History Main / ConvertingForLove

* At the end of the book Literature/SpinningSilver, the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Staryk]] [[TheFairFolk King]] converts to Judaism in order to marry Miryem. Considering [[UnwantedSpouse how they first met]], as well as [[BlueAndOrangeMorality the way that the Stayrk generally treat humans]], it really shows the amount of {{character development}} the Staryk King has undergone.

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[[folder: {{Film}}]]

* A throwaway conversation in the ''Film/{{SWAT}}'' movie has one of Jim Street's colleagues in the LAPD armory mention that he converted to Mormonism when he got married. And habitually violates their dietary rules on the job due to a love of fast food.

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[[folder: {{Literature}}]]

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[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]

[[folder: Religion and Mythology]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: RealLife]]

** In another episode, Elaine goes to a bar mitzvah and the kid tries to make out with her immediately after being officially declared a man. She tells him that he's still not old enough to be a real man, so he calls the bar mitzvah a sham and renounces Judaism. His father then tries to make out with Elaine, interpreting her "not old enough" comment as evidence she was interested in ''him''. She accuses him of only being attracted to her because [[ShiksaGoddess he's Jewish and she's a shiksa]], and to "prove" her claim wrong, he renounces Judaism as well.[[note]]Amusingly, Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus, who plays Elaine, is actually not only Jewish but a scion of one of the most famous and prominent Jewish families in the world.[[/note]]

** Creator/JRRTolkien's wife Edith converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism for their marriage, a great sacrifice (although anti-Catholicism had died down considerably, ''converting'' to Catholicism would still cause a bit of a stir even in the early 20th century; also, Edith was involved in her parish and suffered some ostracism for the conversion) that Tolkien never forgot. This experience is quite unambiguously the basis for the recurring motif of immortal women marrying mortal (or at least lesser-ranked) men in Tolkien's work, such as Arwen marrying Aragorn in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', in the process irreversibly separating from her people or origin.[[note]]Other examples of elven women marrying mortal men are Lúthien and Beren, Idril and Tuor, and Eärendil and Elwing (all examples from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''); Tolkien put particular stock in the comparison to Beren and Lúthien, to the point where his gravestone's inscription (beyond just name and dates) is "Beren" and hers "Lúthien". There's also Melian (a Maia angel/minor god) and Elwë/Elu Thingol (Grey Elf) and Galadriel (Noldorin High Elf, and a royal to boot) and Celeborn (Grey Elf), where the husbands are immortal but still descendants of a lower "class" than their wives.[[/note]]

* Royal marriages sometimes involve conversions because the monarch is required to be of a particular faith. While many royal marriages are simply {{Arranged Marriage}}s and the religious angle is just another diplomatic wrinkle among the paperwork when royals marry for love it shades into this:

** In another episode, Elaine goes to a bar mitzvah and the kid tries to make out with her immediately after being officially declared a man. She tells him that he's still not old enough to be a real man, so he calls the bar mitzvah a sham and renounces Judaism. His father then tries to make out with Elaine, interpreting her "not old enough" comment as evidence she was interested in ''him''. She accuses him of only being attracted to her because [[ShiksaGoddess he's Jewish and she's a shiksa]], and to "prove" her claim wrong, he renounces Judaism as well.

* ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'': Astrid grew up Christian and converted to Judaism for her husband Noah. Her enthusiasm for her adopted tribe is palpable, in an ImmigrantPatriotism sort of way. Her EstablishingCharacterMoment is arriving at a family dinner party bearing gifts from her eleventh trip to Israel. This zeal for Judaism is gently tolerated by her in-laws.

* In ''Series/MagnificentCentury'', Hürrem converts to Islam after Sümbül Ağa tells her Süleyman will never marry a Christian. It's a period drama, and the same thing happened in real life.
* On ''Series/MastersOfSex'', Ethan, who is non-observant Jewish, is convinced by his fiancee Vivian to convert to Christianity so they can get married in a church. However, [[spoiler: he decides not to and breaks up with her.]]

** To take the British throne, a dynast of UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily, while not ''required'' to be a member of the Church of England, is ''prohibited'' from being a Catholic, and until 2015 was barred from marrying one, on pain of exclusion from the line of succession.[[note]]If this sounds unfair to Catholics, remember that the British monarch is the Supreme Head of the Church of England; having a Catholic monarch would thus be about as awkward as having the Pope be an Anglican. They did try it, during the reign of UsefulNotes/JamesII, but [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution that didn’t end well]].[[/note]] This created some awkwardness in 2008, when Peter Philips, grandson of UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen (through her daughter Princess Anne) became engaged to the Canadian Catholic Autumn Kelly. Kelly had to convert from Catholicism to Anglicanism to marry Mr Philips.

