Orthodoxy has become a dirty word. It is treated as a synonym for “narrow,” “unthinking,” “uncharitable,” “mean-spirited,” “backward,” and “benighted.”
But at root, orthodoxy is not about labeling things right for the sake of labeling them — much less labeling other things “wrong.”
It’s about accountability to something and — even more importantly Someone beyond us.
A wooden orthodoxy that needs “right belief” as a substitute for that Someone is misguided. But a spiritual orientation that rejects every kind of accountability other than one of its own making is no less misguided.
The argument between both has made it difficult for us to listen. When we are polarized by the debate and inclined to take sides it is almost impossible to hear the most important Voice of all.