Religious conversion is a process that entails a change in religious affiliation and identity.

In
turn, the conversion process dialectically establishes and often changes the very entities to
which and from which people convert. People tend to adopt new religious beliefs that differ
from their previous beliefs. This involves a new religious identity, or a change from one
religious identity to another.

Religious conversion describes the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and

affiliating with another. This might be from one to another denomination within the same
religion, for example, from Baptist to Catholic or from Sunni Islam to Shi'a Islam.
Conversion usually takes place when there are two major factors involved – when a couple
who establish a long term relationship culminating in marriage or when an individual has
faced inordinate amount of trials and tribulations and associate the failures and crisis and
adversity due to the failure on the part of their faith.

Couples usually opt to follow a single religion either for greater harmony or to bring a sense
of uniformity in the pattern of worship, or maybe even plain convenience. Usually the shift
from one faith to another is towards the faith of the male. It is very rare that a man converts to
the woman’s faith. This effort is due largely to the wholehearted love the two individuals
have for each other and is a considered choice.

In situations where the convert to another faith or denomination is when the individual has
faced an inordinate level of adversity and when in despair, they tend to follow the advice of
well meaning friends or relatives of another faith or denomination and are led to believe that
the person’s life and situation would improve if the person had to convert and follow the new
path. This is an effort that is provoked by adversity and coercion or blind faith of well
meaning individuals who cannot otherwise help the person who is faced with disastrous
situations. This choice is made in desperation with the hope that things would improve. This
cannot be considered a wise or educated choice in the shifting of belief from one faith or
denomination to another.

Conversion to Christianity may simply involve a personal choice to a particular denomination

and to identify with Christian denomination rather than with another religion and many
Christians understand it to mean that the individual attains eternal salvation by a genuine
experience through conversion or act a “radical transformation” of self. In the case of the
Catholic Church, the faith is governed a set of rules established from the time of Christ and
updated according to time and tradition by various popes who believed their encyclicals
would be advantageous to the laity and believers. These rules are guiding principles that
govern the believer into following the correct path to lead them to their ultimate destination –
heaven or hell. Sin is the central focus in the life of the Catholic believer and the individual is
expected to observe the rules of the church. Failure to observe and follow the rules means
that the individual will face the wrath of the church and is destined to hell, fire and brimstone.

Many believers find it very good as they do not have to think for themselves as the rules of
the Catholic Church provide the guidance for the worshipper. On the other hand, there are
individuals who find the rules and strictures very confining and they prefer to make choices
for themselves, and the church while it usually accommodates the preferences of the believers
also has its own limitations, such as the situation when there is inter religious marriage, and
the wedding rites are conducted according to both faiths. In such an instance, the church
endorses that the marriage is registered and that there cannot be any rite that will follow the
Catholic rites of marriage in a church.

In such cases the believers feel restricted and feel their freedom is not considered and they
opt to leave the church for another denomination or religion as they observe that the church is
inhibiting their freedom. The believers opt to practise other accommodating faiths or
denominations, in the hope it will be a happier situation for them. It is for these reasons that
the believers leave the Catholic Church. The rules of Vatican Council II which came into
force in 1966 helps people of the Catholic Church through their parish churches.

People convert to a different religion for various reasons, including active conversion by free
choice due to a change in beliefs, secondary conversion, deathbed conversion, conversion for
convenience, marital conversion, and forced conversion. It is also suggested that negative
emotional states are one of the most common cause for religious conversion. Indeed, religion
can provide comfort during times of depression, anxiety, or hardship. Some convert due to
illnesses, lack of basic needs and different hardships of life. Inter-religious relationships also
mean the woman converts to the denomination of the man.

According the church I worship with by the name of catholic church, marital issues can also
be a matter put into consideration for one to convert. The aspect of marital conversion is
religious conversion upon marriage, either as a conciliatory act, or a mandated requirement
according to a particular religious belief. One can be considered an affiliate or a convert when
one falls pregnant for the denomination full member or vice versa. Initially there will be call
for marriage to be arranged so that the other person can fully become a member.

Conversion can also come as a result of one having been made believe to follow certain
beliefs and values which seem unique and attractive for people to the convert. Conversion has
also been described as the point of transition from “natural life” to spiritual life. In this sense
it is seen as both a “radical change of heart and life” and also a more gradual process in
which the convert’s spiritual nature develops through Christian culture and education.
Conversion can also occur within the same religion and this can be from one denomination to
another within the same faith e.g. in Christianity where one can convert from Catholic
denomination to Seventh Day Adventist or vice versa.

Converting into different religions from the ones that one is born into requires essentially
overhauling of rites, prayers, forms of worship and everything a person has ever known, but
for people caught in this situation, they accept it as the only way. For those who do convert,
the decision to change religions is not done like one makes a sudden flip of a switch but it is a
slow and considered process that ends eventually like the straw that broke the camel’s back.
To seriously consider converting either from one denomination into another or from one
religion to another, a person has to be deeply unhappy or unsatisfied with their religion.
Conversions do not come as a result of minor confusions about esoteric theology or
disagreements about bits and pieces of religious doctrine. Such issues may lead someone to
change their denomination or sect, but they are unlikely to completely change faiths.
Instead, a person has to feel that there is something fundamentally incorrect about their
current religion or experience a sense of dissatisfaction or lack to want to make a shift in their
religious leanings. This would normally be on par with a Christian doubting that the
Resurrection is a certainty or a Muslim finding it difficult to believe that Muhammad was
actually the final prophet of God. Both ideas form the cornerstone of the respective faiths. It
stands to reason that a person who cannot believe in those basic tenets of the religion that
they are born into, they do not truly believe in the faith and therefore seek to make a change
in their religious grounding.

Converts also come to an understanding within themselves and supported by the teachings of
the newly adopted faith, and they find that the answers they were not able to receive in the
religion of their birth, are now presented clearly enough for them to be satisfied by another
new religion or denomination. They need to connect with a new faith and feel that it is the
answer to their challenges. Their dissatisfaction with their old faith and their anticipation of
their new faith to fulfil their desires need to be maintained over a decent period of time as
well. An intense curiosity about a new faith is not necessarily the same as an interest in
converting from the religion of their birth.

In conclusion, it can be stated that while the Catholic church and other Christian
denominations are considered either easy to enter or leave for other faiths, it is essentially the
individual who has to make the choice of the Church or faith who has to make a considered
decision about how to handle their beliefs in their faith that they were either born into or the
choice they make of their own will in the belief that things would make beneficial for their
individual and collective lives.