Rod Dreher - Why Did You Become Orthodox?

Roger air is a writer editor in cultural critic he blogs and is a senior editor at the American Conservative and has written a number of books as well including his most recent book that Benedict option I was really glad for the opportunity to meet rod recently and he graciously agreed to sit down for an interview so without further ado I hope you'll enjoy this episode from my interview with Roger air I became Orthodox in 2006 when I was living in Dallas Texas I had been for a number of years very faithful Roman Catholic and a public Catholic I had been a film critic and a columnist for the New York Post and other newspapers and work my Catholic faith into the work I did as a journalist in 2002 I was a writer at National Review magazine when the abuse scandal broke big in Boston as a faithful Catholic myself and as a new father of a son I felt it was my duty to write critically about what was happening in the church and over the next three years of doing that it was a period of intense disillusionment I learned things about the Catholic Church that I never could have imagined now it's not the case that there is a sinless Church no church is without sin but in my own case I had idealized the Catholic Church to such an extent that learning about the lies on top of lies that the bishops told to protect these bad priests it really broke me and I got to the point where I just could not believe as a Catholic anymore and I never imagined that I always thought that if as long as I had the syllogism straight in my head that my faith would be unshakable and turns out that wasn't the case at all and I began my wife and Alice we started attending st. Seraphim Cathedral or CF Cathedral in Dallas with no intention of converting it's simply because as Roman Catholics we knew that the Orthodox Church had valid sacraments and that Jesus Christ was truly present in the Eucharist even though we couldn't take of the Eucharist as Catholics we at least wanted to be around Jesus in the sacrament and to be able to pray and worship Him without that fear that anger that we had from our experiences Catholics well after two or three months of this we said we can't go back what I experienced in orthodoxy was what I thought Catholicism would be when I converted as a young man to Catholicism in my case I when I was trying to decide whether or not to become Orthodox I sat down I put some theology and read the Roman Catholic case for papal supremacy versus where you Orthodox case and I'm not a professional theologian I kept going back and forth and couldn't figure it out and finally it occurred to me the truth that saves is Jesus Christ it's not a proposition it's not a syllogism he's a man the man God and if for whatever reason I could not become United to Christ as a Roman Catholic then but orthodoxy was all for me that path to theosis then I should take it even though I don't I didn't at that time have all of my my doubts worked out my intellectual doubts I also realized during this time that my intellectualism was in fact the point of my lost faith that I had when I converted to Catholicism as a young man I had read my way into the church it's funny but when I was becoming a Catholic I was in my about 23 years old living in Baton Rouge Louisiana and working at my first job at journalism school a woman there at the newspaper said oh I hear you're interested in Catholicism I'm a Catholic why don't you come with me this weekend to work at the missionaries of charity soup kitchen that's Mother Teresa's order come work at the soup kitchen and it'll give you an experience of what being in half of his life I thought that sounded wonderful so I went down to the soup kitchen i scrub pots I feel potatoes and that was that when it was over I thought well that's very nice but I'm really more of an intellectual my time would be better spent reading books theology and apologetics never went back to the soup kitchen 13 years later fourteen fifty years later whenever it was I lost my faith I had to reflect if I have done as much with my body to inculcate the faith into my bones through certain four using my body and whether it's in service to what to the poor or in some other way my faith might have been stronger so orthodoxy taught me this too and as an Orthodox Christian I've tried very hard not to be as prideful as I was as a Catholic not to be as intellectual that there's perfectly good reason to be interested in intellectual things as an Orthodox Christian but in my case I made it my false idol and the Lord broke me on my pride and my idolization of the intellect so I came into orthodoxy in 2006 then Orthodox now for about as long as I was a Catholic and I love being Orthodox this is where it should have been all long but I thank God for giving me the experience of Catholicism because that's when I first came to know Jesus as my Lord as an adult Christian and I have lost the anger that I had at the Catholic Church the institutions or what what it did but I also you know with the abuse but I also made a point when I came into orthodoxy not to make an idol of the institutional church that was my failure I thought I was being a good Christian by by being very loyal and following all the rules and in fact that led to my spiritual run so that's how I became Orthodox and to to discover just in a bit in the the path of being Orthodox of just showing up at the liturgy fasting saying the Jesus Prayer and living the life of an Orthodox Christian I have gotten so much closer to the Lord than I did as a Catholic I think primarily because for me the faith it's not just something in the head it's in the body hi again hope you enjoyed this episode from my interview with Rod Dreher please let me know what you thought of this episode in the comments section below and please subscribe to get notified when new episodes become available which happens every Friday have a great weekend and we will see you next week

Channel: Protecting Veil

Views: 20,310

Rating: 4.8652849 out of 5

Keywords: Rod Dreher, Orthodoxy and Catholicism, Orthodox Catholic Dialogue, Catholic becomes Orthodox, Catholic looking for Orthodoxy, American Orthodox Christianity

Id: WY0i8utE3XI

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/feeble_stirrings]

I know not everyone is a fan, but I thought this was pretty good without any controversy. Especially, highlighting the importance of the body in our faith. I really enjoy this series of videos by Protecting Veil.

[u/Chocobean]

I'm not familiar with Mr.Dreher or the channel, but it's wonderful to hear his thoughts and how he came to be Orthodox. I particularly identify with his journey from intellectualism to praxis kind of faith.

thank you for sharing this :)

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