Watching Tennis (A Short Essay on Religious Conversion)

[rug]

June 25, 2012
By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Some people love watching the sport of tennis, but I am not one of them. This should in no way reflect on that no-doubt fine sport, the talented people who play it, and the fans of said talented athletes. I’m sure it’s a deficiency on my part, nobody’s perfect, right? Similarly, I just can’t get too worked up over the ongoing theist-atheist tennis match, the way some read so much meaning into every “point” scored by each side, how “heroes” and “villains” are created, how “experts” in the commentary box try to explain how one point was more devastating than another point, or how one player’s career is on the decline. Worst of all is when a prominent player on one “team” decides to switch teams, then things really start to heat up!

Such was the case when fellow Patheos blogger Leah Libresco, formerly on the atheist channel here, decided to convert to Catholicism. Faster than you could say “Bristol Palin” traffic to her blog went insane, and CNN dubbed her a “prominent atheist blogger,” much to the chagrin of prominent atheist bloggers (it’s a Catch-22, if CNN is reporting on your conversion, you must be prominent, because CNN is reporting on your conversion). Now, everybody has an opinion about Ms. Libresco, with many giving interpretations as to this conversion’s importance, or lack of importance. One Catholic blogger even opined that “heaven is roaring with joy” over this conversion (which makes one wonder what sounds heaven makes when a Catholic becomes an atheist, but I digress).

For my part, I was just going to ignore the whole thing. As a Pagan I have no real emotional investment in atheists and Catholics debating over conversion, or the significance of Libresco’s turn towards Rome. It’s like, well, like watching tennis. I can intellectually understand why some people get worked up about it, but it isn’t my game. Indeed, Pagans, in general, don’t much care about conversions. Patheos columnist Carl McColman, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism,”still has plenty of Pagan friends, despite becoming a Catholic (the same is true of Pagans who’ve become atheists). We believe that a person’s relationship to the gods is their own affair, and it only becomes an issue for us when those converted decide to turn against us. To use their conversion as a means to sell books about our defaults, or to demonize us. Sadly that is an all-too-common phenomenon.

For many Pagans, when we hear that one of us has converted to Christianity, we wonder when the book is coming out. You think people love atheist-turned-believer stories? Well, there’s a certain segment of Christians that just can’t get enough ex-Pagan/ex-Witch narratives. Books with titles like “Taken From the Night,” or “Generation Hex,” or “Wicca and Witchcraft: Understanding the Dangers.” Some of these narratives have elements of truth in them, but most are exaggerated or fabricated to make for a more dramatic telling. The simple truth, you see, is far too mundane. The truth is that thousands of people, perhaps even millions, shift in and out of different religious identities every day. It’s as common as crabgrass, and it really means little to the larger trends that are driving religion.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2012/06/watching-tennis-a-short-essay-on-religious-conversion.html

[cbayer]

1. Well done!

[Jim__]

2. Roger Federer as a religious experience.

Given that you mentioned watching tennis and religion, I couldn't resist. So, somewhat dated, here it is: Roger Federer as a religious experience

[dimbear]

3. Try to understand tennis as an allegory. It starts out like the Garden of Eden,

love-all.

[djean111]

4. To me, conversions of any kind, in any direction, are not even all that interesting.

It is not like I am a lemming or as if I would change my non-belief because of the belief of someone else - no matter how or when they got there.
I would still have to see incontrovertible proof.
Also have to say I quite understand those who don't believe NDEs - they want proof. There is no proof, of course, but that has no bearing on the fact that I had one. (Yes I said fact . People can write books and mock or whatever - pointless, really.

Honestly, some of the tennis-like back and forth makes me laugh - as if there is some subtle or bold Jesuitical argument that would make me a theist. The funniest one is declaring non-belief a religion - and then, I guess, using the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Theory, I am given to understand that I am thisclose to being a theist. Or that there is no way I could have independently come to the belief that murder and thievery are wrong without religion. Le sigh.

Maybe the inevitable books are due to a lack of conviction.......sort of like protesting too much.

[MineralMan]

5. I've always found the book-writing involved with changes in

religious beliefs to be either navel-gazing or something similar. One's transitions involving belief or disbelief seem an odd subject for a book, as far as I'm concerned. What's even more puzzling is why people buy and read such books, instead of being guided by their own musings on the subject.