A Journey In Black and Indian Love

A couple of days ago I got an email from a friend who’s been involved with an Indian guy for a number of years. To keep the story short and any identifying aspects of her out of the blog, religion and race are tearing them apart.  Her guy is Muslim and his family is refusing to sign the paperwork to allow them to marry because she’s non Indian. To read her email broke my heart. I could only imagine the pain she felt after having put so many years into building a love she thought would sustain through time.

Her situation sadly is not unique. Not just because of the race issue but because of the religious difference as well. Even in India, marrying someone of another faith is often frowned upon. Religion is something so intensely personal yet so many of the world’s battles have been started when religions are not the same. How can something so spiritual designed to bring us peace, bring so much war and hatred?

I’ve seen people get involved with someone of another religion in the hopes they could change it. I know of someone now whose father is a pastor and the idea of her marrying a Hindu male isn’t sitting so well with him. Her hope is that once her guy gets here, he will embrace Christianity.

What we seem to forget sometimes is that the very same way that we chose our religion (whether it be by assimilation through having grown up in the religion all of our life or by embracing a new faith after studying its principles) other people have the same experience. In other words, how would you feel if someone suddenly told you that what you have been taught all of your life or what you have come to embrace is wrong and that you should replace it with something more along the lines of their own thinking?

When M and I met, I knew he was Hindu. I also knew he has grown up in an Italian boarding school where Catholicism was taught. He knew I was the granddaughter of a Methodist minister who grew up in a Church of God Church (long story but my grandmother wasn’t the typical preacher’s wife. She chose her own faith). He knew I went to church regularly and I consider myself to be strong in my faith.

I was fortunate. M embraced going to church with me. I never told him his religion was wrong. I simply told him that he could not serve two Gods. In other words, he could not in my opinion have a clean heart saying that he believed in the holy Trinity and still visit the temple and embrace that faith when he went home.  I never ask him to go to church. He chooses to go on his own. I feel this is important when you have two people of different faiths. He’s never asked me to attend temple or embrace the teachings of Hinduism. He tells me about the gods when I ask but there’s never been a push on either of our sides to convert the other.  

Being in an intercultural marriage comes with so many important discussions that should be had. Religion is one of them. To avoid the subject could mean serious issues between you and your mate later. What happens if one of you begins to have a stronger walk in their faith while the other appears to have no interest? Would you be okay with that?  If you plan on having children, what religion are the children expected to embrace?  How is your family going to react to having a non-believer of their faith in their family? In India there are some temples I could not step foot in even if I wanted to because they are for Hindus only.

At the end of the day, no one can make the choice as to whether or not you should enter into an interreligious relationship but you. Family pressure may be there but no one can take the walk in faith but you. Many a successful person has been raised in mixed relationships. Until the next blog…