Does anyone out there know of any different faith marriages that have taken place and have actually worked out? What about the children if there are any. What faith would the children assume? I have a friend who is marrying a girl of a different faith and they both have conflicting views on many things - besides religion. I was just wondering if I’m the only person who thinks that he might be setting himself up for disaster. I’m not going to tell him this or intervene. I was just wondering if there is any evidence that this has worked out in the past.
Sure, it’s worked in the past.
The earth coalesced from a swirling ball of gas and dust in the past, too, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to your friend.
You have a unique opportunity here to be your friend’s coach and to help him make things work out. If he and his bride-to-be have significant differences, it probably won’t. That will just leave you there as the person who tried to help him work it out and then will help him recover. That’s what friends do.
On the issue of differences, though, relationships are like shoes. You can’t tell from the outside if they fit right.
Good luck to your friend and you.
I think an interfaith marriage CAN work… but only when at least one partner in the marriage doesn’t take his/her faith very seriously. If a nominal Catholic (who goes to Mass two or three times a year) marries a secular Jew (who never goes to the synagogue), there probably won’t be any problems.
Or if a devout Jewish woman marries a tepidly Protestant man who really doesn’t care what religion the kids are raised in (“if it’ll make your folks happy to have a bris and a bar mitzvah, okay by me”), that can work, too.
I think it’s a VERY serious mistake, however, for any devout person of any religion to marry someone who’s equally devoted to another faith.
I have a person that I know (I’m a stand-up comedian, and we have worked in the same circles a time or two) who is a good ole’ Southern Baptist. He married a Jewish girl. From Isreal. They’ve been married for several years now. I THINK they have a daughter, though I could be mistaken on that.
I’m an atheist and my husband is a Hindu. No problems so far.
Does anyone know how to get goat blood out of carpeting?
I have been married for eight years. We’ve been together for twelve years. We have a great marriage.
I was raised in a Reform Jewish household. I am an atheist who is culturally Jewish.
My wife was raised in a Born Again Christian household. She violently hates Christianity and is, if anything, an agnostic. Mostly she doesn’t give a shit.
Our agreement was that we would never celebrate any Christian holidays in our home. I hate Christmas and Easter but any details on that subject really belong in the Pit. She didn’t care either way. We agreed that the kids would be raised in a Jewish household but then we later decided not to have any kids at all. The point is that we had these discussions and came to agreements about which we were both happy. If you can’t come to agreements on these subjects, you shouldn’t get married. It will only get worse later.
Haj
My parents have been married twenty years now. Dad was Conservative Jewish and was more devoted to it in the past then he is now. mom has jumped around among several Protestant churches for several years, but she’s more interested in doing their landscaping than in religious pracitce (she loves gardening). Dad made us go to Sunday School at his Synagogue for nine years, then he stopped making us go. My older brother became an Atheist shortly thereafter and never looked back. I was agnostic, not really caring, for about ten years before I joined the local congregation in California.
Mrs. Spritle and I are still going strong. I’ll keep you posted. 
I agree with astorian. It depends on how strongly the two people feel about their religions. Notice that most of the success stories here involve couples who were not deeply involved in both religions. If someone doesn’t really practice their belief system, they really aren’t that different from someone who doesn’t believe in that faith at all.
You probably won’t hear from any devout Christian fundamentalists who are happy with passionately outspoken atheists. Sure, anything’s possible, but more often those sorts of pairings will end up going the way of Jane Fonda and Ted Turner. 
It’s worked for my marriage for nearly 18 years. The main sticking point was how to raise the kids: I’m an atheits born Jewish, she’s Roman Catholic, so she wanted them brought up in the church. I said, OK, provided I get to answer any questions they may ask of me, from my point of view.
My eldest is 14 now, and we have the BEST debates! Then she goes back to religious education class and drives the nuns crazy with her questions.
Mrs. KVS has a Jewish aunt who married a Christian (no idea how religious he is or was, or what denomination). The aunt became religious after she was married (in fact, she’s Lubavitch). They raised two daughters; both of them went to the local Lubavitch school, and are still religious. The aunt pretty much does her thing, and he does his. I can’t imagine how he feels, sinc his wife is very Lubavitch, and there are pictures of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe hanging all over the house.