Can relationships/marriages work between two religions?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Jlawson118 wrote: »

But I do believe in most religions and I'm open to them.

I'm not sure what this means- that you're tolerant and respectful of religions? You can acknowledge other faiths, but as far as I'm aware you can only "believe in" one....

I know a Muslim woman married to an atheist white guy; crucially she is not hardcore religious, and her father is not alive. The presence of traditional male relatives is the main problem with most Muslim-Other relationships.

As an atheist I can't imagine going out with anyone religious, as our mindsets would be too different.

indiepanda

It's always going to present some challenges being with someone with a different belief set to you. Even my Mum being a Catholic and Dad being Church of England, although not a churchgoer created some issues. I don't think Dad was entirely happy about having to promise to let her raise me and my sister Catholic and made Mum promise to let us make up our own minds when we were old enough. Not sure she quite stuck to this, told me the devil was going to come and get me when I stopped going to church!

Still, didn't have much impact either way, I ended up an atheist and my sister is a pagan.

I couldn't get involved with someone who practiced a religion. Most religions seem to treat women as second class citizens (C of E at least has made strides forward in that area with women bishops and priests) and I am looking for a relationship where my partner thinks of me as their equal.

Jlawson118

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I'm not sure what this means- that you're tolerant and respectful of religions? You can acknowledge other faiths, but as far as I'm aware you can only "believe in" one....

I know a Muslim woman married to an atheist white guy; crucially she is not hardcore religious, and her father is not alive. The presence of traditional male relatives is the main problem with most Muslim-Other relationships.

As an atheist I can't imagine going out with anyone religious, as our mindsets would be too different.

Tolerant probably is better wording for it actually, although saying that, I do kind of believe that there is no true path whether you be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, anything, that's the way I see it anyway.

You probably could go out with anybody religious providing they don't force it down your neck but then again it depends how much you can take from that kind of thing. I know my grandad is Atheist and my grandma believes, she often jokes with him saying he's just going to go to Hell

dirty_magic

I know of a couple of people in mixed religion relationships. If she's not strictly religious I don't think you'll have a problem with her, but you might need a thick skin when it comes to the family.

Mojisola

dirty_magic wrote: »

I know of a couple of people in mixed religion relationships. If she's not strictly religious I don't think you'll have a problem with her, but you might need a thick skin when it comes to the family.

And it often gets worse if you have children.

TBagpuss

YES, Definitely worth discusing in advance what will happen if you have childrne. It is not uncommon for people to want to bring their children up within their religion even if they are not particualrly devout, and for a Muslim or Jewish parent that would include having any boys circumcised, for a Christian, baptism might be important.

suki1964

My sister is married to a Muslim . She has never had any pressure to convert. She does however observe the dietary restrictions within the home , as would I whenever they came for a meal or stayed at ours

I'm a Catholic married to a Protestant We both attend church and chapel when required to do so and that's about it

Maybe not all members of all families have approved of the marriages but we tend to not to get into debate and just live and let live

The only person who converted on marraige was my youngest BIL, he converted to Catholicism, but that was really only to ensure their children got into a faith school

All three of us have been with our partners over 25 years and all our children are involved with partners of differing religions

System

I'm sure there are plenty of successful realtionships with inter-religions. I think if you can comprimise, see each others POV and agree to disgree on some parts it could work, depends how religious they are though. If they are very much devout and you're not then that could possibly cause problems.

Personally i wouldn't date anyone religious, it wouldnt be compatible with me as i really don;t beleive in any god (and dislike many aspects of religion).

Loz01

Maybe by saying she's "atheist apart from believing in God" she's trying to explain she has a belief in a "higher being" but doesn't believe in any of the other views of the religion or doesn't follow the traditions... religion is a funny thing. Personally I couldn't marry anyone who was strongly religious as Im atheist and I think religion is the cause of a lot of issues in the modern world... but, each to their own. If her family are also highly religious then that will be a minefield from word go.

eamon

To the OP you are stumbling around in a potentially dangerous area for you both. I doubt you have any understanding of the risks.
I would suggest that you do a lot of research and above all thread carefully.