u/archival_bat

[removed]

Hi guys so I just wanted to tell you about my journey into Orthodoxy and why I decided to leave it so I was not raised in a religious household and I’m a Mexican-American female. I started researching different religions around 2024 and I became convinced that Eastern Orthodoxy was the true religion of God. The first Orthodox Church I went to was Father Josiah’s parish and I mainly went there because I had read his parish reviews and everyone always talked wonders about him and his parish because his parish is actually somewhat far from where I’m at and I went there for about two months and I realized that most of the parishioners were white Americans and most were converts from Protestant religions but I did like the service, I liked the chanting and the church is beautiful but later on I started finding out some of their political beliefs and that they’re mostly Trump supporters and it seemed to me that a lot of people idolized Father Josiah and believed in everything he said and I do remember that while I was there, he talked about the USA and how we should never burn an American flag and this was around the time that Donald Trump got shot in the ear and he talked about how we need to pray for Donald Trump and I do remember he said some homophobic stuff and later on I saw some of his videos and which he sounded really sexist and it all rubbed me off the wrong way and unfortunately a lot of young men there are being caught up in this red pill propaganda so I left that church after two months. Fortunately, I never became a catachumen there and I didn’t even talk to anyone there because I’m shy so it was easy enough to leave. I started attending another Orthodox Church and I actually did love that church, it was a lot smaller and the people there were way more friendly and they were more progressive, some people did have conservative beliefs and were Trump supporters but some voted for Kamala Harris and were more progressive so it was more divided on politics, I immediately became friends with all the young people there which is only like 10 of us but I do have a more close friendship with them. I do remember I did ask some of them who they voted for and one of them said “I didn’t vote in 2024. I’m an independent” and another person did constantly talk about how immigrants are stealing jobs and how school is for fools and one time we drived past a car that had bumper stickers on it and it had left leaning stickers and he said “that car has gay stuff on them” and another person said “it says free Palestine, we’re not supposed to support that because that means that we’re supporting Muslims” and the guy said “well that’s not too bad then cause it’s against the Jews and I don’t like Jews” and it made me feel out of place because I’ve always been very democratic and a feminist and I have always support marginalized groups and I do remember I vented to someone else about my political views and she said “well, everyone has different political opinions and we have to respect that” because I told her that I don’t want to associate myself with people or places that support Donald Trump and that’s what she said. I have been very vocal with them about my political beliefs and that I don’t go to Saint Andrew because they’re Trump supporters and two of them said that “well, everyone has different political beliefs.” We are all 18-26 by the way and I did tell them all one time when we went out to to eat in a group that I respect all religions and that I stand by immigrants and the poor because I’m a humanitarian and that I’m very democratic and that I felt I was too liberal for religion and they didn’t say anything, they just kept quiet. I decided to leave orthodoxy because I just didn’t feel like I belonged there. I did value the friendship I had with them and I even fell in love with a guy there and I also decided to leave because I was heartbroken by his rejection and I also started to feel a push towards Catholicism. I never stopped believing in God. I do believe in one true God and I want to follow him forever so I did decide to be Catholic instead and I even told my crush about it(prior to his rejection) that I wanted to be catholic instead and that I wasn’t coming back and he just told me “well I hope you find a good catholic priest, I’ll be praying for you” that happened on November 2025, I wasn’t planning on coming back to the Orthodox Church but I felt lonely and I genuinely appreciated the friendship I had with them. I did keep a touch with another girl there and I still hung out with her outside of church sometimes so I only went to that church occasionally because I missed them but my heart wasn’t in orthodoxy anymore. Eventually I did decide to be Catholic instead and there’s a part of me that’s seriously considering becoming a nun and to me being a nun is peak feminism and I also never want to have kids and when I told my friends I didn’t want to have kids they all turned around and looked at me but didn’t say anything so I’m not even sure what their political beliefs are. We never openly talked about Charlie Kirk or Donald Trump. Occasionally they would make certain comments like the ones I just told you guys about that gave me an idea about what their political beliefs are. I mainly knew the older people’s political views. I’m no longer an Eastern Orthodox Catachumen, I talked to the priest and I talked with my two friends who were Catachumens who I was supposed to get baptized with and they really didn’t say much. So I did decided to be Catholic. I love the Catholic faith. I’m more connected to my roots, Catholicism is more progressive but there will always be some conservative people in Catholicism but anyways, that was the whole story of my journey into orthodoxy and why I left it.