‘It Must Be What Birth Is Like’

A lot of people complain about life in a mobile society, but at least one group--religion historians--says it isn’t all bad.

“Fifty years ago, whatever religion your parents were, you were,” says Martin Marty, author of “Modern American Religion” (University of Chicago Press, 1996). “Today, with emigration, inter-marriage and geographic mobility, you’re much freer to shop.”

Indeed, more Americans than ever are exploring and experiencing religious conversion. No one seems to know exactly how many people a year are involved, but most of the major religions of the world are gaining numbers here, according to David Barrett of Global Evangelical Movement Research, who supplies demographic statistics to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The United States remains a predominantly Christian country with 200 million, or 85% of the population, claiming Christianity. Still, there were fewer than 1 million Muslims here 20 years ago and today there are four times as many. Two hundred thousand Buddhists then, almost a million now.

These spiritual journeys tend to occur sometime between ages 18 and 35. Many times they begin with a jolt: a life-threatening illness, the death of a loved one, loss of a job, failure of a relationship, or a sense that there must be more to life than goals, once achieved, have provided--the “is that all there is?” syndrome, as it’s called by the Rev. Lewis Rambo, whose “Understanding Religious Conversion” (Yale University Press, 1993) explores the process.

Rambo points out what usually is overlooked: Religious inquiry takes a lot of work. Long-held beliefs are challenged, family and friends are not always supportive, changes in old habits and attitudes may be in order. By crossing the hurdles, converts tend to be better informed and more committed than many who were born into the faith.

NAJEE ALI

Age 34

Director of a homeless

outreach program

Baptist to Muslim

“I converted in prison. I was there for armed robbery. In my yard there were 500 inmates; 60 of them were Muslim converts. I studied Judaism earlier, but the message of the Muslim faith spoke to me.

“I believe the Christian church I was raised in alienated me from God when I was young. God was portrayed as white with blue eyes. Worship meant bowing down to a God of a different color. My parents didn’t have a strong influence. The gang became my extended family.

“[However,] a white inmate taught me the prayers. It was a strong factor in my conversion. At the time, I was in solitary confinement. He would bring me my food and talk to me about Islam. I used to look at the white man as my enemy but this inmate helped me change.

“The No. 1 factor is discipline. Pray five times each day, fast during the month of Ramadan, go to the mosque every week. When I came home from prison five years ago, I started attending the Islamic Center in Los Angeles. It was the greatest experience of my life, working and praying with people from all over the world. I adopted the attitude and ethic of Malcolm X, to work hard in my community.

“Now I’m director of Islamic Hope, an outreach program in South-Central and on skid row. We feed and clothe hundreds of people every week.

“My family is happy about my conversion. They know my past and they see my life now as a community leader. I think I’m having an effect on them. My brother is studying Islam now.”

LANCE SCHAINA

Age 36

College professor

Agnostic to born-again Christian

“My dad was a lapsed Catholic, my mom was a cultural Jew. I always felt there is a God but at about age 14 I started seriously looking around.

“I went from faithlessness to Christianity. In high school my friend Bob would sit in the library reading about the Protestant Reformation and other religious events in history. I admired him for the way he educated himself and I wanted to be like him. He was a born-again Christian who told me that we find communion with God through Jesus. It made sense to me that if God was going to reach out to us, he’d send his son to heal and teach us, instead of sending warriors and weapons.

“I made a decision to be a Christian but I didn’t do anything about getting baptized for another year. [Schaina was 17.] My mom went ape when I told her. She felt I was rejecting her and everything she represented. My dad sided with her; he feared I’d sit in judgment of him.

“Over the months I started to change. I’d been a very vulgar, profane person. I started to be more loving and sensitive toward others. The great thing about my new faith was feeling for the first time that I was loved. God loved me, I was euphoric. It was a high point.

“The low point was when I felt guilty about my sexuality. At age 21 I had my first sexual affair. Then I really felt guilty.

“Eventually I realized I had a visual picture of God as a parental figure who is always judging. I needed to focus on God’s mercy. The important thing is not to give up on yourself.

