Tom,
What about the rest that I wrote? Do you agree that the saints did have an amazing connection to God...which exemplifies the true living faith of worshipping Christ?
What we see in the laity and hierarchs is a seperation from God, based on worldly distractions, but the saints had a real union with God. That's why I love to read about the saints, because they are the proof of the living faith than the mess we are surrounded with in this world, in the church. They had reached the state of Theosis...communion with God.
If you want to know about the expertise of surgery, then you go to an expert surgeon. If you want to know what it means to follow the first commandment, then you go to a saint. These hierarchs are not experts. They're pseudo-experts. Just like men who call themselves theologians but have never reached the state of Theosis. A theologian is a person who has direct spiritual communion with God, like St. John the Theologian or St. Basil the Great. These worldly theologians study about God, but they don't live it.
I agree with you, when it comes to doubting the men in the Orthodox church, but I do trust the saints.
If you don't agree, then please just post a simple: I don't agree. I would really appreciate that curtesy.
Joanna
