Why I Didn't Convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy: My Journey Through Tradition

In this deeply personal and theological episode, Krista Bontrager, host of Theology Mom, reflects on her extensive journey through Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, explaining why she ultimately chose to remain a Protestant. She begins by addressing the common assumption that her Protestant stance is merely biased or uninformed, clarifying that her position is the result of years of rigorous study, engagement with Catholic and Orthodox apologists like Father Mike Schmitz and Bishop Barron, and firsthand experience with Coptic Orthodox practices. She outlines six distinct definitions of 'tradition' to show that not all traditions are equal—some are optional, symbolic practices like facing east in prayer, following the Christian calendar, or seeking a spiritual father, which she affirms as valuable and biblically neutral. However, she draws a firm line at the sixth definition: traditions elevated to dogmatic necessity, such as transubstantiation, papal infallibility, and Marian dogmas, which she argues were not taught by the apostles and lack historical continuity in the first 300 years of the church. She critiques the collapse of these distinct meanings into one monolithic 'tradition' as a rhetorical sleight of hand, and challenges Catholic and Orthodox apologists to prove that these later doctrines were part of the original apostolic deposit. Ultimately, she affirms the Protestant principle of sola scriptura, not as a rejection of history, but as a defense of Scripture’s supremacy over evolving church dogma.