“A few years ago I stopped going to church. It was so dull; I would bring a book to read during Sunday services. Now I find my support community through books by spiritual writers.”

MELISSA BOORAS

Age 25

Executive assistant

Jewish to Roman Catholic

“In my family we weren’t much into religion. We celebrated the Jewish holidays and I attended Hebrew school for a while, but then I dropped out.

“After college I dated Michael, who is now my husband. He went to church every Sunday and I asked if I could tag along. I’d ask him questions and he’d explain the meaning of things. I began to wonder if there was something in Catholicism for me.

“I started taking religious instruction. My family didn’t know anything about it and my first hurdle was telling my father. I was very nervous, but he surprised me. He said, ‘I think it’s wonderful that you’ve found faith.’

“I thought my grandparents would disown me, but they were great. And my mom was fine with it. (The one who got upset) was my maid of honor at my wedding, who is Jewish. On the night before my wedding she said I was deserting her and Judaism. I told her I’ll always know I’m from the Jewish faith but I wanted to be part of a religion I feel strongly about.

“Entering the Catholic church was a monumental change. It changed my inner life, my attitude about myself and other people. It teaches that we have to forgive and sometimes now it feels like my faith is working overtime.

“It’s hard to compare religious conversion to anything else. Marriage didn’t change me, but this really did. It must be what birth is like. You start fresh, a whole new life.”

KATIA MONTIJO

Age 33

Nurse

Roman Catholic to Mormon

“I was born in Peru and raised a Catholic. Nine years ago I stopped going to church. I always believed in God, but nothing held my attention at services.

“We came to this country seven years ago. Not long after, the Mormon elders, the leaders of the Mormon church, came to my mother’s house and invited her to their church. It was something different and she went. Not long after, she and my sister became Mormons. Last February my husband and I were baptized Mormons.

“My marriage changed a lot after that. My husband and I are more understanding of each other now. And he changed. He had a brother he didn’t talk to; now they talk. We’re happy together. I think that’s what God wants.

“Most of my family is still Catholic. In the beginning there were some misunderstandings about Mormons. They would ask us questions and we’d explain. Things between us are good now.”

TAMAR FRANKIEL

Age 50

Professor of religion

Methodist to Orthodox Jewish

“I converted when I was 32 years old, but I didn’t go from one religion right to the next.

“When I was young I was active in the Methodist youth group, but in college I left my Christian background behind me--partly because I was disappointed. As a college student in the ‘60s, I was very involved in social justice and I was disappointed in the Christian churches for the way they kept apart from the problem. I dropped all religious practices, but I was still passionate about religion.

“In graduate school the environment was very academic, but I never gave up my belief in God. My first job was at Stanford University. I happened to meet Hershel, the man I eventually married. He was getting more interested in his own Jewish background and I spent a number of Friday nights at Sabbath dinner with him and his friends.

“The next year I went to teach at Princeton for a one-year job. I missed Hershel but I missed Shabbat too. It had become a feature of my life and I decided to do something on the Sabbath, even if it was on my own. The only synagogue service on campus was Orthodox so I went and I liked it.

“The next year I got a job at San Diego State University and Hershel was teaching in California. A rabbi helped me prepare for conversion. All I had studied in college and grad school about ritual came alive. I became more observant than the rabbi. I made the commitment to keep a kosher home, follow the legal aspects, and convert. . . I was completely accepted by the Jewish community.

“I think the most difficult thing about accepting the religion for me was that men are separated from women in the synagogue. I looked at it from the liberal, American ideological point of view and it got me raging.

“Then I looked from the Orthodox view and it was a mind opener. There is an emphasis on the family and a love of ritual that matches my own. The more involved I became in Jewish life, the less important the things that at first disturbed me seemed to be. In Orthodoxy, there is so much going on all the time at home, with rituals, teaching our children, keeping kosher, that I don’t feel left out at the synagogue. At times I feel like a priestess, paying attention to the details of life in a holy way.”