Dr. James Emery White warns against “The Great Danger of Orthodoxy”. Basically the point he is making is that Christians are too concerned with their focus on the presumable “right believes”. Instead he proposes a balance of Orthodoxy (believing the right thing) and Orthopraxy (doing the right thing).
Now, let me be clear: I claim orthodoxy for my faith. My theology is rooted in the ancient ecumenical creeds of the church. It matters to me that there is a path to reconciliation after reformation era condemnations. And yes, especially in American culture I can see how overzealous orthodoxy can be a problem.
But can too much Orthopraxy really be a problem, too?
Let me explain. One of the fundamental splits that the church has suffered, the Great Schism of 1054 is still in full effect. It practically cuts Christianity in half: East and West. From a standpoint of Orthodoxy I am all Western, meaning I firmly stand by the filioque as an important matter of believing correctly. But that is not really what was at stake at the time.In reality it came down to a political power struggle over who ruled the Roman Empire. This supposed question of Orthodoxy was really a failure in Orthopraxy.
Christians have not sufficiently practiced Jesus’s dictum “Love your neighbor as yourself”. As matter of fact I think Jesus dismissed Orthodoxy over and over again: When some said you could not feed your friends on the Sabbath, he told them to set their priorities straight. When a man asked him, “what must I do to go to heaven?” Jesus’s answer is always: “Practice love!”
Yes, too much Orthodoxy can cause problems. But how can too much Orthopraxy cause problems? What are minimum standards of thinking and believing that make a person Orthodox? Because here is the real crux of the matter: If you tell somebody they believe the wrong thing or the wrong way, you are not practicing love. If anyone wants to impose their Orthodoxy on another person they are neglecting their Orthopraxy.
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