# Does does religious conversion affect family members? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 15, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812 "2012-04-15T02:19:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812/21 "2012-04-25T11:11:39Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Just because I know there are other pedants who will appreciate the distinction: a [convert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_conversion)is someone who transitions from one religion to another religion. A person who moves from one denomination to another within the same religion (say, a Lutheran becomes a Methodist) has reaffiliated, not converted. A person who stops believing or stops identifying with a religion but doesn’t get another is an [apostate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy). > > Carry on. You left out a term for someoen who previously did not identify or believe in a religion but now does so. I personally just call them “converts,” but I wonder if there’s another term. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812/22 "2012-04-25T12:14:48Z")
> [@Searching\_for\_Answers](#): > > Thanks to all who have posted; your comments are so helpful. > > For those of you who have converted, what did you hope for from family members? What reaction did you think you’d get or hope you’d get versus what happened? > > What is the best way a family member could respond to your conversion? Interest? Indifference? I hoped for both, but you know, drama and lies and way OTT ‘you are not my daughter’ BS I was not hoping for, I must say. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812/23 "2012-04-25T12:18:01Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You left out a term for someoen who previously did not identify or believe in a religion but now does so. I personally just call them “converts,” but I wonder if there’s another term. According to my Psychology of Religion teacher, surprisingly enough, no, there isn’t. Most people call them converts as you do, but it’s not technically accurate within the fields of religious study. We just sort of flail around the topic without a single word for it. When pressed for ideas why this gap in terminology exists, he suggested (with no real weight of authority, mind you, he’s a college professor, not a mover and shaker in the field of study) that A) it hardly ever happens (that is, most people who make it to adulthood unaffiliated stay unaffiliated), and B) it happens much more now than it did in the past (when hardly anyone was unaffiliated during their childhood). He suggested that a term will probably come to be used as it is studied more and more, and as more people are raised without religion. Maybe we’ll end up broadening the definition of “convert” after all. Maybe someone who knows more about it than I do can tell us if there are any current contenders for a term. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812/24 "2012-04-25T12:52:25Z")
In my religious studies class, a person without religion that became religious was said to have undergone a “conversion experience”. However, “convert” doesn’t seem adequate as a descriptor for them. Perhaps something like “initiate” is slightly more accurate? ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812/25 "2012-04-25T23:07:10Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Maybe someone who knows more about it than I do can tell us if there are any current contenders for a term. Have always heard it as a person who has had an epiphany, but no term for the person. That’s from the depths of my theology minor, from longer ago than I care to think about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-does-religious-conversion-affect-family-members/618812.md?page=1)