"An honest look at the Russian Orthodox Church as political arm leaves us with no question: This is not the Gospel." This sentence betrays the intellectual slight-of-hand this author is attempting to utilize in order to undermine the legitimacy of the Orthodox Church without any actual grounds to do so.

No Orthodox Christian, I doubt even those who agree wholeheartedly with everything happening in Russia under Kirill, would argue that the current political tragedy, or the Russian church's involvement therein, equates to "the Gospel". It's a strawman, intended to trick the non-critical reader into reading that the Orthodox Church is not the Gospel without actually saying it (because she knows she can't back that up).

There is no accusation made in this article against the Orthodox Church that could not also be equally applied to any ecclesiastical body. Any structure that is used will have its pros and cons, but that is irrelevant when attempting to discern if the theological claims of a particular ecclesiastical body will hold up under societal and environmental pressures or succumb to errors.

Historically, the Orthodox Church is the only Christian Church that has an unblemished record. Orthodoxy has been introduced successfully into dozens of cultures and languages. It has endured many heretical hierarchs, countless schisms and tragedies. It has been subject to monarchs, communist regimes and democratic chaos - and it has endured. It has endured without altering its theology, without adding or subtracting anything from the faith that has been delivered once for all to the saints. Even when contemporary heresies arise, they never remain in the Church. Christ preserves His Church.

This is a far cry from the Catholic Church which has added numerous and damaging theologies since its schism. It is also an incredible contrast to the quite young, ever-schisming Protestant denominations whose theologies appear to be built on constantly shifting sand. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod has its own fair share of schisms, and if we look at its age and the number and size of its schisms, it is far less stable than the Orthodox Church which has two thousand years of history behind it.

And even within the safe haven of the LCMS proper, you cannot always tell that you are in an LCMS congregation when you attend services. There is no consistency or safeguard for the faithful, even in the most basic necessities - the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. If the True Church is where the Gospel is preached purely and the Sacraments are administered rightly, you must come to the conclusion that the LCMS is in no way a church, because it does not seem to mind whether its parishes are doing either of those things.

Indeed, the political persuasion of its laymen and clergy is often much more emphasized, and certainly more streamlined, than what is being said or taught during its services or the practices surrounding its sacramental life. It is laughable that a member of the "most Republican denomination in America" is accusing Orthodoxy of being an arm of the state. Is your church being held together by its cultural and political affinities or its mutual love of Christ?

In the Orthodox Church, you may not know if the person standing next to you is a Republican, a Democrat or none of the above... but you do know exactly where you are every time you attend liturgy, even if that liturgy happens to be in a completely different language. Why? Because we have unity in the Orthodox Church. It is not an earthly unity (obviously) but it is an otherworldly unity, a heavenly unity that we can and do experience in liturgy. We celebrate our liturgy uniquely according to language and culture, but the same according to its spiritual teaching, content and Sacramental participation.

To be a consistent Orthodox Christian, is not to look at our hierarchs and wonder if we should find a new "human organization" to join. That would be consistent with Protestant or Lutheran theology, but we are not Protestants joined to a human organization.

We listen to Scripture when Paul admonishes us not to say "I follow Paul or I follow Apollos or I follow Cephas or I follow Christ". We do not look at our contemporary leaders and abandon our Lord when they are not appealing to us. We cling to this salvific Ark, the Church, even when the storms encircle her on every side. We know that the waves threaten to break her hull in two... but Christ is not divided, and neither is His Church. This is walking by faith, not by sight.

To be an Orthodox Christian is to cling to Christ, not to abandon our Mother in her time of need, as if one can simply throw away the Bride of Christ when she is being assailed by Satan. Rather it is our calling to stay right where we are, in the harbor of Christ's safety, knowing that His promises are sure. The gates of hell will not prevail against His Church. This evil war, our hierarchs, both erring and faithful, and all the baggage of our generation will eventually fade, but the Orthodox Church will be preserved whole and undefiled through it all - just as it always has.

May God forgive us and have mercy on us all.