Step out on Jesus & you might find a husband
For some of us, the chances of being married while our eggs are still market fresh are sketchy. That's established. But as someone who spends, oh I don't know, three quarters of my time in the church, I know how much more limited the search for love is when it comes to finding available men in God's house.
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It's a ghost town, ladies. If you're not saved already, don't get right with Jesus thinking thou shall stumble upon a husband at the altar (seriously, how handy would that be?). Maybe if you're Lutheran or Catholic, but I know the Methodist dating scene is blowing tumbleweeds and growing cacti.
With male to female ratios higher in the produce aisle than they are at Sunday service and our spirits balking at the bridesmaid dresses accumulating in our closets, some of us are taking our pre-matrimonial faith walk outside the church - right into the mosque, temple, and synagogue. Yep, giving a guy from another religion some play. Gasp.
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Interfaith relationships aren't anything new, but they do present a new dating option for ladies tired of trying to call first dibs on their congregation's newest male members. More Christian women (since that's the only group I can really speak about on a firsthand basis) are rewriting The Great American Love Story by building meaningful partnerships with guys from other religions. Not that the love they've found in their new beaus in any way compromises their longstanding love for Jesus. But if a single lady meets a man who possesses the qualities she's been praying for in a mate, should she turn him away because he doesn't practice the same religion that she does?
Ummm, survey says don't be so hasty.
Before you conservative Bible beaters pull out the big guns to oppose an interfaith union and tab on over to 2 Corinthians 6:14, the Biblical scripture that's been the slogan for why believers should refrain from hooking up with non-believers, hear me out.
Religion informs our lives, decisions, and beliefs, but it shouldn't disable a person from seeing greatness - and great mating potential - in someone who doesn't bow to a God of the same name. Shoot, Allah, God, Yahweh. As long as you're celebrating and praising a God, seems like you have common ground to build on. What I think is most important is that y'all agree on basic values, like how you plan to raise children and spend money and run a household. How you spend your Sundays or Saturdays is really just geography.
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And besides, just because someone technically shares the same faith as you does not mean they're on the same page spiritually. You can have two Muslims in the same mosque with agendas and commitments that vary as widely as if they were a Pentecostal and a Buddhist.
That's not to say it'll be easy. Like dating outside of your race, an interfaith relationship can be a minefield of challenges and - let's call it what it is - drama, especially if the two parties involved let religious overzealousness, prying families, rude insensitivity, and the ever-present opinions of others mar what could otherwise be a good love connection.
But because the dating pool for some ladies who dare to seek straight, single, healthy, employed, addiction-free, baggage-less dudes isn't getting any bigger, we might just need to branch out a little to find a man who's going to love and appreciate us like we deserve to be loved and appreciated, fellow solo gals. So whether he's capped with a yarmulke, sporting a kufi, or toting a Bible, I say we give him a shot and let God be the ultimate matchmaker.
Have you ever dated someone who didn't subscribe to the same religion? Would you do it again?
Image via zeevveez/Flickr
Written by Janelle Harris for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.
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