Welcome to the land of meandering thoughts, rambling words, and vague ideas. i tend to not be much of a writer, but i like to give it a try. for those of you who are curious, a brief bio. my name is seth earl and i live in atl, ga. i have a BA in Religion.  I entered into the Eastern Orthodox Church (OCA) in November of 2003 coming from a typical reformed background. why do you ask? that’s a long story, but in a nutshell: i started reading up on orthodoxy my last year in college. the more i read of it, the more i wished i had heard of it sooner. eastern orthodoxy seemed to answer and fill all the questions that i had always had about christianity but was afraid to ask. it fit into all the mission puzzle pieces that were formed in my mind. the kicker for me was the destruction of my “idol” of sola scriptura.

in the beginning of my “theological” studies I had in my mind that a person can approach the text with an objective viewpoint. of course i later realized that this is basically bunk. everyone’s doctrine comes from someone’s preconcieved hermeneutical glasses. “sola scriptura” as it exists cannot logically hold up. thus the reason we have a multitude of doctinal positions with a multitude of denominational affilitions who all say that their views, based on Scripture, are the correct views.

even the heretics throughout the ages have always appealed to scripture for the reasons they believed the way they did. something else had to be a measuring stick for correct doctrine. and if what i believed was wrong, i wanted to know. you know… the whole eternal consequences thing.

what have christians believed at all times, and in all places? what’s held up the longest? what is the oldest forms of worship? i happen to believe older is better. those who were closest to Jesus’ time are more trustworthy in their doctrine than the “enlightened west”.

thus, i became orthodox. haven’t looked back, nor regretted my choice. orthodoxy to me offers a more aunthentic chirstianty that the whole person, the Church, genuine transformation, and how we should truly relate to our God and fellow man.

now that you have had a taste of my ramblings, and you’d like to taste more, pull up a chair. i’ll pour the beer. not really. on the beer part. but you can still pull up a chair. or stand if you rather.