Reconsidering The Meaning Of Conversion
The latest issue of Christianity
Today has an essay by Sam Torode, entitled “It’s All About Jesus: A Convert to
Orthodoxy Reconsiders Evangelicalism."
I should begin by saying that I am sure that Sam Torode
means well, and is sincerely trying to grapple with the Orthodox Faith and Ortho-praxis
– so I don’t wish anything I am going to
say as a criticism of him personally. However, given that his article was
published in Christianity
Today, there are a number of things he has
stated that need a response.
Christianity Today, despite it’s rather broadly sounding title is an
Evangelical magazine that only takes minimal note of what it going on in
non-Evangelical Christianity. For example, when there was an article on how
Christians in
I have been a subscriber to Christianity today for nearly 20 years, and I
maintained my subscription after I converted to Orthodoxy because I wanted to
keep up with what is going on in the Evangelical world, and also because I
wanted to know what Evangelicals are saying about the Orthodox.
In this particular essay we have a convert to Orthodoxy who is reconsidering
his previous Evangelicalism. The first question I had when reading this article
was how long Sam Torode has been Orthodox? The
article gives no indication, but after poking around on the internet, I was
able to discover that he and his wife converted to Orthodox in June of 2003… which
means, given when I received the issue his article appeared in (which was
mid-July, 2005), he probably had not been Orthodox a full two years before this
article was written. I converted to
Orthodoxy about 15 years ago.
In the early Church one generally had to be a catechumen for 3 years before
they were baptized and admitted to communion. The reason for this is that it
takes time to develop an Orthodox Christian world view. It is even more difficult for someone coming from a
heterodox background to develop an Orthodox Christian world view. I go into
great detail as to why this is in a talk I gave entitled "Renewing the Mind: Acquiring an Orthodox outlook", and so rather than duplicate what I said there, I
will refer the reader to that text, but in
short, because Protestantism shares much of the same terminology as the
Orthodoxy, but with slightly different meaning, Protestants who convert to
Orthodoxy have to work harder than a convert from paganism would have to work
to ensure that what they think they know about the faith is really Orthodox.
A similar phenonomen occurs when someone studies one
style of Martial arts and then begins to study a very different style. A person
off the street is more likely to learn the techniques of the new style the way
that they are supposed to be done than someone who has a black belt in a
different style, because they not only have to learn new things, they have to
learn to not do them the way that they have already had drilled into their
head.
Unfortunately, many converts to Orthodoxy are not told this, and so fail to
grasp the need for them to approach Orthodoxy differently than they approached
their former Protestantism. The results are often people who have only half
converted to Orthodoxy, but think they already know what Orthodoxy is all
about.
Not only does one need to understand the need for a change in world view, but
one needs to allow the time for that change to occur. When I was a Protestant,
I was an associate pastor, and was used to teaching and preaching to others
about the faith. When I converted to Orthodoxy, I had to take the time to stop
teaching others, and learn things I didn’t know… and unlearn things I thought I
knew that were either completely wrong, or partly wrong. My priest made clear
to me that this was a process that would take time, and so I had to get used
being a “white-belt” again. The only subject that I felt competent to speak or
write on at that time was why I became Orthodox… and even then,
I would submit what I wrote to review by more deeply rooted Orthodox Christians
than I. I didn’t so much as attempt to teach a
children’s Sunday school class until I had been Orthodox for three years.
Now to some specific issues raised by Sam Torode in
this essay:
1) Fasting and legalism:
Sam writes: “Faced with all this fasting, it’s easy to get obsessive. We
joined a parish of mostly ex-Protestants who, like us, were eager to be good
Orthodox. We looked down on those “ethnic Orthodox” who still eat their gyros
and feta cheese during Lent. During church fellowship times, our conversations
often centered on fasting…”
I don’t doubt that this was Sam Torode’s experience,
but this is not the norm in the Orthodox Church. In my experience, it is only
very recent converts who spend much of their time chatting about fasting. It
doesn’t make for particularly engaging conversation, if done with any
regularity. It is also true that it is a temptation for converts to look down
on “cradle Orthodox” who are less fervent. However, this is a temptation that a
parish priest should be actively fighting against if he wishes his converts to
develop a healthy spirituality. First of all, judging others is something that
the Scriptures and the Fathers focus on as a serious spiritual problem that one
has to overcome. Secondly, converts have much to learn from their “cradle
Orthodox” brethren… even the less
pious ones can often teach you things you wouldn’t learn from other converts.
But obviously, one wants to emulate those cradle
Orthodox that do manage to abstain from their feta cheese and gyros during
lent.
One of the most beneficial (and trying) things my wife and I did after we
converted was to move to an area where we joined a very Russian parish. It was
difficult dealing with the language, and the cultural issues that we were
confronted with, but we learned a great deal, and met some very pious people
who had a great impact on us. For example, the choir director at this parish
was a lady who was a Russian born in Harbin, China (which is where many
Russians fled after the communists took over Russia), where she was raised in a
very pious Russian exile community that came very close to re-creating the best
features of pre-revolutionary Russian culture – until they again had to flee
when the Communists took over China. She also worked in the administrative
offices of St. John of Shanghai, and so
got to know a man who was an extraordinary saint. She was also very well
educated, and spoke several languages fluently, including English (fortunately
for us).
Just to give a small example of what it was like to be around her in that
parish, I was singing with her at the kleros on the
feast of the Dormition. Most of the hymns we were singing were in Slavonic…
which was of course a challenge for me. At one point
we sang a hymn in which I put the emphasis on the wrong words, and when she had
the chance she did an on-the-fly translation of the hymn into English (which I
knew was accurate, because I had the English text where I could see it), and
she explained the meaning of that hymn in such pious terms that I was deeply
moved – her point was to explain why certain words needed to be emphasized, but
I was struck by the evident depth of her love for God and the beauty and
theology of the services. She didn’t eat cheese on fasts days either, even
though her health and age has long exempted her from an obligation to fast.
Mr. Torode also mentioned the tradition of married
couples abstaining from sex during the fasts. He writes: “Married couples
are encouraged to take [fasting] a step further, by abstaining from intercourse
on these same fast days. That’s not something Orthodox apologists like to
broadcast….”
One thing that I discovered when I became Orthodox was that there were many
things in Scripture that I never realized where there, even though I had read
them over and over again. This is something that perhaps has not yet revealed
itself to Sam Torode, but this tradition is entirely
based on Scripture – see 1st Corinthians 7:4-5. This is not something that is “broadcasted” because it is only done by mutual
consent, and is a matter for the couple to discuss with each other and their
spiritual fathers.
Sam Torode: “One Sunday, a friend in the church
confided to my wife, “Sometimes, I forget it’s all about Jesus.” That’s when it
hit us – we’d forgotten that it’s all about Jesus, too. Most of the time,
instead of overflowing with God’s love, I was just ticked off about not being
able to eat a burger.”
Fasting is not an end in itself, it is a means to an
end. This is clearly brought home each year in the Sundays of preparation for
great lent. Most notably on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.