Can a Religious and Non religious relationship work?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

teacake wrote:

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Dude, where's your qualifiers?

It's a yes or no question, so I answered it that way.

But yes, I really do believe it can work. It depends on the personalities involved. There can be jerks, and nice people, in all persuasions (or lack thereof) of faith. That, not the beliefs themselves, is what is going to hurt or help the relationship.

Me, if I was madly in love with a woman who was atheist, I would not let it kill the possibility of a life together. It wouldn't turn me off. I certainly wouldn't spend all my time trying to convert her or anything like that. And I sure wouldn't berate her for not believing as I do. That's not the way to bring people to Christ.

Anyhoo, I can speak from a tiny bit of experience, growing up with a Lutheran father and a Catholic stepmother. They never fought (although my stepmom did used to give me some extremely good natured jabbing when I brought home a copy of Luther's Small Catechism ), so why should this be any different? Think about it.

[Star Wolf]

teacake wrote:

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It depends on each person being able to be happy for the other person having beliefs that work for them and not desiring to change the other person.

It's not going to work if one person is stressed out that the other person is sucked in/believes nonsense. And it's not going to work if one person is stressed out that the other person is going to hell.

More fraught issues come up if you have children.

Pretty much ends the thread right there.

For the record when I came to faith I by choice tried to limit myself to fellow believers, my wife's branch of the faith is a bit less accommodating and her fundamentalist still holler about Vatican II making folks of her generation more likely to stray from their church's preferred path.

[BillJ]

The only thing my wife has ever asked of me concerning religion is that I go with her to church on Christmas every year. Which I gladly do since it makes her happy.

[teacake]

BillJ wrote:

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The only thing my wife has ever asked of me concerning religion is that I go with her to church on Christmas every year. Which I gladly do since it makes her happy.

And I bet they have especially good cookies afterwards.

[Gul Re'jal]

Depends on people.

I have religious friends and I can't recall even one who didn't offend me, an atheist, at least once, either intentionally or unintentionally. I have also friends who believe in God but don't subscribe to any religion and don't follow any religious rules and I never had any conflicts with them.

So I guess I could be with a believer, but not with a religious person. For causal acquaintances it would work, but not someone that close to me. Sooner or later it would cause problems.

But it could work for others.