Can a person be "trans-religious"?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Let's say someone is raised Christian (Catholic or Protestant, doesn't really matter), but never really connects to it, finds it appealing or gets into it, and it's basically just something their parents force them through. Once they're coming of age they don't even identify as Christian in any way. But then they do some studying on Judaism and get intrigued, and get more involved into Judaism and then convert. But that person then holds that because they were never a committed Christian anyway and because they have a feeling that they were always connected to Judaism on a deeper level (maybe when they were younger even because they got some exposure to it from a distant relative or family friend), and thus hold they were always Jewish and just happened to be born into a Christian family but they were always "meant" to be Jewish.

Does this person's claim have any sort of merit, or are they just another convert?

I realized now that Judaism does have the whole issue with the ethnic side of it as well that this person supposedly wouldn't be part of, so if you disagree on that just imagine instead it's Islam or Buddhism or something.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I don't know if "convert" would be the right terminology here, but yes, I wouldn't consider someone a Christian if they were baptized or raised as such but were otherwise indifferent to it.  (That's why I don't understand the Catholic Church's doctrine on excommunication or the Mormons' 'posthumous baptisms'... will I become Muslim if someone says some magic words and declares me to be?  No.)

If someone claims they were always connected to Judaism in some way, I don't see why it would matter.  All people are connected to God and it's largely a matter of the symbols we use to reciprocate, if we choose to.

[catographer]

i mean if they never really identified with their assigned religion (one they were raised as) then i guess it's not a conversion from 1 to another. but conversion from no religion to another is still conversion.

[Figueira]

If that's how they legitimately feel, then sure.

[America Needs R'hllor]

They can be whatever the hell they want.

[Blue3]

That's how many converts feel.

Calling it trans-religious is doing a disservice, putting a new label on an ancient thing.

[DC Al Fine]

That's how many converts feel.

Calling it trans-religious is doing a disservice, putting a new label on an ancient thing.

Agreed. I came to this thread expecting the question to be if people can be two religions at once (answer:  yes but it can be terribly illogical depending on the religions in questions). This is just discussing conversion.

[DavidB.]

Both in Judaism and in Islam, converts have always had a "Jewish soul" or, as far as I know, a "Muslim soul" (though maybe this is formulated differently). I don't think that what BRTD is saying is so strange. But calling it trans-religious is ludicrous.

[Kleine Scheiße]

Are you implying that being a convert makes one’s faith any less legitimate?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Are you implying that being a convert makes one’s faith any less legitimate?

Of course not, actually most would agree if anything being a convert makes one's faith MORE legitimate. I'm asking more if such a person can claim that they were always in a sense whatever they converted to and never really what they were raised in.

[Kleine Scheiße]

Are you implying that being a convert makes one’s faith any less legitimate?

Of course not, actually most would agree if anything being a convert makes one's faith MORE legitimate. I'm asking more if such a person can claim that they were always in a sense whatever they converted to and never really what they were raised in.

In that case, I think such a person can claim they were never really what they were raised as and were drawn to their conversion for a distinct personal reason. They could say that in a way, they’ve always been predisposed towards their eventual faith. I don’t think they could say they’ve always been that faith, though, as a blanket statement.

The exception would be someone who has always held firm religious convictions that match up with Religion B, but wasn’t aware that their convictions were incompatible with Religion A until discovering Religion B. This would be the only scenario where that would be appropriate.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I don't know, but if you can be, then I am probably in that camp.  I was raised SDA and still attend an Adventist church, but I'm not especially into the "distinct" SDA doctrines other than the Sabbath.  At this point, I would say I am mostly just a seventh day Sabbatarian Protestant, and have considered joining the Seventh Day Baptists (as suggested by Ernest).  I know I certainly can't join any other seventh day denomination since most of them are heretical or heterodox sects.

[john1565]

Why not? But the condition is that the religions he is following should allow each others.

[Meclazine for Israel]

As a scientist, Islam is the only religion that allows the complete geological record.

But i wont convert, just accept.