** George converts to Latvian Orthodoxy briefly for a girlfriend, only to lose the girlfriend anyway (according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting the writer of that episode had no idea that Latvian Orthodox was a real sect]] -- he was trying to make up a fictional one).

** A rare (for the time) male example: Sir Ernest Cassel, a famous British Jewish merchant banker of the Victorian era, converted to Catholicism because of a deathbed plea from his wife. Decades later, when his friend King Edward VIII made him a member of his Privy Council, everyone present was astonished that Cassel insisted upon swearing his oath with a Catholic Bible.

* Based on context clues, Katie Holmes likely did this when she started studying Scientology around the same time she dated and later married Tom Cruise. It didn't stick, given that she went back to Catholicism, the church of her youth, after divorcing Cruise.

* Tim Drake mentions his mother was brought up Jewish but converted to Catholicism to please her in-laws in ''Fanfic/AngelOfTheBat''. Tim was at least somewhat raised culturally Jewish but mentions his mother was more true to her newfound faith than his father, who was more of a RaisedCatholic type.

* On ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', Matt converts to Judaism after falling for Sarah, though their Pastor [=/=] Rabbi fathers initially objected to their union.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** George converts to Latvian Orthodoxy briefly for a girlfriend, only to lose the girlfriend anyway (according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting the writer of that episode had no idea that Latvian Orthodox was a real sect]] -- he was trying to make up a fictional one).
** In another episode, Elaine goes to a bar mitzvah and the kid tries to make out with her immediately after being officially declared a man. She tells him that he's still not old enough to be a real man, so he calls the bar mitzvah a sham and renounces Judaism. His father then tries to make out with Elaine, interpreting her "not old enough" comment as evidence she was interested in ''him''. She accuses him of only being attracted to her because [[ShiksaGoddess he's Jewish and she's a shiksa]], and to "prove" her claim wrong, he renounces Judaism as well.
* Charlotte converts to Judaism for her eventual husband in ''Series/{{Sex and the City}}'', and was frustrated to discover that the process was much more involved and complicated than a quick in-and-out baptism. She does ultimately succeed in officially converting and proving herself to the rabbi as not ''just'' being in it for the sake of marriage as both he and she first believed.
* Happened in ''Series/ImAlanPartridge'' with Lynn being baptized.
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Soap}}'' Corinne is in love with Father Tim, who leaves the priesthood for her. She isn't Catholic, but she converts.
* ''Series/BigLove'' has Margie leaving the main Mormon church and joining a polygamous offshoot. (Which, if the Mormon church learns of it, is grounds for immediate excommunication; hence a lot of the secrecy).

* In ''Series/TheOC'' Summer plans on converting to Judaism for Seth. Interestingly averted with Seth's mother Kirsten who is confirmed several times as not converting and is happily married anyway.
* In a ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode called "Shandeh", the victim was a Catholic woman who converted to Judaism for her husband.
* A storyline on the primetime soap ''Series/{{Sisters}}'' had youngest sister Frankie converting to Judaism with her husband Mitch. Interestingly, she was not converting to join his religion--they were ''both'' Christian and decided to convert after Mitch attended some services that gave him an insight into Jewish life.
* Janelle from ''Series/SisterWives'' says that she fell for Kody and the faith came later. With the later revelation that [[spoiler: her mom married Kody's dad shortly before Janelle and Kody got married]], it seems there was also some ConvertingForLove there.
* In ''Series/{{House}}'', Cuddy's mother had converted to Judaism for her husband. While House is dating Cuddy, she asks whether he intends to convert to Judaism as well. As he claims to be atheist, she just says that so are most Jews and that it's more about community.

* ''Series/NeverWipeTearsWithoutGloves'': While he doesn't straight up ''convert'', Benjamin leaves Jehovah's Witnesses in order to come out of the closet and be with his lover Rasmus. Not only does that mean leaving the church he was raised in but it also means that he is dead to his parents and sister. His parents are even kind enough to show up at his door with flowers and cake for a "funeral service".
* Sarah Hamoudi converted to Islam in order to marry Yasir in the backstory of ''Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie''...and is depicted as being a thoroughly unenthusiastic Muslim, partially because Yasir is as well (the plot of many episodes revolve around either their daughter Rayyan or the imam Amaar nagging one or both of them to behave more Islamically)
* On ''Series/MastersOfSex'', Ethan, who is non-observant Jewish, is convinced by his fiancee Vivian to convert to Christianity so they can get married in a church. However, [[spoiler: he decides not to and breaks up with her.]]

