Soulless Soul Mates

Studies do show, unsurprisingly, that religious homogamy?the extent to which married couples share the same religious beliefs and participate jointly in religious practices?is reliably, and inversely, associated with relationship discord. The greater the disparity in belief and practice, the less stable the marriage. But in this increasingly secular society of ours, a gross match in belief or disbelief in God may do just fine. In fact, there?s a growing trend in which exact denomination matters considerably less for marital satisfaction than does the degree or type of belief. Unless she?s from Northern Ireland, for example, a Protestant woman should get on better with a Catholic man than a Jewish one, since only one of these people is waiting patiently on the Messiah. Still, Protestants may have more in common with religious Jews than they do with strident atheists, and of course a Christian-Jewish wedding might end in bliss. This wasn?t always the case?not so long ago, Christian lawgivers deemed copulating with Jews and other unrighteous souls equivalent to bestiality, and Jews historically haven?t been fans of mixed marriages, either. (I tell you this as Yishai, the watered-down Jew sired by a lapsed Lutheran.) But times are changing. And the above trend works for those on the depleted end of the religious belief scale, too. A shoulder-shrugging agnostic or lukewarm ?spiritual but not religious? person, for instance, would probably be able to tolerate an atheist spouse better than a dead-set Muslim could ever hope to do.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=70fce16f4fa963ed54e2e0a7ab9c15c6

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