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Religious conversion

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The Conversion of Saint Paul, a 1600 painting by Italian artist Caravaggio (1571–1610)
Part of a series on
Religious conversion

Types
Active conversion
Secondary conversion
Marital conversion
Forced conversion
Deathbed conversion

Related concepts
Apostasy
Assimilation

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Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe 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, Christian Baptist to Methodist or Catholic,[1] Muslim Shi'a to Sunni.[2] In some cases, religious conversion "marks a transformation of religious identity and is symbolized by special rituals".[3]
People convert to a different religion for various reasons, including: active conversion by free choice due to a change in beliefs,[4] secondary conversion, deathbed conversion, conversion for convenience and marital conversion, and forced conversion such as conversion by violence or charity.[clarification needed]
Conversion or reaffiliation for convenience is an insincere act, sometimes for relatively trivial reasons such as a parent converting to enable a child to be admitted to a good school associated with a religion, or a person adopting a religion more in keeping with the social class he or she aspires to.[5] When people marry one spouse may convert to the religion of the other.
Forced conversion is adoption of a different religion under duress. The convert may secretly retain the previous beliefs and continue, covertly, with the practices of the original religion, while outwardly maintaining the forms of the new religion. Over generations a family forced against their will to convert may wholeheartedly adopt the new religion.
Proselytism is the act of attempting to convert by persuasion another individual from a different religion or belief system. (See proselyte).
Apostate is a term used by members of a religion or denomination to refer to someone who has left that religion or denomination.


Contents  [hide]
1 Abrahamic religions 1.1 Judaism 1.1.1 Procedure
1.1.2 History
1.2 Christianity 1.2.1 Baptism
1.2.2 Accepting Christ and renouncing sin
1.2.3 Responsibilities
1.2.4 Reaffiliation
1.2.5 Comparison between Protestants
1.3 Latter Day Saint movement
1.4 Islam
1.5 Bahá'í Faith
2 Indian religions 2.1 Hinduism
2.2 Sikhism
2.3 Jainism
2.4 Buddhism
3 Other religions and sects
4 International law
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Abrahamic religions[edit]
Judaism[edit]


 This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (September 2007)


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Main article: Conversion to Judaism
Procedure[edit]
Jewish law has a number of requirements of potential converts. They should desire conversion to Judaism for its own sake, and for no other motives. A male convert needs to undergo a ritual circumcision conducted according to Jewish law (if already circumcised, a needle is used to draw a symbolic drop of blood while the appropriate blessings are said), and there has to be a commitment to observe Jewish law. A convert must join the Jewish community, and reject the previous theology he or she had prior to the conversion. Ritual immersion in a small pool of water known as a mikvah is required.
History[edit]
Main article: List of converts to Judaism
In Hellenistic and Roman times, some Pharisees were eager proselytizers, and had at least some success throughout the empire.
Some Jews are also descended from converts to Judaism outside the Mediterranean world. It is known that some Khazars, Edomites, and Ethiopians, as well as many Arabs, particularly in Yemen. The word "proselyte" originally meant a Greek who had converted to Judaism. As late as the 6th century the Eastern Roman empire and Caliph Umar ibn Khattab were issuing decrees against conversion to Judaism, implying that this was still occurring.[6]
Christianity[edit]
Main articles: Conversion to Christianity, Christianization and List of converts to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. The exact requirements vary between different churches and denominations. The process of converting to Catholicism involves religious education followed by initial participation in the sacraments. In general, conversion to Christian Faith primarily involves repentance for sin and a decision to live a life that is holy and acceptable to God through faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of this is essentially done through a voluntary exercise of the will of the individual concerned. True conversion to Christianity is thus a personal, internal matter and can never be forced. Converts are almost always expected to be baptized.
Christians consider that conversion requires internalization of the new belief system. It implies a new reference point for the convert's self-identity, and is a matter of belief and social structure—of both faith and affiliation.[7] This typically entails the sincere avowal of a new belief system, but may also present itself in other ways, such as adoption into an identity group or spiritual lineage.
Baptism[edit]
Main article: Baptism
Catholics, and Orthodox denominations encourage infant baptism before children are aware of their status. In Roman Catholicism and certain high church forms of Protestantism, baptized children are expected to participate in confirmation classes as pre-teens. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the equivalent of confirmation, chrismation, is administered to all converts, adult and infant alike, immediately after baptism.
Methods of baptism include immersion, sprinkling (aspersion) and pouring (affusion).[8] Baptism received by adults or younger people who have reached the age of accountability where they can make a personal religious decision is referred to as believer's baptism among conservative or evangelical Protestant groups. It is intended as a public statement of a person's prior decision to become a Christian.[9] Some Christian groups such as Catholics, Churches of Christ, and Christadelphians believe baptism is essential to salvation.
Accepting Christ and renouncing sin[edit]



 The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: "One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors."[10]
“Conversion” derives from the Latin conversiōn-em, literally meaning “turning round” and figuratively meaning a “change in character”.[11] “Change of heart”, “metanoia”, and “regeneration” are among the synonyms for conversion.[12] Conversion is, therefore, more than a mere change in religious identity, but a change in nature (regeneration), evidenced by a change in values. Jesus demands "metánoia (conversion)" to become a good tree that bears good fruit (Matthew 7:17–18, [Luke 6:43]).[13]
According to Christianity, a convert renounces sin as worthless and treasures instead the supreme worth of Christ in Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection.[14] Christian conversion is a “deeply personal” matter. It entails changes in thinking, priorities and commitments: “a whole new direction in one's life”.[15]
Because conversion is a change in values that embraces God and rejects sin, it includes a personal commitment to a life of holiness as described by Paul of Tarsus and exemplified by Jesus. In some Protestant traditions, this is called "accepting Christ as one's Savior and following him as Lord."[16] In another variation, the 1910 Catholic Dictionary defines "conversion" as "One who turns or changes from a state of sin to repentance, from a lax to a more earnest and serious way of life, from unbelief to faith, from heresy to the true faith."[17] The Eastern Orthodox understanding of conversion is illustrated in the rite of baptism, in which the convert faces west while publicly renouncing and symbolically spitting upon Satan, and then turns to the east to worship Christ "as king and God".[18]
Responsibilities[edit]
In the New Testament, Jesus commanded his disciples in the Great Commission to "go and make disciples of all nations" ([Matthew 28:19], [Mark 16:15]). Evangelization—sharing the Gospel message or "Good News" in deed and word, is an expectation of Christians.[citation needed]
Reaffiliation[edit]
Transferring from one Christian denomination to another may consist of a relatively simple transfer of membership, especially if moving from one Trinitarian denomination to another, and if the person has received water baptism in the name of the Trinity. If not, then the person may be required to be baptized or rebaptized before acceptance by the new church. Some denominations, such as those in the Anabaptist tradition, require previously baptized Christians to be re-baptized. The Eastern Orthodox Church treats a transfer from another denomination of Christianity to Orthodoxy (conceived of as the one true Church) as a category of conversion and repentance, though re-baptism is not always required.
The process of conversion to Christianity varies somewhat among Christian denominations. Most Protestants believe in conversion by faith to attain salvation. According to this understanding, a person professes faith in Jesus Christ as God, their Lord and savior. Repentance for sin and a holy living are expected of those professing faith in Jesus Christ. While an individual may make such a decision privately, usually it entails being baptized and becoming a member of a denomination or church. In these traditions, a person is considered to become a Christian by publicly acknowledging the foundational Christian doctrines that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and was resurrected for the remission of sins.[citation needed]
Comparison between Protestants[edit]
This table summarizes three Protestant beliefs.

Topic
Calvinism
Lutheranism
Arminianism
Conversion Monergistic,[19] through the inner calling of the Holy Spirit, irresistible. Monergistic,[20] through the means of grace, resistible. Synergistic, resistible due to the common grace of free will.[21]
Latter Day Saint movement[edit]
Main article: Baptism in Mormonism



 Latter Day Saint baptism ceremony, circa the 1850s
Much of the theology of Latter Day Saint baptism was established during the early Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith. According to this theology, baptism must be by immersion, for the remission of sins (meaning that through baptism, past sins are forgiven), and occurs after one has shown faith and repentance. Mormon baptism does not purport to remit any sins other than personal ones, as adherents do not believe in original sin. Latter Day Saints baptisms also occur only after an "age of accountability" which is defined as the age of eight years.[22] The theology thus rejects infant baptism.[23]
In addition, Latter Day Saint theology requires that baptism may only be performed with one who has been called and ordained by God with priesthood authority.[24] Because the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement operate under a lay priesthood, children raised in a Mormon family are usually baptized by a father or close male friend or family member who has achieved the office of priest, which is conferred upon worthy male members at least 16 years old in the LDS Church.[25]
Baptism is seen as symbolic both of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection[26] and is also symbolic of the baptized individual putting off of the natural or sinful man and becoming spiritually reborn as a disciple of Jesus.
Membership into a Latter Day Saint church is granted only by baptism whether or not a person has been raised in the church. Latter Day Saint churches do not recognize baptisms of other faiths as valid because they believe baptisms must be performed under the church's unique authority. Thus, all who come into one of the Latter Day Saint faiths as converts are baptized, even if they have previously received baptism in another faith.
When performing a Baptism, Latter Day Saints say the following prayer before performing the ordinance:

Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen[27]
Baptisms inside and outside the temples are usually done in a baptistry, although they can be performed in any body of water in which the person may be completely immersed. The person administering the baptism must recite the prayer exactly, and immerse every part, limb, hair and clothing of the person being baptized. If there are any mistakes, or if any part of the person being baptized is not fully immersed, the baptism must be redone. In addition to the baptizer, two priesthood holders witness the baptism to ensure that it is performed properly.[28]
Following baptism, Latter Day Saints receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands of a Melchizedek Priesthood holder.[28]
Islam[edit]


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Main category: Conversion to Islam



Ghazan was born and raised as a Christian, studied Buddhism, and converted to Islam upon accession to the throne.
Further information: Spread of Islam, Islamization, Al-Baqara 256, List of converts to Islam, Hanif, Islamic Missionary Activity and Apostasy in Islam
There are five pillars, or foundations, of Islam but the primary, and most important is to believe that there is only one God and creator, referred to as Allah (the word for the name of God in Arabic) and that the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, is His final messenger. A person is considered to have converted to Islam from the moment he or she sincerely makes this declaration of faith, called the shahadah.[29][30]
Islam teaches that everyone is Muslim at birth[31][32] because every child that is born has a natural inclination to goodness and to worship the one true God alone, but his or her parents or society can cause him or her to deviate from the straight path. When someone accepts Islam he/she is considered to revert to his/her original condition. While conversion to Islam is among its most supported tenets, conversion from Islam to another religion is considered to be the sin of apostasy. In several Muslim majority countries it is subject to the death penalty or heavy punishments. In Islam, circumcision is a Sunnah custom not mentioned in the Quran. The primary opinion is that it is not obligatory and is not a condition for entering into Islam. The Shafi`i and Hanbali schools regard it as obligatory, while the Maliki and Hanafi schools regard it as only recommended. However, it is not a precondition for the acceptance of a person's Islamic practices, nor does one sin if choosing to forgo circumcision. It is not one of the Five Pillars of Islam or the Six Fundamentals of Belief.[33][34][35]
Bahá'í Faith[edit]
In sharing their faith with others, Bahá'ís are cautioned to "obtain a hearing" – meaning to make sure the person they are proposing to teach is open to hearing what they have to say. "Bahá'í pioneers", rather than attempting to supplant the cultural underpinnings of the people in their adopted communities, are encouraged to integrate into the society and apply Bahá'í principles in living and working with their neighbors.
Bahá'ís recognize the divine origins of all revealed religion, and believe that these religions occurred sequentially as part of a Divine plan (see Progressive revelation), with each new revelation superseding and fulfilling that of its predecessors. Bahá'ís regard their own faith as the most recent (but not the last), and believe its teachings – which are centered around the principle of the oneness of humanity – are most suited to meeting the needs of a global community.
In most countries conversion is a simple matter of filling out a card stating a declaration of belief. This includes acknowledgement of Bahá'u'llah – the Founder of the Faith – as the Messenger of God for this age, awareness and acceptance of His teachings, and intention to be obedient to the institutions and laws He established.
Conversion to the Bahá'í Faith carries with it an explicit belief in the common foundation of all revealed religion, a commitment to the unity of mankind, and active service to the community at large, especially in areas that will foster unity and concord. Since the Bahá'í Faith has no clergy, converts to this Faith are encouraged to be active in all aspects of community life. Even a recent convert may be elected to serve on a Local Spiritual Assembly – the guiding Bahá'í institution at the community level.[36][37]
Indian religions[edit]
Hinduism[edit]
See also: List of converts to Hinduism



 A yajna initiation to Hinduism ceremony in progress.
Since 1800 CE, religious conversion from and to Hinduism has been a controversial subject within Hinduism. Some have suggested that the concept of missionary conversion, either way, is anathema to the precepts of Hinduism.[38] Religious leaders of some of Hinduism sects such as Brahmo Samaj have seen Hinduism as a non-missionary religion yet welcomed new members, while other leaders of Hinduism's diverse schools have stated that with the arrival of missionary Islam and Christianity in India, this "there is no such thing as proselytism in Hinduism" view must be re-examined.[38][39]
Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, pandeism, monism, and atheism among others. Hinduism has no traditional ecclesiastical order, no centralized religious authorities, no universally accepted governing body, no prophet(s), no binding holy book nor any mandatory prayer attendance requirements.[40][41][42] Hinduism has been described as a way of life.[40] In its diffuse and open structure, numerous schools and sects of Hinduism have developed and spun off in India with help from its ascetic scholars, since the Vedic age. The six Astika and two Nastika schools of Hindu philosophy, in its history, did not develop a missionary or proselytization methodology, and they co-existed with each other. Most Hindu sub-schools and sects do not actively seek converts.[43] Individuals have had a choice to enter, leave or change their god(s), spiritual convictions, accept or discard any rituals and practices, and pursue spiritual knowledge and liberation (moksha) in different ways.[44][45] However, various schools of Hinduism do have some core common beliefs, such as the belief that all living beings have Atman (soul), a belief in karma theory, spirituality, ahimsa (non-violence) as the greatest dharma or virtue, and others.[46]
Religious conversion to Hinduism has a long history outside India. Merchants and traders of India, particularly from Indian peninsula, carried their religious ideas, which led to religious conversions to Hinduism in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma.[47][48][49] Some sects of Hindus, particularly of the Bhakti schools began seeking or accepting converts in early to mid 20th century. For example, Arya Samaj, Saiva Siddhanta Church, BAPS, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness accept those who have a desire to follow their sects of Hinduism, and each has their own religious conversion procedure.[50]
In recent decades, mainstream Hinduism schools have attempted to systematize ways to accept religious converts, with an increase in inter-religious mixed marriages.[51] The steps involved in becoming a Hindu have variously included a period where the interested person gets an informal ardha-Hindu name and studies ancient literature on spiritual path and practices (English translations of Upanishads, Agamas, Epics, ethics in Sutras, festivals, yoga).[52] If after a period of study, the individual still wants to convert, a Namakarana Samskaras ceremony is held, where the individual adopts a traditional Hindu name. The initiation ceremony may also include Yajna (i.e., fire ritual with Sanskrit hymns) under guidance of a local Hindu priest.[51] Some of these places are mathas and asramas (hermitage, monastery), where one or more gurus (spiritual guide) conduct the conversion and offer spiritual discussions.[51] Some schools encourage the new convert to learn and participate in community activities such as festivals (Diwali etc), read and discuss ancient literature, learn and engage in rites of passages (ceremonies of birth, first feeding, first learning day, age of majority, wedding, cremation and others).[53]
Sikhism[edit]
Sikhism is not known to openly proselytize, but accepts converts.[54][55]
Jainism[edit]


 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2015)
Jainism accepts anyone who wants to embrace the religion. There is no specific ritual for becoming a Jain. One does not need to ask any authorities for admission. One becomes a Jain on one's own by taking the five vows:[56]
1.Nonviolence (Ahimsa)
2.Observing Truth (Satya)
3.Non-stealing (Asteya)
4.Chastity
5.Non-possession (Aparigraha).
Following the five vows is the main requirement in Jainism. All other aspects such as visiting temples are secondary. Jain monks and nuns are required to observe these five vows strictly.[56]
Buddhism[edit]
Persons newly adhering to Buddhism traditionally "take Refuge" (express faith in the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) before a monk, nun, or similar representative. But cultural or secular Buddhists often hold multiple religious identities, combining the religion with some East Asian religions in different countries and ethnics, such as:

