Mormon married to Muslim - interfaith marriages

In My Humble Opinion
61

I didn’t assume jack, mister. I asked a few questions based on what you posted here. And your last posting shows that you don’t understand my comments about the priesthood.

Of course, the church does not excommunicate people for inter-faith marriage. In case it’s escaped your notice, LDS bishops can, and have, performed such marriages.

What the church does excommunicate people for is apostasy. What you pretend the church’s teachings regarding the priesthood line of authority and what it actually is are two very different things. Read again what Collounsbury said.

And read again my comments about the temple rites. You really are being selfish if you continue to work in the temple.

62

Sorry you feel so disgusted, but if we assumed anything, it’s because you gave us precious little to go on. If we developed a “false potrait” it’s because you weren’t around to set us straight. How the hell am I supposed to know what your intentions are unless you tell me? Until you explain yourself and provide the details, all I can do is guess.

Based on what you told us in your OP, it sounded like you were deliberately deceiving your bride-to-be about your religion, so it’'s hardly surprising that we didn’t give you a round of applause and a pat on the back.

Anyway, you say that your wife now knows you’re not a muslim, and that she’s okay with it. Great.

You say that you’re all very happy, that your family knows you’re a Mormon, and that even your church is apparently fine with it. Fantastic.

Everything sounds just fine, then. Congratulations on your wedding, I hope it all continues to go wonderfully for you.

However I can’t help but wonder what the whole point of this thread was. If religion isn’t an issue for you (and it apparently isn’t an issue for your wife either) then I don’t think your interfaith marriage will run into many problems on that front.

Bib

63

Monty, it seems that you believe I accept Muhammad as the final Prophet of God. Perhaps this is where the misunderstanding is coming through - I do not believe Muhammad is the final prophet of God or even a prophet of God in the line of prophets of the Revealed Gospel. Muhammad was a messenger - inspired to some degree by God - but not a prophet. So my belief in the succession of prophets is exactly as the Church teaches. The reason I was upset is because I never said anything to indicate I believed Muhammad was the last prophet or even a prophet. (Although, I do know of some LDS who do believe Muhammad is a prophet.) Anyway, if you and I have an issue to discuss, we can do so privately.

Perhaps I should have explained more. In the beginning I felt I should not have to explain or justify anything - what I do is my business, and as long as no one gets hurt then there should be no cause for concern.

I was raised not to assume anything about anyone, and perhaps I thought others would believe in the same. I try never to guess a person’s intentions unless I know all the circumstances of the person’s situation. But perhaps that’s another one of my quirky ways. I did learn a lot from this exchange.

Anyway, my rant for today stops here. :slight_smile:

WRS

64

Well bucko, laying aside your self serving self pitying, you asked for insights.

That is, you asked for others to comment. Given the manner in which it was presented, and that you asked for opinions, you’ve got noone to blame but yourself for having attracted approbium.

What you do is your own bloody business, but when you ask for inputs, don’t be surprised when self-serving rationalizations get knocked around a bit.

Insofar as your OP and subsequent weaseling replies left it open to whether your new wife knew of and accepted your eccentric approach to religion, and left it open as to whether you had been honest with her, and insofar as you asked about cross-cultural and/or mixed religion marraiges, the responses were on point.

Now, you can whinge on about that, or you can admit there is something fishy in all this.

As I said previously, I could care less if you worship purple fish, but having clarity and honesty on these points are important. Moreover, I will note that your new wife may very well be in a position where she feels she has to suck up things she does not like due to the immigration issues and fact she has left her land to come to her new husband. Humiliation may be the least of her worries. Your self-indulgent self congratulation rather sweeps under the carpet a number of issues.

Frankly, I think your marriage is fucked from the start, but it’s your life.

65

WeRSauron said, "I did not do this for myself - I did this out of a sense of obligation to my family, culture, and greater cultural community. "

Would that be the Muslim community or the LDS community?

66

Aaah…quirky you again! Quirky! Quirky! Quirky! You may believe in a god or gods, and that’s fine. But your presentation of yourself as a Muslim and LDS is blatantly inaccurate. You consider yourself part of a dozen religions, yet none of them would take you as a member if they knew The Big Picture regarding your beliefs, i.e., you don’t actually accept any of them in their entirety.

You gave a partial picture of who your quirky self is, and then complain that people are making judgements. You are behaving like a child. I hope your wife knows what she’s getting into.

By the way…who married you? Is it a legal marriage or a marriage in a god’s eyes only?

67

WRS: You explicitly stated that you consider yourself Muslim. That means someone who accepts Muhammed as the seal of the prophets. Your continued false accusations against me of assuming things does not erase the fact that Islam is a religion and that a follower of Islam is called a Muslim. What you posted in this thread was that you were not aware that your wife understood that you are not Muslim, although you continued to harp at us that you consider yourself to be such in addition to being LDS. Others besides Collounsbury and I have explicitily explained to you that such a thing is not possible. There is no condemnation of Islam, no condemnation of your wife, and no condemnation of your family here. I don’t give a rat’s good hind end about your particular religious views–those are yours. What I do care about is the stunt you’re pulling if you are, in fact, a temple worker. What you’ve posted here is far away from the ideals expected of someone who is to perform any ordinances at all in the Church, let alone those in the Temple.

