RELIGIOUS CONVERSION

Human beings have the capacity to think and to make choices and decisions. One of the choices they must make concerns their religion. The freedom to make this choice is regarded as a basic human right and is enshrined in the constitutions of many countries. For example, Article 25 of the Constitution of India states that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health. This does not include a right to forcible conversion. Religious conversion must be a free personal and responsible act under the grace of God.

In everyday language, when one “converts” one thing into another, one changes its purpose and use. The same is true of religious conversion. It involves changing one’s mind and direction. A faith that was once thought to be unimportant now assumes central importance in someone’s life. The person now lives with a new truth and a new understanding of reality. This inevitably means that the person will reject some aspects of the way he or she lived before and adopt a new set of behaviours. In Christian terms, this can be described as repentance.

Jesus began his ministry with a call to repentance: “Repent and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). He illustrated what he meant by repentance and conversion in the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32). The younger son’s journey into a far country with his share of the family wealth signifies human departure from God to sin. It caused an estrangement between the young man and his father. But eventually the young man became aware of what he had lost, honestly confessed his sins, recognised that he was unworthy and longed to return to his father’s house. The father anticipated his wayward son’s return and waited with the mercy the son did not deserve, unconditionally loved his estranged son and received him back into his house with a celebration intended for the whole community.

These steps show us the meaning of Christian conversion. It involves acknowledgement of one’s separation from God and turning back to God (1 Thess 1:9). The son needed an inward spiritual change to make him become aware of his separation from God, repent of the sin that had caused it and become willing to accept the welcome God offers. He then again became part of his community, living humbly in reconciliation with the people around him. It is the same with conversion. People need to give up their old sinful ways, live humbly, and live reconciled to God and to those around them.

The story of the lost son also makes it clear that the change that takes place with conversion is not simply a matter of deciding to change, using the power of the finite human will. There was no way the son could force the father to accept him and welcome him back.

That choice lay with the father. In the same way, in Christian conversion the self is passive in accepting what it cannot change, but active in seeing the need for salvation and opening the self to the possibility of conversion, and in accepting the gift of God’s grace when it comes. Repentance and dependence upon God are essential elements of Christian conversion.

Some object to the very idea of conversion, arguing that it uses the cloak of religion to disguise many other motives. Studies have shown that conversion has even been employed as an instrument of social protest. The Dalits of India, for example, have long struggled to escape the oppression inflicted upon them in the name of social stratification. Conversion to Christianity offered them an opportunity to improve their social status and achieve equality, for Christianity teaches that all are welcomed by God. This has been described as a temporal and material reason for conversion. However, is not desire for equality also a spiritual reason?

Others in South Asia allege that conversion to Christianity reflects an illegitimate Western influence and undermines their national and cultural heritage. Such thinking has resulted in moves to introduce anti-conversion laws in some countries and states. But such thinking underestimates what constitutes culture. Conversion does slowly bring cultural change in that the new convert takes on a new view of the world, but it does not overthrow an entire cultural history. The world around a convert does not change overnight. The convert serves as a change factor within his or her existing community, but does not undermine that community. The gospel rightly heard does not praise one culture and condemn another. Rather it evaluates all cultures by its criteria of truth and righteousness.

Cultural hostility to the very idea of conversion has led some Christian converts to worship Christ without undergoing water baptism as a sign of public confession of their faith. Their argument is that baptism may be misinterpreted as a sign that one is abandoning one’s community and losing one’s identity. When this happens, people like Dalit converts to Christ may lose benefits previously afforded them by law, just because they now worship Christ. This legally discriminatory practice in some South Asian countries causes some Christians to abstain from any outward rituals of affiliation.

Salvation is received by faith and not by works. Thus Christian conversion does not necessarily require one to change one’s name, adopt a foreign culture or adhere to certain rituals. Rather, the reality of saving faith in conversion is attested by its practical effect, “the work produced by faith” (1 Thess 1:3). Conversion to Christ creates reconciled people who work for justice amidst injustice, for truthfulness amidst deception, and for peace in the centre of a violent society. This enables them to participate in authentic social transformation. Moreover, in general, converts to faith in Christ learn the value of being industrious and independent, seeking to be sustained by God’s grace rather than by handouts from others. The energy of converts to Christ is visible in their witness to newfound faith and new-found love.

Richard Howell