On Changing my Religion

"If I had to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love because the first person that I love is God who created me and I have my faith and my principles and this is what makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God too."

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                                                  -Miss Universe 2011 3rd Runner-Up, Shamcey Supsup's answer when asked by pageant judge, Vivica Fox if she would change her religion to marry the man she loves.

Shamcey delivered her answer with full conviction.  And she was impressive.  All throughout the pageantry, she has been very vocal in expressing her faith.  I cannot help but admire her.

I on the other hand, would choose to take the opposite stand: that of changing my religion to marry the man I love.  Religion, to me, is just a label.  I'd like to think all men share a common faith. So changing a religion could not be synonymous with rejecting my faith in the Great Almighty.  No religion is ever complete.  Neither is there any that would guarantee eternal salvation.  But love -- in its truest and purest sense -- is always good.  It is the greatest neutralizer.  The ultimate healer.  The essence of our earthly existence.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is the dialogue of Ruth and Naomi:

When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. ⁷ With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
 ⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. ⁹ May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
   Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud ¹⁰ and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
 ¹¹ But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— ¹³ would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has turned against me!”
 ¹⁴ At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
 ¹⁵ “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
 ¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” ¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

Ruth embraced Naomi's faith -- perhaps because of a great inexplicable force that also guided her.  Kahlil Gibran, the great Lebanese writer wrote in his book, "The Prophet":

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."  And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

I take pride in Shamcey's victory. And I adore her straight forward answer at the question-and-answer part. She did us all very proud.  I delight in being a citizen of this mostly Catholic country.  But like her, I share my thoughts...

For when "love beckons, I eagerly follow."  Although yes, his ways may be hard and steep...