The Religion Factor in Marriage

Does it matter whether a couple shares the same religious beliefs?

A Pew Research study shares "Today, one quarter of married adults say their spouse does not share their religion. Nearly one-in-ten married adults (9%) are religiously affiliated and say their spouse identifies with a different religion, while 15% are in marriages pairing one religiously affiliated spouse with another who is religiously unaffiliated."

Happier marriages?

The Journal of Marriage and Family published an article summarizing the findings of their recent study titled: The Couple That Prays Together: Race and Ethnicity, Religion, and Relationship Quality Among Working-Age Adults.

In summary, "The first major study to compare religion and relationship quality across America's major racial and ethnic groups finds that for all groups, shared religious activity—attending church together and especially praying together—is linked to higher levels of relationship quality." And conversely, "Couples holding discordant religious beliefs and those with only one partner who attends religious services regularly tend to be less happy in their relationships."

The authors of the study note that religious beliefs can have a powerful impact on issues like raising children, spousal responsibilities and household organization. All of these have the potential to cause marital conflict. Often one spouse ends up compromising his or her beliefs to maintain peace in the house.

This leads to some issues.

Your religious beliefs

How important are your religious beliefs—to you? Would you be willing to compromise them for that "special someone"? Interfaith relationships raise especially important questions for young adults.

King Solomon of ancient Israel was known as the wisest man who ever lived, but in the area of romance his wisdom failed him. The Bible tells the story of Solomon marrying women who did not share his religious beliefs—despite the instruction not to do so (1 Kings 11:1-4). The sad result was that when he embraced the pagan worship he learned from his 700 wives, King Solomon corrupted his worship of the true God whom he had known from his youth.

This might seem like an extreme example—who's going to marry 700 wives? But the lesson from the National Marriage Project study is that anyone entering into a serious relationship with someone of different religious convictions puts his or her own personal faith at risk.

And the study's authors noted an additional consideration. It wasn't enough to have the same religious beliefs. Depth of religious conviction was also important.

True Christianity is a lifelong commitment. Most Christians will make a second lifetime commitment of marriage. For both those commitments to be truly successful, they need to be in harmony.

Don't overlook the religious factor in marriage. They'll consider it an important element of a successful marriage.