I’m an agnostic and my fiancee is eastern orthodox Christian. Now obviously since we are engaged, we believe our union of love can function just like any other. We understand that we both have our differences, and we respect them. Our families only want the best for us and they also wish us all the best.
However, according to the Bible and a handfull of our “friends”, the joining of a Christian and non Christian is an abomination, doomed to end in misery and probably some fire and brimstone.
My question is this, have any of ya’ll ever known of a long happy marriage between a Christian and non Christian? If not, then what were some of the main issues that caused the separation?
The only sticky issue are the kids. The right response in this issue would be for the person who cares more gets their way (so your kids are going to be E. Orthodox).
In one case, they did just that and it’s been fine so far.
In the other case, they don’t have kids yet and are still working out what to do since one is very strongly culturally catholic (Italian) but pretty wishy-washy on the belief end of things while the other is a pretty hardcore atheist. So, there is some back-and-forth on that issue but I’m sure they’ll work it out. The compromise thus far is that the mother can take them to Church/Sunday school half the time and the father can take them to a museum and teach them about the Enlightenment the other half. Not sure how it will pan out, but I’m sure they’ll come to a more reasonable compromise when the kids actually start popping out.
If you two respect each others personal beliefs, I think it should be fine. Don’t start preaching Dawkins at her and don’t let her shove Jesus down your throat and you’ll be fine. It sounds great to me – all the social advantages of religion with none of the belief problems. I’m certainly taking advantage of my girlfriend’s buddhism in that regard.
After a quick google i found that you’re right, 2 Cor 6:14 is where most people draw the conclusion of prohibition from. One of my friends quoted several verses but i don’t recall them at the moment.
My mother told me about how the Catholic church shunned the marriage of my Catholic grandmother and Protestant grandfather, yet they had a wonderfull marriage of 50 years before he died of natural causes.
I’ve always scoffed at how so many people can take the same holy texts and come up with a plethora of interpretations to meet their own needs. That’s one of the main reasons i’m against “organized” religion, doesn’t seem to be any organization to it.
