Into the Wardrobe

This is why I think it is much better to read people like (now Metropolitan) Ware and Met. Anthony of Sorozh or Alexander Schmemann instead of me.
Chesterton is a good second.

It is a fact that Baptists are a mainline denomination of Protestantism and not a fringe group, so my experience as a Baptist does give me some experience of that which is common in Protestantism. Of course I do not claim they they are the epitome or that all Protestants share their beliefs.

The prime thing we differ on is not the authority of Scripture, but the authority that interprets Scripture. I hold that for the Protestant, while churches, pastors and thinkers can be very helpful, the ultimate authority is self, with the belief/hope that the Holy Spirit will guide one to the Truth. I see that as incorrect, seeing as so many people come to so many contradictory 'truths' through Scripture. In Orthodoxy, we admit that our opinions are just that, and if the Church makes a dogmatic proclamation, we must pack our opinions away and trust the authority of the Church.

Again, don't look to me as a primary authority on Orthodoxy. I'm a layman of several years, and like a child of 4 discovers about his parents, have constantly found that the Church is right, even when I don't like it. I just happen to be a lone Orthodox guy on this forum, because I love Lewis's works - they were foundational in bringing me to Orthodoxy. It is really cool to be in a church that has been operating pretty much the same way for nearly 2,000 years!

Read the authorities listed above, people who are light years ahead of me for a more correct understanding of Orthodoxy. See the official websites, like www.oca.org for official info, doctrine and teachings.

I'm sorry Russ if you feel a bit under siege. It's just that I find you more accessible and less weird than some of the people who lurk about on Orthodox sites. A friend who grew up Orthodox tells me a lot of these people are Americans in their twenties who have converted from the American version of conservative protestantism and tend to remake Orthodoxy in the image of what they were used to.

If I become a member of the Church by being baptized in the name of the trinity and if I have been baptized in the name of the trinity then I must be a part of the Church, indeed on the logic of your position I must be part of the Orthodox Church, a bit like one of Rahner's anonymous Christians all those baptized in the name of the trinity must be anonymous Orthodox.

I entirely appreciate the role of tradition. The comparison with physics is interesting because there you do have a genuinely universal tradition. There may be different opinions but you don't find an eastern physics and a western physics and where that kind of thing has happened with science, as for example with the Lysenko business, someone has eventually been identified as right. Do you think the same thing could eventually happen with say the Roman Catholic Church that it will eventually correct itself and move in line with Orthodoxy? Will other 'churches' like the communist state in Marxism just wither away.