there are, as far as I'm aware, no rigorous statistics on this stuff, but one hears a lot about how apostolic christian bodies in the US (catholicism, orthodoxy, and perhaps to a lesser extent traditional anglicanism) have been receiving a lot of new converts in the past few years. this definitely tracks with that I've heard and observed, too
the flip side of this, though (and there are even fewer rigorous statistics on this, but it also accords with what I hear and what I've observed) is that a lot of converts to a new faith later go on to leave it
this is a known Type Of Guy, and priests are aware of the phenomenon, though it's not talked about much while people are in the first flush of infatuation with their new faith and are so enraptured that they'd never dream of leaving. still, it happens
part of it is just that it's inherently hard to change your heart and way of life, and burnout is common. but also, I think temperament and habit come into it a lot, too
a lot of people who convert to a religion have either converted to some other religion before, or they've spent a long time (lots of searching, lots of reading, unfortunately often a lot of reddit posting) looking for this one. it's easy to get used to being always on the search, always on your way into somewhere. even if you've only converted to this one religion without much of a search first, there's a real switch that has to take place. you go from learning and preparing to actually living your life in christ. once you've finally "arrived" and gotten used to all the new stuff, sometimes it's disappointingly mundane. also, the sacrament doesn't magically fix your life and your character flaws. you're still you, with your same problems, and when you find that baptism or chrismation didn't fix you then it can be tempting to go look for a fix somewhere else (people at this stage usually lack the spiritual maturity to realize that the struggle is the cure)
there is also the temptation to, when baptism doesn't fix you, go back and reinterpret your life through a whole nother lense. this isn't just something that happens with serial converts - I saw it a lot, funnily enough, with queer people, back when I used to be queer. it was extremely common for someone to cycle through all the labels - bisexual, pansexual, asexual, agender, a lesbian, a trans man - in an attempt to find one that explained her life and why she felt different from others. you can try on a thousand different narratives and some will fit better than others but none is a substitute for really knowing yourself. (my own bias as a christian is that you come to know who you really are through christianity, but if one is attached to a story about oneself rather than to christ, then it can become just another narrative that is tried on and thrown off like all the others)
and of course, your new faith will tell you that you should stay put after conversion, but countless other proselytizing religions will be happy to receive you, so all it takes to switch and feel okay about it is to start taking moral authority from whichever other religion has caught your eye. even if the priest at your new church has seen those like you before (he has), he's generally not going to tell you to go back where you came from. and this isn't nefarious - he really believes his tradition is the best one for everyone, including you, and he hopes that you'll settle down and finally get to living the faith
I do really appreciate what my old anglican priest told me - that while anyone is welcome at st [redacted], he generally recommends that people stay where they were confirmed. (and I appreciate that his ecclesiology allows him to think and say this, too.) I later told him that I'd decided to return to the orthodox church and he said he approved and thought it was a wise choice. I think there can be compelling reasons to move (like if you find yourself really convicted that you need to be in communion with the pope, for example). but once you're married you really ought to learn to stop checking out other women, so to speak
blakekathryn
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