The Conversion Story of Rod Dreher

Rod Dreher

A couple of days ago, Catholic journalist Damon Linker left the Catholic Church and it was essentially due to scandals.  Immediately Rod Dreher writes a piece on this which can be found here:

Damon Linker Leaves Catholicism

As one would expect, Dreher starts talking about Damon Linker and how he knew him.  In typical Dreher like fashion he makes the piece about his own de-conversion story from Catholicism.  Why does Dreher do this?  I don’t mean to be harsh but Dreher’s conversion(or de-conversion) story might be the worst conversion story I’ve ever read.  As Catholics, we’re all scandalized by predator priests, homosexual bishops who protect them, modernist liturgy and bad Papal encyclicals.  We’re scandalized in the same way that Elijah was scandalized by the rampant idolatry in the Kingdom in his day.  Notice how Elijah didn’t jump ship?

Rod Dreher joined the Orthodox Church after 13 years as a Catholic with the scandals crushing his faith.  If Dreher embarked on a study of Church history and found out that the papacy, the filioque and unleavened bread in the liturgy were false, then at least from a secular perspective, it would make sense.  After all, that’s what Scott Hahn did with Protestantism; but Dreher didn’t do that.

America is not a Catholic country, though Catholicism has a large presence at about 20% of the population.  Orthodoxy on the other hand is 1% at the very most.  In other words, America is on the fringe of the Orthodox world.  The Church plays almost no role in politics or the culture war so on the Lord’s day you can separate yourself from worldly dread during worship.  Of course this can be done in the Catholic Church as well, but Dreher simply couldn’t be bothered to do it.

Earlier this month I was in the Ukraine for two weeks.  If Dreher were to go to this country, what would he find?  He’d find the Patriarch of Moscow fighting for parishes with the pseudo-Patriarch of Kiev.  He’d find the non-Canonical Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church controlling important churches in Kiev such as St. Andrews.  He’d find the Church getting blasted in the secular media for the dumbest things.  He would also find a kind of nominalism that would make his jaw drop.  In America, converts like Dreher don’t see this because Orthodoxy is a very small player.

Now, if I were a member of the Orthodox Church, I wouldn’t leave because of those problems that I listed above.  If I believed it to be the true Church, it doesn’t matter how many scandals or problems it has.  This would seem like basic logic.

But Dreher left Catholicism due to scandals.  Stefanie Nicholas is a recent convert to Catholicism(ironically from the Orthodox Church but that’s not important here).  She wrote a beautiful piece on the crisis that can be found here:

Christ’s Bride Is Beaten, Bloody, Forsaken…and She Needs Us

She ends her column on a powerful note.  She writes:

We will win – her Immaculate Heart will triumph.

I joined the Church as one called to carry her cross.

I remain in this Church as one called to pick up her sword.

This fighting spirit reminds me of the boldness of St. Joan of Arc.  Nicholas learned more in a few months as a Catholic than Dreher did in his entire 13 years.  When things got ugly, Dreher didn’t carry his cross.  Dreher didn’t pick up his sword.  Instead he packed his bags and ran for the hills.