Orthodox worship service: “The near absence of chairs or pews, dim lighting, head coverings for most women, icons and frescoes covering almost every inch of space on the walls and ceiling, a massive and ornate iconostasis separating the priest and the worshipers, the smoky smell of incense and hundreds of candles burning in memory of the dead, the priest resplendent in his ornate vestments and enormous beard, and worshipers repeatedly prostrating themselves, kissing the icons, and making the sign of the cross .” [“Why I’m Not Orthodox,” Christianity Today (6 January 1997), p. 35]

What is the theology of Orthodoxy that produces a worship service often so foreign to Western Protestants?

• The Church.  Eastern Orthodoxy teaches that it is the one true church on earth, tracing its origins back to the apostolic church in unbroken succession.  The implication of this position is that both Catholics and Protestants have departed from the true church and true faith.
• The Sacraments. As with the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy affirms the seven sacraments through which God transmits both saving and sanctifying grace.  Baptism, however, is the primary sacrament for “everything in the church flows out of the waters of baptism: the remission of sin and life eternal.”  Orthodoxy practices infant baptism, immersing the child three times, by which the infant is “born again” and wholly cleansed from all sin. Immediately following baptism is the rite of “chrismation,” where the priest anoints the child with a special ointment, making the sign of the cross on various parts of the body, symbolizing the gift and seal of the Holy Spirit.  Like Catholicism, Orthodoxy teaches the sacrificial presence of Jesus in the communion elements, but Orthodoxy rejects transubstantiation, simply affirming the mystery of the sacrament.  Orthodoxy also administers communion to infants.
• Icons. Probably the most unusual aspect of Orthodoxy for the Protestant is the centrality of icons during worship.  At baptism the believer often receives an icon of the saint whose name he or she takes; at marriage the father of the couples blesses them with icons; and at death the icon precedes the burial procession.  Icons are flat images of Christ, Mary or a saint. They usually take the form of wooden pictures painted in oils and are often ornately decorated with brilliant colors.

Icons are central to Orthodoxy because they are of equal benefit and mutually revelatory with the written Word.  Icons are not idols or vile images.  They are types, figures and shadows of the truths of Christianity.  What the Bible proclaims in words, the icon proclaims in “color.”  For the Eastern Orthodox Christian, icons demonstrate the humanity of Jesus, which is the key to His incarnation.  The icons of Jesus demonstrate that He is God and man together in one person localized in space-time history.  Icons thus teach a profound truth of Christianity.

• Scripture. For the Protestant, Scripture is the final authority.  For the Roman Catholic, it is both Scripture and tradition. However, for the Eastern Orthodox, theological authority is internal, coming from the Spirit, who speaks to believers through tradition.  For Orthodoxy, the papacy is not the guardian of truth, the “whole people of God is the protector of apostolic tradition.” As Clendenin argues, “tradition is the life of the Spirit in the church, who alone is the ultimate criterion of truth.” For that reason, the Bible is the unique expression of that tradition and is elevated, incensed, kissed and given a place of honor in various processions. However, tradition also includes the historic Church councils and the early Fathers and their writings. Orthodox believers never approach Scripture without the “grid” provided by the Councils and the Fathers.  They are all complementary in the Spirit’s witness to truth.
• Other Differences with Roman Catholicism.  Where the Catholic church affirms purgatory, Orthodoxy repudiates this belief.  Where the Catholic church demands celibacy of all its clergy, Orthodoxy permits clergy below the office of bishop to marry. Where the Catholic church affirms the Bishop of Rome (the pope) as head of the Church, Orthodoxy repudiates that teaching. Orthodoxy mandates its clergy wear beards, while that is not an issue in Catholicism.

The trend of young American men flocking towards Orthodoxy is based on experience and emotional needs, not sound doctrine rooted in Scripture. For some young men, Orthodoxy offers that sense of belonging, giving focus to practices of self-denial, performance-based spirituality and a dose of works-righteousness. The personal intimacy with God seems absent in Orthodoxy. The sound doctrine of Scripture should be strengthened by developing a close relationship with God through Jesus Christ, marked by devotion and loving obedience.

See Thomas Brewer in Tabletalk (January 2026), pp. 66-67; Ruth Graham in the New York Times (20 November 2025); and James P. Eckman, The Truth about Worldviews, pp. 99-111.