{"id":62,"date":"2007-09-03T14:53:52","date_gmt":"2007-09-03T14:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2007\/09\/evangelicals-turn-russian.html"},"modified":"2007-09-03T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2007-09-03T14:53:52","slug":"evangelicals-turn-russian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/09\/evangelicals-turn-russian.html","title":{"rendered":"Evangelicals Turn Russian"},"content":{"rendered":"

My brother passed along this summary from the WSJ about a TNR article<\/a> on the booming number of converts to the Russian Orthodox church among disenchanted evangelicals:<\/p>\n

The Orthodox Church is attracting an increasing number of disenchanted evangelical Christians in the U.S. who say they are seeking a more traditional religious practice, Jason Zengerle reports in the liberal-leaning New Republic.
\nThese converts have been drawn to the Antiochian Orthodox Church, a relatively small church rooted in the Middle East. Unlike the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, it more frequently conducts liturgies in English and places less emphasis on ethnicity. The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America has grown more than 150% in the past 20 years, roughly 70% of which is attributable to converts, says Bradley Nassif, a theology professor at North Park University in Chicago.
\nWhile the Orthodox Church — estimated to have about one million American members — remains tiny in the U.S., the rise in conversions highlights a new breed of dissatisfaction among some evangelicals, Mr. Zengerle says. Historically, the Anglican Church or the Calvinism-influenced Reformed Baptist Church have been the main destinations for disenchanted evangelicals.
\nSome converts tell Mr. Zengerle that the Orthodox Church offers its members a greater sense of conservatism, otherworldliness and stability. At the same time, Orthodox Church doctrine dovetails more closely with Protestant evangelical beliefs than Catholicism, which might make potential converts to the Orthodox Church more comfortable.
\nEqually important, some converts say they had grown tired with efforts that took their churches in nontraditional directions, for example with drums replacing organs and rock replacing hymns. Other former evangelicals say they wanted a break from their churches’ engagement with the political sphere. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My brother passed along this summary from the WSJ about a TNR article on the booming number of converts to the Russian Orthodox church among disenchanted evangelicals: The Orthodox Church is attracting an increasing number of disenchanted evangelical Christians in the U.S. who say they are seeking a more traditional religious practice, Jason Zengerle reports…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelicals Turn Russian - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/09\/evangelicals-turn-russian.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evangelicals Turn Russian - 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