Last night, we were discussing how people change religions.

[xiphias]

So, Jews, for the most part, convert to Buddhism or Paganism.

Catholics convert to Judaism, or sometimes Buddhism.

Apparently, Buddhists convert to Methodism, at least Asian Buddhists do. There isn't really enough data on Western Buddhists to figure out what they tend to convert to.

What do Pagans convert to? Any other observations?

We were actually thinking that it'd be interesting to do a study on conversion and see if there actually are statistically significant patterns of conversion like this, and then look at those religions to see why people tended to go in those patterns. It might show what people felt was missing from their religion of birth.

Comments

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Catholics also convert to paganism in large numbers in my experience.

I think this is a good question to be asking. Most of the individuals I've met can tell you more or less why they converted, too, so you should be able to get a pretty good picture if you talk to enough folks about their decisions.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

Pagans and Western Buddhists tend to gravitate towards EST (or the Landmark Forum... generic EST) or the Human Awareness Institute (if they are Northern Californians). Some of them go for the more refined form of cult crack-whoredom and get involved with Amway or Melaluca or some other multi-level marketing scam.

And, yes, I'm citing this from direct observation.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

I was Catholic and I converted to Paganism.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

The pagans I've known who converted generally meander back to the faith they were born into. I don't actually know that many who've converted to paganism and then left it. The ones I know who have...well, generally I never really thought of them as being pagan anyway. They were doing it because it was trendy and it would shock their parents. I don't consider that conversion.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

The pagans I've known who converted generally meander back to the faith they were born into.

Odd. I can't think of any pagans I've known who have done this.

Personally, I've been pagan for something like 18 years now (ghod, I'm getting old), and I can't envision a circumstance that would cause that to change.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Well, out of all the pagans I've known personally, I know two who've done this. One was born Anglican and went back, the other was born sort of vaguely Protestant, converted to Wicca, and then converted to Lutheran when her in-laws insisted. I've known a couple of people online who said they were pagan for a while and then went back to being whatever they'd been before.

But 2 isn't a large proportion of the pagans I know personally. :)

I've been pagan, by name, for 10 now. Although from the age of 7 I knew I was a specific something else, it took me a while to find out what it was. So I suppose I have an equally good claim to having been pagan for 20 years. :) My s/o has been pagan for about 30. We're both happy and don't see it changing.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I think I'm one of the people who stopped before I got to the point you mention. I was raised Jewish and didn't have any real problem with it (although I did and do have some problems with the specific traditions of the community I was raised in, I recognize that if I wanted to, I could find Jewish communities that don't have these problems).

As a high school student I was attracted to Paganism because of its emphasis on the individual, and because I was interested in comparative mythology as an academic field. Eventually I realized that academic interest was not enough to make me convert to Paganism. The need for a non-centralized religion might have done, if it had lasted, but as I outgrew my adolescent rebel phase (which those of you who knew me will recall lasted until I was about 24) I came to understand that rejecting the religion in which I'd been raised was a bigger step than I needed to take. For me, religious conversion would always have felt more like moving away from something than moving to something, and I guess I felt like that's not a good basis for it.

[firecat]

Well, I haven't done any official conversions, but I started out Presbyterian, then my spiritual interests moved me to explore paganism, then shamanism. I didn't entirely give up paganism/shamanism, but lately I've felt most aligned with Zen Buddhism.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

Is there a formal conversion process to paganism?

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

It probably depends on the kind of paganism.

Re:

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

Thats what I figured.

[kiya]

From personal experience, "Other forms of paganism."

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

most often I see Pagans getting more involved in different kinds of Paganism, of which there are so many, and some get into more formal Wicca and become initiates and joining covens for healing/celebration rituals. Others seem to kind of leave and practice privately, a neo-pagan, new-age, metaphysical sort of thing.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I know many many Episcopalians who were former Roman Catholics... does that count as conversion? If they leave Christianity, my bet would be paganism because of its ritual elements.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

I find "converting" to Buddhism to be an odd turn of phrase. There's nothing about Buddhism that precludes keeping one's original religion, so far as I know.

And as far as Asian Buddhists...there's a question of how devout they were in the first place. Becoming Methodists? I guess some do. Depends...there's a difference in the sort of Christianity that East Asians turn to, depending on their ethnic origin.

[arib.livejournal.com]

I know one person who started out Christian, became some flavor of Pagan and is converting to Judaism.

(Funnily enough, she's how I met you...)

Also, other Pagan friends of mine have said "If I had to convert I'd choose Judaism because of X."

I don't know if this is statistically significant or not.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

If someone was born some stripe of Pagan and converted away from any type of Paganism I suspect that the religions that would hold the most interest would be Judaism and Unitarian-Universalism.

People tend to convert for several reasons:
1) they are missing something spiritually in their lives but feel they can find it in the new religion
2) they are philosophically dissatisfied with their current religion
3) they are not socially or emotionally satisfied with their current religion
4) their neighbors and/or friends are all or mostly all of the religion they are changing to
5) they like people they've met of the religion they are switching to.

People's reasons may vary, but usually it's some mix of the above five. I didn't include 6) bolt from the blue, because it's a very uncommon reason that seems to apply only to prophets, saints and madmen - those are just not typical people.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

I've met a fair few people who've moved from Wicca to a reconstructionist variety of paganism, including at least one guy who was raised by Wiccan parents. I think this may be because Wicca is so widely accessible these days - a person is more likely to come across a display of Wiccan books in the local store than Asatru ones, for instance.

My own journey went Christian - atheist with Celtic leanings - Christian - Wiccan - Christian - Asatru. I started out as a Christian because that was what my mother taught me. When I was a Christian, my denomination was always Anglican (which is what Episcopalians are called in England), although I had spells of attending Lutheran and Pentecostal churches, either in addition to Anglican services or when I could not get to Anglican ones for whatever reason.