Ethnic
Buddhism with local traditional religions
Chinese[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion[58][59][60]
Japanese[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Shinto[61][62][63]
Korean[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Confucianism, and Korean shamanism[64][65][66][67]
Vietnamese[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Confucianism, Taoism,[68][69] and Dao Mau[70]
Mongolian Vajrayana Buddhism with Tengrism, and Mongolian shamanism[71]
Nepali Vajrayana Buddhism with Hinduism[72]
Jewish Buddhist Buddhism with Judaism
Throughout the timeline of Buddhism, conversions of entire countries and regions to Buddhism were frequent, as Buddhism spread throughout Asia. For example, in the 11th century in Burma, king Anoratha converted his entire country to Theravada Buddhism. At the end of the 12th century, Jayavarman VII set the stage for conversion of the Khmer people to Theravada Buddhism. Mass conversions of areas and communities to Buddhism occur up to the present day, for example, in the Dalit Buddhist movement in India there have been organized mass conversions.
Exceptions to encouraging conversion may occur in some Buddhist movements. In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, the current Dalai Lama discourages active attempts to win converts.[73][74]
Other religions and sects[edit]



 A Scientologist introduces the E-meter to a potential convert.
In the second half of the 20th century, the rapid growth of new religious movements (NRMs) led some psychologists and other scholars to propose that these groups were using "brainwashing" or "mind control" techniques to gain converts. This theory was publicized by the popular news media but disputed by other scholars, including some sociologists of religion.[75][76][76][77][78][79]
In the 1960s sociologist John Lofland lived with Unification Church missionary Young Oon Kim and a small group of American church members in California and studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win converts to their church. Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members, often family relationships.[80] Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes", and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall as Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of religious conversion, and one of the first modern sociological studies of a new religious movement.[81][82]
The Church of Scientology attempts to gain converts by offering "free stress tests".[83] It has also used the celebrity status of some of its members (most famously the American actor Tom Cruise) to attract converts.[84][85] The Church of Scientology requires that all converts sign a legal waiver which covers their relationship with the Church of Scientology before engaging in Scientology services.[86]
Research in the United States and the Netherlands has shown a positive correlation between areas lacking mainstream churches and the percentage of people who are a member of a new religious movement. This applies also for the presence of New Age centres.[87][88]
On the other end of the scale are religions that do not accept any converts, or do so very rarely. Often these are relatively small, close-knit minority religions that are ethnically based such as the Yazidis, Druze, and Mandaeans. Zoroastrianism classically does not accept converts, but this issue has become controversial in the 20th century due to the rapid decline in membership.[citation needed] Chinese traditional religion lacks clear criteria for membership, and hence for conversion. The Shakers and some Indian eunuch brotherhoods do not allow procreation, so that every member is a convert.
International law[edit]
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines religious conversion as a human right: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief" (Article 18). Despite this UN-declared human right, some groups forbid or restrict religious conversion (see below).
Based on the declaration the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) drafted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a legally binding treaty. It states that "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice" (Article 18.1). "No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice" (Article 18.2).
The UNCHR issued a General Comment on this Article in 1993: "The Committee observes that the freedom to 'have or to adopt' a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views [...] Article 18.2 bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to their religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert." (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, General Comment No. 22.; emphasis added)
Some countries distinguish voluntary, motivated conversion from organized proselytism, attempting to restrict the latter. The boundary between them is not easily defined: what one person considers legitimate evangelizing, or witness-bearing, another may consider intrusive and improper. Illustrating the problems that can arise from such subjective viewpoints is this extract from an article by Dr. C. Davis, published in Cleveland State University's Journal of Law and Health: "According to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Jews for Jesus and Hebrew Christians constitute two of the most dangerous cults, and its members are appropriate candidates for deprogramming. Anti-cult evangelicals ... protest that 'aggressiveness and proselytizing ... are basic to authentic Christianity,' and that Jews for Jesus and Campus Crusade for Christ are not to be labeled as cults. Furthermore, certain Hassidic groups who physically attacked a meeting of the Hebrew Christian 'cult' have themselves been labeled a 'cult' and equated with the followers of Reverend Moon, by none other than the President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis."[89]
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union the Russian Orthodox Church has enjoyed a revival. However, it takes exception to what it considers illegitimate proselytizing by the Roman Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other religious movements in what it refers to as its canonical territory.[citation needed]
Greece has a long history of conflict, mostly with Jehovah's Witnesses, but also with some Pentecostals, over its laws on proselytism. This situation stems from a law passed in the 1930s by the dictator Ioannis Metaxas. A Jehovah's Witness, Minos Kokkinakis, won the equivalent of $14,400 in damages from the Greek state after being arrested for trying to preach his faith from door to door. In another case, Larissis v. Greece, a member of the Pentecostal church also won a case in the European Court of Human Rights.[citation needed]
Some Islamic countries with Islamic law outlaw and carry strict sentences for proselytizing. Several Islamic countries under Islamic law—Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and Maldives—outlaw apostasy and carry imprisonment or the death penalty for those leaving Islam and those enticing Muslims to leave Islam.[citation needed] Also, induced religious conversions in the Indian states Orissa has resulted in communal riots.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
Apostasy, or renunciation of religion
Deathbed conversion, adoption of faith before dying
Forced conversion against the will of the subject
Secondary conversion that results from a relationship
Moral conversion based on the internalist view of morality
List of converts to Christianity
List of converts to Hinduism
List of converts to Islam
List of converts to Judaism
List of converts to Buddhism
Love Jihad conversion to Islam by feigning love
Missionary sent abroad
Inquisition
Islamic Missionary Activity
Missionary (LDS Church)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism
The Rage Against God, 2010 book by Peter Hitchens
Conversion to Islam in U.S. prisons
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ More conservative Protestants, especially Fundamentalists, would view a "reaffiliation" to Catholicism as a conversion to a new religion.
2.Jump up ^ Stark, Rodney and Roger Finke. "Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion." University of California Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-520-22202-1
3.Jump up ^ Meintel, Deirdre. "When There Is No Conversion: Spiritualists and Personal Religious Change". Anthropologica 49 (1): 149–162.
4.Jump up ^ Falkenberg, Steve. "Psychological Explanations of Religious Socialization." Religious Conversion. Eastern Kentucky University. August 31, 2009.
5.Jump up ^ The Independent newspaper: "... finding religion – is there anything middle-class parents won't try to get their children into the 'right' schools?"
6.Jump up ^ http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.asp
7.Jump up ^ Hefner, Robert W. Conversion to Christianity. University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 0-520-07836-5
8.Jump up ^ Bromiley, Geoffrey W. "Baptism." The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-D (p. 419). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-8028-3781-6
9.Jump up ^ "The Purpose of Baptism." http://gospelway.com/salvation/baptism_purpose.php
10.Jump up ^ Augsburg Confession, Article XII: Of Repentance
11.Jump up ^ "conversion, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press.
12.Jump up ^ http://thesaurus.com/browse/conversion
13.Jump up ^ Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, eds, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume by Geoffrey W. Bromily (Eerdmans, 1985) 101, 403.
14.Jump up ^ Conversion to Christ: The Making of a Christian Hedonist
15.Jump up ^ “St. Paul on Conversion” at http://jesuschristsavior.net/Conversion.html. Accessed November 5, 2013
16.Jump up ^ BibleGateway.com- Commentaries » Matthew 16 » The Cost of the Kingdom
17.Jump up ^ New Catholic Dictionary: conversion
18.Jump up ^ † Saints Constantine & Elena: Reception into the Catechumenate
19.Jump up ^ Paul ChulHong Kang, Justification: The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness from Reformation Theology to the American Great Awakening and the Korean Revivals (Peter Lang, 2006), 70, note 171. Calvin generally defends Augustine’s “monergistic view.”
20.Jump up ^ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Monergism and Paul ChulHong Kang, Justification: The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness from Reformation Theology to the American Great Awakening and the Korean Revivals (Peter Lang, 2006), 65.
21.Jump up ^ Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities (InterVarsity Press, 2009), 18. “Arminian synergism” refers to “evangelical synergism, which affirms the prevenience of grace.”
22.Jump up ^ See Doctrine and Covenants 68:25-27
23.Jump up ^ See Moroni 8:4-23
24.Jump up ^ See, e.g., "Guide to the Scriptures: Baptism, Baptize: Proper authority", LDS.org (LDS Church)
25.Jump up ^ See, e.g., "Gospel Topics: Priest", LDS.org (LDS Church)
26.Jump up ^ See, e.g., "Baptism", KJV (LDS): LDS Bible Dictionary, LDS Church
27.Jump up ^ See 3 Nephi 11:25
28.^ Jump up to: a b "Performing Priesthood Ordinances", Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood: Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders, Part B, LDS Church, 2000, pp. 41–48
29.Jump up ^ Converts to Islam
30.Jump up ^ How to Become a Muslim - Meeting Place for Reverts/Converts To Islam
31.Jump up ^ Every Child is Born Muslim
32.Jump up ^ Conversion to Islam
33.Jump up ^ Is Circumcision obligatory after conversion?
34.Jump up ^ Considering Converting: Is it necessary to be circumcised?
35.Jump up ^ Circumcision for Converts
36.Jump up ^ Smith, P. (1999). A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
37.Jump up ^ Momen, M. (1997). A Short Introduction to the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford, UK: One World Publications. ISBN 1-85168-209-0.
38.^ Jump up to: a b Arvind Sharma (2011), Hinduism as a Missionary Religion, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-1438432113, pages 31-53
39.Jump up ^ Gauri Viswanathan (1998), Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691058993, pages 153-176
40.^ Jump up to: a b Chakravarti, Sitansu (1991), Hinduism, a way of life, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., p. 71, ISBN 978-81-208-0899-7
41.Jump up ^ Julius J. Lipner, Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 2nd Edition, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-45677-7, page 8; Quote: “(...) one need not be religious in the minimal sense described to be accepted as a Hindu by Hindus, or describe oneself perfectly validly as Hindu. One may be polytheistic or monotheistic, monistic or pantheistic, even an agnostic, humanist or atheist, and still be considered a Hindu.”
42.Jump up ^ MK Gandhi, The Essence of Hinduism, Editor: VB Kher, Navajivan Publishing, see page 3; According to Gandhi, "a man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu."
43.Jump up ^ Catharine Cookson (2003), Encyclopedia of religious freedom, Taylor & Francis, p. 180, ISBN 978-0-415-94181-5
44.Jump up ^ Bhavasar and Kiem, Spirituality and Health, in Hindu Spirituality, Editor: Ewert Cousins (1989), ISBN 0-8245-0755-X, Crossroads Publishing New York, pp 319-337; John Arapura, Spirit and Spiritual Knowledge in the Upanishads, in Hindu Spirituality, Editor: Ewert Cousins (1989), ISBN 0-8245-0755-X, Crossroads Publishing New York, pp 64-85
45.Jump up ^ Gavin Flood, Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Editor: Knut Jacobsen (2010), Volume II, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-17893-9, see Article on Wisdom and Knowledge, pp 881-884
46.Jump up ^ SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, page 153
47.Jump up ^ Jan Gonda, The Indian Religions in Pre-Islamic Indonesia and their survival in Bali, in Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 3 Southeast Asia, Religions at Google Books, pages 1-47
48.Jump up ^ Richadiana Kartakusama (2006), Archaeology: Indonesian Perspective (Editors: Truman Simanjuntak et al.), Yayasan Obor Indonesia, ISBN 979-2624996, pp. 406-419
49.Jump up ^ Reuter, Thomas (September 2004). Java's Hinduism Revivial. Hinduism Today.
50.Jump up ^ See, for example: ISKCON Law Book, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, GBC Press
51.^ Jump up to: a b c SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, pages 115-118
52.Jump up ^ SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, pages xx, 133-147
53.Jump up ^ SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, pages 157-158
54.Jump up ^ ThinkQuest - Sikhism
55.Jump up ^ About.com - Sikhism
56.^ Jump up to: a b Pravin Shah, Five Great Vows (Maha-vratas) of Jainism Jainism Literature Center, Harvard University Archives (2009)
57.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Think Quest - Map of religions". Think Quest. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
58.Jump up ^ Travel China Guide – Han Chinese, Windows on Asia – Chinese Religions, Justchina.org - China Beliefs, Foreignercn.com - Buddhism in China
59.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Chinese Belief Systems
60.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Buddhism in China
61.Jump up ^ "World Factbook: Japan". CIA. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
62.Jump up ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (15 September 2006). "International Religious Freedom Report 2006". US Department of State. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
63.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Shinto
64.Jump up ^ Buddhism in Korea, Korean Buddhism Magazine, Seoul 1997
65.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Historical and Modern Religions of Korea
66.Jump up ^ "Culture of North Korea – Alternative name, History and ethnic relations". Countries and Their Cultures. Advameg Inc. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
67.Jump up ^ "CIA The World Factbook – North Korea". Cia.gov. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
68.Jump up ^ "Vietnam". Encyclopedia of the Nations. 14 August 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
69.Jump up ^ "Vietnam's religions". Vietnam-holidays.co.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
70.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Religions in Vietnam
71.Jump up ^ Asian History - Mongolia | Facts and History, Windows on Asia - Mongolia, Mongolia Tourism - Religion
72.Jump up ^ Nepal Embassy in Japan, Globerove - Religion in Nepal, Mongolia Asian History - Nepal, Windows on Asia - Nepal
73.Jump up ^ Dalai Lama opposed to practice of conversion[dead link]
74.Jump up ^ Dawei, Bei (2012). Conversion to Tibetan Buddhism: Some Reflections, in: Ura, Dasho, Karma: Chophel, Dendup, Buddhism Without Borders, Proceedings of the International Conference of Global Buddhism, Bhumtang, Bhutan, May 211-23, 2012, The Center for Buthane Studies, pp, 53-75
75.Jump up ^ Melton, J. Gordon (1999-12-10). "Brainwashing and the Cults: The Rise and Fall of a Theory". CESNUR: Center for Studies on New Religions. Retrieved 2009-06-15. "In the United States at the end of the 1970s, brainwashing emerged as a popular theoretical construct around which to understand what appeared to be a sudden rise of new and unfamiliar religious movements during the previous decade, especially those associated with the hippie street-people phenomenon."
76.^ Jump up to: a b Bromley, David G. (1998). "Brainwashing". In William H. Swatos Jr. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-7619-8956-1.
77.Jump up ^ Barker, Eileen: New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction. London: Her Majesty's Stationery office, 1989.
78.Jump up ^ Wright, Stewart A. (1997). "Media Coverage of Unconventional Religion: Any 'Good News' for Minority Faiths?". Review of Religious Research (Review of Religious Research, Vol. 39, No. 2) 39 (2): 101–115. doi:10.2307/3512176. JSTOR 3512176.
79.Jump up ^ Barker, Eileen (1986). "Religious Movements: Cult and Anti-Cult Since Jonestown". Annual Review of Sociology 12: 329–346. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.12.080186.001553.
80.Jump up ^ Conversion, Unification Church, Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary
81.Jump up ^ Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America: African diaspora traditions and other American innovations, Volume 5 of Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, W. Michael Ashcraft, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 ISBN 0-275-98717-5, ISBN 978-0-275-98717-6, page 180
82.Jump up ^ Exploring New Religions, Issues in contemporary religion, George D. Chryssides, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001 ISBN 0-8264-5959-5, ISBN 978-0-8264-5959-6 page 1
83.Jump up ^ The Foster Report. Chapter 5, "The Practices of Scientology;" section (a), "Recruitment;" pages 75-76.
84.Jump up ^ "Artists Find Inspiration, Education at Church of Scientology & Celebrity Centre Nashville." The Tennessee Tribune, Jan 20-Jan 26, 2011. Vol. 22, Iss. 3, pg. 14A
85.Jump up ^ Goodyear, Dana (2008-01-14). "Château Scientology". Letter from California. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
86.Jump up ^ Friedman, Roger (3 September 2003). "Will Scientology Celebs Sign 'Spiritual' Contract?". FOX News. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
87.Jump up ^ Schepens, T. (Dutch) Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland volume 29, Sekten Ontkerkelijking en religieuze vitaliteit: nieuwe religieuze bewegingen en New Age-centra in Nederland (1994) VU uitgeverij ISBN 90-5383-341-2
88.Jump up ^ Stark, R & W.S. Bainbridge The future of religion: secularization, revival and cult formation (1985) Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California press
89.Jump up ^ Joining a Cult: Religious Choice or Psychological Aberration?
Further reading[edit]
Barker, Eileen The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984)
Barrett, D. V. The New Believers: A survey of sects, cults and alternative religions (2001) UK, Cassell & Co ISBN 0-304-35592-5
Cooper, Richard S. "The Assessment and Collection of Kharaj Tax in Medieval Egypt" Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 96, No. 3. (Jul–Sep., 1976), pp. 365–382.
Curtin, Phillip D. Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Hoiberg, Dale, and Indu Ramachandran. Students' Britannica India. Popular Prakashan, 2000.
Idris, Gaefar, Sheikh. The Process of Islamization. Plainfield, Ind.: Muslim Students' Association of the U.S. and Canada, 1977. vi, 20 p. Without ISBN
James, William, The varieties of religious experience: a study in human nature. Being the Gifford lectures on natural religion delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902; Longmans, Green & Co, New York (1902)
Morris, Harold C., and Lin M. Morris. "Power and purpose: Correlates to conversion." Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, Vol 15(4), Nov-Dec 1978, 15–22.
Rambo, Lewis R. Understanding Religious Conversion. Yale University Press, 1993.
Ramstedt, Martin. Hinduism in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion Between Local, National, and Global Interests. Routledge, 2004.
Rawat, Ajay S. StudentMan and Forests: The Khatta and Gujjar Settlements of Sub-Himalayan Tarai. Indus Publishing, 1993.
Vasu, Srisa Chandra (1919), The Catechism Of Hindu Dharma, New York: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
External links[edit]
 Look up convert in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Religious conversion
"Conversion: A Family Affair", Craig Harline, Berfrois, 4 October 2011


