Thinking about converting to Orthodoxism

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Elok
We're making LOTS of Protestant converts these days, Ben. My church was founded only ten years ago by an entire episcopal church that converted en masse, including the priest. There were nineteen founding members. There are now over three hundred of us. I'm one of the twenty or so grown members of the parish who were baptized Orthodox at birth.

There are a lot of speculative reasons. Partially, it has something to do with the modern attack on true religion; being the most ancient and unchanged of the Christian churches, Orthodoxy is more difficult to attack with modern cynicism. Also, the increasingly silly "low-church" services prevalent in some parts of protestantism are making some people hungry for a more traditional church, where there are no powerpoint presentations in church and nobody would ever dare to refer to their savior as "my homey J.C." Those are the two big reasons I can think of.

To take advantage of LotM's blatant threadjack, Orthodoxy is sort of like Catholicism with a more Jewish attitude towards life.

About ten years ago the Protestant Episcopal Church began allowing the ordination of women. Could that have been one of the main reasons for this particular exodus en masse? It certainly wasn't the overly informal nature of Episcopalian services. After a brief fling with removing any referrence to Christ's gender in the 1970s PECUSA returned to a format in the 1983 Book of Common Prayer that was just a little more streamlined than that of the 1926 version.

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by monkspider


Well, I find that religion is much more fun as long as you don't take it too seriously.

[cinch]

Originally posted by monkspider


Well, I find that religion is much more fun as long as you don't take it too seriously.

(beats )

That, my friend, is the right attitude to have. If we could all just enjoy the beauty of icons and idols, while ignoring the needless "worship" aspect... we'd have it made in the shade!

[Ben Kenobi]

Dr. Strangelove:

That's sort of what I was referring to, though in a much more oblique fashion.

cinch:

If you want entertainment, there are better places to go than church.

[cinch]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
cinch:

If you want entertainment, there are better places to go than church.

Oh, certainly... but why limit myself to cake when there's plenty of pie to go around?

(I don't expect that to make any sense to anyone, least of all myself. I apologize.)

[monkspider]

Usually religion is also much more spiritually rewarding when you don't take it totally seriously. Just taking everything in a religion as literally true without much thought doesn't provide as much spirtual satisfaction as taking religion as mixed bag, and searching for the great truths that exist in that religion and then applying those truths to your own life. True enlightenment will ultimately come from within, but religion can either be a great supplement or a great first step.

I mean no slight to any of our staunch religious folk of course. If a more literal view of religious texts brings them closer to God, then I am all for it.

[Ben Kenobi]

Monkspider:

No offense taken by you. I know where you're coming from.

[Elok]

Well, no offense taken, MS (if I were that easy to offend I would have been banned thrice by now for swearing at the atheists), but fun or no, you might want to bear in mind that the point of religion isn't to have fun, or even necessarily to be "spiritually fulfilled," to use the smarmy modern phrase...

And yeah, Ben, I was thinking of the modern splits w/canon law too, but I didn't want this thread to turn into an argument about gay marriage or female clergy or whatever so I kept my mouth shut. I was thinking more of the evangelicals or whatever they're called when I referred to the increasing silliness of services. My ex-sister-in-law went to a Baptist or SB church where they had christian rock concerts IN THE SANCTUARY, of all places. Right in front of the altar. Plus the VBS kids put on their annual pageant there. Maybe that's common in Protestantism, idunno. I'm as ignorant about other forms of Christianity as they are about Orthodoxy. Until a few months ago I thought the doctrine of the Blood Atonement was limited to the most wacko fundamentalists, but I'm told most of the Christian world believes in it.

[Sava]

Serbian Orthodox

better form of christianity...

[OzzyKP]

Elok,

My Catholic church would have pageants and choral concerts and such in the sanctuary of the church. But of course the actual mass is very ritualized, and not like a protestant service.

Actually, I'm not sure on how all protestant services go. I've been to a few, and I'm not sure if they are standard or weird. One they had a big screen TV up front and we watched Horton Hears a Who, then the band (which my housemate plays in) played some songs, and there was other stuff. Seemed cool, but definately *did not* feel like church.

[OzzyKP]

Also, I think Catholicism might still be shaking off some bad PR over the last 2000 years. The impressions of doom and gloom and sin and hell that Eddie Izzard and others have doesn't match up with my experiences at all. I can't even remember a priest talking about, or even mentioning, hell during mass.

I went to a Baptist service once and that was the whole focus of the sermon. "Hell is a lake of burning fire, and if you are a sinner you will burn for eternity."

I've been to lots of Catholic churches and I have *never* heard anything like that. Usually stuff like 'getting closer to Jesus' and 'stewardship'. If you don't mind the ritual, you should give Catholicism another look. Not saying its your thing, but it just isn't doom and gloom (at least in my experiences.)

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm as ignorant about other forms of Christianity as they are about Orthodoxy.

Then we've got our work cut out for us, eh?

Ozzy:

When I went to see my girlfriend this summer, they had a visiting priest. The focus of his homily, was the importance of being able to accept communion to your salvation. She was so apologetic after the mass for the fire and brimstone homily, and I just looked at her and said, why should I be? It's what I get in my church anyway.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Sava
Serbian Orthodox

better form of christianity...

Well, so long as you've dropped some of the antagonism you have toward your roots, I'd like to wish you a happy belated nameday. Hey, I'm only two days behind on an event for once.

And I do know (this is directed to Ozzy et al.) that there's a lot of variety among various forms of Christianity. I'm just guarding against the "Ortho-shock" that occurs whenever one of us makes a statement about christian belief only to find out that most of Christianity thinks differently. That happens pretty frequently. In fact, my Khouria (priest's wife-it's an arabic title) once asked a Greek bishop a question about the aforementioned Blood Atonement doctrine, and the bishop had no idea what she was talking about. At first he thought she was joking. It took a while before he stopped asking her, "are you telling me they actually believe THAT?" with a stupefied look on his face. It's the price one pays for being "cradle" Orthodox like me; you have no idea how unusual your system of beliefs really is.

[TCO]

ON THIS ROCK, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH!!!!

[Elok]

Oh, please. You guys lost the original rock centuries ago.