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REASONS FOR PROHIBITION Most religions prohibit interreligious marriage. Such prohibitions have a number of reasons:
When a man and a woman professing different religions want to marry, they seldom can do so without disobeying both of these religions. They have then the following possibilities, apart from abandoning the idea:
VIEWS OF RELIGIONS ON INTERRELIGIOUS MARRIAGE Judaism Orthodox Judaism strictly forbids interreligious marriage as well as any sexual intercourse with a member of a different faith. Intermarriage is seen as a deliberate rejection of Judaism , and an intermarried person is effectively cut off from most of the Orthodox community. However, some Chabad Lubavitch and Modern Orthodox Jews do reach out to intermarried Jews Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism (known internationally as Progressive Judaism ) discourage intermarriage, but, since they do not view Halacha as binding, have no mechanism for legal prohibition of the practice in the manner of the Conservative and Orthodox movements. Progressive rabbinical associations have no blanket prohibition on their members officiating at intermarriages. As a result, some Progressive Rabbis do perform such weddings without fear of the sanction faced by their Conservative counterparts. Intermarried Progressive Jews are encouraged to raise their children in the Jewish faith, and to become part of the local Jewish community, even if the Gentile partner does not convert to Judaism. Gentile spouses of Jews are welcome in Progressive synagogues as long as they do not Proselytise . See also Reform Views On Intermarriage . In addition to being prohibited by Jewish law and custom, intermarriage is often criticised by Rabbi s and other community leaders as demographically harming the Jewish people, since relatively few children of mixed marriages are raised as Jews. In the U.S. the Jewish community has decreased dramatically due to high rates of intermarriage, low rates of Jewish education and the late ages of marriage. This last trend leads to later ages of childbirth and fewer children being born. For every 20 Jews, there are now only 17 Jewish children. On this topic Elliot N. Dorff writes: : is now a major demographic crisis for the Jewish community. Nothing less than the future of the Jewish community and of Judaism depends upon fertile Jews having three or four children per couple. We as a people are in deep demographic trouble. We lost one-third of our numbers during the Holocaust ....The currant Jewish reproductive rate among American Jews between 1.6 and 1.7. That statistic means we are killing ourselves off as a people....This social imperative has made propagation arguably the most important Mitzvah of our time....To refuse to try to have them, or to plan to have only one or two is to refuse to accept one of God's great gifts. It is also to renege on the duty we all have to create the next generation. . . " This is My Friend, This is My Beloved Conservative Judaism rejects intermarriages as being a violation of Halakha , and as causing severe demographic harm to the Jewish people. Conservative rabbis are not allowed to perform intermarriages. However, the Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism has a more nuanced understanding of this issue than does Orthodoxy. The Conservative movement has stated: :In the past, intermarriage...was viewed as an act of rebellion, a rejection of Judaism. Jews who intermarried were essentially Excommunicated . But now, intermarriage is often the result of living in an open society....If our children end up marrying non-Jews, we should not reject them. We should continue to give our love and by that retain a measure of influence in their lives, Jewishly and otherwise. Life consists of constant growth and our adult children may yet reach a stage when Judaism has new meaning for them. However, the marriage between a Jew and non-Jew is not a celebration for the Jewish community. We therefore reach out to the couple with the hope that the non-Jewish partner will move closer to Judaism and ultimately choose to convert. Since we know that over 70 percent of children of intermarried couples are not being raised as Jews...we want to encourage the Jewish partner to maintain his/her Jewish identity, and raise their children as Jews. Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism, Statement on Intermarriage. Adopted on March 7, 1995 Jewish Law prohibits conversion to Judaism merely for the purpose of marriage, but, outside of Orthodoxy, people who express a sincere interest in Judaism that was sparked by a desire to marry Jews are generally welcomed as proselytes. Samaritanism Samaritan men are allowed to marry women outside their community, on the condition that the wife accept the Samaritans' practices. This lies short of conversion and can qualify as interreligious marriage. The decision to allow this kind of marriage has been taken in modern times to keep the Samaritan community from dying out of genetic disease. Christianity Many Christians believe that anyone has the freedom to choose her or his partner for life, and that love has no boundaries. This attitude is found most often among those who may be identified as "nominal" Christians. Some Christian denominations forbid interreligious marriage. The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints , sometimes referred to as the "Mormon" church, does not forbid interreligious marriage, but such marriages cannot be performed in special buildings called Temples , where the faithful believe they can be sealed, or married for not only their lifetimes but for time and all eternity. Temples, once dedicated, are open to only faithful members of the Church. Thus interreligious marriages are seen as lasting only the duration of the couple's mortal life, rather than eternity. Non-Mormon partners have a relatively high rate of conversion to Mormonism. It is believed that to receive eternal life the children of god need to be married for all eternity. Bahá'í Faith According to the Bahá'í Faith , all religions are inspired by God, therefore interreligious marriage is allowed. In that case, the Bahá'í Ceremony should be performed, and the non-Bahá'í rite or ceremony can also be performed. If it is the case that both ceremonies are performed, the non-Bahá'í ceremony should not invalidate the Bahá'í ceremony and it should be made clear to all that the Bahá'í partner is a Bahá'í and is not accepting the religion of the other partner by going through with the ceremony. The Bahá'í partner should also abstain from undertaking any vows or statements that commit the Bahá'í to any declaration of faith in another religion or that are contrary to the principles of the Bahá'í Faith. The two ceremonies should happen on the same day, but the order is not important. The Bahá'í ceremony may be performed in the place of worship of the other religion provided that it is given equal respect to that of the non-Bahá'í ceremony and is clearly distinct from the non-Bahá'í ceremony. Hinduism Hinduism permits both inter-religious marriages, although inter-caste marriages are often frowned upon, due to the caste system, which has evolved differently from Hinduism. It does allow Hindus to marry members of different faiths, e.g., Jain s, and there are numerous laws in the Indian legal system, concerning inter-faith marriage. Examples of such marriages occasionally appear in Kipling 's stories. Islam Islam permits certain forms of interreligious marriages. Only a man may marry a non-Muslim, and only if she is Christian, Jewish or other Dhimmi . The wife need not adopt any Muslim customs, and the husband is not allowed to keep her from going to Church or Synagogue . One of Muhammad 's wives was Christian Copt ( Maria Al-Qibtiyya ) and another was Jewish ( Safiyya Bint Huyayy ). Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslims under any circumstances. The child of a Muslim man is automatically also a Muslim. HISTORY OF INTERRELIGIOUS MARRIAGE INTERRELIGIOUS MARRIAGES IN THE BIBLE Even though Orthodox Judaism does not allow intermarriages, the Bible mentions a number of these among the Hebrews. The marriages of the Patriarchs cannot be considered interreligious as there were no Hebrew women to marry. It is true that even for the first Jews it was considered proper to marry relatives, and the Bible disapproves of Ismael and Judah , who married local maids instead. However, this was most probably because they endangered the survival of the tribe and not because they mixed with pagans. The first actually interreligious marriage mentioned is that of Moses . Generations later, the sons of Naomi married Ruth the Moabite and her sister. It is unclear whether they converted to the pagan Moabite religion. Ruth, on the other hand, had already converted to Judaism before she married Boaz . The Biblical character most notorious for interreligious marriages was perhaps king Solomon . Many of his 700 wives were non-Hebrew and not only continued their pagan practices, but also tempted Solomon to participate therein. Later on, in Babylonian Captivity many members of aristocratic Hebrew families married local women. After some of these returned to their homeland, Ezra condemned these intermarriages and attempted to force such families to divorce. It is not clear whether he succeeded, however, many scholars agree that it was those husbands that wrote or edited the Book of Ruth. Paul Of Tarsus is often interpreted as forbidding the interreligious marriage of Christians in the sixth chapter of 2 Corinthians . FAMOUS INTERRELIGIOUS MARRIAGES Notably, in delineating and Tamar, and of Ruth and Boaz , mentioned above, as well as Rahab , the prostitute of Jerich who aided the Israelites in taking that city, with the Israelite prince Salmon. REFERENCES
EXTERNAL SITES
: Statement on Intermarriage. Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism |
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