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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_conversion









Religious conversion

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The Conversion of Saint Paul, a 1600 painting by Italian artist Caravaggio (1571–1610)
Part of a series on
Religious conversion

Types
Active conversion
Secondary conversion
Marital conversion
Forced conversion
Deathbed conversion

Related concepts
Apostasy
Assimilation

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Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe 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, Christian Baptist to Methodist or Catholic,[1] Muslim Shi'a to Sunni.[2] In some cases, religious conversion "marks a transformation of religious identity and is symbolized by special rituals".[3]
People convert to a different religion for various reasons, including: active conversion by free choice due to a change in beliefs,[4] secondary conversion, deathbed conversion, conversion for convenience and marital conversion, and forced conversion such as conversion by violence or charity.[clarification needed]
Conversion or reaffiliation for convenience is an insincere act, sometimes for relatively trivial reasons such as a parent converting to enable a child to be admitted to a good school associated with a religion, or a person adopting a religion more in keeping with the social class he or she aspires to.[5] When people marry one spouse may convert to the religion of the other.
Forced conversion is adoption of a different religion under duress. The convert may secretly retain the previous beliefs and continue, covertly, with the practices of the original religion, while outwardly maintaining the forms of the new religion. Over generations a family forced against their will to convert may wholeheartedly adopt the new religion.
Proselytism is the act of attempting to convert by persuasion another individual from a different religion or belief system. (See proselyte).
Apostate is a term used by members of a religion or denomination to refer to someone who has left that religion or denomination.


Contents  [hide]
1 Abrahamic religions 1.1 Judaism 1.1.1 Procedure
1.1.2 History
1.2 Christianity 1.2.1 Baptism
1.2.2 Accepting Christ and renouncing sin
1.2.3 Responsibilities
1.2.4 Reaffiliation
1.2.5 Comparison between Protestants
1.3 Latter Day Saint movement
1.4 Islam
1.5 Bahá'í Faith
2 Indian religions 2.1 Hinduism
2.2 Sikhism
2.3 Jainism
2.4 Buddhism
3 Other religions and sects
4 International law
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Abrahamic religions[edit]
Judaism[edit]


 This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (September 2007)


 This section needs attention from an expert in Judaism. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the section. WikiProject Judaism (or its Portal) may be able to help recruit an expert. (July 2007)
Main article: Conversion to Judaism
Procedure[edit]
Jewish law has a number of requirements of potential converts. They should desire conversion to Judaism for its own sake, and for no other motives. A male convert needs to undergo a ritual circumcision conducted according to Jewish law (if already circumcised, a needle is used to draw a symbolic drop of blood while the appropriate blessings are said), and there has to be a commitment to observe Jewish law. A convert must join the Jewish community, and reject the previous theology he or she had prior to the conversion. Ritual immersion in a small pool of water known as a mikvah is required.
History[edit]
Main article: List of converts to Judaism
In Hellenistic and Roman times, some Pharisees were eager proselytizers, and had at least some success throughout the empire.
Some Jews are also descended from converts to Judaism outside the Mediterranean world. It is known that some Khazars, Edomites, and Ethiopians, as well as many Arabs, particularly in Yemen. The word "proselyte" originally meant a Greek who had converted to Judaism. As late as the 6th century the Eastern Roman empire and Caliph Umar ibn Khattab were issuing decrees against conversion to Judaism, implying that this was still occurring.[6]
Christianity[edit]
Main articles: Conversion to Christianity, Christianization and List of converts to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. The exact requirements vary between different churches and denominations. The process of converting to Catholicism involves religious education followed by initial participation in the sacraments. In general, conversion to Christian Faith primarily involves repentance for sin and a decision to live a life that is holy and acceptable to God through faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of this is essentially done through a voluntary exercise of the will of the individual concerned. True conversion to Christianity is thus a personal, internal matter and can never be forced. Converts are almost always expected to be baptized.
Christians consider that conversion requires internalization of the new belief system. It implies a new reference point for the convert's self-identity, and is a matter of belief and social structure—of both faith and affiliation.[7] This typically entails the sincere avowal of a new belief system, but may also present itself in other ways, such as adoption into an identity group or spiritual lineage.
Baptism[edit]
Main article: Baptism
Catholics, and Orthodox denominations encourage infant baptism before children are aware of their status. In Roman Catholicism and certain high church forms of Protestantism, baptized children are expected to participate in confirmation classes as pre-teens. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the equivalent of confirmation, chrismation, is administered to all converts, adult and infant alike, immediately after baptism.
Methods of baptism include immersion, sprinkling (aspersion) and pouring (affusion).[8] Baptism received by adults or younger people who have reached the age of accountability where they can make a personal religious decision is referred to as believer's baptism among conservative or evangelical Protestant groups. It is intended as a public statement of a person's prior decision to become a Christian.[9] Some Christian groups such as Catholics, Churches of Christ, and Christadelphians believe baptism is essential to salvation.
Accepting Christ and renouncing sin[edit]



 The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: "One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors."[10]
“Conversion” derives from the Latin conversiōn-em, literally meaning “turning round” and figuratively meaning a “change in character”.[11] “Change of heart”, “metanoia”, and “regeneration” are among the synonyms for conversion.[12] Conversion is, therefore, more than a mere change in religious identity, but a change in nature (regeneration), evidenced by a change in values. Jesus demands "metánoia (conversion)" to become a good tree that bears good fruit (Matthew 7:17–18, [Luke 6:43]).[13]
According to Christianity, a convert renounces sin as worthless and treasures instead the supreme worth of Christ in Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection.[14] Christian conversion is a “deeply personal” matter. It entails changes in thinking, priorities and commitments: “a whole new direction in one's life”.[15]
Because conversion is a change in values that embraces God and rejects sin, it includes a personal commitment to a life of holiness as described by Paul of Tarsus and exemplified by Jesus. In some Protestant traditions, this is called "accepting Christ as one's Savior and following him as Lord."[16] In another variation, the 1910 Catholic Dictionary defines "conversion" as "One who turns or changes from a state of sin to repentance, from a lax to a more earnest and serious way of life, from unbelief to faith, from heresy to the true faith."[17] The Eastern Orthodox understanding of conversion is illustrated in the rite of baptism, in which the convert faces west while publicly renouncing and symbolically spitting upon Satan, and then turns to the east to worship Christ "as king and God".[18]
Responsibilities[edit]
In the New Testament, Jesus commanded his disciples in the Great Commission to "go and make disciples of all nations" ([Matthew 28:19], [Mark 16:15]). Evangelization—sharing the Gospel message or "Good News" in deed and word, is an expectation of Christians.[citation needed]
Reaffiliation[edit]
Transferring from one Christian denomination to another may consist of a relatively simple transfer of membership, especially if moving from one Trinitarian denomination to another, and if the person has received water baptism in the name of the Trinity. If not, then the person may be required to be baptized or rebaptized before acceptance by the new church. Some denominations, such as those in the Anabaptist tradition, require previously baptized Christians to be re-baptized. The Eastern Orthodox Church treats a transfer from another denomination of Christianity to Orthodoxy (conceived of as the one true Church) as a category of conversion and repentance, though re-baptism is not always required.
The process of conversion to Christianity varies somewhat among Christian denominations. Most Protestants believe in conversion by faith to attain salvation. According to this understanding, a person professes faith in Jesus Christ as God, their Lord and savior. Repentance for sin and a holy living are expected of those professing faith in Jesus Christ. While an individual may make such a decision privately, usually it entails being baptized and becoming a member of a denomination or church. In these traditions, a person is considered to become a Christian by publicly acknowledging the foundational Christian doctrines that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and was resurrected for the remission of sins.[citation needed]
Comparison between Protestants[edit]
This table summarizes three Protestant beliefs.

Topic
Calvinism
Lutheranism
Arminianism
Conversion Monergistic,[19] through the inner calling of the Holy Spirit, irresistible. Monergistic,[20] through the means of grace, resistible. Synergistic, resistible due to the common grace of free will.[21]
Latter Day Saint movement[edit]
Main article: Baptism in Mormonism



 Latter Day Saint baptism ceremony, circa the 1850s
Much of the theology of Latter Day Saint baptism was established during the early Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith. According to this theology, baptism must be by immersion, for the remission of sins (meaning that through baptism, past sins are forgiven), and occurs after one has shown faith and repentance. Mormon baptism does not purport to remit any sins other than personal ones, as adherents do not believe in original sin. Latter Day Saints baptisms also occur only after an "age of accountability" which is defined as the age of eight years.[22] The theology thus rejects infant baptism.[23]
In addition, Latter Day Saint theology requires that baptism may only be performed with one who has been called and ordained by God with priesthood authority.[24] Because the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement operate under a lay priesthood, children raised in a Mormon family are usually baptized by a father or close male friend or family member who has achieved the office of priest, which is conferred upon worthy male members at least 16 years old in the LDS Church.[25]
Baptism is seen as symbolic both of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection[26] and is also symbolic of the baptized individual putting off of the natural or sinful man and becoming spiritually reborn as a disciple of Jesus.
Membership into a Latter Day Saint church is granted only by baptism whether or not a person has been raised in the church. Latter Day Saint churches do not recognize baptisms of other faiths as valid because they believe baptisms must be performed under the church's unique authority. Thus, all who come into one of the Latter Day Saint faiths as converts are baptized, even if they have previously received baptism in another faith.
When performing a Baptism, Latter Day Saints say the following prayer before performing the ordinance:

Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen[27]
Baptisms inside and outside the temples are usually done in a baptistry, although they can be performed in any body of water in which the person may be completely immersed. The person administering the baptism must recite the prayer exactly, and immerse every part, limb, hair and clothing of the person being baptized. If there are any mistakes, or if any part of the person being baptized is not fully immersed, the baptism must be redone. In addition to the baptizer, two priesthood holders witness the baptism to ensure that it is performed properly.[28]
Following baptism, Latter Day Saints receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands of a Melchizedek Priesthood holder.[28]
Islam[edit]


 This section needs attention from an expert in Islam. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the section. WikiProject Islam (or its Portal) may be able to help recruit an expert. (September 2013)
Main category: Conversion to Islam



Ghazan was born and raised as a Christian, studied Buddhism, and converted to Islam upon accession to the throne.
Further information: Spread of Islam, Islamization, Al-Baqara 256, List of converts to Islam, Hanif, Islamic Missionary Activity and Apostasy in Islam
There are five pillars, or foundations, of Islam but the primary, and most important is to believe that there is only one God and creator, referred to as Allah (the word for the name of God in Arabic) and that the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, is His final messenger. A person is considered to have converted to Islam from the moment he or she sincerely makes this declaration of faith, called the shahadah.[29][30]
Islam teaches that everyone is Muslim at birth[31][32] because every child that is born has a natural inclination to goodness and to worship the one true God alone, but his or her parents or society can cause him or her to deviate from the straight path. When someone accepts Islam he/she is considered to revert to his/her original condition. While conversion to Islam is among its most supported tenets, conversion from Islam to another religion is considered to be the sin of apostasy. In several Muslim majority countries it is subject to the death penalty or heavy punishments. In Islam, circumcision is a Sunnah custom not mentioned in the Quran. The primary opinion is that it is not obligatory and is not a condition for entering into Islam. The Shafi`i and Hanbali schools regard it as obligatory, while the Maliki and Hanafi schools regard it as only recommended. However, it is not a precondition for the acceptance of a person's Islamic practices, nor does one sin if choosing to forgo circumcision. It is not one of the Five Pillars of Islam or the Six Fundamentals of Belief.[33][34][35]
Bahá'í Faith[edit]
In sharing their faith with others, Bahá'ís are cautioned to "obtain a hearing" – meaning to make sure the person they are proposing to teach is open to hearing what they have to say. "Bahá'í pioneers", rather than attempting to supplant the cultural underpinnings of the people in their adopted communities, are encouraged to integrate into the society and apply Bahá'í principles in living and working with their neighbors.
Bahá'ís recognize the divine origins of all revealed religion, and believe that these religions occurred sequentially as part of a Divine plan (see Progressive revelation), with each new revelation superseding and fulfilling that of its predecessors. Bahá'ís regard their own faith as the most recent (but not the last), and believe its teachings – which are centered around the principle of the oneness of humanity – are most suited to meeting the needs of a global community.
In most countries conversion is a simple matter of filling out a card stating a declaration of belief. This includes acknowledgement of Bahá'u'llah – the Founder of the Faith – as the Messenger of God for this age, awareness and acceptance of His teachings, and intention to be obedient to the institutions and laws He established.
Conversion to the Bahá'í Faith carries with it an explicit belief in the common foundation of all revealed religion, a commitment to the unity of mankind, and active service to the community at large, especially in areas that will foster unity and concord. Since the Bahá'í Faith has no clergy, converts to this Faith are encouraged to be active in all aspects of community life. Even a recent convert may be elected to serve on a Local Spiritual Assembly – the guiding Bahá'í institution at the community level.[36][37]
Indian religions[edit]
Hinduism[edit]
See also: List of converts to Hinduism



