By Michael Ashcraft —
Islamism-slayer Ridvan Aydemir appears to be on the journey from atheist to Christian. He made the announcement recently on his YouTube channel, which goes under the name the Apostate Prophet.
The curious thing about his journey: He’s attending an Orthodox Church.
For decades the trend was the faithful from Catholicism and other liturgical churches flocking to born-again churches in preference for the offering of a personal relationship with Christ, an easy-going friendly environment and worship on the guitar.
Nobody expected this: the trend suddenly reversed. Now the deep reverence of the liturgy, the sense of the majesty in the organ and the ritualistic prayers have the glow.
A limited survey of Orthodox Churches noted a 78% jump in new converts from 2019 to 2022. And Baptist News reported in 2015 that half of the estimated 1 million Orthodox Christians in the United States are new converts.
“There’s more of an awareness of Orthodoxy than there used to be,” says Ben Christenson, of Virginia, who converted in 2022. “I think there are a lot of Protestants who want a more traditional, grounded, historical faith. For young people especially, it makes sense because so much else in our life is changing all the time.”
What accounts for the rise of Orthodoxy? Part stems from widespread disillusionment with evangelical churches, whether by church hurt or because of pastors falling into sin. Another part is traced to the creep of wokeism into formerly Bible-adhering churches.
“The feminization of non-Orthodox forms of Christianity in America has been in high gear for decades,” says Father Josiah Trenham of Riverside, CA. “The last four to five years have been a massive uptick. It’s showing no sign of tapering off. It’s happening massively in untold numbers all over the country.”
At a time of social upheaval in which there are 72 genders and men can call themselves women and mop up women’s sports, traditional churches are seen as a bulwark against the tsunami of insanity. If truth is eternal, it does not evolve.
“The thing that really appealed to me about Orthodoxy is how steadfast it is,” Elijah Wee Sit said in the NY Post. “I generally do prefer something that is more traditional and really has that ancient feel to it.”
Jordan Peterson, who went viral for “misgendering pronouns” at his university in Canada, ignited a backlash against wokeism. His speeches on the Bible took off online and detonated the resurgence of Bible sales recently reported by publishers.
Peterson himself was an agnostic and intellectual, but after his wife seemed miraculously cured of cancer, he delved into the Bible with a new interest. He didn’t follow a Bible guide but forged his own conclusions. He came to Christ, effectively encouraging myriads of followers to do likewise.
Peterson’s wife attends the Catholic Church. He himself likes to stay non-committal in terms of organized religion. He assumes the air of an intellectual who doesn’t want to confine his thinking to any given dogma.
Then there’s the high profile actors affiliating with churches: Jonathan Roumie (who plays Jesus in The Chosen), Catholic; Mark Wahlberg (Transformers), Catholic; Tom Hanks, Greek Orthodox, Mel Gibson, Catholic.
Vice President J.D. Vance attends Catholic mass, as does influencer Candace Owens.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches split from Western Catholicism in 1054 over doctrinal disputes but remain very similar to their Roman cohorts in style of liturgy. Together with the Anglican Church, they are commonly classified as High Church.
Orthodoxy first hit America in the territory that is now Alaska. One estimates pegs adherents at 0.4% of the population. Within that, nearly two dozen branches are divided between what’s known as Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy. They include Greek, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian and more.
Why did Ridvan Aydemir (the Apostate Prophet) choose Orthodoxy? Because he followed his wife there.
AP – as his friends affectionately call him – tried to be a good Muslim when he lived in Turkey. But there were aspects of Islam that rubbed him the wrong way, and when he immigrated to America, he dropped faith altogether.
AP became an atheist. From the perspective of living in America, he looked with critical eyes at the faith he had once embraced. He saw much that was evil. He launched a YouTube channel critiquing Islam.
The name he gave his channel showed defiance of Islam on two grounds. First, he called himself an apostate, which in Islam is punishable by execution. Second, he called himself a prophet, seemingly alluding to The Prophet Mohammad, who supposedly inaugurated the religion. By hinting at equality with the Prophet, he was insinuating that he was bringing its demise.
AP’s haters derogatorily call him “Apus.” He is widely hated in Islamdom. There’s no statistic as to how many former Muslims were encouraged to abandon the faith due to AP. Turkey has issued a warrant for his arrest.
For years, AP was given the right hand of fellowship by the New Atheists, along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ayaan has since abandoned her atheism in favor of Christianity. AP appears to be following suit.
So far, he’s attending an Orthodox church.
Michael Ashcraft is the editor-in-chief of Pilgrim Dispatch.
