Traditionally minded folks are looking into the past to figure out “where we went wrong?”, while progressives tend to look to the future to determine “how will we get better?”. The Church has both of these answers.
Appalachia has long been hailed as the Bible Belt of America and this is true. Yet when we look around our communities we see a drug and opioid epidemic, rising crime rates, and an increase in sexual immorality. Things just aren’t the way it used to be back in our Granddad’s days it would seem. These are all symptoms of a deep, dark, spiritual disease. The further we as a people drift from the Truth of Jesus Christ and true Tradition then the farther along we plunge our communities into despair.
There is a cure. Jesus Christ is the one who can heal all disease, bring the sight back to the blind, forgive the sinners and restore our souls and bodies back to where they need to be. He established His Church “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. His Church is the hospital for sinners and it is the forward operating base of the Kingdom of Heaven and it is there we can connect with God and his Saints and spiritually arm ourselves for the woes of this world and preparation for the hereafter.
The only hope for our folk is to, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” (Acts 3:19)
Our early Scots-Irish ancestors brought with them Christianity and spread it over the Appalachian range. The early Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal among other protestants approached the Gospel in a way that would alienate their modern adherents. The further modernized these churches have become the more distant to the fundamental Gospel and original Faith they have drifted. Only a return to the one, original, Orthodox Faith will unwind the confusion and set us back on the straight and narrow way.
Ephesians 4:4-5
4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism
Orthodox Appalachia 