 A yajna initiation to Hinduism ceremony in progress.
Since 1800 CE, religious conversion from and to Hinduism has been a controversial subject within Hinduism. Some have suggested that the concept of missionary conversion, either way, is anathema to the precepts of Hinduism.[38] Religious leaders of some of Hinduism sects such as Brahmo Samaj have seen Hinduism as a non-missionary religion yet welcomed new members, while other leaders of Hinduism's diverse schools have stated that with the arrival of missionary Islam and Christianity in India, this "there is no such thing as proselytism in Hinduism" view must be re-examined.[38][39]
Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, pandeism, monism, and atheism among others. Hinduism has no traditional ecclesiastical order, no centralized religious authorities, no universally accepted governing body, no prophet(s), no binding holy book nor any mandatory prayer attendance requirements.[40][41][42] Hinduism has been described as a way of life.[40] In its diffuse and open structure, numerous schools and sects of Hinduism have developed and spun off in India with help from its ascetic scholars, since the Vedic age. The six Astika and two Nastika schools of Hindu philosophy, in its history, did not develop a missionary or proselytization methodology, and they co-existed with each other. Most Hindu sub-schools and sects do not actively seek converts.[43] Individuals have had a choice to enter, leave or change their god(s), spiritual convictions, accept or discard any rituals and practices, and pursue spiritual knowledge and liberation (moksha) in different ways.[44][45] However, various schools of Hinduism do have some core common beliefs, such as the belief that all living beings have Atman (soul), a belief in karma theory, spirituality, ahimsa (non-violence) as the greatest dharma or virtue, and others.[46]
Religious conversion to Hinduism has a long history outside India. Merchants and traders of India, particularly from Indian peninsula, carried their religious ideas, which led to religious conversions to Hinduism in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma.[47][48][49] Some sects of Hindus, particularly of the Bhakti schools began seeking or accepting converts in early to mid 20th century. For example, Arya Samaj, Saiva Siddhanta Church, BAPS, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness accept those who have a desire to follow their sects of Hinduism, and each has their own religious conversion procedure.[50]
In recent decades, mainstream Hinduism schools have attempted to systematize ways to accept religious converts, with an increase in inter-religious mixed marriages.[51] The steps involved in becoming a Hindu have variously included a period where the interested person gets an informal ardha-Hindu name and studies ancient literature on spiritual path and practices (English translations of Upanishads, Agamas, Epics, ethics in Sutras, festivals, yoga).[52] If after a period of study, the individual still wants to convert, a Namakarana Samskaras ceremony is held, where the individual adopts a traditional Hindu name. The initiation ceremony may also include Yajna (i.e., fire ritual with Sanskrit hymns) under guidance of a local Hindu priest.[51] Some of these places are mathas and asramas (hermitage, monastery), where one or more gurus (spiritual guide) conduct the conversion and offer spiritual discussions.[51] Some schools encourage the new convert to learn and participate in community activities such as festivals (Diwali etc), read and discuss ancient literature, learn and engage in rites of passages (ceremonies of birth, first feeding, first learning day, age of majority, wedding, cremation and others).[53]
Sikhism[edit]
Sikhism is not known to openly proselytize, but accepts converts.[54][55]
Jainism[edit]


 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2015)
Jainism accepts anyone who wants to embrace the religion. There is no specific ritual for becoming a Jain. One does not need to ask any authorities for admission. One becomes a Jain on one's own by taking the five vows:[56]
1.Nonviolence (Ahimsa)
2.Observing Truth (Satya)
3.Non-stealing (Asteya)
4.Chastity
5.Non-possession (Aparigraha).
Following the five vows is the main requirement in Jainism. All other aspects such as visiting temples are secondary. Jain monks and nuns are required to observe these five vows strictly.[56]
Buddhism[edit]
Persons newly adhering to Buddhism traditionally "take Refuge" (express faith in the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) before a monk, nun, or similar representative. But cultural or secular Buddhists often hold multiple religious identities, combining the religion with some East Asian religions in different countries and ethnics, such as:

Ethnic
Buddhism with local traditional religions
Chinese[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion[58][59][60]
Japanese[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Shinto[61][62][63]
Korean[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Confucianism, and Korean shamanism[64][65][66][67]
Vietnamese[57] Mahayana Buddhism with Confucianism, Taoism,[68][69] and Dao Mau[70]
Mongolian Vajrayana Buddhism with Tengrism, and Mongolian shamanism[71]
Nepali Vajrayana Buddhism with Hinduism[72]
Jewish Buddhist Buddhism with Judaism
Throughout the timeline of Buddhism, conversions of entire countries and regions to Buddhism were frequent, as Buddhism spread throughout Asia. For example, in the 11th century in Burma, king Anoratha converted his entire country to Theravada Buddhism. At the end of the 12th century, Jayavarman VII set the stage for conversion of the Khmer people to Theravada Buddhism. Mass conversions of areas and communities to Buddhism occur up to the present day, for example, in the Dalit Buddhist movement in India there have been organized mass conversions.
Exceptions to encouraging conversion may occur in some Buddhist movements. In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, the current Dalai Lama discourages active attempts to win converts.[73][74]
Other religions and sects[edit]



 A Scientologist introduces the E-meter to a potential convert.
In the second half of the 20th century, the rapid growth of new religious movements (NRMs) led some psychologists and other scholars to propose that these groups were using "brainwashing" or "mind control" techniques to gain converts. This theory was publicized by the popular news media but disputed by other scholars, including some sociologists of religion.[75][76][76][77][78][79]
In the 1960s sociologist John Lofland lived with Unification Church missionary Young Oon Kim and a small group of American church members in California and studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win converts to their church. Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members, often family relationships.[80] Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes", and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall as Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of religious conversion, and one of the first modern sociological studies of a new religious movement.[81][82]
The Church of Scientology attempts to gain converts by offering "free stress tests".[83] It has also used the celebrity status of some of its members (most famously the American actor Tom Cruise) to attract converts.[84][85] The Church of Scientology requires that all converts sign a legal waiver which covers their relationship with the Church of Scientology before engaging in Scientology services.[86]
Research in the United States and the Netherlands has shown a positive correlation between areas lacking mainstream churches and the percentage of people who are a member of a new religious movement. This applies also for the presence of New Age centres.[87][88]
On the other end of the scale are religions that do not accept any converts, or do so very rarely. Often these are relatively small, close-knit minority religions that are ethnically based such as the Yazidis, Druze, and Mandaeans. Zoroastrianism classically does not accept converts, but this issue has become controversial in the 20th century due to the rapid decline in membership.[citation needed] Chinese traditional religion lacks clear criteria for membership, and hence for conversion. The Shakers and some Indian eunuch brotherhoods do not allow procreation, so that every member is a convert.
International law[edit]
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines religious conversion as a human right: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief" (Article 18). Despite this UN-declared human right, some groups forbid or restrict religious conversion (see below).
Based on the declaration the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) drafted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a legally binding treaty. It states that "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice" (Article 18.1). "No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice" (Article 18.2).
The UNCHR issued a General Comment on this Article in 1993: "The Committee observes that the freedom to 'have or to adopt' a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views [...] Article 18.2 bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to their religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert." (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, General Comment No. 22.; emphasis added)
Some countries distinguish voluntary, motivated conversion from organized proselytism, attempting to restrict the latter. The boundary between them is not easily defined: what one person considers legitimate evangelizing, or witness-bearing, another may consider intrusive and improper. Illustrating the problems that can arise from such subjective viewpoints is this extract from an article by Dr. C. Davis, published in Cleveland State University's Journal of Law and Health: "According to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Jews for Jesus and Hebrew Christians constitute two of the most dangerous cults, and its members are appropriate candidates for deprogramming. Anti-cult evangelicals ... protest that 'aggressiveness and proselytizing ... are basic to authentic Christianity,' and that Jews for Jesus and Campus Crusade for Christ are not to be labeled as cults. Furthermore, certain Hassidic groups who physically attacked a meeting of the Hebrew Christian 'cult' have themselves been labeled a 'cult' and equated with the followers of Reverend Moon, by none other than the President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis."[89]
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union the Russian Orthodox Church has enjoyed a revival. However, it takes exception to what it considers illegitimate proselytizing by the Roman Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other religious movements in what it refers to as its canonical territory.[citation needed]
Greece has a long history of conflict, mostly with Jehovah's Witnesses, but also with some Pentecostals, over its laws on proselytism. This situation stems from a law passed in the 1930s by the dictator Ioannis Metaxas. A Jehovah's Witness, Minos Kokkinakis, won the equivalent of $14,400 in damages from the Greek state after being arrested for trying to preach his faith from door to door. In another case, Larissis v. Greece, a member of the Pentecostal church also won a case in the European Court of Human Rights.[citation needed]
Some Islamic countries with Islamic law outlaw and carry strict sentences for proselytizing. Several Islamic countries under Islamic law—Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and Maldives—outlaw apostasy and carry imprisonment or the death penalty for those leaving Islam and those enticing Muslims to leave Islam.[citation needed] Also, induced religious conversions in the Indian states Orissa has resulted in communal riots.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
Apostasy, or renunciation of religion
Deathbed conversion, adoption of faith before dying
Forced conversion against the will of the subject
Secondary conversion that results from a relationship
Moral conversion based on the internalist view of morality
List of converts to Christianity
List of converts to Hinduism
List of converts to Islam
List of converts to Judaism
List of converts to Buddhism
Love Jihad conversion to Islam by feigning love
Missionary sent abroad
Inquisition
Islamic Missionary Activity
Missionary (LDS Church)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism
The Rage Against God, 2010 book by Peter Hitchens
Conversion to Islam in U.S. prisons
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ More conservative Protestants, especially Fundamentalists, would view a "reaffiliation" to Catholicism as a conversion to a new religion.
2.Jump up ^ Stark, Rodney and Roger Finke. "Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion." University of California Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-520-22202-1
3.Jump up ^ Meintel, Deirdre. "When There Is No Conversion: Spiritualists and Personal Religious Change". Anthropologica 49 (1): 149–162.
4.Jump up ^ Falkenberg, Steve. "Psychological Explanations of Religious Socialization." Religious Conversion. Eastern Kentucky University. August 31, 2009.
5.Jump up ^ The Independent newspaper: "... finding religion – is there anything middle-class parents won't try to get their children into the 'right' schools?"
6.Jump up ^ http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.asp
7.Jump up ^ Hefner, Robert W. Conversion to Christianity. University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 0-520-07836-5
8.Jump up ^ Bromiley, Geoffrey W. "Baptism." The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-D (p. 419). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-8028-3781-6
9.Jump up ^ "The Purpose of Baptism." http://gospelway.com/salvation/baptism_purpose.php
10.Jump up ^ Augsburg Confession, Article XII: Of Repentance
11.Jump up ^ "conversion, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press.
12.Jump up ^ http://thesaurus.com/browse/conversion
13.Jump up ^ Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, eds, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume by Geoffrey W. Bromily (Eerdmans, 1985) 101, 403.
14.Jump up ^ Conversion to Christ: The Making of a Christian Hedonist
15.Jump up ^ “St. Paul on Conversion” at http://jesuschristsavior.net/Conversion.html. Accessed November 5, 2013
16.Jump up ^ BibleGateway.com- Commentaries » Matthew 16 » The Cost of the Kingdom
17.Jump up ^ New Catholic Dictionary: conversion
18.Jump up ^ † Saints Constantine & Elena: Reception into the Catechumenate
19.Jump up ^ Paul ChulHong Kang, Justification: The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness from Reformation Theology to the American Great Awakening and the Korean Revivals (Peter Lang, 2006), 70, note 171. Calvin generally defends Augustine’s “monergistic view.”
20.Jump up ^ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Monergism and Paul ChulHong Kang, Justification: The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness from Reformation Theology to the American Great Awakening and the Korean Revivals (Peter Lang, 2006), 65.
21.Jump up ^ Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities (InterVarsity Press, 2009), 18. “Arminian synergism” refers to “evangelical synergism, which affirms the prevenience of grace.”
22.Jump up ^ See Doctrine and Covenants 68:25-27
23.Jump up ^ See Moroni 8:4-23
24.Jump up ^ See, e.g., "Guide to the Scriptures: Baptism, Baptize: Proper authority", LDS.org (LDS Church)
25.Jump up ^ See, e.g., "Gospel Topics: Priest", LDS.org (LDS Church)
26.Jump up ^ See, e.g., "Baptism", KJV (LDS): LDS Bible Dictionary, LDS Church
27.Jump up ^ See 3 Nephi 11:25
28.^ Jump up to: a b "Performing Priesthood Ordinances", Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood: Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders, Part B, LDS Church, 2000, pp. 41–48
29.Jump up ^ Converts to Islam
30.Jump up ^ How to Become a Muslim - Meeting Place for Reverts/Converts To Islam
31.Jump up ^ Every Child is Born Muslim
32.Jump up ^ Conversion to Islam
33.Jump up ^ Is Circumcision obligatory after conversion?
34.Jump up ^ Considering Converting: Is it necessary to be circumcised?
35.Jump up ^ Circumcision for Converts
36.Jump up ^ Smith, P. (1999). A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
37.Jump up ^ Momen, M. (1997). A Short Introduction to the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford, UK: One World Publications. ISBN 1-85168-209-0.
38.^ Jump up to: a b Arvind Sharma (2011), Hinduism as a Missionary Religion, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-1438432113, pages 31-53
39.Jump up ^ Gauri Viswanathan (1998), Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691058993, pages 153-176
40.^ Jump up to: a b Chakravarti, Sitansu (1991), Hinduism, a way of life, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., p. 71, ISBN 978-81-208-0899-7
41.Jump up ^ Julius J. Lipner, Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 2nd Edition, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-45677-7, page 8; Quote: “(...) one need not be religious in the minimal sense described to be accepted as a Hindu by Hindus, or describe oneself perfectly validly as Hindu. One may be polytheistic or monotheistic, monistic or pantheistic, even an agnostic, humanist or atheist, and still be considered a Hindu.”
42.Jump up ^ MK Gandhi, The Essence of Hinduism, Editor: VB Kher, Navajivan Publishing, see page 3; According to Gandhi, "a man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu."
43.Jump up ^ Catharine Cookson (2003), Encyclopedia of religious freedom, Taylor & Francis, p. 180, ISBN 978-0-415-94181-5
44.Jump up ^ Bhavasar and Kiem, Spirituality and Health, in Hindu Spirituality, Editor: Ewert Cousins (1989), ISBN 0-8245-0755-X, Crossroads Publishing New York, pp 319-337; John Arapura, Spirit and Spiritual Knowledge in the Upanishads, in Hindu Spirituality, Editor: Ewert Cousins (1989), ISBN 0-8245-0755-X, Crossroads Publishing New York, pp 64-85
45.Jump up ^ Gavin Flood, Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Editor: Knut Jacobsen (2010), Volume II, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-17893-9, see Article on Wisdom and Knowledge, pp 881-884
46.Jump up ^ SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, page 153
47.Jump up ^ Jan Gonda, The Indian Religions in Pre-Islamic Indonesia and their survival in Bali, in Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 3 Southeast Asia, Religions at Google Books, pages 1-47
48.Jump up ^ Richadiana Kartakusama (2006), Archaeology: Indonesian Perspective (Editors: Truman Simanjuntak et al.), Yayasan Obor Indonesia, ISBN 979-2624996, pp. 406-419
49.Jump up ^ Reuter, Thomas (September 2004). Java's Hinduism Revivial. Hinduism Today.
50.Jump up ^ See, for example: ISKCON Law Book, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, GBC Press
51.^ Jump up to: a b c SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, pages 115-118
52.Jump up ^ SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, pages xx, 133-147
53.Jump up ^ SS Subramuniyaswami (2000), How to become a Hindu, 2nd Edition, Himalayan Academy, ISBN 0945497822, pages 157-158
54.Jump up ^ ThinkQuest - Sikhism
55.Jump up ^ About.com - Sikhism
56.^ Jump up to: a b Pravin Shah, Five Great Vows (Maha-vratas) of Jainism Jainism Literature Center, Harvard University Archives (2009)
57.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Think Quest - Map of religions". Think Quest. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
58.Jump up ^ Travel China Guide – Han Chinese, Windows on Asia – Chinese Religions, Justchina.org - China Beliefs, Foreignercn.com - Buddhism in China
59.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Chinese Belief Systems
60.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Buddhism in China
61.Jump up ^ "World Factbook: Japan". CIA. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
62.Jump up ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (15 September 2006). "International Religious Freedom Report 2006". US Department of State. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
63.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Shinto
64.Jump up ^ Buddhism in Korea, Korean Buddhism Magazine, Seoul 1997
65.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Historical and Modern Religions of Korea
66.Jump up ^ "Culture of North Korea – Alternative name, History and ethnic relations". Countries and Their Cultures. Advameg Inc. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
67.Jump up ^ "CIA The World Factbook – North Korea". Cia.gov. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
68.Jump up ^ "Vietnam". Encyclopedia of the Nations. 14 August 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
69.Jump up ^ "Vietnam's religions". Vietnam-holidays.co.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
70.Jump up ^ Asia Society - Religions in Vietnam
71.Jump up ^ Asian History - Mongolia | Facts and History, Windows on Asia - Mongolia, Mongolia Tourism - Religion
72.Jump up ^ Nepal Embassy in Japan, Globerove - Religion in Nepal, Mongolia Asian History - Nepal, Windows on Asia - Nepal
73.Jump up ^ Dalai Lama opposed to practice of conversion[dead link]
74.Jump up ^ Dawei, Bei (2012). Conversion to Tibetan Buddhism: Some Reflections, in: Ura, Dasho, Karma: Chophel, Dendup, Buddhism Without Borders, Proceedings of the International Conference of Global Buddhism, Bhumtang, Bhutan, May 211-23, 2012, The Center for Buthane Studies, pp, 53-75
75.Jump up ^ Melton, J. Gordon (1999-12-10). "Brainwashing and the Cults: The Rise and Fall of a Theory". CESNUR: Center for Studies on New Religions. Retrieved 2009-06-15. "In the United States at the end of the 1970s, brainwashing emerged as a popular theoretical construct around which to understand what appeared to be a sudden rise of new and unfamiliar religious movements during the previous decade, especially those associated with the hippie street-people phenomenon."
76.^ Jump up to: a b Bromley, David G. (1998). "Brainwashing". In William H. Swatos Jr. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-7619-8956-1.
77.Jump up ^ Barker, Eileen: New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction. London: Her Majesty's Stationery office, 1989.
78.Jump up ^ Wright, Stewart A. (1997). "Media Coverage of Unconventional Religion: Any 'Good News' for Minority Faiths?". Review of Religious Research (Review of Religious Research, Vol. 39, No. 2) 39 (2): 101–115. doi:10.2307/3512176. JSTOR 3512176.
79.Jump up ^ Barker, Eileen (1986). "Religious Movements: Cult and Anti-Cult Since Jonestown". Annual Review of Sociology 12: 329–346. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.12.080186.001553.
80.Jump up ^ Conversion, Unification Church, Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary
81.Jump up ^ Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America: African diaspora traditions and other American innovations, Volume 5 of Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, W. Michael Ashcraft, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 ISBN 0-275-98717-5, ISBN 978-0-275-98717-6, page 180
82.Jump up ^ Exploring New Religions, Issues in contemporary religion, George D. Chryssides, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001 ISBN 0-8264-5959-5, ISBN 978-0-8264-5959-6 page 1
83.Jump up ^ The Foster Report. Chapter 5, "The Practices of Scientology;" section (a), "Recruitment;" pages 75-76.
84.Jump up ^ "Artists Find Inspiration, Education at Church of Scientology & Celebrity Centre Nashville." The Tennessee Tribune, Jan 20-Jan 26, 2011. Vol. 22, Iss. 3, pg. 14A
85.Jump up ^ Goodyear, Dana (2008-01-14). "Château Scientology". Letter from California. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
86.Jump up ^ Friedman, Roger (3 September 2003). "Will Scientology Celebs Sign 'Spiritual' Contract?". FOX News. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
87.Jump up ^ Schepens, T. (Dutch) Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland volume 29, Sekten Ontkerkelijking en religieuze vitaliteit: nieuwe religieuze bewegingen en New Age-centra in Nederland (1994) VU uitgeverij ISBN 90-5383-341-2
88.Jump up ^ Stark, R & W.S. Bainbridge The future of religion: secularization, revival and cult formation (1985) Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California press
89.Jump up ^ Joining a Cult: Religious Choice or Psychological Aberration?
Further reading[edit]
Barker, Eileen The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984)
Barrett, D. V. The New Believers: A survey of sects, cults and alternative religions (2001) UK, Cassell & Co ISBN 0-304-35592-5
Cooper, Richard S. "The Assessment and Collection of Kharaj Tax in Medieval Egypt" Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 96, No. 3. (Jul–Sep., 1976), pp. 365–382.
Curtin, Phillip D. Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Hoiberg, Dale, and Indu Ramachandran. Students' Britannica India. Popular Prakashan, 2000.
Idris, Gaefar, Sheikh. The Process of Islamization. Plainfield, Ind.: Muslim Students' Association of the U.S. and Canada, 1977. vi, 20 p. Without ISBN
James, William, The varieties of religious experience: a study in human nature. Being the Gifford lectures on natural religion delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902; Longmans, Green & Co, New York (1902)
Morris, Harold C., and Lin M. Morris. "Power and purpose: Correlates to conversion." Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, Vol 15(4), Nov-Dec 1978, 15–22.
Rambo, Lewis R. Understanding Religious Conversion. Yale University Press, 1993.
Ramstedt, Martin. Hinduism in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion Between Local, National, and Global Interests. Routledge, 2004.
Rawat, Ajay S. StudentMan and Forests: The Khatta and Gujjar Settlements of Sub-Himalayan Tarai. Indus Publishing, 1993.
Vasu, Srisa Chandra (1919), The Catechism Of Hindu Dharma, New York: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
External links[edit]
 Look up convert in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Religious conversion
"Conversion: A Family Affair", Craig Harline, Berfrois, 4 October 2011


