Couples Share the Benefits of Interfaith Marriages

Sarah Zlotnick is a journalist with how to date a thai woman 10 years of experience and has been a writer in the wedding space for seven years. Her work has appeared in Philadelphia Wedding Magazine, Washingtonian Weddings, Bethesda Magazine, and The Huffington Post. But the consequences of performing these marriages, he reasons, may have unintended consequences for the congregation, one of the first 10 in the country to join the movement, with which 560 synagogues in North America affiliate. The news, analysis and community conversation found here is funded by donations from individuals. Make a gift of any amount today to support this resource for everyone.

• Love & Relationships 5 Rituals to Reconnect in Your Relationship Never underestimate the power of intentional time with your partner.
• Families and communities are, in my experience, the ones to blame here.
• Give yourselves time to negotiate and to think about what you’re going to create for your family and future,” advises Greenfeld.
• Practice love, inclusiveness and compassion for each other, and by doing so, demonstrate your faith in action.
• Whereas 43 percent of people raised by similarly religious parents said religion was very important, only 30 percent of people raised by interfaith parents said it was very important.

Some of the concerns are specifically religious and grounded in understandings of scripture itself. And some of them are also grounded is significant research data showing the interfaith marriage in fact contributes significantly to losing people from Jewish faith, practice and culture altogether.

How to Plan an Interfaith Wedding

Anxiety about “continuity,” and whether American Jews’ attachment to Judaism and Jewish institutions will persist, underlies many of the conversations about officiation at interfaith weddings. While the Pew study found most American Jews marrying outside the religion, it also showed that the offspring of intermarriages have become increasingly likely to identify as Jewish in adulthood. In Indonesia, interfaith marriage is legal but culturally discouraged and some religious figures have made it their mission to help couples of different religious backgrounds get married despite societal obstacles. The risks of divorce increase for an interfaith marriage when a husband attends services more frequently or a wife has a more conservative religious outlook. The assumption here is that sharing the same religion is a shortcut to deeper unity. But praying the same words in the same order, or reading the same sacred book through and through again, or singing the same songs are not necessarily a gateway to a meaningful connection. And, as anyone in any relationship will tell you, no two people are alike.

Here’s all about power balance and how to avoid and solve common challenges. Another winner in The New York Times came from Wheaton College professor Esau McCaulley. He wrote about giving up his dream of being a pastor for the good of his family as part of a reflection on how marriage reshapes your plan for your life. Tucked within a very long — and very good — essay on friendship that’s in the latest edition of The Atlantic is a beautiful reflection on the seven deadly sins.

One of the major mistakes both before marriage and after involves not talking about religious concerns. Having open discussions and talking about shared values is important, however. Refusing to discover the common characteristics your religions may have. Failing to recognize the importance of understanding, respecting, accepting, and dealing with your religious differences.

Although this may seem pretty straightforward on paper, individuals may find themselves in interfaith marriage for many reasons. I have dear friends who came to their Christian faith after they met and wed their spouses; likewise, I know women who at the time of their wedding married a spouse of the same faith, only for that spouse to later walk away or denounce their faith. But does interfaith marriage mean a weakening of each person’s respective faith? We are strengthened, inspired, and stimulated by each other’s practices and commitments. Despite our different religions, we share a common understanding of God, and what belief means in our day-to-day lives. And having a partner who won’t let you get away with sloppy thinking or a weak explanation of why you believe what you do, forces us to galvanise our thinking. In answer to the question of whether or not an interfaith marriage can succeed couples must decide what they each can and cannot live with.

Pressure from family and friends

One non-Jewish woman who couldn’t take the synagogue’s Judaism 101 class is instead getting one-on-one lessons from the rabbi. Still, the interfaith weddings the synagogue’s rabbis perform are different from weddings between two Jews, he said — for example, they include four blessings rather than the traditional seven. He compared these distinctions to changes he makes to the traditional Jewish marriage ceremony when officiating at a same-sex wedding, in order to distinguish it from one that is unquestionably compliant with traditional Jewish law. FILE – Indonesian couples gesture as they attend a mass interfaith wedding ceremony sponsored by an organizer and the Jakarta government in Jakarta on July 19, 2011. Throughout Scripture, we find several passages that caution and out-right advise against interfaith marriage. Under Levitical and Mosaic law, as found in passages from Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, Israelites were commanded not to intermarry with other tribes who had belief in pagan gods.

Partnerships

For those facing interfaith marriage problems, there are a few things they can do to try to overcome them. In some cultures, it is traditional to give children multiple names, while in others, only one word is used.