Thursday, August 14, 2008

Thoughts from an atheist-Christian marriage

Most emails that Cori and I receive concerning our blogs are from readers who are interested in our cross-faith marriage. I am an atheist; Cori is a Christian. How do we make it work?

From all the emails that we have received, it seems as if many couples are struggling with cross-faith issues, and in the last few months alone, both Cori and I - in our immediate circle - have met several friends who are embarking on relationships where one partner is a Christian and the other a non-believer.

Cori has written a recent blog post here about our marriage. Take a read of it, she always seems to express this issue much better than I ever could :-)

Cori has also written about this topic before. I've also written a previous post about our marriage here.

5 comments:

CyberKitten said...

Is your sucessful relationship partially because you are an *ex* Christian? I wonder if things would've worked out as well for you both if you had never believed?

Just a interesting thought.....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link, Kevin. I am in that situation.

I suppose our marriage still works because I am not a hard-core atheist and he is not a fanatical Christian.

Personally, I don't see how it would work otherwise.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I don't really talk about it. I've been an atheist since day 1. She goes to church occasionally on Sundays...but I stay at home.

Kevin said...

Thank you for all your comments so far.

Cyberkitten wrote
I wonder if things would've worked out as well for you both if you had never believed?

Very good question, Cyberkitten! The answer, I think, is no. When Cori and I first met, I was still a Christian, and at the time we both still believed that the only suitable partners were those who believed as we did. If I was an atheist to begin with, I don’t think it would have worked out.

Lorena wrote
I suppose our marriage still works because I am not a hard-core atheist and he is not a fanatical Christian.

This is also one of the factors, I think, that enables us to make it work. I mention it in my other article on this subject (one of the links at the bottom of this post).

All the best
Kevin

Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin,
I think this is a very interesting topic as I believe it would be difficult for me to have a relationship with someone who believed in any form of the supernatural.
I would find almost impossible, especially as I never really believed, even as a young child it just seemed so...fraudulent, mythical.
Although if you can manage to make it work, have a loving caring considerate partnership, etc. then good on you both. It's just that I would struggle!!!
Very good site and topics.
Regards,
Zee