WHEN A PARTNER ASKS YOU TO CONVERT

ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE FOR THE SPIRITUAL TRAVELER

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My fiancée is Muslim. I'm a JINO (Jewish in Name Only). She wants me to convert to Islam. I love her, but Islam holds no attraction for me. Should I convert to please her?

RABBI RAMI: Ask your fiancée if you can be a MINO (Muslim in Name Only). If not, and she expects you to practice the Five Pillars of Islam—professing belief in Allah and affirming Muhammad as His Messenger, praying five times daily, donating 2.5 percent of your wealth to the community, fasting during Ramadan, and making hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca—decide if you're willing to do these things. If you're unwilling, don't convert. If you are willing, Islam may grow on you. Inshallah.

A friend gifted me a New International Version (NIV) Bible. I was horrified to find God sanctioning abortion, killing the unborn baby of an adulterous woman! Is this true?

You're referring to Sotah, a biblical ritual in which a priest administers poison to a woman whose husband accused her of adultery. If guilty, the woman dies from a collapsed uterus. The NIV erroneously translates this as “miscarries,” mistakenly implying the woman is pregnant (Numbers 5:21-22). While God kills lots of babies in the Bible (the firstborn babies of Egypt and every baby in the flood, for example), God is innocent in this case. All Bible translations are flawed; don't rely on any, and certainly not just one.

I recently joined Unity. My parents are furious, thinking that having left their religion, I've left Jesus, and we will not be together in Heaven. What can I say to calm their fears?