* ''Series/SleeperCell'': Alex converted to Islam after he fell in love with a Muslim woman (his wife later on).
* ''Series/JackRyan'': Jim Greer converted to Islam to marry a Muslim woman. At the start of the series, they've divorced and he's no longer keen on religion. He's regained his faith at the end of the first season, and is shown to be still practicing in season 2.

* Sarah Hamoudi converted to Islam in order to marry Yasir in the backstory of Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie...and is depicted as being a thoroughly unenthusiastic Muslim, partially because Yasir is as well (the plot of many episodes revolve around either their daughter Rayyan or the imam Amaar nagging one or both of them to behave more Islamically)

** In a similar vein, the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russian Tsar]] had to be a member of the [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Russian Orthodox Church]]--as did the monarch's consort. This created a problem when Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine fell hard for her cousin, the Russian Tsarevich (Crown Prince) Nicholas while visiting her sister Elizabeth (who had married Nicholas's uncle Grand Duke Sergei) in Saint Petersburg in 1890.[[note]]They had met four years previously at Sergei and Elizabeth's wedding, and gotten along tremendously, but as she was 12 and he was 16 it wasn't clear whether this was romantic.[[/note]] However, she was a devout Lutheran and was understandably very reluctant to leave her faith. In 1994, though, her love for Nicholas, and a long talk with her sister (who had eventually converted to Orthodoxy in 1891, seven years after marrying Sergei), convinced her to do so, and so Alix converted, taking the name Alexandra Feodorovna.[[note]]"Alexandra" from "Alix" (yes, that was her actual name; her parents wanted to give her the name "Alice", same as her British mother, but knew from experience that Germans tended to butcher it); "Feodorovna" because her father's name Ludwig was not traditionally Russian, so she was given the traditional patronymic of foreign Romanov brides -- the {{Patronymic}} of St. Feodor the Black, PatronSaint of the Romanovs as a family.[[/note]] Ironically, their religion was the ''only'' part of Russian culture Alexandra embraced wholeheartedly.

** In a similar vein, the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russian Tsar]] had to be a member of the [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Russian Orthodox Church]]--as did the monarch's consort. This created a problem when Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine fell hard for her cousin, the Russian Tsarevich (Crown Prince) Nicholas while visiting her sister Elizabeth (who had married Nicholas's uncle Grand Duke Sergei) in Saint Petersburg in 1890.[[note]]They had met four years previously at Sergei and Elizabeth's wedding, and gotten along tremendously, but as she was 12 and he was 16 it wasn't clear whether this was romantic.[[/note]] However, she was a devout Lutheran and was understandably very reluctant to leave her faith. However, her love for Nicholas, and a long talk with her sister (who had done the same thing to marry Sergei), convinced her to do so, taking the name Alexandra Feodorovna.[[note]]"Alexandra" from "Alix" (yes, that was her actual name; her parents wanted to give her the name "Alice", same as her British mother, but knew from experience that Germans tended to butcher it); "Feodorovna" because her father's name Ludwig was not traditionally Russian, so she was given the {{Patronymic}} of St. Feodor the Black, PatronSaint of the Romanovs as a family.[[/note]] Ironically, their religion was the ''only'' part of Russian culture Alexandra embraced wholeheartedly.

* On ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Odo seriously considers following the Way of the Prophets so that he can go to services with Kira.

** Creator/JRRTolkien's wife Edith converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism for their marriage, a great sacrifice (although anti-Catholicism had died down considerably, ''converting'' to Catholicism would still cause a bit of a stir even in the early 20th century; also, Edith was involved in her parish and suffered some ostracism for the conversion) that Tolkien never forgot. This experience is quite unambiguously the basis for the recurring motif of immortal women marrying mortal (or at least lesser-ranked) men in Tolkien's work, such as Arwen marrying Aragorn in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', in the process irreversibly separating from her people or origin.[[note]]Other examples are: Lúthien and Beren, Idril and Tuor (from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''); Tolkien put particular stock in the comparison to Beren and Lúthien, to the point where his gravestone's inscription (beyond just name and dates) is "Beren" and hers "Lúthien". There's also Melian (a Maia angel/minor god) and Elwë/Elu Thingol (Grey Elf) and Galadriel (Noldorin High Elf, and a royal to boot) and Celeborn (Grey Elf), where the husbands are immortal but still descendants of a lower "class" than their wives.[[/note]]

** To take the British throne, a dynast of UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily, while not ''required'' to be a member of the Church of England, is ''prohibited'' from being a Catholic, and until 2015 was barred from marrying one, on pain of exclusion from the line of succession.[[note]]If this sounds unfair to Catholics, remember that the British monarch is the Supreme Head of the Church of England; having a Catholic monarch would thus be about as awkward as having the Pope be an Anglican.[[/note]] This created some awkwardness in 2008, when Peter Philips, grandson of UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen (through her daughter Princess Anne) became engaged to the Canadian Catholic Autumn Kelly. Kelly had to convert from Catholicism to Anglicanism to marry Mr Philips.

