The many faces of Orthodoxy

Sometimes it is easy to imagine that those believers on that side of the fence are the nice ones who never have problems.  That they all get along.  They are all quiet and soft spoken.  They are all about standing firm and getting along and being nice.  Well, heh, that is never true.  It isn't true of Atheists.  It isn't true of Protestants.  It isn't true of Catholics - boy is it not true of Catholics.  And it isn't true of Orthodox Christianity.

Not that everyone is therefore wrong and bad and all.  It's just that some have this image of Orthodoxy that it's the soft spoken, conciliatory believers having spent centuries under the thumb of oppressors.  Fact is, they can be quiet, shall we say, blunt.  As this letter to Dr. Ben Carson demonstrates.  It's a reminder that the Blue State/Red State paradigm for understanding the world is unique to the US and its media watchers.  Others in other parts of the world blame more broadly, and give credit more openly than we might imagine.