My mom’s first husband, a Southern Baptist, divorced my mom because she became a Jehovah’s Witness. That’s one sort of Christian Fundy into another sort of Christian Fundy. But it broke up the marriage.
Does this happen with any sort of regularity? Is it a bigger deal among fundamentalist sects?
If a Hasidic Orthodox Jew becomes a Reformed Jew, does the Hasidic family shun them? Does anybody go from Sunni Muslim to Shi’ite Muslim? What usually happens?
Maybe it’s a bigger deal in the stricter sects. My parents switched from Congregationalists to Methodists (after flirting with Presbyterianism). Their principal issue was LBGTQ (sorry, I always get that wrong) issues and how LBGTQ people were treated by the church. They wanted them to be welcomed by the congregation. I was proud of them, given their age and being set in their ways and all.
To be fair, Jehovah’s Witness isn’t just another fundy sect, it’s a cult that wants to dominate every aspect of your life. I don’t much blame your Mom’s first husband for wanting out of that.
My family’s church was a matter of convenience (the closest one was Methodist of a very bland variety) and we didn’t go there very often anyway. So no, not in our family would it have mattered much.
My father was brought up Roman Catholic, my mother Methodist. When they got serious they talked it out, and settled for Lutheran as an acceptable to both compromise. (Both sides of the family attended the wedding, and so far as I know, nobody was ever bent out of shape over it.)
My grandfather was Dutch Reformed, my grandmother was Christian Reformed (or maybe it was the other way around). Actual differences in those two faiths were trivial, but not to the congregants. So they were both kicked out of their congregations for marrying outside of the ‘true faith’ and they split the difference and joined a Reformed Church. (No, I’m not kidding).
And it’s the Southern Baptist fundamentalists who want to annihilate the separation of church and state, so it ain’t like they don’t get up in people’s business either.
I guess the name fools a lot of people.
Despite the name, and despite what they claim, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are very, very emphatically NOT Christian in any way, shape, or form. They deny several core Christian doctrines, most notably the Trinity, and the existence of Hell.
You must believe in a literal Hell to be a Christian?
Well, it’s arguable. They consider themselves Christians and for whatever it’s worth( not a whole heck of a lot ), so does wikipedia ;). They do believe that the doctrine of Jesus Christ is central to salvation and they are not the only Unitarian group out there. However they are indeed on the extreme fringe of heterodoxy.
It’s Reform, not Reformed.
While Trinitarian thought has had a long history and was essentially codified by the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, there is no clear Biblical dogma for it other than some rather spurious interpretstions from John. The existence of a literal Hell is even more scripturally unsubstantiated, dating from the publication of City of God in 426 CE by Augustine of Hippo. There have been a number of non-trinitarian churches adhering to the scriptural doctrines of Christianity, most notably Arianism, Catharism, and Bogomilism. That these were not considered Christian followings by the Catholic or Orthodox churches is not sufficient to dismiss them as non-Christian since the same argument was applied to seperatist churches in the Anglican and Protestant traditions for centuries.
Of course, all of these are manufactured distinctions based upon historical acceptance of criteria that is not based on any scriptural source or solid interpretation, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are just as able to legitimately refer to themselves as a faith in Christian tradition as any other church that centers worship and study around the Bible and the purported words of Jesus of Nazarath. That they have some pretty flaky beliefs puts them in fine company with many of the widely accepted Christsain faiths, including those that accept speaking in tongues, handling venmous snakes, or the literal transformation of wine and crackers into flesh and blood in their symbolic act of cannibalism.
Stranger
Right. And Judaism is much more about what rituals/rules you follow than to which stream’s synagogue you go. So, a Hassidic/Orthodox Jew’s family would probably be upset if the member stopped observing Shabbat or keeping Kosher, no matter whether that member would become a “Reform Jew” or not.
I am pretty sure that one of a Jewish marriage’s partner’s becoming more religious/observant would not cause a divorce. I don’t know whether becoming less religious/observant would. Never heard of one such, but then I am no expert.
I once knew someone who was a Reformed Jew. Did 10 years in Sing Sing, but got out on good behavior.
There are several groups which either consider themselves Christian or are descended from Christian groups (although perhaps they do and perhaps they don’t consider themselves to be Christians), but the mainstream Christian (Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox) churches generally don’t consider them Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christian Scientists consider themselves to be Christians. Unitarians and some churches which call themselves Spiritualists and some which call themselves British Israelites might think of themselves as Christians, but that’s iffy. Perhaps there are additional ones. The mainstream Christian churches think of the others I’ve listed as heretical. In so far as Southern Baptists are fundamentalists then, they clearly don’t think of Jehovah Witnesses are fundamentalists.
Reference material for Flyer and anyone else with similar misconceptions about trinitarianism:
As I understand it, Jehovah’s Witnesses consider anyone who’s not a Jehovah’s witness to be ‘not a real Christian’.
So, no matter how much an outside observer might classify the Baptist and JW as being equally Christian, both the Baptists and JWs themselves are likely to disagree with this.
No reason to expect Jewish sects to behave differently from Christian sects in this regard. Here is one case. But for every such case you should be able to find one which did not result in divorce or ostracism.
It would be more interesting and more in line with the OP scenario to find out what happens if one partner switches to a rival sect. For example (just making this up) maybe to a Galician Jew someone agnostic or Hindu is bewilderingly alien, and maybe with time they will come to their senses, but if someone becomes a Lithuanian Jew, well, there is no way in hell that will be tolerated.
It is not clear from the article that the mother became non-observant before the divorce and that was the cause of the divorce.
I’ve personally not encountered it being a problem if the sects are at all close.
The big line in Christianity is probably Catholic/Protestant/Other. That Other line is pretty much too far for most in the other two groups, and the Protestant or Catholic line are too much for some but not all in the opposite group. It’s also just quite common for one to just convert for the other if they aren’t quite close enough.
I’ve heard of people who take the Trinitarian divide as extremely important, but this has never made sense to me. If the Trinity were directly in the Bible, sure. But it’s not. That’s not to say it’s a “wrong” belief or anything, but, if it’s not in the Bible itself, how important can it be?
I’ve always held that it’s just man’s imperfect interpretation, and that other interpretations are valid, including ones you actually sometimes get taught when people think they are teaching the Trinity (like the egg metaphor, which misses the trinitarian idea that each Person is 100% God, not a part of God.)
My experience is that divorce tends to be for the same sorts of reasons you always hear about–nothing special for believers. Even something like apostasy always seems to be a symptom of a greater issue.
I don’t know if you’re Jewish, so apologies if I’m explaining something you already know. For Conservative and Reform synagogues, there is no authoritative body that dictates what you must believe and what rituals you must perform. There is a huge amount of latitude. The conservative movement does approve individual synagogues to be officially recognized, but leaves a huge amount of control over many issues (such as, can nonJewish family members be buried in cemetery or what role do no Jewish family members play in services etc) to the individual congregations. If a congregation does go too far afield they may lose official affiliation, but they’d have to be quite off the beaten path from traditional Conservative practices.
As a result, even within a denomination (not really “sect”) you’ll see huge variance in practice. So, for many Jews, sliding between a Reform synagogue and a Conservative one might not be a big deal or show much difference in actual religious practice. For Modern Orthodox, which is a more insular community and more literal in their interpretations, moving away to Conservative or a Reform could likely be a huge deal. Some Conservative synagogues are practically orthodox (we call them Conservadox) that it may make little difference. Within a Hasidic community, it’s pretty unforgivable.
For the most part Judaism is more of a continuum than hard lines differences between denominations.