Interfaith Marriages in America (original) (raw)
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A Leap of Faith: Interreligious Marriage in America
The Berkley Center’s 2008 Undergraduate Fellows Program provided a select group of ten Georgetown undergraduate students with the resources to study interreligious marriages in America. Starting in January 2008, the Fellows elected project managers and defined specific roles and responsibilities within the team. They met bi-weekly throughout the year to discuss the developments and progress of their research and analysis. They interviewed forty-five different couples focusing on the challenges and benefits that arise within interreligious marriage on a personal level to provide qualitative insights to this growing area of research. The interviews were divided into four religious combinations: Jewish–Christian, Muslim–Christian, Hindu–Christian, and Buddhist–Christian. With directing and editing assistance from Dean Chester Gillis, the director of the Program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue; Erika B. Seamon, a Ph.D. student in Religious Pluralism; and Melody Fox Ahmed, Program Manager at the Berkley Center, the Fellows developed the following report. The Fellows hope to provide insight into the lives of people that practice religious tolerance daily and hope that these findings will not only provide further information about the challenges and benefits of interreligious marriage but will also offer a micro-level view of religious tolerance that can be a model of global dynamics.
The idea of interfaith marriage connotes a marriage between individuals amid different religions which entails two spouses who follow a different religious tradition in contrast to his or her partner (Riley, 2013). The purpose of the study is to uncover the experiences, perceived psychological well-being, and perceived marital satisfaction of couples from interfaith marriages. The study interviewed five couples engaged in an interfaith marriage via one-on-one in-depth interview who were identified through snowball sampling. and Factors Affecting Marital Satisfaction. Based on the data gathered by the researchers, the diverse religious heritage of married interfaith couples does not profoundly influence their marriage as the participants generally perceived their marriage as a blissful one despite their different religious perspectives. In conclusion, the researchers claim that even with the consequences of interfaith marriages, interfaith couples are individually more open and diverse especially with regards to their religious faith and beliefs as they are able to observe, appreciate and respect their spouse's religion.
At the beginning of the 21st century, about 40% percent of Catholics were married to non-Catholic Christians in North America, according to the national survey of the Center for Marriage and Family in 1995. Nearly 40 years ago, over 50% to 61% of Catholic marriages in Australia and New Zealand were already mixed marriages, compared to 70% in England. Given such significant and increasing number of mixed marriages involving Catholics across the continents, interchurch marriage has been identified as a phenomenon requiring detailed surveys and studies by the Church through ecumenical dialogues with other Christian churches, as well as leveraging on insights gained by scholarship through their own surveys and studies.
The idea of interfaith marriage connotes a marriage between individuals amid different religions which entails two spouses who follow a different religious tradition in contrast to his or her partner (Riley, 2013). The purpose of the study is to uncover the experiences, perceived psychological well-being, and perceived marital satisfaction of couples from interfaith marriages. The study interviewed five couples engaged in an interfaith marriage via one-on-one in-depth interview who were identified through snowball sampling. Thematic analysis was also utilized for the data analysis. As a result, the researchers came up with eight major themes which were extracted from the data given by the participants of the study, that is to say: Honouring One’s In-Laws, Marital Conflicts, Marital Conflict Resolution, Children’s Religious Formation, Perceived Sense of Happiness, Factors Affecting Psychological Well-Being, Sense of Optimism and Factors Affecting Marital Satisfaction. Based on the data gathered by the researchers, the diverse religious heritage of married interfaith couples does not profoundly influence their marriage as the participants generally perceived their marriage as a blissful one despite their different religious perspectives. In conclusion, the researchers claim that even with the consequences of interfaith marriages, interfaith couples are individually more open and diverse especially with regards to their religious faith and beliefs as they are able to observe, appreciate and respect their spouse’s religion. Keywords: interfaith marriages, experiences, well-being, marital satisfaction
This article addresses the relationship between religious and/or cultural affiliation and attitudes toward cross-cultural and interfaith relationships among university students in Australia. The questions of interest were as follows: (1) what is the relationship between the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and attitudes toward interfaith dating and marriages, and (2) how do the participants perceive their religious backgrounds to impact on their decisions to enter or avoid cross-cultural and interfaith relationships? Using semistructured interviews, qualitative data were gathered from 57 students (42 women, 15 men, mean age 21.9 [SD 8.8]). The findings suggest that university students in Australia (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) are generally disinclined to engage in a cross-cultural or interfaith relationship. Only some participants in the present study were open to engaging in a cross-cultural and interfaith relationship, provided the partner was neither too religious nor demanded for the participants to change in any way. However, none of these participants was actively searching for a partner of a different culture or faith. Finally, there was a clear reluctance by non-Muslim participants to be with a Muslim partner.
Muslim Marriages in America: Reflecting New Identities
The Muslim World, 2005
M arriage among Muslims in America reflects varying degrees of movement beyond ethnic or national origin traditions. How strongly Muslims born or raised in the United States identify with the cultural heritage of their immigrant parents affects the choices they make with respect to marriage. 1 Although it is often difficult for their parents to accept, young Muslims in America sometimes arrange their own marriages and marry outside of their ethnic communities. Even though they usually stay within an Islamic framework, these marriages, even those arranged through family and friends, depart from ethnic patterns in several important ways. Emphasizing their religious identities often gives young Muslims in America increasing control over mate selection, wedding plans, and determination of mehr. 2 To find out whom Sunni Muslim immigrants are marrying in Houston, Texas, I interviewed immigrants of various national origins and their children, Houston Muslims with origins in India,
Original Articles Marital Trends in the American Muslim Community: A Pilot Study
In this study, 751 American Muslims completed a survey that investigated their attitudes about marriage, divorce, and marital counseling, considering three primary factors: gender, generational level, and ethnicity. The sample's marriage rate was 44.5% (n = 333); the divorce rate was 21.3%. The study highlighted the strong influence of generational level while downplaying the role of ethnic-ity and gender. First-generation participants had a higher marriage rate, were more likely to be married within the same generational level and same ethnicity, and had the lowest percentage of marital age gap of less than 5 years. The study also provided a glimpse into the reasons behind marital dissatisfaction, divorce, and not being married, and compared attitudes toward marital and premarital counseling.
Perceived Spousal Religiosity and Marital Quality across Racial and Ethnic Groups
The relationship between the perceived religiosity of one’s spouse and marital quality varies across racial and ethnic groups (i.e., Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Whites) in the United States. Data are drawn from a nationally representative sample of married Americans (N = 1,162). Although perceived spousal religiosity predicted higher marital quality across all racial and ethnic groups, this effect was stronger for Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics than for Whites. Compared to Whites, the three racial and ethnic minority groups experienced a larger boost in frequency of expressive forms of love as perceived spousal religiosity increases. This effect was also found regarding marital satisfaction for Asians and Blacks relative to Whites, but not for Hispanics. Moreover, although racial and ethnic minorities tended to report lower marital quality than Whites at low levels of perceived spousal religiosity, their marital quality tended to be higher than Whites at high levels of perceived spousal religiosity. Three-way interactions indicated that these trends hold regardless of gender.