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Deprogramming

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Deprogramming refers to coercive measures to force[1] a person in a controversial belief system to change those beliefs and abandon allegiance to the religious, political, economic, or social group associated with the belief system.[2][3] Methods and practices of self-identified "deprogrammers" have involved kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion,[4] and sometimes resulted in criminal convictions of the deprogrammers.[5][6] Classic deprogramming regimens are designed for individuals taken against their will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping, and civil rights, as well as the violence which is sometimes involved.[7]


Contents  [hide]
1 Background
2 Procedures 2.1 Kidnapping
2.2 Violence
3 Effectiveness and harm
4 Government
5 Controversy and related issues
6 Referral and kickback system
7 Victims
8 Exit counseling
9 In popular culture
10 See also
11 References 11.1 Notes
11.2 Bibliography
12 External links

Background[edit]
As a technique, the deprogramming that has been practiced over the last half century has been typically commissioned by relatives, often parents of adult offspring, who objected to the subject's membership in an organization or group. It has been compared to exorcisms in both methodology and manifestation,[8] and the process sometimes has been performed with tacit support of law enforcement and judicial officials.[9][10] In response to a burgeoning number of new religious movements in the 1970s in the United States, the "father of deprogramming", Ted Patrick, introduced many of these techniques to a wider audience as a means to combat cults.[11][12] Since then, deprogrammings have been carried out "by the thousands".[10] For example, various atrocity stories served as justification for deprogramming of Unification Church members in the USA.[13]
As a technique for encouraging people to disassociate with groups with whom they have as consenting adults chosen to associate, deprogramming is a controversial practice. Even some cult critics have denounced it on legal and ethical grounds.[14] Similar actions, when done without force, have been referred to as "exit counseling". Sometimes the word deprogramming is used in a wider (and/or ironic or humorous sense), to mean the freeing of someone (often oneself) from any previously uncritically assimilated idea. According to Carol Giambalvo, "exit councillors are usually former cult members themselves".[15]
Various academics have commented on the practice. For example, as defined by James T. Richardson, UNLV Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies and Director of the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, deprogramming is a "private, self-help process whereby participants in unpopular new religious movements (NRMs) were forcibly removed from the group, incarcerated, and put through radical resocialization processes that were supposed to result in their agreeing to leave the group."[16] Law professor Douglas Laycock, author of Religious Liberty: The free exercise, wrote:

Beginning in the 1970s, many parents responded to the initial conversion with "deprogramming." The essence of deprogramming was to physically abduct the convert, isolate him and physically restrain him, and barrage him with continuous arguments and attacks against his new religion, threatening to hold him forever until he agreed to leave it.[17]
Lawyer John LeMoult, writing in a law review journal, described such practices as the person subject to deprogramming being "seized, held against his will, subjected to mental, emotional, and even physical pressures until he renounces his beliefs", and compared this power to that of Nazis over their prisoners[18] Legal scholar Dean M. Kelley called deprogramming "protracted spiritual gang-rape."[19]
Procedures[edit]
There has never been any standard deprogramming procedure and the descriptions vary greatly. There are many anecdotal reports and studies involving interviews of former deprogrammees. Deprogrammers generally operate on the assumption that the people they are paid to extract from religious organizations are victims of forms of indoctrination characterized as mind control (or brainwashing). Books written by deprogrammers and exit counselors say that the most essential part of freeing the mind of a person is to convince them that they had been under control.
Ted Patrick, one of the pioneers of deprogramming, used a confrontational method, enlisting psychiatrists and psychologists to assist him in the deprogramming process.[18] A number of criminal proceedings against Patrick have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.[20]
Sylvia Buford, an associate of Ted Patrick who has assisted him on many deprogrammings, described five stages of deprogramming:[21]
1.Discredit the figure of authority: the cult leader
2.Present contradictions (ideology versus reality): "How can he preach love when he exploits people?" is an example.
3.The breaking point: When a subject begins to listen to the deprogrammer; when reality begins to take precedence over ideology.
4.Self-expression: When the subject begins to open up and voice gripes against the cult.
5.Identification and transference: when the subject begins to identify with the deprogrammers, starts to think of him- or herself as an opponent of the cult rather than a member of it.
Kidnapping[edit]
Deprogramming has often been associated with kidnapping, which has in some cases been part of the procedure. The percentage stated of cases involving kidnapping varies considerably, depending on the source. Joseph Szimhart, a deprogrammer and former cult member, says "until 1992, in a low percentage of my cases, included situations in which families elected to confine and sometimes abduct a 'cultist' to a deprogramming."[citation needed]
Violence[edit]
The deprogramming accounts vary widely regarding the use of force, with the most dramatic accounts coming from deprogrammed people who returned to the group.
Steven Hassan in his book Releasing the Bonds spoke against coercive deprogramming methods using force or threats.
The deprogramming case observed by Dubrow-Eichel did not include any violence.
Sociologist Eileen Barker wrote in Watching for Violence:
"Although deprogramming has become less violent in the course of time ... Numerous testimonies by those who were subjected to a deprogramming describe how they were threatened with a gun, beaten, denied sleep and food and/or sexually assaulted. But one does not have to rely on the victims for stories of violence: Ted Patrick, one of the most notorious deprogrammers used by CAGs (who has spent several terms in prison for his exploits) openly boasts about some of the violence he employed; in November 1987, Cyril Vosper, a Committee member of the British cult-awareness group, FAIR, was convicted in Munich of "causing bodily harm" in the course of one of his many deprogramming attempts; and a number of similar convictions are on record for prominent members of CAGs elsewhere."
In Colombrito vs. Kelly, the Court accepted the definition of deprogramming by J. Le Moult published in 1978 in the Fordham Law Review:
"Deprogrammers are people who, at the request of a parent or other close relative, will have a member of a religious sect seized, then hold him against his will and subject him to mental, emotional, and even physical pressures until he renounces his religious beliefs. Deprogrammers usually work for a fee, which may easily run as high as $25,000. The deprogramming process begins with abduction. Often strong men muscle the subject into a car and take him to a place where he is cut from everyone but his captors. He may be held against his will for upward of three weeks. Frequently, however, the initial deprogramming only last a few days. The subject's sleep is limited and he is told that he will not be released until his beliefs meet his captors' approval. Members of the deprogramming group, as well as members of the family, come into the room where the victim is held and barrage him with questions and denunciations until he recants his newly found religion "
Deprogrammer Carol Giambalvo writes in From Deprogramming to Thought Reform Consultation
"It was believed that the hold of the brainwashing over the cognitive processes of a cult member needed to be broken – or "snapped" as some termed it – by means that would shock or frighten the cultist into thinking again. For that reason in some cases cult leader's pictures were burned or there were highly confrontational interactions between deprogrammers and cultist. What was often sought was an emotional response to the information, the shock, the fear, and the confrontation. There are horror stories – promoted most vehemently by the cults themselves – about restraint, beatings, and even rape. And we have to admit that we have met former members who have related to us their deprogramming experience – several of handcuffs, weapons wielded and sexual abuse. But thankfully, these are in the minority – and in our minds, never justified. Nevertheless, deprogramming helped to free many individuals held captive to destructive cults at a time when other alternatives did not seem viable. "
Effectiveness and harm[edit]
Alan W. Gomes (chairman of the department of theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University) in his 2009 book Unmasking the Cults reports:
While advocates of the deprogramming position have claimed high rates of success, studies show that natural attrition rates actually are higher than the success rate achieved through deprogramming.[22]
The Dialog Center International (DCI) a major Christian counter-cult organization founded in 1973 by a Danish professor of missiology and ecumenical theology, Dr. Johannes Aagaard[23] rejects deprogramming, believing that it is counterproductive, ineffective, and can harm the relationship between a cult member and concerned family members.[24]
Professor of psychiatry Saul Levine suggests that it is doubtful that deprogramming helps many people and goes on to say that it actually causes harm to the victim by very nature of the deprogramming. For deprogramming to work, the victim must be convinced that they joined a religious group against their will. They then must renounce responsibility and accept that in some mysterious way that their minds were controlled.[25] It is Levine's professional opinion that once deprogrammed, a person would never be certain that they were really doing what they want. He states that deprogramming destroys a person's identity and is likely to create permanent anxiety about freedom of choice and leave the deprogrammed subject dependent upon the guidance and advice of others. "Fundamentally deprogramming denies choice and creates dependency. It robs people of their sense of responsibility. Instead of encouraging people to accept that they made a mistake, it encourages people to deny their actions and blame others." [25][26]
Government[edit]
Deprogramming activities often fall outside of the law. Government agencies have at times been aware and have taken part in deprogramming to enforce official views of correct beliefs and behaviors.[16] This can involve "vigorous, even violent, efforts to dissuade people from participating in groups deemed unacceptable to the government" and have been "given legal sanction by the passage of laws that make illegal the activities or even the beliefs of the unpopular movement or group being targeted."[16]
Controversy and related issues[edit]
See also: Mind control: Deprogramming and the anti-cult movement
In the United States, from the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s mind control was a widely accepted theory in public opinion, and the vast majority of newspaper and magazine accounts of deprogrammings assumed that recruits' relatives were well justified to seek conservatorships and to hire deprogrammers. It took nearly 20 years for public opinion to shift.[27]
One aspect that gradually became disturbing from a civil rights point of view, was that relatives would use deception or other ethically questionable methods—even kidnapping—to get the recruit into deprogrammers' hands, without allowing the person any recourse to a lawyer or psychiatrist of their own choosing. Previously, there would be a sanity hearing first, and only then a commitment to an asylum or involuntary therapy. But with deprogramming, judges routinely granted parents legal authority over their adult children without a hearing.
One of main objections raised to deprogramming (as well as to exit counseling) is the contention that they begin with a false premise. Lawyers for some groups who have lost members due to deprogramming, as well as some civil libertarians, sociologists and psychologists, argue that it is not the religious groups but rather the deprogrammers who are the ones who deceive and manipulate people.
David Bromley and Anson Shupe wrote:

Deprogrammers are like the American colonials who persecuted "witches": a confession, drawn up before the suspect was brought in for torturing and based on the judges' fantasies about witchcraft, was signed under duress and then treated as justification for the torture.[28]
A number of factors contributed to the cessation of deprogramming:
Some of the deprogrammed adult children began suing their parents or deprogrammers, and also, in the mid-1980s, psychologist Margaret Singer stopped being accepted as an expert witness after the APA declined to endorse the DIMPAC report.[29]
The American Civil Liberties Union published a statement in 1977 which said:

ACLU opposes the use of mental incompetency proceedings, temporary conservatorship, or denial of government protection as a method of depriving people of the free exercise of religion, at least with respect to people who have reached the age of majority. Mode of religious proselytizing or persuasion for a continued adherence that do not employ physical coercion or threat of same are protected by the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment against action of state laws or by state officials. The claim of free exercise may not be overcome by the contention that 'brainwashing' or 'mind control' has been used, in the absence of evidence that the above standards have been violated.
In the 1980s in the United States, namely in New York (Deprogramming Bill, 1981), Kansas (Deprogramming Bill, 1982), and Nebraska (conservatorship legislation for 1985), lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to legalize involuntary deprogramming.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church (many of whose members were targets of deprogramming) issued this statement in 1983:

