From the Editors August 19, 2013 ISSUE

Interfaith marriage

The Editors

A new book ‘Til Faith Us Do Part: How Interfaith Marriage is Transforming America (Oxford University Press) reveals that in the last decade, 45 percent of all marriages in the United States were between people of different faith traditions. 

Although this significant trend presents many challenges to the individuals concerned and to society, author Naomi Schaefer Riley, a former Wall Street Journal editor, sees it as a source of hope. It encourages openness and tolerance among religious communities that historically have been insular and suspicious of other faiths.

Not for a moment does Riley suggest that the differences among religions can be ignored or papered over. Ironically, it is faith itself that leads to unifying solutions and lasting mutual understanding.

How different are the worlds (138 years apart) in which Riley did her research and wide-ranging interviews, and in which Mary Baker Eddy, founder of this magazine, wrote a chapter on marriage in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Yet, across these worlds and over the years, the complexities, compromises, and trade-offs involved in marriage have remained pretty much the same, along with the solutions provided by trust in a God who is Love.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it.” Part of that enlargement and enrichment, she observes, lies in the way that feminine and masculine qualities “conjoin naturally with each other, and their true harmony is in spiritual oneness” (p. 57 ).

Unity of thought and purpose is a good starting point when people of any faith pray as they approach marriage. Together they can consider what they have in common in God’s all-embracing love, accepting that their relationship in marriage remains secondary to their individual relationship with God.

Nothing, of course, precludes different tastes in pursuits such as music, reading, dancing, and even food. Nothing should prevent a couple from cherishing everything that makes another human being distinctive—not only in what can be seen and admired, but in what remains unusual for them.

Unity of thought and purpose is a good starting point.

But if such differences bring disunity to a relationship, the couple’s shared love of God refreshes the moral and spiritual values that restore harmony. Discussion can take place in a climate where partners recognize that the Father-Mother has a perfect plan for each of them—where, as Mrs. Eddy’s chapter on marriage emphasizes, there is always “the most tender solicitude for each other’s happiness,” along with “mutual attention and approbation” (p. 59 ).

What is essential is that both parties view the blessings of marriage as a gift from God, whose supporting, transforming love for all of His children shows “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17 )—whether the partnership is a blend of faiths or not.

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