A very ancient faith that carried on not only the religious traditions, but the cultural and artistic achievements of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and the Byzantine Empire. Pretty common in the Northeast, and I would guess Chicago and maybe places such as Tampa too. I guess it's easy to insult people you don't know and have maybe never met for rigid, hardline, my way or the highway fundamentalists. Know a lot of these people, good people, tolerant and interesting. To me, there's something HIGHLY insulting and absurd about the stereotypical clueless element of the fundies, the skoal dipping, John Hagee donating reactionaries with a 6th grade education ridiculing the heirs to such a vaunted historical, religious, and cultural legacy.

The Greek Orthodox Church broke away from the Roman Catholic (or Latin Rite) church over the issue of orthodoxy. The Greek (or Eastern) church believed that the Western branch of the Catholic church had become corrupt, and decided to break from the authority of the Pope and retain the Catholic dogma, theology, and practices in a pure form. The Greek Orthodox Church is sometimes (or often) confused with the Eastern Rite Catholics, who still believe in the authority of the Pope and legitimacy of the Roman church.