Finally, Collounsbury and I both asked you questions and explained our view rationally and grounded in the knowledge we each have of our particular faith traditions. You got yourself in a pickle and, from what you posted, your wife also. It’s nice that you’re able to rationalize away your views of both faiths, but whilst you’re performing ordinances for others, you’re rationalizing your actions in regards to them without their permission.

And from the totality of your posts in this thread, I’ve come to the conclusion, not the assumption, that you do stuff for and to others without their permission. Two other things have obviously escaped your notice:

[list][li][…]Let them wroship how, where, or what they may.[/li][li]We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men […][/li][/quote]

Do you recognize those? Those who are going through the ordinances in the temple are entitled to have those performed by someone who was honest with his bishop, stake president, and temple president. From what you’ve posted here, there’s no way that you were honest with them if you are, in fact, a temple worker. By your selfish act, you are denying others the right to worship “how […] they may.” By your dishonest act in regards to your interview for being set apart as a temple worker, you manipulated the church for your own end.

Feel free to respond here or in the Pit. Whichever suits yourself, obviously.

68

Kalhoun - my community of my culture, which transcends religion. Or should. It’s up to debate.

By the way, I should say that a number of people who replied to this thread are people I absolutely adore. They’re smart, knowledgeable, intelligent, etc. Thanks for your insight (even if I may not totally agree with it). :slight_smile: I still love y’all!

Well, gotta go get my handbasket ready! :wink:

WRS

69

I need to correct one thing in my posting above (I can’t correct the coding error):

Should read (corrections in italics:

70

Monty, my man, perhaps yes, perhaps no. :slight_smile:

[Sauron] Exercising Our prerogative, We deign to end this debate with disaffected parties here or elsewhere. The Eye has spoken. [/Sauron]

WRS

71

(cough) Cop Out! (cough)

72

Thank God for that, then. Sorry you didn’t hear what you wanted to.

73

Kalhoun - yes, indeed! We believe in strategic redeployment, not retreat; We believe in withdrawing from unnecessary conflict, not losing. It’s all semantics anyway. :wink:

Bibliovore (one of the posters I really like, BTW) - you’re most welcome! :wink:

WRS

74

WRS: How about believing in telling your temple president about your personal beliefs?

75

When you say “we”, are you referring to you and your imaginary Muhammad? You know, the one that doesn’t care that you’re a christian?

76

WeRSauron - I hope it works out for you, I really do. If you have any questions about Islamic issues, don’t let the results of this thread put you off - you go right ahead and ask in another thread. I’m sure Monty will be glad to help with the Mormon stuff, right Monty? :smiley:

On preview, Kalhoun, maybe if the guy wants to let the matter drop, we should just let it drop. No point flogging a dead horse, huh?

77

[Sauron] Exercising Our prerogative, We deign to end this debate with disaffected parties here or elsewhere. The Eye has spoken. [/Sauron]

Just so y’all get the point. Unless comments are being made without the poster caring it will be answered.

WRS

78

Yup. You’re right. The horse done died. Sorry…

79

Thanks, Bibliovore.

You guys have no idea how thankful I am that this board exists. I have learned soooooooooooo much from the people and threads here.

The two major observations I have made are:

  1. The world is weirder than anyone can imagine. Helps me feel more normal or at least not as weird.

  2. There are some really wonderful and knowledgeable people out there.

I think I’d be foolish to attach a person’s personal comments to a person’s knowledge bank. Even jerks can be phenomenal resources. No one here’s been a jerk - yet - though. :slight_smile:

WRS

80

Collounsbury: When it comes to the Arab world, you totally rule.

Looks like you could use a little help being brought up to speed on South Asia including the Urdu-speaking areas. Jomo, knowing Urdu, would like to assist.

The Arabic word for Islamic prayer, as you correctly pointed out, is salât. Regardless, in the Persian language it’s called namâz. This word is also used in Urdu, Turkish, and all the various Indic and Turkic languages in addition to Persian.

In general, Persian language and culture are greatly influential over the whole Islamic world to the east and north of the Arab lands (with the exception of the Far East).*

*Iraq is an Arab country that has absorbed a bit more Persian linguistic influence than the other Arab countries.

In the Malay language, the word for salât is sembah-yang. I wonder what the Hui Muslims call it in Chinese. Anyone?

The Persian word namâz is etymologically related to the Sanskrit word namas (as in the greeting namasté); both words mean ‘bowing’ in reverence, from the Proto-Indo-European root *nemo ‘to bow’.

As you know, the Arabic word salât is etymologically derived from the idea of bending the lower back, i.e. bowing, referring to the action of the prayer. In Persian, namâz is a translation of that concept. Urdu is totally full of Persian loanwords.

So much for the digression. WeRSauron, who am I to judge, but it looks like you may have major honesty issues. If, as you say, you are so committed to upholding traditional family values, well in marriage honesty and building mutual trust are central to the whole thing being able to work. It looks like you are maybe not even being honest with yourself.

We are not saying this to give you a hard time, but because you are broadcasting serious danger signs that bode ill for a marriage. For the love of God, dude, come clean with the Mrs. and treat her as your equal partner, not as a subordinate who can be kept in the dark. The sooner you have this all out in the open, the better. Deal with it immediately. You are setting yourself up for a disastrous train wreck of a life otherwise.