The methods involved in "deprogramming" are like those used in Communist concentration camps. Using parents and relatives to entrap members, "deprogrammers" commit grown adults to mental hospitals with the supposed "illness" of holding of a minority religious belief. Other typical deprogramming techniques include kidnapping, illegal detention, violence, psychological harassment, sleep deprivation, inducement to use alcohol and drugs, sexual seduction and rape. By such threats, harassment and manipulation, professional "deprogrammers" force members to renounce their faith. Many people are injured physically and psychologically because of this criminal activity. [1]
During the 1990s, deprogrammer Rick Ross was sued by Jason Scott, a former member of a Pentecostal group called the Life Tabernacle Church, after an unsuccessful deprogramming attempt. In 1995, the jury awarded Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and $2,500,000 in punitive damages against Ross, which were later settled for $5,000 and 200 hours of services. More significantly, the jury also found that the leading anti-cult group known as the Cult Awareness Network was a co-conspirator in the crime and fined CAN $1,000,000 in punitive damages, forcing the group into bankruptcy.[30] This case is often seen as effectively closing the door on the practice of involuntary deprogramming in the United States.[18]
Referral and kickback system[edit]
Anti-cult groups play a central role in maintaining the underground network of communications, referrals, transportation, and housing necessary for continued deprogramming.[31]
Groups such as the Cult Awareness Network operated a referral scheme (NARDEC) in which they would refer people to deprogrammers in return for a 'kickback' in the form of a donation or as a commission.[32] Deprogrammers such as Rick Ross, Steven Hassan and Carol Giambalvo were amongst the CAN referred deprogrammers.[33]
Victims[edit]
In 1974, Kathy Crampton—whose abduction and deprogramming were televised nationally—went back to the Love Family group several days after her apparently successful deprogramming. Patrick was charged for kidnapping, but he was acquitted with the reasoning: "[w]here parents are, as here, of the reasonable and intelligent belief that they were not physically capable of recapturing their daughter from existing, imminent danger, then the defense of necessity transfers or transposes to the constituted agent, the person who acts upon their belief under such conditions. Here that agent is the Defendant [Ted Patrick] (District Court of the United States 1974: 79; New York Times 1974).
In 1980, Susan Wirth, a 35-year-old teacher living in San Francisco, was abducted by her parents to be deprogrammed in reaction to her leftist political views and activities.[27][34] Patrick was paid $27,000 to carry out the deprogramming, which involved handcuffing her to a bed for two weeks and denying her food.[35] She was later released and after returning to San Francisco spoke out against deprogramming but declined to press legal charges against her parents.[36]
In 1980, Patrick was convicted of conspiracy, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. These charges were related to the abduction and attempted deprogramming of Roberta McElfish, a 26-year-old Tucson waitress.[6] Patrick was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $5,000.[37]
In 1981, Stephanie Riethmiller, who lived in Ohio, was kidnapped by deprogrammers who were hired by her parents to remove her from a lesbian relationship. She was held against her will and repeatedly raped. After her release she filed civil charges against her parents and the deprogrammers, which were dismissed in a trial that generated some controversy in the media.[27][38][39]
In 1990, Patrick attempted to deprogram Elma Miller, an Amish woman who had joined a liberal sect. He was hired by her husband to return her to him and the Amish church. Criminal charges of conspiracy were filed against Miller's husband, brother, and two others but were later dropped on her request to the prosecuting attorney.[40][41]
During the 1990s, Rick Ross, a noted cult intervention advocate who took part in a number of deprogramming sessions, was sued by Jason Scott, a former member of a Pentecostalist group called the Life Tabernacle Church (part of United Pentecostal Church International), after an unsuccessful forcible deprogramming.[42] The jury awarded Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), and $2,500,000 against Ross (later settled for $5,000 and 200 hours of services "as an expert consultant and intervention specialist").[42][43][44]
Exit counseling[edit]
Deprogramming and exit counseling, sometimes seen as one and the same, are distinct approaches to convincing a person to leave a cult. Some people blur the distinctions on purpose: some practitioners do so to avoid criticism; some opponents do so to intensify it.
Proponents of the distinction, however, state that deprogramming entails coercion and confinement, whereas exit counseling assures the cult member of the freedom to leave at any time. Deprogramming typically costs $10,000 or more, mainly because of the expense of a security team. Exit counseling typically costs $2,000 to $4,000, including expenses, for a three- to five-day intervention, although cases requiring extensive research of little-known groups can cost much more. Deprogramming, especially when it fails, entails considerable legal and psychological risk (for example, a permanent alienation of the cultist from his or her family). The psychological and legal risks in exit counseling are significantly reduced. Although deprogrammers do prepare families for the process, exit counselors tend to work with them directly, expecting those requesting the intervention to contribute more to the process; that is, exit counseling requires that families establish a reasonable and respectful level of communication with their loved one before the program itself can begin. Because they rely on coercion, which is illegal except in the case of conservatorship and is generally viewed as unethical, deprogrammers' critiques of the unethical practices of cults will tend to have less credibility with cult members than the critiques of exit counselors.[2]
Steven Hassan, author of the book Combatting Cult Mind Control, states that he took part in a number of deprogrammings in the late 1970s, and has spoken out against them since 1980.[45] Hassan states that he has not participated in any deprogrammings since then, although on page 114 of Combatting, Hassan states that deprogrammings should be kept as a last resort if all other attempts to reach the individual fail. Hassan is one of the major proponents of exit counseling as a form of intercession, and he refers to his method as "strategic intervention therapy."
In popular culture[edit]
Faults, a 2014 drama movie about deprogramming
Holy Smoke!, a 1999 movie based on the book with the same name
Split Image, a 1982 movie about deprogramming
See also[edit]
Anti-cult movement
Intervention (counseling)
Mind control
Anti-psychiatry
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Melton, J. Gordon (1999). New Religious Movements (1 ed.). New York, NY: Routlege. p. 218. ISBN 0-415-20049-0.
2.Jump up ^ Encyclopedia of religion, Volume 4 , Lindsay Jones , Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pages 2291-2293
3.Jump up ^ Children held hostage: dealing with programmed and brainwashed children, American Bar Association archive publications, Authors Stanley S. Clawar, Brynne V. Rivlin, American Bar Association. Section of Family Law Publisher Section of Family Law, American Bar Association, 1991 ISBN 0-89707-628-1, ISBN 978-0-89707-628-9, pages 142-144
4.Jump up ^ Patrick, Ted; Dulack, Tom (1976). Let Our Children Go!. E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-14450-1. "Deprogramming is the term, and it may be said to involve kidnapping at the very least, quite often assault and battery, almost invariably conspiracy to commit a crime, and illegal restraint."
5.Jump up ^ Hunter, Howard O.; Price, Polly J. (2001). "Regulation of religious proselytism in the United States" (PDF). Brigham Young University Law Review 2001 (2).
6.^ Jump up to: a b "Ted Patrick Convicted of Seizing Woman Said to Have Joined Cult; Escaped From Abductors". The New York Times. August 30, 1980.
7.Jump up ^ Keiko Ikemoto, Masakazu Nakamura, Forced deprogramming from a religion and mental health: A case report of PTSD, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Volume 27, Issue 2, March–April 2004, Pages 147-155, ISSN 0160-2527, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2004.01.005.
8.Jump up ^ Anson D. Shupe, JR, Roger Spielmann, and Sam Stigall Deprogramming: The New Exorcism American Behavioral Scientist July 1977 20: 941-956, doi:10.1177/000276427702000609
9.Jump up ^ Bromley, David Melton, J. Gordon 2002. Cults, Religion, and Violence. West Nyack, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Reflexivity and objectivity in the study of controversial new religions James T Richardson Religion Vol. 21, Iss. 4, 1991
11.Jump up ^ Chryssides, George (1999). Exploring New Religions. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 346–348. ISBN 0-8264-5959-5.
12.Jump up ^ Chryssides, G.D. and B.E. Zeller. 2014. The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING.
13.Jump up ^ Kurtz, Lester R. Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective 2007, Pine Forge Press, ISBN 1-4129-2715-3, page 228
14.Jump up ^ Langone, Michael D., and Paul R. Martin. "Viewpoint: Deprogramming, Exit Counseling, and Ethics: Clarifying the Confusion." Christian Research Institute Journal (30 June 1994) [Winter 1993]: page 46 (Retrieved 26 April 2014)
15.Jump up ^ Giambalvo, Carol (1992). Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention. American Family Foundation.
16.^ Jump up to: a b c Richardson, James T. 2011. "Deprogramming: from private self-help to governmental organized repression." Crime, Law and Social Change 55 (4): 321-336.
17.Jump up ^ Laycock, D. 2011. Religious Liberty: The free exercise clause: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=bEiwxUad97IC.
18.^ Jump up to: a b c 24 T. Marshall L. Rev. 359 (1998-1999) Holy Wars: Involuntary Deprogramming as a Weapon against Cults; McAllister, Shawn
19.Jump up ^ (Dean Kelley, Deprogramming and Religious Liberty, Civil Liberties Review 23 (July/Aug, 1977)
20.Jump up ^ Price, Polly J. Regulation of religious proselytism in the United States. Brigham Young University Law Review. 2001 537-574.
21.Jump up ^ (Stoner, C., & Parke, J. (1977). All God's children: The cult experience - salvation or slavery? Radrior, PA: Chilton )
22.Jump up ^ Gomes, Alan W., Unmasking the Cults, Zondervan Guide to Cults and Religious Movements, Zondervan, 2009 ISBN 0-310-86455-0, ISBN 978-0-310-86455-4
23.Jump up ^ Obituary, 23 March 2007
24.Jump up ^ Exploring New Religions, George D. Chryssides, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 0-8264-5959-5, ISBN 978-0-8264-5959-6, pages 353-254
25.^ Jump up to: a b Levine, The Role of Psychiatry in the Phenomenon of Cults", Canada Journal of Psychiatry 24 (1979)
26.Jump up ^ Understanding Cults and New Age Religions, by Irving Hexham, Karla Poewe, and J. I. Packer
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Rusher, William A. (28 May 1983). "Deprogramming A Disgrace To Free Society". Gadsden Times. p. A4. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
28.Jump up ^ Bromley, David G., and Shupe, Anson D., Jr. (1981) Strange Gods, The Great American Cult Scare. Boston: Beacon (pp. 198-204)
29.Jump up ^ May 11, 1987, APA MEMORANDUM available online
30.Jump up ^ Scott vs. Ross, Workman, Simpson. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
31.Jump up ^ Davis, D. and B. Hankins. 2003. New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America: Baylor University Press.
32.Jump up ^ Shupe, A. and S.E. Darnell. 2011. Agents of Discord: Deprogramming, Pseudo-Science, and the American Anticult Movement: Transaction Publishers.
33.Jump up ^ "The Cult Awareness Network and the Anticult Movement: Implications for NRMs in America" (with Susan E. Darnell and Kendrick Moxon) in New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America. edited by Derek H. Davis and Barry Hankins. Waco: J.M.Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and Baylor University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-929182-64-2
34.Jump up ^ "Daughter kidnapped over politics". Beaver County Times. Associated Press. July 2, 1980. p. A-13. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
35.Jump up ^ Stephen Garrard Postpage, Inquiries in bioethics, 1993, Georgetwon University Press, ISBN 0-87840-538-0, ISBN 978-0-87840-538-1, page 71
36.Jump up ^ "Feared kidnapped, she reconciles with mother", Merced Sun-Star, July 29, 1980
37.Jump up ^ "Ted Patrick is sentenced in seizure of cult member". The New York Times. 1980-09-27.
38.Jump up ^ Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men, Gary David Comstock, Columbia University Press (April 15, 1995) ISBN 0-231-07331-3 ISBN 978-0-231-07331-8. page 201
39.Jump up ^ "'Deprogrammed' Woman Files Suit". Gadsden Times. December 10, 1981. p. 1. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
40.Jump up ^ Amish Woman Charges Deprogramming, Pittsburg Press, November 30, 1990, page 8
41.Jump up ^ Amish Woman Asks Prosecutor to Drop Charges on Kidnapping, Madison Courier, December 8, 1990, page 3
42.^ Jump up to: a b Shupe, Anson; Darnell, Susan E. (2006). Agents of Discord. New Brunswick (U.S.A.), London (UK): Transaction Publishers. pp. 180–184. ISBN 0-7658-0323-2.
43.Jump up ^ JASON SCOTT, PLAINTIFF v. RICK ROSS, A/K/A/ RICKEY ALLEN ROSS, MARK WORKMAN, CHARLES SIMPSON, CULT AWARENESS NETWORK, A CALIFORNIA NONPROFIT CORPORATION AND JOHN DOE 1–JOHN DOE 20, DEFENDANTS. Case No. C94-00796. November 29, 1995
44.Jump up ^ "Scott vs. Ross, Workman, Simpson, Cult Awareness Network: Verdict form (p. 5)". Retrieved 12 October 2008.
45.Jump up ^ Refuting the Disinformation Attacks Put Forth by Destructive Cults and their Agents, by Steven Hassan
Bibliography[edit]
Conway, Flo & Jim Siegelman, Snapping (1978), excerpt ISBN 0-9647650-0-4
Colombrito v. Kelly, 764 F.2d 122 (2d Cir. 1985)
Langone, Michael: Deprogramming, Exit Counseling, and Ethics, Clarifying the Confusion, Christian Research Institute Journal, 1993 [3]
Melton, Gordon, J. "Brainwashing": Career of a Myth in the United States and Europe, . [4]
Le Moult J. (1978), Deprograrnming members of religious sects, Fordham Law Review, 46, pp. 599–640.
Ross, Rick: A brief history of cult intervention work, 1999 [5]
Deprogramming, Exit Counseling, and Ethics: Clarifying the Confusion - by Michael D. Langone and Paul R. Martin, from the Viewpoint column of the Christian Research Journal, Winter 1993, page 46.
External links[edit]
Brainwashing and Mind Control Controversies - Center for Studies on New Religions


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Deprogramming

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Deprogramming refers to coercive measures to force[1] a person in a controversial belief system to change those beliefs and abandon allegiance to the religious, political, economic, or social group associated with the belief system.[2][3] Methods and practices of self-identified "deprogrammers" have involved kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion,[4] and sometimes resulted in criminal convictions of the deprogrammers.[5][6] Classic deprogramming regimens are designed for individuals taken against their will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping, and civil rights, as well as the violence which is sometimes involved.[7]


Contents  [hide]
1 Background
2 Procedures 2.1 Kidnapping
2.2 Violence
3 Effectiveness and harm
4 Government
5 Controversy and related issues
6 Referral and kickback system
7 Victims
8 Exit counseling
9 In popular culture
10 See also
11 References 11.1 Notes
11.2 Bibliography
12 External links

Background[edit]
As a technique, the deprogramming that has been practiced over the last half century has been typically commissioned by relatives, often parents of adult offspring, who objected to the subject's membership in an organization or group. It has been compared to exorcisms in both methodology and manifestation,[8] and the process sometimes has been performed with tacit support of law enforcement and judicial officials.[9][10] In response to a burgeoning number of new religious movements in the 1970s in the United States, the "father of deprogramming", Ted Patrick, introduced many of these techniques to a wider audience as a means to combat cults.[11][12] Since then, deprogrammings have been carried out "by the thousands".[10] For example, various atrocity stories served as justification for deprogramming of Unification Church members in the USA.[13]
As a technique for encouraging people to disassociate with groups with whom they have as consenting adults chosen to associate, deprogramming is a controversial practice. Even some cult critics have denounced it on legal and ethical grounds.[14] Similar actions, when done without force, have been referred to as "exit counseling". Sometimes the word deprogramming is used in a wider (and/or ironic or humorous sense), to mean the freeing of someone (often oneself) from any previously uncritically assimilated idea. According to Carol Giambalvo, "exit councillors are usually former cult members themselves".[15]
Various academics have commented on the practice. For example, as defined by James T. Richardson, UNLV Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies and Director of the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, deprogramming is a "private, self-help process whereby participants in unpopular new religious movements (NRMs) were forcibly removed from the group, incarcerated, and put through radical resocialization processes that were supposed to result in their agreeing to leave the group."[16] Law professor Douglas Laycock, author of Religious Liberty: The free exercise, wrote:

