Page 72 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

John and Helen described how their experiences in going through a few religious conversions
were questioned by members of the newly adopted religious faiths. For John, members of

the Buddhist temple questioned his sincerity and intentions in professing Buddhism due to
his earlier affiliation to Christianity. The details of his sharing are shown in the transcript:

“When I converted to Buddhism, I faced challenges as well. People at the temple
questioned my back-and-forth religious conversions. They doubted my sincerity in

professing Buddhism and thought that I was a “fake” Buddhist. Some older temple-
goers even told me I should just focus on understanding Christianity more and not
converting again to Buddhism. I felt such challenges when I converted to Buddhism

from Christianity were more intense because this time around the pressure was from
both sides (i.e., Church and Buddhist temple).” (John)

Based on the excerpt above, John experienced the initial lack of acceptance among
members of the Buddhist temple and it was possibly due to his earlier conversion from

Taoism to Christianity before becoming a Buddhist. This inadvertently shows the negative
perceptions of these members towards the convert’s intentions and sincerity and the issue
of multiple conversions. Apart from that, John also faced the pressure of being persuaded

by his Christian friends to remain a Christian. These challenges encountered during the
transition from Christianity to Buddhism were described as intense for John.
Similar to John’s experience, Helen’s journey of multiple conversions received

negative perceptions from others about her intentions in changing religions. She shared,
“some friends questioned why I keep following different religions, but I believed that is my

path” (Helen). In spite of what others think of her, Helen chose to believe that the multiple
conversions she went through was a journey of self-discovery for her in search of the right
religion that is suitable for her, as she said, “After having practiced the different religions, I

am confident of knowing what I truly am searching for in a religion and Buddhism is the one
that is for me” (Helen). The sense of contentment in Helen’s current religion implies that she

has overcome the obstacles of being negatively perceived and ultimately stayed true to
herself and her aim of finding peace in a religion that she sees as the right one for her.

4.5.2 Language barrier

In their journey of religious practice, both Helen and Steven experienced the challenges of
understanding and reading Buddhist prayers in Mandarin as they are not literate in the

language. Specifically, Helen and Steven shared their experiences regarding the difficulties

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