Stop complaining about converts.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that the Orthodox Church is the same Church that managed to convert the Roman Empire and all Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Our internal squabbles all seem to be based around ethnic disputes. Our faithful love writing countless "think pieces" about all the bad things converts do and how they just can't ever possibly understand anything. People complain that being asked to offer the Liturgy in the local language is "erasing their culture." Converts who have been in the Church for decades are accused of LARPing if they are too enthusiastic, or are accused of crypto-protestantism/Catholicism if they aren't enthusiastic enough.
It's really started grating on me. An exorbitant amount of online content, podcasts, and posts on sites like this are just thinly veiled convert-bashing. I know tons of converts who haven't stayed with Orthodoxy after converting. We need to spend more time reaching out and making sure we actively welcome our new brothers and sisters, rather than endlessly coddling people who can't accept that America is not in Eastern Europe.
Do you actually believe in Orthodox Christianity? If your answer is yes, then you must welcome converts. We can't keep telling people that the Orthodox Church is not a collection of ethnic clubs unless we start acting like it. If the early Church had our current attitudes then Greece and Italy would still be pagan.
EDIT: Not gonna lie, the comments really ended up being way spicier than I was anticipating. Maybe my way of speaking came off too angry? I don't know...the point of all of this was that we need to be nicer to converts. (As a few people pointed out, we should ALSO be nicer to cradles.) Most converts are trying their best, but can never seem to meet all of the expectations people seem to enjoy putting on them. Converts are never going to be perfect clones of the Orthodox cultures that you see in Eastern Europe. That isn't how religious conversion works, and it isn't how it has ever worked.
People complain. It’s the nature of people. I just look at them and nod. Unless they’re complaining about me, then I nod and look at them.
That's fair. I don't mind people complaining about me, but I know several people who have left because they felt so unwelcome in Orthodox circles. I stuck it out, but as a catechumen I even had a priest tell me that conversion didn't make sense for me because I wasn't part of his ethnic community. One of my friends left because the Roman Catholics were more welcoming to him. The sad thing is that I completely understand why he felt that way.
I don't see people complaining about language except for people complaining that the local community doesn't use enough English, which has some merit.
There is definitely a LARPy element amongst some converts. There is no requirement to be a homesteader, or act like a Russian peasant, or wear shapeless floor length dresses. We don't require homeschooling or women to stay at home rather than working, and some people act like these things are tenets of Orthodoxy. Enthusiasm is good, but it should be for God, not for externals.
I'm a convert myself.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. I've seen some harsh resistance to switching to English.
As far as the "LARPy" thing goes it's WAY overstated. I'm a convert. I know a ton of other converts. None of them act like that. The only family I know that behaves like that is actually cradle (Bulgarian). I don't judge them for that, but it is a little odd.
Accusations of LARPing against converts go way beyond this type of extreme example. For some, any attempt to emulate people they see as role models is seen as a LARP if you're a convert. On the other hand, I've seen the exact opposite kind of reaction when a convert DOESN'T follow this path. People love accusing converts of "still being X deep down." It's a no-win situation.
Truth be told, on the internet I see far more people complaining about people born in the Orthodox Church than the bashing of converts.
You and I have a very different experience of internet Orthodoxy. Either way, ideally there shouldn't be large amounts of vitriol directed against either cradles or converts.
Speaking for someone who is currently a Protestant but actively looking into Orthodoxy it’s not as simple as “converting”. You have to unlearn a lot of doctrine you grew up understanding to be true but is misinformed. Conversion in the orthodox sense appears to be more so conforming to the Orthodox Church not simply choosing if that makes sense. There is a sense that converts need to be steeped in the tradition to grow in their faith before being confident enough to teach on Orthodoxy. Mainly because the western ideas are way harder to un learn them people realize and the differences are deeper between East and West then people realize.
There is much more bashing of cradle Orthodox on internet, and as cradle Orthodox, it is rightfull sometimes. I really enjoy that converts have that fire, but convert theologians give meweird vibes, with expections of Kallistos Ware, Thomas Hopko and Seraphim Rose. It is no secret that more obscure believes arise among converts, like apokastasis and so calked 'river of fire', which was written by cradle but is pretty irrelevant among cradle lands. What you are talking about is classic closing up of community, which is sad, but people want to preserve culture, ok, preserve culture but accept converts. My only criticism of converts is growth of some weird believes among their circles.
I think bashing cradles is horrible as well.
I can agree that converts sometimes are more interested in oddball opinions, but I find it quite telling that most of these odd views originated with a cradle theologian before being picked up by an enthusiastic convert.
No ill will to any culture, but the idea of preserving a culture has nothing to do with the Church. The apostles of Christ were all Jews. They quite explicitly refused to force their own cultural practices onto new Christians from the gentile world. We should continue following their example.
No one is bashing converts. They are “bashing” people who are annoying and know-it-alls and who happen to be converts. And this is being done for good reason, mainly, putting them in their proper place, which is for them to shut up for a bit