* Bobby Jindal, who served two terms as governor of Louisiana before being term-limited out in 2016, converted to Catholicism in high school after falling in love with a Catholic girl. This is why he doesn't go by his real name (it's not Robert, but rather Piyush, a Hindu name that he wants nothing to do with). [[DidNotGetTheGirl He didn't wind up marrying her,]] but he remains a devout Catholic.
* Creator/JRRTolkien's wife Edith converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism for their marriage, a great sacrifice (although anti-Catholicism had died down considerably, ''converting'' to Catholicism would still cause a bit of a stir even in the early 20th century; also, Edith was involved in her parish and suffered some ostracism for the conversion) that Tolkien never forgot. This experience is quite unambiguously the basis for the recurring motif of immortal women marrying mortal (or at least lesser-ranked) men in Tolkien's work, such as Arwen marrying Aragorn in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', in the process irreversibly separating from her people or origin.[[note]]Other examples are: Lúthien and Beren, Idril and Tuor (from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''); Tolkien put particular stock in the comparison to Beren and Lúthien, to the point where his gravestone's inscription (beyond just name and dates) is "Beren" and hers "Lúthien". There's also Melian (a Maia angel/minor god) and Elwë/Elu Thingol (Grey Elf) and Galadriel (Noldorin High Elf, and a royal to boot) and Celeborn (Grey Elf), where the husbands are immortal but still descendants of a lower "class" than their wives.[[/note]]
* A rare (for the time) male example: Sir Ernest Cassel, a famous British Jewish merchant banker of the Victorian era, converted to Catholicism because of a deathbed plea from his wife. Decades later, when his friend King Edward VIII made him a member of his Privy Council, everyone present was astonished that Cassel insisted upon swearing his oath with a Catholic Bible.

Happens quite often in RealLife, particularly with religions which do not allow their believers to marry outside their faith. It is somewhat more common for the woman to convert. Perhaps this is because so many cultures are patriarchal.

[[folder: ComicBooks]]

* The film ''David and Leila'' features a romance between a Jewish man and Muslim Kurdish woman in New York City. At first, she pretends to be Jewish so his parents will accept it, and surprisingly her family doesn't have a problem with him at all (Kurds having more problems with fellow Muslims than Jews). Her father still tells him the Imam (who's Lebanese and thus dislikes Jews) won't let them get married unless he becomes a Muslim though, which he does after initial reluctance (humorously noting how easy it is converting to Islam versus Judaism-"No wonder there are so many more of you.")

[[folder: {{Theatre}}]]

* Shown in a flashback in ''Webcomic/UglyHill'', where its shown that Hastings was attempting to convert to Catholicism to marry his first wife Hope, at her request due to her parents being staunchly Catholic. Hastings himself is agnostic and completely uninterested in religion, considering it to be a waste of time. It becomes a moot point due to Hastings accidentally destroying the local churches saint statues, and getting himself barred for life.

* Royal marriages sometimes involve conversions because the monarch is required to be of a particular faith. While many royal marriages are simply {{Arranged Marriage}}s and the religious angle is just another diplomatic wrinkle among the paperwork, when royals marry for love it shades into this:

** Thanks to a combination of cultural, historical, and religious factors, in UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}}, a non-Muslim marrying a Muslim '''must''' first convert to Islam, regardless of gender. It's the ''law''. And unlike other nations, it is almost impossible for a Muslim to convert to another faith - meaning that even if you had converted merely for the sake of your spouse, you can't simply "jump ship" back to your old faith if your marriage crumbles. This is because of two reasons. First, Malaysian politics are dominated by Malays, and the Malays equate Islam with Malayness -- if you convert to another religion, [[NoTrueScotsman you're no longer considered a Malay]]. Second, despite Malays forming a slim majority of the country's population, there exists a rather significant, mostly non-Muslim Chinese and Indian minorities, who were brought in by the British during colonial times. The Malays were annoyed by this but obviously couldn't get rid of them for fear of a backlash, so instead of expelling them after independence outright, the country has an officially-sanctioned affirmative action law, which favors Malays and discourages them from intermixing with the minorities. Sounds unfair? The law is the reason why UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}} is today an independent country, not a state of Malaysia.