Ethics and Religion Talk: How Do You Feel About Those Who Leave Your Religious Community?

I have heard from several sources that the penalty for leaving Islam is death. I have a hard time believing that, as one might assume that at least some Muslims here in Grand Rapid have left the fold. And I have never heard of anyone being killed for such. So, if this is not true, where does this idea come from? And for others, is there any penalty (physical or spiritual) for leaving your faith?

Fred Stella is the Pracharak (Outreach Minister) for the West Michigan Hindu Temple

There has never been the label of “apostate” that has been branded on any Hindu or ex-Hindu. And we cannot cite any scriptural injunction that might encourage a Hindu community to such draconian behavior. It is natural for us to find kindship with those with whom we share religious beliefs. And it is just as natural to feel sadness when one of our own leaves the fold. There may be no hard feelings, but more often than not, it means this person will be associating with a new social circle. The ties that did bind are now loosened. But it is far more important that we wish them well in their spiritual journey. 

Religious leaders who must use fear to hold individuals are clearly quite insecure in their own beliefs.

The Reverend Colleen Squires is minister at All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

There is absolutely no penalty of any kind to leave the Unitarian Universalist faith. Those who leave it is often a gradual leaving with less and less involvement in the local congregation. Even if we get a formal request to remove someone from our membership, we merely move them to an inactive list. We seldom delete someone completely from our database. 

Father Kevin Niehoff, O.P., is a Dominican priest and serves as Judicial Vicar, Diocese of Grand Rapids.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that a baptized person has an indelible change that occurs to the soul. Roman Catholic baptism equals membership. Therefore, the Church never forgets the souls of its faithful. 

Formal defection from the Roman Catholic Church is possible, but there are three steps. One, the individual must leave the faith freely. Two, there must occur an external manifestation of the first action. The second action might be attending and registering at a church of another denomination. And three, the act is to be formally communicated to the Bishop.

Once the above is complete, the Bishop will inform the parish of baptism that the individual has formally defected from the faith. The Bishop will instruct the parish of record to update the baptismal register. However, that does not mean removing the person’s name because the Church never forgets about souls!

Linda Knieriemen is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). 

There is no penalty for leaving the PCUSA, in fact, movement between Christian denominations is common. Leaving to another religion would cause surprise among church folk, more because it is unusual rather than a cause for judgment, certainly not shunning. There is much of value in religious expressions other than my own which can be embraced into personal practice and public worship without diminishing the core beliefs of my denomination.

Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, responds:

Many years ago I heard a lecture from a Presbyterian missionary to Iran who spoke on the many barriers, social and legal, that prevented or discouraged Persian Muslims from converting to Christianity. I remember him saying that anyone who received the sacrament of Christian baptism was in effect signing his or her death warrant. I do not know if that was the law of the land, or a matter of social custom, in the form of an “honor killing” committed by one’s own kinsmen.

Muslim countries did at one time welcome Presbyterian and Reformed missionaries, and encouraged them to establish schools and hospitals as a way of accessing the benefits of Western education and medicine. The planting of Christian churches was discouraged, if not forbidden outright. One Presbyterian missionary had the high honor of serving as a private tutor to the children of the Shah of Iran. In this way Christianity established at least a beachhead in Iran and elsewhere.

Since the Islamic Revolution, many Persians have fled to the United States. A significant number of these refugees have converted to Christianity, some perhaps acting on a desire born in them before they left their homeland. Of course there have always been Christian populations under Muslim rule in many lands of the Near East. Fleeing centuries of oppression, many Arab Christians have found their way to Michigan, where they comprise about two thirds of what is said to be the largest Arab community outside the Near East.

My response:

There is a Jewish principle that “a Jew, even one who sins, becomes an apostate, or practices another religion, remains a Jew.” This means that while a Jew might convert to Islam or Christianity or (more commonly) simply stop practicing Judaism, they have not completely lost their connection to Judaism. Should they chose to return, they do not need to reconvert. Bottom line, there is no penalty for leaving Judaism other than losing the privileges of being Jewish.