How to become Shia from Sunni OR Mormon from Catholic ?

Question

If one converts from say Islam to Christianity, or vice-versa, it is supposed to be straight forward, you pledge your faith in a different God / Prophet. But how about inter-sect conversion ? So if a Sunni wants to become Shia or Shia wants to become Sunni; OR follower of a sect of Christianity wants to convert to another sect, what kind of change will be needed as actually there will not be a change at the faith level.

A corollary to this question, if the God / Prophet remains same, and, these religion take pride in unity of God / Prophet / True message, how come they have different sects ?

Only one answer so far. On R&S everyone seemed to so sure about one's own religion and its assumed supremacy to others', where are all those pundits ?
Anyway, thanks Josh for an answer which addresses my question.

Liet, a good explanation. Let me clarify that I used Shia - Sunni or Mormon - Catholics just as examples. Mormon has just came along due to influence of the presence of a number of questions on R&S. My question has been and remained about inter-sect differences and switches among them. Thanks for your offer of further discussions through email.

Answer 1

*Is Catholic*

Let's answer your corollary first. It is a metaphysical problem that is overlooked today. How do we know who somebody is, or what anything is for that matter? We know things by describing their properties and what that thing does. Just because people call things by the same name and they have general properties in common, doesn't mean that they are the same. This is even more complex when we talk about God because God gets a say too, he gets to describe who he is. He gets to say what he wants and how he relates to people.

If you want to look at this in a different way, you can say that the problem has a lot to do with which INTERPRETATION is correct. Is God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, or is he the God of Abraham and Ishmael? Is God the God of the Popes or the God of Joseph Smith?

Islam, I do not believe has specific rites of initiation. So it would be just switching your own personal beliefs and who you are following. There are major differences in belief and understandings between Shia and Sunni and this should not be downplayed. As long as there is a balance between the groups, they don't kill each other. In Iraq, there is no longer a balance, so they kill each other.

For Christianity, first Mormons are not Christians. They use a lot of Christian terms but the Christian God is different from the Mormon God to the point that they are not the same. Only your more liberal Protestant groups will call them Christian.

There are four main groupings of Christians. A very small group who split from the Church prior to Nicea, the Eastern Orthodox who split from the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church made up of Roman Catholics and Eastern Catholics (several groups), and Protestants and their descendants (broken up between the branches of Lutheranism, Anabaptism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism). Each group has several interesting splinter groups.

The amount of change needed between the groups depends on which group you are going from and which you are going to.

Protestantism is a mess because there is no real unifying theology so switching between Protestant groups really depends. For some it is a bunch of stuff for some it is just adding your name to the mailing list. The change in faith depends but it is generally Protestant types of changes, practices change depending as well.

Protestantism to Catholicism or Orthodoxy always involves confirmation and sometimes baptism. Orthodox always do a conditional Baptism. There is a major faith change both in terms of beliefs and the way the faith is practiced.

Orthodoxy to Catholicism. Typically Orthodox enter the corresponding Eastern Rite Catholic Church. It is as simple as saying the same creed that you have always been saying with the priest. There are very minor faith changes, mainly focused on minor practices and understanding that the Pope actually does fulfilled the role of sitting on the Chair of Peter.

If you want more details message me

Answer 2

As far as different sects, it's because of the details. Catholics believe that GOD is a TRINITY, or 3 people in one. Mormons believe that there is a trinity, but that it is three seperate people. Also, there's differences in their sacraments. Only the Catholic Priests can touch the wafers, whereas Mormons believe in the Priesthood differently, and twelve year old boys pass the sacrament.
Converting from one religion to another isn't always straightforward, but more than anything it's about choices and beliefs. It's easier for some people to believe one religion over another, even if that's the religion they're currently in.

Answer 3

when we say Islam we are talking about the only one true religion of Allah. the sources of Islam are the quraan and the sunnah(prophet's sayings). Simply, shias scholars say that the quraan has been changed and many things have been removed from it( for example, ALemamah for Ali and the other 11 imam ) . And they don't have one authentic hadith ( prophet's saying ) in their books , so where do they get their religion from?!. However, a lot of shias these days are converting to the right path of Islam ( sunni-which is the prophet Mohammed peace be upon him way of life) due to the new era of internet and satellite , therefore shias started to either pay money for ignorant people to get them to their side or they would lie for this reason . By the way, Fawzia , unfortunately you are turning yourself to the hell fire according to your very bad choice, to be agnostic, and you still have the time to repent before death , and all what you said about prophet Mohammed - the greatest man in history - are all just lies you don't have any proof for + that sunni religious men stopped girls from escaping from a school when was burnt is fake and was officially denied. May Allah guide you to the right path.

Answer 4

I may be wrong since I've never thought about this. You made me use my brain cells!

Well, I would say that, if a Shia wants to become a Sunni, then they would start following the Sunni things. As in Shias wear black or mourn when it's 10th Moharram...but Sunnis don't; if they become a Sunni, then they would stop doing that.

That's the best that I could come up with. Insha ALlah (if God wills), someone who really knows the answer will give you a better answer.

Answer 5

Well, I was one who converted from being a protestant-type Christian to a Mormon-type Christian. It was pretty straight-forward for me.

Frankly, I think Christians, Moslems and Jews all worship the same God, they just call Him by different names.