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Why Jeff Maples Fails to Understand Divine Liturgy In the Defense of Ritual In my last post, I responded to Jeff Maples’ many slanders against the Eastern Orthodox faith. In that time, Maples has made a couple more posts. For his latest post, he decided to make a trip down to Charlotte, NC and visit Hank Hanegraaff’s new church. Reporting on his trip, he’s had a lot of choice words for the Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Here, I’ll just give some brief responses. His first criticism is, 1.) I have sat through many Catholic masses. I was married in a Catholic church, and I can definitely say I’ve “been there done that.” But I’ve never sat through anything so long and tedious as the Greek Orthodox mass. Perhaps being a special Saturday night “resurrection service,” this wasn’t the norm, but it was excruciatingly long. 2 1/2 hours in and no sign of slowing down. That’s right, his first criticism essentially boils down to ‘can you believe they spend 2 1/2 hours praising and adoring God?’. He is correct though, a liturgy lasting that long is not the norm. However, given that it was a Passover service, celebrating the resurrection of the Lord our God Jesus Christ, why wouldn’t you want to devote more time to remembering such an event? I mean it’s only the day which marked the salvation of man and victory over the grave....... Maximus Confesses -Internet Apologist, Lay Theologian, Philosophy Fan, Libertarian, Devout Melkite Catholic.Apr 19

PREDATORS, DANGEROUS DEVIANTS & J.D. HALL (of Pulpit & Pen) MAY 30, 2015JANETMEFFERD It’s really disgusting out there. Not just out there, in the moral cesspool of American culture. I mean out there, in the moral cesspool that is rapidly and tragically coming to define American evangelicalism. ....... Now you might remember the name J.D. Hall. He is a Montana-based pastor, author and founder of the Pulpit & Pen blog. But he is perhaps best known for his online harassment of former Brewton-Parker College president Ergun Caner’s teenaged son Braxton, who tragically ended up committing suicide last year. According to The Christian Post, Pastor Hall “confessed to his congregation at Fellowship Baptist Church that he was ‘crushed” by Braxton’s death.” Pastor Hall, who’d become notorious in many Christian circles for his aggressive online battles in the name of “defending truth,” told his church at the time: “The irony is that about three weeks ago I made known to you, my flock, that I was walking away from these conflicts. … In one sense, I am reaping what I sowed. When you live by the sword, you die by it … Knowing now that this young man struggled with that level of despair, I am even more sorry that my interaction with him was adversarial rather than pastoral.” At the time he said this, I thought Pastor Hall’s response to the tragedy was wholly appropriate and right. How impressive, I thought, that he could humble himself like that, admit how wrong his behavior was and vow never to become adversarial in an online context ever again. Good for him! Well, that was then. Because as soon as Pastor Hall saw my husband deny on Twitter that he was literally a “rapist at heart,” he swooped in for the kill. He tweeted to my husband: “Yeah, are you sure? Our view of depravity calls baloney on that.” When I retweeted my husband’s response, Pastor Hall further mocked me for retweeting my husband’s denial, telling us, “You know what’s funny? Your wife RT’d that like she believed you.”