As an Orthodox priest, I want to see everyone become Orthodox. While there are innumerable good reasons to become Orthodox, there are also some reasons people walk away from Orthodoxy with disappointment.
Perhaps with this essay, I can help you avoid some disappointing disillusionment while also helping you to refocus your efforts. So let’s look at three reasons you shouldn’t become Orthodox:
Reason #1:
You’re looking for the perfect church (i.e., no scandals, drama, or controversies). We’re all broken, imperfect humans; we’re all looking for healing in Christ. If you think Orthodoxy will present you with a 2,000 year old church that doesn’t have any problems, you’re in for a harsh wake up call. We’re all fallen and in need of God’s grace. The Church is a hospital for the soul, not the institution of the religious elite. Our bishops, clergy, monastics, and laity are imperfect. We’re all struggling toward Christ (or at least we should be!). So as you enter Orthodoxy, expect to find broken people who are also working out their salvation alongside you.
Reason #2:
You’re looking for a safe-haven against the progressive leftism of Western culture. We Orthodox Christians are pro-life (from womb to tomb), we don’t support gay marriage, we don’t encourage gender-affirming transitions, and we’re not fond of totalitarianism or Communism (we have millions of martyrs because of Communists). Our people generally support patriotism, democracies, monarchies, and other forms of governance — but still, we’re not a political society. Our ultimate aim is salvation and the heavenly Kingdom. Everything that moves our focus off Christ must be put into its proper place in the hierarchy of our lives. It’s not that politics don’t matter, they just matter much less than our inner transformation.
Reason #3:
You want to save the Church, the world, or the nation. Again, we’re all flawed and broken human beings. Our church emphasizes the need to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Remove the beam from your own eye before you think you can remove the speck from your brother’s eye (cf. Matt. 7:5). Pray for others – desire their salvation! But focus on correcting yourself. St. Paisios once said if everyone in the Church simply focused on correcting themselves, then the entire Church would be corrected.
Final Thoughts
I meet prospective converts who are looking for a religious society that will affirm their ideology or theology. Even more are simply looking for some safe-haven against the chaos and disorder that is besieging Western society. I don’t have any problem with people initially looking into Orthodoxy for these reasons.
But I know these people won’t last unless they want to draw closer to Christ and find spiritual healing from the sin and death the plagues each one of us. And so I want to encourage you toward Orthodoxy, but for the right reasons.
I want to see you become a healed and whole human being, the image of God restored in your fallen soul. But sometimes that takes letting go of ideas we have about God, the Church, ourselves, or our neighbor. A necessary part of a successful conversion is letting ourselves be broken upon the Rock that is Christ – shattering all our seemingly-good ideas – so that we can be put back together healed and whole.
In my own spiritual journey, I’ve found nothing outside Orthodoxy in this world that combines our practical disciplines with the grace of God in way that just works. Our numerous saints are a testimony to that. However, very few people find instantaneous healing from their various afflictions and ailments. So, we must be patient with ourselves and one another. But there’s grace here that teaches us to repent, to fail, to get back up, and to keep going.
Visit an Orthodox church nearby you. Join us as we struggle together to see that Christ is already above us, within us, and around us, for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
As we say in the Divine Liturgy, Let us commend ourselves, each other, and all our life unto Christ our God.
Image Credit: Getty Museum, illuminated manuscript from around 1400.