Let's refocus onto the actual topic of the thread, ok?
I think it is obvious from what has already been presented by Fr. Matt and others that this sort of devotion is unacceptable in EO tradition, and there is a sense in which it is considered to be Nestorian or quasi-Nestorian, in that it divides Christ into 'pieces' and then worships those pieces in isolation from the Body as a whole (cf. Nestorianism's radical disjunction between the human the divine in Christ). My question following from that would be for people like David and others from Latin America or other places where the 'sacred heart' plays some part in the indigenization of Christianity itself (see: Juan Diego in Mexico and the vision of The Virgin of Guadalupe), is there a way by which people can be brought out from that? Not to air dirty laundry, but I have seen it in some places which presumably recently become EO or are maybe working in a 'Western Rite' paradigm (I think it was in Guatemala, but these pictures were from quite a few years ago by now, and I have no idea how I'd go about finding them), where the argument has been that it is kept as a part of a more general Western Christian patrimony, but they just don't teach the practices and theology connected to it, because that's wrong. What would EO people here think about that? I must admit it gives me pause, as it seems like this kind of 'half in, half out' idea of inculturation eventually creates a lot of problems, as pointed out earlier by TheLostCoin with regard to the Coptic parish/es he went to which were Protestantized (and for our part, we recognize that this is a problem and are working on it, though again that's not the point of the thread). I don't see how you can be 'Orthodox' because that's what the sign on the door says, but inside there's stuff that isn't acceptable. What would be a good EO response to this? I'm thinking of an anecdote I heard on AFR years ago regarding some Melkite Catholics who wanted to come into Eastern Orthodoxy and had asked to retain some of their distinctive practices, and were flatly told that they'd have to leave all that behind. Is it that simple? And if it is, why do we still see such things anywhere? (Is it a matter of ineffective or MIA bishops, overly accommodating priests, or what? And then the question becomes how do you deal with that? See, it just opens up this giant vortex of nonsense...)