Not being a religous sort myself I was nonetheless a little put out to learn that the Catholic church would not allow me to marry my Lutheran gf. Would refuse to recognise it
and I would go straight to hell etc. etc.
The Lutheran church would recognise and bless our union but would not actaully marry us.
Such a load of …
Still it seemed important for family reasons so we had the silly blessing thing which in reality amounts to nothing of import.
I’m fairly sure my parents will be perfectly happy with Jewish grandchildren. Grandkids are grandkids, ya know. Hopefully other family members will be ok with it too. Scott ate last year’s Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandparent’s house and met all my close relations, and they seemed to like him. They are pretty tolerant.
Not that it’s the same situation, but when I went to Chicago to visit Scott’s parents during the winter break, they gave me a present, labeled as a Christmas present instead of labeling it for Chanukah.
Scott is concerned with confusing any future children by celebrating both the typical Christian holidays and the Jewish holy days. You seem to have not had this problem. Did your children ever tell you they wanted to convert to Christianity?
Well, I’ll be back. I have to go eat ice cream with the deans. Oh darn.
bump Just looking for more stories!
I (formerly Episcopalian) married a Reform Jewish guy almost 20 years ago. (We looked into the ecumenical thing,but got bogged down with the details and ended up using a judge.) My mom was okay with this marriage, his parents were not thrilled. I think they would have come around eventually anyway, but it helped quite a bit when we decided that the children would be raised Jewish.
This was my idea, not my husband’s. He wasn’t sure he wanted to put his kids through religious school (he remembered grim,boring Saturdays.) But I prevailed. Growing up in NY, I knew so many ‘hybrids’ (esp Jewish/Catholic) whose parents let them choose; they chose nothing, and were adrift with this mixed-up identity.
So. I took a few classes, learned a lot, have never converted but feel almost Jewish. The kids’ religious school is on Sunday instead of Saturday. (Yay!) We go to services, we have had one bar mitzvah. I truly enjoy services. Despite my not converting, the kids are Reform Jewish, the only way they would be not be considered Jewish is if they became interested in marrying an Orthodox girl.
We still do Christmas, never did Easter until my brother married and had kids, now we often celebrate over there.
For my kids, when they were 4 and 5, there definitely was a bit of confusion over celebrating these Christian holidays, (never mind the fact that many attributes of Christmas and Easter existed long before Christianity.) My kids would ask why I “made” them be Jewish instead of Christian, and I am sure that my inability to give up Christmas contributed to this. But they got over it. I myself still feel a bit guilty every December, but I just love Christmas traditions and can’t give them up.
Best of luck to you two!
It sounds like you’re OK with your family, and his family is trying hard to accept you as one of their own. With some work, you should be able to make a go of this. Congratulations!
The only other advice I can offer is to teach them that different people have different ways of worship. Just because Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary do it differently than Aunt Tatiana and Uncle Mordechai doesn’t mean one is wrong or better than the other. They are still all wonderful people.
[sub]Are Tatiana and Mordechai traditional jewish names? I don’t really know.[/sub]
I can’t let this one go by…
Can’t you just turn them both into newts? 
Yeah. I think that if he tried to force me to give up Christmas, then our relationship would suffer. I’d resent the fact that he’s forcing me to give up something so important. Not that presents are important, but it’s tradition, ya know.
PS. I think Tatiana is more of a porn name, but I could be wrong. No offense to any Tatiana’s on the boards!
Not really that much difference between my wife and I. She’s Protestant (Methodist)and I’m Roman Catholic. We both go to different services when our schedule allows, and the kids just go with the flow.
Basically, the kids are raised on a medley of mainline, by-the-book Protestantism and weird Spanish-based Roman Catholic rituals and traditions.
Halloween was one point of contention in our early days of bringing up our first son, but I convinced my straight-laced, God-fearing WASP spouse that it’s all in good fun and not to take it too seriously.
There’s not really a chasm between us and our faiths. It’s almost like prefering to shop at Wal-Mart or K-Mart. I don’t attach any significance in our religious differences, and neither does she. The few times some of her church companions brought it up to me, in an attempt to convert me over, were met with a firm lecture by me on religious tolerance. We’re an interracial and interfaith marraige and family. If people don’t like that, then tough darts, there’s the door.
However, in my house, I have banned my kids from using rosary beads as cowboy lassos and dog snares. Some things you just gotta take a stand on.
Well, we just had our first expedition into the engagement ring hunt. So far, there’s nothing particularly Jewish about it.
That’s another issue. I will go with the (impending) family to services. I just don’t know if I’ll concern myself with going to church on Sunday mornings. They don’t make it easy. Services at 9am?? But that’s sleeping time!