Interfaith Relationships

Thursday’s post on “Exploring an Interfaith Marriage” received some intriguing Facebook comments. It was confirmation for me that people do engage in interfaith relationships (of all kinds–platonic, romantic, and professional) and that the challenges are very real.

I asked, “Have you ever participated in an interfaith relationship?”

Here are some responses:

• Friend 1: “Does dating 2 atheists count 😉 ?”
• Friend 1: [Referring to dating atheists] “Most of the time it was alright. My personal belief has a universal love element to it and so that includes atheists as beloveds. But I do want in my next relationship, (and only relationship, perhaps) someone with my sort of universality … I have always gotten along just fine with the previous conditions. But I suppose that prayer has become more real to me and more personal to me. I guess we look for people that kind of reflect ourselves for a mate.”
• Friend 2: “I am in one now. My partner is a humanist and it causes a lot of very interesting dialogue.”
• Friend 3: [from a clergyperson] “I applaud you Dana for this. I think interfaith marriages and friendships is what this world needs more of! I think all clergy should be required to be in interfaith groups… otherwise our world is just going to be full of more misunderstanding and hate toward one another without just cause.
• Friend 4: [from a clergyperson] “My husband of almost 34 years is a non-practicing Jew. It’s been a journey for both of us.”