Beginning in the 1970s, many parents responded to the initial conversion with "deprogramming." The essence of deprogramming was to physically abduct the convert, isolate him and physically restrain him, and barrage him with continuous arguments and attacks against his new religion, threatening to hold him forever until he agreed to leave it.[17]
Lawyer John LeMoult, writing in a law review journal, described such practices as the person subject to deprogramming being "seized, held against his will, subjected to mental, emotional, and even physical pressures until he renounces his beliefs", and compared this power to that of Nazis over their prisoners[18] Legal scholar Dean M. Kelley called deprogramming "protracted spiritual gang-rape."[19]
Procedures[edit]
There has never been any standard deprogramming procedure and the descriptions vary greatly. There are many anecdotal reports and studies involving interviews of former deprogrammees. Deprogrammers generally operate on the assumption that the people they are paid to extract from religious organizations are victims of forms of indoctrination characterized as mind control (or brainwashing). Books written by deprogrammers and exit counselors say that the most essential part of freeing the mind of a person is to convince them that they had been under control.
Ted Patrick, one of the pioneers of deprogramming, used a confrontational method, enlisting psychiatrists and psychologists to assist him in the deprogramming process.[18] A number of criminal proceedings against Patrick have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.[20]
Sylvia Buford, an associate of Ted Patrick who has assisted him on many deprogrammings, described five stages of deprogramming:[21]
1.Discredit the figure of authority: the cult leader
2.Present contradictions (ideology versus reality): "How can he preach love when he exploits people?" is an example.
3.The breaking point: When a subject begins to listen to the deprogrammer; when reality begins to take precedence over ideology.
4.Self-expression: When the subject begins to open up and voice gripes against the cult.
5.Identification and transference: when the subject begins to identify with the deprogrammers, starts to think of him- or herself as an opponent of the cult rather than a member of it.
Kidnapping[edit]
Deprogramming has often been associated with kidnapping, which has in some cases been part of the procedure. The percentage stated of cases involving kidnapping varies considerably, depending on the source. Joseph Szimhart, a deprogrammer and former cult member, says "until 1992, in a low percentage of my cases, included situations in which families elected to confine and sometimes abduct a 'cultist' to a deprogramming."[citation needed]
Violence[edit]
The deprogramming accounts vary widely regarding the use of force, with the most dramatic accounts coming from deprogrammed people who returned to the group.
Steven Hassan in his book Releasing the Bonds spoke against coercive deprogramming methods using force or threats.
The deprogramming case observed by Dubrow-Eichel did not include any violence.
Sociologist Eileen Barker wrote in Watching for Violence:
"Although deprogramming has become less violent in the course of time ... Numerous testimonies by those who were subjected to a deprogramming describe how they were threatened with a gun, beaten, denied sleep and food and/or sexually assaulted. But one does not have to rely on the victims for stories of violence: Ted Patrick, one of the most notorious deprogrammers used by CAGs (who has spent several terms in prison for his exploits) openly boasts about some of the violence he employed; in November 1987, Cyril Vosper, a Committee member of the British cult-awareness group, FAIR, was convicted in Munich of "causing bodily harm" in the course of one of his many deprogramming attempts; and a number of similar convictions are on record for prominent members of CAGs elsewhere."
In Colombrito vs. Kelly, the Court accepted the definition of deprogramming by J. Le Moult published in 1978 in the Fordham Law Review:
"Deprogrammers are people who, at the request of a parent or other close relative, will have a member of a religious sect seized, then hold him against his will and subject him to mental, emotional, and even physical pressures until he renounces his religious beliefs. Deprogrammers usually work for a fee, which may easily run as high as $25,000. The deprogramming process begins with abduction. Often strong men muscle the subject into a car and take him to a place where he is cut from everyone but his captors. He may be held against his will for upward of three weeks. Frequently, however, the initial deprogramming only last a few days. The subject's sleep is limited and he is told that he will not be released until his beliefs meet his captors' approval. Members of the deprogramming group, as well as members of the family, come into the room where the victim is held and barrage him with questions and denunciations until he recants his newly found religion "
Deprogrammer Carol Giambalvo writes in From Deprogramming to Thought Reform Consultation
"It was believed that the hold of the brainwashing over the cognitive processes of a cult member needed to be broken – or "snapped" as some termed it – by means that would shock or frighten the cultist into thinking again. For that reason in some cases cult leader's pictures were burned or there were highly confrontational interactions between deprogrammers and cultist. What was often sought was an emotional response to the information, the shock, the fear, and the confrontation. There are horror stories – promoted most vehemently by the cults themselves – about restraint, beatings, and even rape. And we have to admit that we have met former members who have related to us their deprogramming experience – several of handcuffs, weapons wielded and sexual abuse. But thankfully, these are in the minority – and in our minds, never justified. Nevertheless, deprogramming helped to free many individuals held captive to destructive cults at a time when other alternatives did not seem viable. "
Effectiveness and harm[edit]
Alan W. Gomes (chairman of the department of theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University) in his 2009 book Unmasking the Cults reports:
While advocates of the deprogramming position have claimed high rates of success, studies show that natural attrition rates actually are higher than the success rate achieved through deprogramming.[22]
The Dialog Center International (DCI) a major Christian counter-cult organization founded in 1973 by a Danish professor of missiology and ecumenical theology, Dr. Johannes Aagaard[23] rejects deprogramming, believing that it is counterproductive, ineffective, and can harm the relationship between a cult member and concerned family members.[24]
Professor of psychiatry Saul Levine suggests that it is doubtful that deprogramming helps many people and goes on to say that it actually causes harm to the victim by very nature of the deprogramming. For deprogramming to work, the victim must be convinced that they joined a religious group against their will. They then must renounce responsibility and accept that in some mysterious way that their minds were controlled.[25] It is Levine's professional opinion that once deprogrammed, a person would never be certain that they were really doing what they want. He states that deprogramming destroys a person's identity and is likely to create permanent anxiety about freedom of choice and leave the deprogrammed subject dependent upon the guidance and advice of others. "Fundamentally deprogramming denies choice and creates dependency. It robs people of their sense of responsibility. Instead of encouraging people to accept that they made a mistake, it encourages people to deny their actions and blame others." [25][26]
Government[edit]
Deprogramming activities often fall outside of the law. Government agencies have at times been aware and have taken part in deprogramming to enforce official views of correct beliefs and behaviors.[16] This can involve "vigorous, even violent, efforts to dissuade people from participating in groups deemed unacceptable to the government" and have been "given legal sanction by the passage of laws that make illegal the activities or even the beliefs of the unpopular movement or group being targeted."[16]
Controversy and related issues[edit]
See also: Mind control: Deprogramming and the anti-cult movement
In the United States, from the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s mind control was a widely accepted theory in public opinion, and the vast majority of newspaper and magazine accounts of deprogrammings assumed that recruits' relatives were well justified to seek conservatorships and to hire deprogrammers. It took nearly 20 years for public opinion to shift.[27]
One aspect that gradually became disturbing from a civil rights point of view, was that relatives would use deception or other ethically questionable methods—even kidnapping—to get the recruit into deprogrammers' hands, without allowing the person any recourse to a lawyer or psychiatrist of their own choosing. Previously, there would be a sanity hearing first, and only then a commitment to an asylum or involuntary therapy. But with deprogramming, judges routinely granted parents legal authority over their adult children without a hearing.
One of main objections raised to deprogramming (as well as to exit counseling) is the contention that they begin with a false premise. Lawyers for some groups who have lost members due to deprogramming, as well as some civil libertarians, sociologists and psychologists, argue that it is not the religious groups but rather the deprogrammers who are the ones who deceive and manipulate people.
David Bromley and Anson Shupe wrote:

Deprogrammers are like the American colonials who persecuted "witches": a confession, drawn up before the suspect was brought in for torturing and based on the judges' fantasies about witchcraft, was signed under duress and then treated as justification for the torture.[28]
A number of factors contributed to the cessation of deprogramming:
Some of the deprogrammed adult children began suing their parents or deprogrammers, and also, in the mid-1980s, psychologist Margaret Singer stopped being accepted as an expert witness after the APA declined to endorse the DIMPAC report.[29]
The American Civil Liberties Union published a statement in 1977 which said:

ACLU opposes the use of mental incompetency proceedings, temporary conservatorship, or denial of government protection as a method of depriving people of the free exercise of religion, at least with respect to people who have reached the age of majority. Mode of religious proselytizing or persuasion for a continued adherence that do not employ physical coercion or threat of same are protected by the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment against action of state laws or by state officials. The claim of free exercise may not be overcome by the contention that 'brainwashing' or 'mind control' has been used, in the absence of evidence that the above standards have been violated.
In the 1980s in the United States, namely in New York (Deprogramming Bill, 1981), Kansas (Deprogramming Bill, 1982), and Nebraska (conservatorship legislation for 1985), lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to legalize involuntary deprogramming.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church (many of whose members were targets of deprogramming) issued this statement in 1983:

The methods involved in "deprogramming" are like those used in Communist concentration camps. Using parents and relatives to entrap members, "deprogrammers" commit grown adults to mental hospitals with the supposed "illness" of holding of a minority religious belief. Other typical deprogramming techniques include kidnapping, illegal detention, violence, psychological harassment, sleep deprivation, inducement to use alcohol and drugs, sexual seduction and rape. By such threats, harassment and manipulation, professional "deprogrammers" force members to renounce their faith. Many people are injured physically and psychologically because of this criminal activity. [1]
During the 1990s, deprogrammer Rick Ross was sued by Jason Scott, a former member of a Pentecostal group called the Life Tabernacle Church, after an unsuccessful deprogramming attempt. In 1995, the jury awarded Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and $2,500,000 in punitive damages against Ross, which were later settled for $5,000 and 200 hours of services. More significantly, the jury also found that the leading anti-cult group known as the Cult Awareness Network was a co-conspirator in the crime and fined CAN $1,000,000 in punitive damages, forcing the group into bankruptcy.[30] This case is often seen as effectively closing the door on the practice of involuntary deprogramming in the United States.[18]
Referral and kickback system[edit]
Anti-cult groups play a central role in maintaining the underground network of communications, referrals, transportation, and housing necessary for continued deprogramming.[31]
Groups such as the Cult Awareness Network operated a referral scheme (NARDEC) in which they would refer people to deprogrammers in return for a 'kickback' in the form of a donation or as a commission.[32] Deprogrammers such as Rick Ross, Steven Hassan and Carol Giambalvo were amongst the CAN referred deprogrammers.[33]
Victims[edit]
In 1974, Kathy Crampton—whose abduction and deprogramming were televised nationally—went back to the Love Family group several days after her apparently successful deprogramming. Patrick was charged for kidnapping, but he was acquitted with the reasoning: "[w]here parents are, as here, of the reasonable and intelligent belief that they were not physically capable of recapturing their daughter from existing, imminent danger, then the defense of necessity transfers or transposes to the constituted agent, the person who acts upon their belief under such conditions. Here that agent is the Defendant [Ted Patrick] (District Court of the United States 1974: 79; New York Times 1974).
In 1980, Susan Wirth, a 35-year-old teacher living in San Francisco, was abducted by her parents to be deprogrammed in reaction to her leftist political views and activities.[27][34] Patrick was paid $27,000 to carry out the deprogramming, which involved handcuffing her to a bed for two weeks and denying her food.[35] She was later released and after returning to San Francisco spoke out against deprogramming but declined to press legal charges against her parents.[36]
In 1980, Patrick was convicted of conspiracy, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. These charges were related to the abduction and attempted deprogramming of Roberta McElfish, a 26-year-old Tucson waitress.[6] Patrick was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $5,000.[37]
In 1981, Stephanie Riethmiller, who lived in Ohio, was kidnapped by deprogrammers who were hired by her parents to remove her from a lesbian relationship. She was held against her will and repeatedly raped. After her release she filed civil charges against her parents and the deprogrammers, which were dismissed in a trial that generated some controversy in the media.[27][38][39]
In 1990, Patrick attempted to deprogram Elma Miller, an Amish woman who had joined a liberal sect. He was hired by her husband to return her to him and the Amish church. Criminal charges of conspiracy were filed against Miller's husband, brother, and two others but were later dropped on her request to the prosecuting attorney.[40][41]
During the 1990s, Rick Ross, a noted cult intervention advocate who took part in a number of deprogramming sessions, was sued by Jason Scott, a former member of a Pentecostalist group called the Life Tabernacle Church (part of United Pentecostal Church International), after an unsuccessful forcible deprogramming.[42] The jury awarded Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), and $2,500,000 against Ross (later settled for $5,000 and 200 hours of services "as an expert consultant and intervention specialist").[42][43][44]
Exit counseling[edit]
Deprogramming and exit counseling, sometimes seen as one and the same, are distinct approaches to convincing a person to leave a cult. Some people blur the distinctions on purpose: some practitioners do so to avoid criticism; some opponents do so to intensify it.
Proponents of the distinction, however, state that deprogramming entails coercion and confinement, whereas exit counseling assures the cult member of the freedom to leave at any time. Deprogramming typically costs $10,000 or more, mainly because of the expense of a security team. Exit counseling typically costs $2,000 to $4,000, including expenses, for a three- to five-day intervention, although cases requiring extensive research of little-known groups can cost much more. Deprogramming, especially when it fails, entails considerable legal and psychological risk (for example, a permanent alienation of the cultist from his or her family). The psychological and legal risks in exit counseling are significantly reduced. Although deprogrammers do prepare families for the process, exit counselors tend to work with them directly, expecting those requesting the intervention to contribute more to the process; that is, exit counseling requires that families establish a reasonable and respectful level of communication with their loved one before the program itself can begin. Because they rely on coercion, which is illegal except in the case of conservatorship and is generally viewed as unethical, deprogrammers' critiques of the unethical practices of cults will tend to have less credibility with cult members than the critiques of exit counselors.[2]
Steven Hassan, author of the book Combatting Cult Mind Control, states that he took part in a number of deprogrammings in the late 1970s, and has spoken out against them since 1980.[45] Hassan states that he has not participated in any deprogrammings since then, although on page 114 of Combatting, Hassan states that deprogrammings should be kept as a last resort if all other attempts to reach the individual fail. Hassan is one of the major proponents of exit counseling as a form of intercession, and he refers to his method as "strategic intervention therapy."
In popular culture[edit]
Faults, a 2014 drama movie about deprogramming
Holy Smoke!, a 1999 movie based on the book with the same name
Split Image, a 1982 movie about deprogramming
See also[edit]
Anti-cult movement
Intervention (counseling)
Mind control
Anti-psychiatry
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Melton, J. Gordon (1999). New Religious Movements (1 ed.). New York, NY: Routlege. p. 218. ISBN 0-415-20049-0.
2.Jump up ^ Encyclopedia of religion, Volume 4 , Lindsay Jones , Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pages 2291-2293
3.Jump up ^ Children held hostage: dealing with programmed and brainwashed children, American Bar Association archive publications, Authors Stanley S. Clawar, Brynne V. Rivlin, American Bar Association. Section of Family Law Publisher Section of Family Law, American Bar Association, 1991 ISBN 0-89707-628-1, ISBN 978-0-89707-628-9, pages 142-144
4.Jump up ^ Patrick, Ted; Dulack, Tom (1976). Let Our Children Go!. E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-14450-1. "Deprogramming is the term, and it may be said to involve kidnapping at the very least, quite often assault and battery, almost invariably conspiracy to commit a crime, and illegal restraint."
5.Jump up ^ Hunter, Howard O.; Price, Polly J. (2001). "Regulation of religious proselytism in the United States" (PDF). Brigham Young University Law Review 2001 (2).
6.^ Jump up to: a b "Ted Patrick Convicted of Seizing Woman Said to Have Joined Cult; Escaped From Abductors". The New York Times. August 30, 1980.
7.Jump up ^ Keiko Ikemoto, Masakazu Nakamura, Forced deprogramming from a religion and mental health: A case report of PTSD, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Volume 27, Issue 2, March–April 2004, Pages 147-155, ISSN 0160-2527, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2004.01.005.
8.Jump up ^ Anson D. Shupe, JR, Roger Spielmann, and Sam Stigall Deprogramming: The New Exorcism American Behavioral Scientist July 1977 20: 941-956, doi:10.1177/000276427702000609
9.Jump up ^ Bromley, David Melton, J. Gordon 2002. Cults, Religion, and Violence. West Nyack, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Reflexivity and objectivity in the study of controversial new religions James T Richardson Religion Vol. 21, Iss. 4, 1991
11.Jump up ^ Chryssides, George (1999). Exploring New Religions. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 346–348. ISBN 0-8264-5959-5.
12.Jump up ^ Chryssides, G.D. and B.E. Zeller. 2014. The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING.
13.Jump up ^ Kurtz, Lester R. Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective 2007, Pine Forge Press, ISBN 1-4129-2715-3, page 228
14.Jump up ^ Langone, Michael D., and Paul R. Martin. "Viewpoint: Deprogramming, Exit Counseling, and Ethics: Clarifying the Confusion." Christian Research Institute Journal (30 June 1994) [Winter 1993]: page 46 (Retrieved 26 April 2014)
15.Jump up ^ Giambalvo, Carol (1992). Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention. American Family Foundation.
16.^ Jump up to: a b c Richardson, James T. 2011. "Deprogramming: from private self-help to governmental organized repression." Crime, Law and Social Change 55 (4): 321-336.
17.Jump up ^ Laycock, D. 2011. Religious Liberty: The free exercise clause: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=bEiwxUad97IC.
18.^ Jump up to: a b c 24 T. Marshall L. Rev. 359 (1998-1999) Holy Wars: Involuntary Deprogramming as a Weapon against Cults; McAllister, Shawn
19.Jump up ^ (Dean Kelley, Deprogramming and Religious Liberty, Civil Liberties Review 23 (July/Aug, 1977)
20.Jump up ^ Price, Polly J. Regulation of religious proselytism in the United States. Brigham Young University Law Review. 2001 537-574.
21.Jump up ^ (Stoner, C., & Parke, J. (1977). All God's children: The cult experience - salvation or slavery? Radrior, PA: Chilton )
22.Jump up ^ Gomes, Alan W., Unmasking the Cults, Zondervan Guide to Cults and Religious Movements, Zondervan, 2009 ISBN 0-310-86455-0, ISBN 978-0-310-86455-4
23.Jump up ^ Obituary, 23 March 2007
24.Jump up ^ Exploring New Religions, George D. Chryssides, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 0-8264-5959-5, ISBN 978-0-8264-5959-6, pages 353-254
25.^ Jump up to: a b Levine, The Role of Psychiatry in the Phenomenon of Cults", Canada Journal of Psychiatry 24 (1979)
26.Jump up ^ Understanding Cults and New Age Religions, by Irving Hexham, Karla Poewe, and J. I. Packer
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Rusher, William A. (28 May 1983). "Deprogramming A Disgrace To Free Society". Gadsden Times. p. A4. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
28.Jump up ^ Bromley, David G., and Shupe, Anson D., Jr. (1981) Strange Gods, The Great American Cult Scare. Boston: Beacon (pp. 198-204)
29.Jump up ^ May 11, 1987, APA MEMORANDUM available online
30.Jump up ^ Scott vs. Ross, Workman, Simpson. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
31.Jump up ^ Davis, D. and B. Hankins. 2003. New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America: Baylor University Press.
32.Jump up ^ Shupe, A. and S.E. Darnell. 2011. Agents of Discord: Deprogramming, Pseudo-Science, and the American Anticult Movement: Transaction Publishers.
33.Jump up ^ "The Cult Awareness Network and the Anticult Movement: Implications for NRMs in America" (with Susan E. Darnell and Kendrick Moxon) in New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America. edited by Derek H. Davis and Barry Hankins. Waco: J.M.Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and Baylor University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-929182-64-2
34.Jump up ^ "Daughter kidnapped over politics". Beaver County Times. Associated Press. July 2, 1980. p. A-13. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
35.Jump up ^ Stephen Garrard Postpage, Inquiries in bioethics, 1993, Georgetwon University Press, ISBN 0-87840-538-0, ISBN 978-0-87840-538-1, page 71
36.Jump up ^ "Feared kidnapped, she reconciles with mother", Merced Sun-Star, July 29, 1980
37.Jump up ^ "Ted Patrick is sentenced in seizure of cult member". The New York Times. 1980-09-27.
38.Jump up ^ Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men, Gary David Comstock, Columbia University Press (April 15, 1995) ISBN 0-231-07331-3 ISBN 978-0-231-07331-8. page 201
39.Jump up ^ "'Deprogrammed' Woman Files Suit". Gadsden Times. December 10, 1981. p. 1. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
40.Jump up ^ Amish Woman Charges Deprogramming, Pittsburg Press, November 30, 1990, page 8
41.Jump up ^ Amish Woman Asks Prosecutor to Drop Charges on Kidnapping, Madison Courier, December 8, 1990, page 3
42.^ Jump up to: a b Shupe, Anson; Darnell, Susan E. (2006). Agents of Discord. New Brunswick (U.S.A.), London (UK): Transaction Publishers. pp. 180–184. ISBN 0-7658-0323-2.
43.Jump up ^ JASON SCOTT, PLAINTIFF v. RICK ROSS, A/K/A/ RICKEY ALLEN ROSS, MARK WORKMAN, CHARLES SIMPSON, CULT AWARENESS NETWORK, A CALIFORNIA NONPROFIT CORPORATION AND JOHN DOE 1–JOHN DOE 20, DEFENDANTS. Case No. C94-00796. November 29, 1995
44.Jump up ^ "Scott vs. Ross, Workman, Simpson, Cult Awareness Network: Verdict form (p. 5)". Retrieved 12 October 2008.
45.Jump up ^ Refuting the Disinformation Attacks Put Forth by Destructive Cults and their Agents, by Steven Hassan
Bibliography[edit]
Conway, Flo & Jim Siegelman, Snapping (1978), excerpt ISBN 0-9647650-0-4
Colombrito v. Kelly, 764 F.2d 122 (2d Cir. 1985)
Langone, Michael: Deprogramming, Exit Counseling, and Ethics, Clarifying the Confusion, Christian Research Institute Journal, 1993 [3]
Melton, Gordon, J. "Brainwashing": Career of a Myth in the United States and Europe, . [4]
Le Moult J. (1978), Deprograrnming members of religious sects, Fordham Law Review, 46, pp. 599–640.
Ross, Rick: A brief history of cult intervention work, 1999 [5]
Deprogramming, Exit Counseling, and Ethics: Clarifying the Confusion - by Michael D. Langone and Paul R. Martin, from the Viewpoint column of the Christian Research Journal, Winter 1993, page 46.
External links[edit]
Brainwashing and Mind Control Controversies - Center for Studies on New Religions


