The practice of religious conversion is fairly common in the United States. Roughly half of American adults have switched religious affiliation at least once in their lives, according to a 2009 study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Though such a decision marks a major life change, the study found that most adults that did leave their childhood faith did so early — before the age of 24.
How do the processes of religious questioning and exploration manifest themselves at Tufts? University Chaplain David O'Leary said that he frequently counsels students who are beginning to doubt their faiths.
"Questioning is good. The more one questions, the more you're making the faith your own instead of the faith of your parents or grandparents," O'Leary said.
Before students elect to change faiths, O'Leary said it is important they have a handle on the religion in which they were raised.
"My biggest thing to ask before anyone changes is ‘Do they know their own tradition?'" he said. "A lot of people want to change, but they haven't explored the faith they want to leave. My role is to make sure they explore the tradition they grew up in."
O'Leary believes social factors play a large role in the conversion decision, especially during college years.
"No one has a problem with doctrine. It's usually social — sadly, people find they haven't been treated properly where they have been worshipping," he explained. "Many people don't switch faith paths because of doctrinal issues; it's more their friends, their partner, their boyfriend or girlfriend."
Rather than social pressures, O'Leary stressed that the process of religious conversion should instead derive from a combination of highly intellectual and spiritual questions.
"Students need to examine what's motivating them," he said. "What is [it] that's calling? What are they feeling? What are the reasons they are drawn to [a new faith]?"
Junior John Peter Kaytrosh, a Judaic studies major, started grappling with these kinds of questions his sophomore year of high school. Kaytrosh, who is currently in the process of converting to Conservative Judaism, began exploring different faiths when he felt that the Catholicism of his childhood wasn't meeting his spiritual needs.
"I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school for 12 years," he said. "There were a lot of intellectual leaps I couldn't make, and there was also a lot of teaching that I found disagreeable. I explored and looked at Quakerism, Unitarian Universalism and some mainline Protestant denominations, such as Protestantism and Lutheranism."
Kaytrosh said that the large Jewish community at Tufts was a motivating factor behind his decision to convert.
"There' s too much ritual, too much social observation, too much you need to watch other people doing in order to learn the ritual mastery," he explained. "You can't practice Judaism in a vacuum or a bubble; there's been a lot of intellectual and spiritual discovery involved. If Tufts didn't have such a strong, welcoming, cohesive community, it wouldn't have happened."
Kaytrosh also identified with the more intellectual and doctrinal aspects of Judaism, particularly its groundings in everyday life, he said.
"It was definitely the emphasis on community and living in the world. A lot of other religions will emphasize doing things that are extraordinary, that are not necessarily sustainable as a way of life — they emphasize drawing yourself out from the world," Kaytrosh explained. "Judaism doesn't do that. It asks us not only to engage but to become very skilled [at] living well and living with the world and not living against it."
Tufts' Jewish Chaplain, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, said that the conversion process is lengthy. Many of the students he has helped to convert to Judaism, he said, do not finish until after graduation.
"A person goes through a serious process of study, usually taking a formal course and meeting with a rabbi regularly for about a year," Summit said in an e-mail. "After that process, a potential convert goes before a rabbinic court of three rabbis who speak with the convert about his or her reasons for converting and ask questions about how the convert will integrate Judaism into his or her life."
Other rituals follow, including the "mikvah," a ritual immersion in a pool of water.
Like Kaytrosh, Summit emphasized that conversion involved a high level of commitment and a lot of religious learning.
In contrast, conversion to Islam is far simpler according to Tufts' Muslim Chaplain, Naila Baloch.
"All you have to do is say that you bear witness — that there is no god but one god, Allah, the Arabic term for god or one god," she said. "Basically, it is bearing witness that there is the one god and that Muhammad is his prophet."
Baloch, who has exchanged e-mails with a few students interested in Islam, explained that the Muslim community is very open to converts. Unlike the more procedural conversions required in Judaism and some other religions, conversion to Islam is far less ritualistic, she said.
"It's more like your inner orientation changes," she explained. "I think it depends on how you were living your life before; for some people it's an inner shift, but for some people, it's also an outer change."
Regardless of religious affiliation, the process of exploring different faiths is important for students interested in converting.
"Explore away. It's easy here at Tufts," O'Leary said. "We have a great Department of Religion that offers courses on many of the spiritual religions. There are also various student religious organizations that people should check out."
Kaytrosh echoed this sentiment, advising that students on their own spiritual journeys listen to their instincts.
"Go with your gut," he said. "If something is attracting you really strongly, never stop learning. There's always more to learn."
