In a city in a state in the center of a country lives a group of people who believe they are the center of the universe; they know Right and Wrong, and they are Right. They work hard and go to school and get married and have kids who they take to church and teach that continually protesting the lives, deaths, and daily activities of The World is the only genuine statement of compassion that a God-loving human can sincerely make. As parents, they are attentive and engaged, and the children learn their lessons well.<\/p>\n

This is my framework.<\/p>\n

Until very recently, this is what I lived, breathed, studied, believed, preached \u2013 loudly, daily, and for nearly 27 years.<\/p>\n

I never thought it would change. I never wanted it to.<\/p>\n

Then suddenly: it did.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is what conversion is\u2014to have one\u2019s whole framework for living and thinking and understanding, which all seems perfectly normal and rational, called into question and finally left behind. I don\u2019t think this point can really be stressed enough. So often when we look at people whose beliefs contradict our own, we usually write them off as stupid, ignorant or evil. And they may well be any or all of those things. But when the only data you have for understanding the world is a matrix of judgment and wrath from God, then it makes perfect sense to work tirelessly to extend that exact same judgment and wrath to the world.<\/p>\n

But even then, even if one has a lot more data, that doesn\u2019t mean that people who look at that same data will come to the same conclusions. I often wonder how someone can look at all the same data I have and not become an Orthodox Christian. I really don\u2019t understand it. I wish I did. But I know plenty of people smarter than I, better informed than I and more sincere than I who have indeed looked at that data and not made the same choice I did.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think the media gets this, though, because the popular culture makes the assumption (despite it being proved so obviously wrong so very often) that anyone who is educated will of course hold a particular belief. \u201cEducation is the key,\u201d etc. But sometimes it\u2019s not. In fact, most of the time, it\u2019s not. The media will understand this essentially as a defection based on a couple of young women finally learning some things they didn\u2019t know before. But Megan was a major user of social media and a constant media face for WBC. She was exposed to all kinds of things that contradicted WBC doctrine yet she remained not only in the fold but an enthusiastic leader within it.<\/p>\n

What happened? She converted. Further evidence for this is what always happens after conversion\u2014the world seems new, unfamiliar and somewhat confusing. Megan writes: \u201cWhere do you go from there? I don\u2019t know, exactly. My sister Grace is with me, though. We\u2019re trying to figure it out together.\u201d There is a freshness and a sense of possibility even in the midst of the confusion. And her Father Grace is with her, too.<\/p>\n

Conversion also requires making sense of one\u2019s past life, trying to incorporate all those previous experiences into the new vision of the world that has arisen. This process is normal to converts and usually lasts for years. I can only imagine what kind of processing a former member of WBC will have to undertake:<\/p>\n