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Deconversion

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Deconversion

Origin
Mexicali, Mexico
Genres
Technical death metal
Years active
2011–present
Labels
Amputated Vein Records


Members
Seth Gutierrez
 Hyram Nieto
 Christian A. Rosas
Deconversion is a Brutal/Technical Death Metal band from Mexicali, Mexico, founded in 2011.


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography
2 Members 2.1 Current members
2.2 Live Members
2.3 Former members
3 Discography
4 References
5 External links

Biography[edit]
Until this date, they have released a debut album, called "Incertitude of Existence" by the Japanese label Amputated Vein Records, on December 2 of 2014. The lyrics of the band talk about thoughts of transpersonal psychology. The band is rapidly gaining recognition internationally and representing Mexico in the subgenre, thanks to the distribution of the record label.[1] Many go by the impression that Deconversion is from California, USA, or compare the band to those of that region.[2] They were quite influenced by old bands of Death Metal, and by modern Technical death metal bands, such as Necrophagist, Suffocation, Spawn of Possession, Decapitated and many more.
Members[edit]
Current members[edit]
Seth Gutierrez - Rhythm Guitar (2011–Present)
Hyram Nieto - Lead Guitar (2012–Present)
Christian A. Rosas - Drums (2014–Present)
Live Members[edit]
Ivan Munguia - Bass
Ricardo Gonzalez - Vocals
Former members[edit]
Alexandro Sanchez - Drums (2011–2013)
Discography[edit]
Full-Lengths
Incertitude of Existence (2014)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Doug Gibson Deconversion Shreds Through "Internal Cosmic Intervention" at Metal Underground
2.Jump up ^ Michael Mifsud Interview with brutal death metal band from the USA and Mexican boarder - DECONVERSION at Buzuk Webzine
External links[edit]
Deconversion at Friedhof Magazine
Amputated Vein Records Website
  


Categories: Death metal
Technical death metal








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This page was last modified on 22 May 2015, at 05:50.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconversion










Deconversion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search




[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.




The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline.
 (May 2015)


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This article relies too much on references to primary sources.  (May 2015)



Deconversion

Origin
Mexicali, Mexico
Genres
Technical death metal
Years active
2011–present
Labels
Amputated Vein Records


Members
Seth Gutierrez
 Hyram Nieto
 Christian A. Rosas
Deconversion is a Brutal/Technical Death Metal band from Mexicali, Mexico, founded in 2011.


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography
2 Members 2.1 Current members
2.2 Live Members
2.3 Former members
3 Discography
4 References
5 External links

Biography[edit]
Until this date, they have released a debut album, called "Incertitude of Existence" by the Japanese label Amputated Vein Records, on December 2 of 2014. The lyrics of the band talk about thoughts of transpersonal psychology. The band is rapidly gaining recognition internationally and representing Mexico in the subgenre, thanks to the distribution of the record label.[1] Many go by the impression that Deconversion is from California, USA, or compare the band to those of that region.[2] They were quite influenced by old bands of Death Metal, and by modern Technical death metal bands, such as Necrophagist, Suffocation, Spawn of Possession, Decapitated and many more.
Members[edit]
Current members[edit]
Seth Gutierrez - Rhythm Guitar (2011–Present)
Hyram Nieto - Lead Guitar (2012–Present)
Christian A. Rosas - Drums (2014–Present)
Live Members[edit]
Ivan Munguia - Bass
Ricardo Gonzalez - Vocals
Former members[edit]
Alexandro Sanchez - Drums (2011–2013)
Discography[edit]
Full-Lengths
Incertitude of Existence (2014)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Doug Gibson Deconversion Shreds Through "Internal Cosmic Intervention" at Metal Underground
2.Jump up ^ Michael Mifsud Interview with brutal death metal band from the USA and Mexican boarder - DECONVERSION at Buzuk Webzine
External links[edit]
Deconversion at Friedhof Magazine
Amputated Vein Records Website
  


Categories: Death metal
Technical death metal








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Conversion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

 Look up conversion or convert in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Conversion or convert may refer to:


Contents  [hide]
1 Economy and finance
2 Law
3 Science and technology 3.1 Linguistics
3.2 Computing
4 Sport
5 Entertainment
6 Marketing and e-commerce
7 Communications
8 Other uses
9 See also
Economy and finance[edit]
Conversion (exchange), the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another
Conversion (options), an options-trading strategy in options arbitrage
Economic conversion, a technical, economic and political process for moving from military to civilian markets
Law[edit]
Conversion (law), a voluntary act by one person inconsistent with the ownership rights of another
Equitable conversion, a change in the nature of property so that real property is treated as personal property
Science and technology[edit]
Conversion (chemistry), the ratio of selectivity to yield or the change of a molecule
Conversion of units, conversion between different units of measurement
Electric vehicle conversion, modification of a conventional vehicle to battery electric
Energy conversion, the process of changing one form of energy to another
Linguistics[edit]
Conversion (word formation), the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form
Conversion of scripts, procedure of replacing text written in one writing system with characters of another writing system
Computing[edit]
CHS conversion, mapping cylinder/head/sector tuples to linear base address
Data conversion, conversion of computer data from one format to another
Type conversion, in computer science, changing an entity of one data type into another
convert (command), a command-line utility in the Windows NT operating system
Sport[edit]
Conversion (gridiron football), in American or Canadian football an opportunity to score an addition point following a touchdown Two-point conversion, a gridiron football conversion to score two points
Conversion (rugby), in rugby, a kick at goal to convert a try into a larger set of points
Athletics (Track & Field), an estimate of what a performance which has been measured in one system of measurements would have been if it had been measured in the other system.
Entertainment[edit]
"Conversion" (Doctor Who audio), an episode of the audio drama Cyberman
"Conversion" (Stargate Atlantis), an episode of the television series
"The Conversion" (The Outer Limits), a 1995 episode of the television series
Marketing and e-commerce[edit]
Conversion (marketing), the percentage of unique visitors to a website who take a desired action
Conversion funnel, the track a consumer takes through an Internet advertising or search system
Communications[edit]
Code conversion, in telecommunication converting from one code to another
Transcoding, analog-to-analog or digital-to-digital conversion of one video encoding to another
Other uses[edit]
Conversion (barn), conversion of old farming barns to commercial or residential use
Conversion (logic), in logic, reversing the two parts of a categorical or implicational statement
Religious conversion, the adoption of a new religious identity
Conversion disorder, in psychiatry, a condition in which neurological symptoms arise without a definable organic cause
Conversion therapy, pseudo-scientific treatments to eliminate or diminish same-sex desires and behaviors
Miniature conversion, altering the appearance of a miniature or model from the standard version
Converting timber to commercial lumber
See also[edit]
Internal conversion, a radioactive decay process
Translation (disambiguation)
Converter (disambiguation)
Template:Convert, a template for converting units within Wikipedia articles
Disambiguation icon This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Conversion.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
  


Categories: Disambiguation pages





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This page was last modified on 18 June 2015, at 20:26.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Powered by MediaWiki
    
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion










Conversion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

 Look up conversion or convert in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Conversion or convert may refer to:


Contents  [hide]
1 Economy and finance
2 Law
3 Science and technology 3.1 Linguistics
3.2 Computing
4 Sport
5 Entertainment
6 Marketing and e-commerce
7 Communications
8 Other uses
9 See also
Economy and finance[edit]
Conversion (exchange), the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another
Conversion (options), an options-trading strategy in options arbitrage
Economic conversion, a technical, economic and political process for moving from military to civilian markets
Law[edit]
Conversion (law), a voluntary act by one person inconsistent with the ownership rights of another
Equitable conversion, a change in the nature of property so that real property is treated as personal property
Science and technology[edit]
Conversion (chemistry), the ratio of selectivity to yield or the change of a molecule
Conversion of units, conversion between different units of measurement
Electric vehicle conversion, modification of a conventional vehicle to battery electric
Energy conversion, the process of changing one form of energy to another
Linguistics[edit]
Conversion (word formation), the creation of a word from an existing word without any change in form
Conversion of scripts, procedure of replacing text written in one writing system with characters of another writing system
Computing[edit]
CHS conversion, mapping cylinder/head/sector tuples to linear base address
Data conversion, conversion of computer data from one format to another
Type conversion, in computer science, changing an entity of one data type into another
convert (command), a command-line utility in the Windows NT operating system
Sport[edit]
Conversion (gridiron football), in American or Canadian football an opportunity to score an addition point following a touchdown Two-point conversion, a gridiron football conversion to score two points
Conversion (rugby), in rugby, a kick at goal to convert a try into a larger set of points
Athletics (Track & Field), an estimate of what a performance which has been measured in one system of measurements would have been if it had been measured in the other system.
Entertainment[edit]
"Conversion" (Doctor Who audio), an episode of the audio drama Cyberman
"Conversion" (Stargate Atlantis), an episode of the television series
"The Conversion" (The Outer Limits), a 1995 episode of the television series
Marketing and e-commerce[edit]
Conversion (marketing), the percentage of unique visitors to a website who take a desired action
Conversion funnel, the track a consumer takes through an Internet advertising or search system
Communications[edit]
Code conversion, in telecommunication converting from one code to another
Transcoding, analog-to-analog or digital-to-digital conversion of one video encoding to another
Other uses[edit]
Conversion (barn), conversion of old farming barns to commercial or residential use
Conversion (logic), in logic, reversing the two parts of a categorical or implicational statement
Religious conversion, the adoption of a new religious identity
Conversion disorder, in psychiatry, a condition in which neurological symptoms arise without a definable organic cause
Conversion therapy, pseudo-scientific treatments to eliminate or diminish same-sex desires and behaviors
Miniature conversion, altering the appearance of a miniature or model from the standard version
Converting timber to commercial lumber
See also[edit]
Internal conversion, a radioactive decay process
Translation (disambiguation)
Converter (disambiguation)
Template:Convert, a template for converting units within Wikipedia articles
Disambiguation icon This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Conversion.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
  


Categories: Disambiguation pages





Navigation menu



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Log in



Article

Talk









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Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
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Permanent link
Page information
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Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Eesti
Español
Esperanto
Français
Interlingua
Italiano
Simple English
Edit links
This page was last modified on 18 June 2015, at 20:26.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
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Powered by MediaWiki
    
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion