Shap Journal 2001/2002

Living Community

Converting from One Faith to Another

Jonathan Romain

What makes a person wish to convert to
another faith? Or adopt a faith after
many years of unbelief? And what effect
does it have upon them and upon their
family? As someone who teaches a conversion class for
those becoming Jewish, I have been fascinated by the
individuals I have met and the enormously varied
backgrounds and motives they represent. But what
trends are there in the country at large? I decided to
write a book on the subject and the result is Your God
Shall Be My God (see below).

At this very moment hundreds of missionaries are criss-
crossing Britain in an effort to change the religious
beliefs of the population. Perhaps their number runs into
thousands. They give lectures in halls, deliver leaflets
through letterboxes, chat on the doorstep, talk over the
airwaves, accost people in the High Street, and try
to set up their own TV stations. Their energy is
indefatigable, with some people putting in long hours
after a full day's work and others devoting their whole
life to it.

Even more amazing is their diversity. Some are from the
mainstream churches preaching a well-known message;
others are from Christian off-shoots such as Jehovah's
Witnesses or the Mormons, offering a more intensive
route to Salvation; others are from abroad, such as
Buddhists seeking to bring new teachings to the jaded
West; others have a much smaller remit, such as
Lubavitch rabbis with the more limited goal of re-
invigorating the souls of fellow Jews; others are New
Religious Movements - also known as cults - keen to
make spiritual conquests, but whose religious
credentials vary considerably.

The existence of this missionary zeal casts a new light
on the state of religion in this country and means we
have to re-evaluate the assumptions about it. It is not
necessarily true, as some claim, that we are an
increasingly godless and secular society that has largely
turned its back on religion as a quaint relic of a bygone
age, practised only by the nostalgic or the nervous.

Beneath the surface picture of a supposedly calm
religious life in Britain in which faith is declining quietly,
with churches and synagogues emptying genteely, there
is a swirling hubbub of religious activity. Religious Britain
is like a river that appears to be flowing at a leisurely
pace, but in which there is a series of fast undercurrents
that suck others in and vie for mastery.

It is estimated that 1,000 people in Britain convert to a
different faith each week. They come from all walks of
life. They range from sixteen year old black youths who
have low prospects of employment to Members of
Parliament three times their age and with thirty times
their income. For each of them religion is one of the
abiding passions in their life which colours all other
aspects of it.

Each conversion carries a story with it. It might be
about years of searching for a spiritual home, or about
a moment of inspiration that caught them by surprise.
Sometimes it involved the pain of breaking away from a
previous path, a sense of loneliness and wrestling with
doubt. Othertimes it was the result of a love-story,
finding not only the joy of a partner but also discovering
a new religious home through the tradition to which he
or she belonged. For many, the love-story was not with
another person but with God, a religious yearning that
was vaguely sensed but lacked fulfilment for so long
until it eventually blossomed into a wonderful all-
encompassing relationship.

For those converting, their new faith has distinctive
strengths that appeal to them more than the tradition
into which they happened to be born. To cite some
generalisations that will be investigated more fully later:
Buddhism offers a path to self-knowledge, an inner calm
in an era of confusion and hype. Islam offers a sense of
discipline and direction in a world that so often seems
chaotic and pointless.

Judaism offers communal cameraderie and personal
identity at a time when family values and local ties are
under siege and many feel that they do not belong
anywhere. Christianity excels at spirituality and a sense
of personal salvation that lift one above the limitations
of the human condition.

Some of these are real differences, such as between
Buddhism which is self-centred and Christianity which
is God-centred. In many cases, though, the differences
are merely perceived ones. If you dig deep into each
faith, many of the characteristics of the other faiths can
also be found. Nevertheless, in the eye of the searcher it
is the surface differences that can make a faith appear
sufficiently attractive to justify conversion.

Some of the converts have travelled exactly the same
routes but in opposite directions. Thus Frank, who came
from a Christian background but never felt at ease in
church, has now converted to Islam and has gained a
deep sense of religious conviction. At the same time,
Yusuf who came from a Muslim upbringing never felt at
home in the mosque and eventually converted to
Christianity where he has found the spirituality he
previously lacked. They each found religious satisfaction
in the faith that the other person felt was so lacking.

For some people this is simply because the religious
grass on the other side looks greener and they have not
explored their own heritage sufficiently well to discover
in it what they can see so obviously in another faith.

As Rachel put it T realise now that many of the things I
like about Catholicism are in Judaism too - but I never
took the trouble to look for them. When I embarked on
my religious search, I thought I knew Judaism, but,
looking back, it's clear that it was only a surface
familiarity, and largely coloured - perhaps I should say
prejudiced - by a couple of awful teachers at Religion
School. If I had put in as much effort as an adult to
research Judaism as I did Christianity - which seemed
new and exciting - then I may never have left it for the
Church'.

Non-religious factors operating in a person's life -
tensions within the family, problems at work, difficulties
establishing a social circle - can also determine whether
a religious characteristic is seen as an advantage or
disadvantage. Thus the spirituality of Christianity that
outsiders admire can seem to those within it as cold and
empty: the warmth Judaism holds in the eyes of
newcomers can appear oppressively suffocating to those
brought up in it; while the clarity and certainty that
Islam emanates to onlookers can be rigid and restrictive
for those long used to it. One person's inspiration can be
another person's reservation, and what appear to some
as bonuses can be regarded by others as defects.

But why is there such an explosion in the religious
traffic from one faith to another? Perhaps four main
factors can be identified. The first is that Britain as a
society has changed from being mono-religious to
multi-faith. Until 1945 it was almost exclusively a
Christian country, with a small Jewish community that
kept largely to itself. Since then, waves of immigration
from disparate parts of the world have had a dramatic
effect on the religious landscape.

The religious diversity of the country has been
recognised by the educational system. Christianity may
still be given primacy, but many schoolchildren will visit
a mosque, meet a rabbi, witness a Sikh ceremony and
hear Buddhist teachings at an assembly. Conversely
children from non-Christian faiths will learn Christian
hymns and become familiar with the New Testament.

Demographic patterns have also brought members of
different religions into close contact. The result is that it
is no longer even necessary to be an active seeker after
other faiths to become aware of them. People are now
presented with an array of different religious options
that were hardly thought of beforehand. A society that
is used to high consumer choice in material goods, finds
itself equally well served in the religious sphere, with a
wide range of spiritual opportunities on offer.

The second factor fuelling the number of conversions is
the change in approach to religion in general. It has
become much more a matter of personal choice than of
inherited tradition. People do not automatically follow
the faith of their family. It may be the first reference
point, but if it is found wanting, then many will not
hesitate to look elsewhere and find an alternative
religious product.

At the same time, religion is becoming privatised and is
turning into an individual domain irrespective of the
wider context in which a person operates. Religion is
seen by many as a private hobby that one member of the
family may pursue but is not binding upon anyone else.
rather like train-spotting or stamp-collecting.

A third factor is the sharp decrease in religious
knowledge and experience in many households. Some
people have a nominal religious identity, but many arc
brought up without any religion at all. They are not
even 'lapsed C of E' - they are simply 'nothings' . At the
same time as this general decrease in religious
knowledge, the individuals concerned still have religious
needs and are still confronted by the major questions
about life and death, purpose and final destination.
While some can brush such issues aside, others seek
spiritual answers to fill the vacuum they feel in their
lives.

A fourth factor has been the growing sense of religious
awe at the approach of the Millenium and a sense of
religious cataclysm. Whilst this has mainly been a
1990s phenomenon, it was preceded by an outpouring
of messianic hopes following the unexpected re-
unification of Jerusalem in 1967. This was then
reinforced with other 'signs' such as the fall of the Berlin
Wall and the collapse of Communism, which were taken
as further proofs that the end of days was approaching.
It led both to the charismatic movement within
Christianity developing greatly and to a large amount of
interest in other faiths, as well as numerous New
Religious Movements.

The assumption that people will die in the same faith in
which they were born can no longer be taken for
granted. Instead, there is an increasing willingness for
individuals to shift their religious allegiance. From an
Anglican point of view, the traffic has been two-way,
with both non-Anglicans joining the Church, and those
once baptised as Anglicans leaving to join other faiths.

The key questions facing church leaders - which are
dealt with in the book - are what motivates each group,
and why the Church is both attracting and losing
members at the same time.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Remain is the author of a number of
books, including Till Faith Us Do Part on mixed-faith
marriage and Faith and Practice: A Guide to Reform
Judaism Today. Your God Shall Be My God is published by
SCM Press at £13.95.