A money quote:
This is a common occurrence with the radical converts too. They never convert to Orthodoxy in order to meditate silently atop a mountain. No, they get a wholesale makeover and then begin talk talk talking again. They shift from Right Wing fundy-extremists to pacifist vegans. They start talking about “the Jews” this and “the Freemasons” that. They join Serbian liberation movements. There’s more than a bit of identity crisis involved here.
Why is that converts to Rome and the East don’t blaze a trail of evangelizing the lost, but rather start using endless quotes from the Fathers to bash their previous existence as Protestants? There is an identity crisis at work, just look at the shambles that is now Frank Schaeffer.
Well, I don’t know if that’s totally fair. Most of the Orthodox and Catholic converts that I know made the switch over two issues: Authority and a sincere desire for church unity. To place them into the same category as Frank Schaeffer is a mistake, in my opinion.
In my conversations with a few Orthodox “converts” I know, i was really impressed by their zeal for the truth and their love for the legacy of the church fathers. And most of left the protestant Evangelical tradition because they felt something was missing, and I can’t totally fault them for that. One could say they fled the protestant Evangelical tradition because it had the identity crisis.
This isn’t about why people convert but what they do after they convert.
Maybe you only notice the loud converts because… they’re loud…
Sophia, you might be right. Most of the Prots I know who convert seem to fit that bill. It’s sort of a trend.