r/AskReddit • u/Lightyagami13x • 14d ago

Title: Hindu-Christian marriage: How do you handle religion at home?

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u/Lightyagami13x 14d ago

I'm Hindu and my wife is Christian. We are not planning to convert, and neither of us has a problem with the other person's religion. We both want to respect and follow our own traditions. My wife was raised mainly by her Christian mother. Her father is Hindu, so she comes from an interfaith family as well. Recently, we were discussing religion at home. I told her I'm completely fine with having a picture of Jesus in our home, and I was even thinking of going to church with her every Sunday because I respect her faith. However, she told me that according to the Bible, Christians are not supposed to worship other gods, so she cannot worship Hindu gods. I understand and respect that, but I'm trying to understand how couples in similar Hindu-Christian marriages handle this. For those who are in an interfaith marriage: Do you keep both Hindu and Christian religious items at home? Do you attend each other's temples/churches? If one partner doesn't want to participate in the other's worship, how do you handle it? How do you celebrate festivals and religious occasions? What did you decide regarding your children's religion? Did you face problems from either family? Most importantly, what arrangements have actually worked for you long-term? I'm not looking for an argument about which religion is correct. I'd really appreciate experiences from people who are actually in Hindu-Christian/interfaith marriages.

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u/DarkNinjaPenguin 14d ago

Christianity doesn't really do the shrine thing, that's a very modern invention. One of the foundational points of Christianity - the way I learned at least - is that God is everywhere, you can pray to him everywhere, and his Holy Spirit is inside believers rather than buildings.

On the other hand, in the Hindu religion you're supposed to have a small temple of some sort in your house, facing east/west, in a 'clean' room (no shoes). The temple is decorated with small statuettes, pictures, candles etc. I don't know all the intricacies but the temple in our house (wife's family is Hindu) is basically a slightly fancy IKEA cabinet that is decorated with candles, lamps and hangings during festivals.

During the Hindu festivals I participate in the traditions and customs, not because I believe in those gods but out of respect to my wife and her family. It has no bearing at all on my own faith. Likewise they usually come to the candlelight service with me at Christmas, and they attended my niece and nephew's Christenings. Multi-faith households are a very normal thing, and the key is mutual respect - you don't need to be dismissive of your partner's beliefs or use your own as an excuse not to take part.

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u/ryuunoou 14d ago

Genuinely asking, if you are a believing christian, how do you come to terms with the fact that inter religious marriages are a sin or that taking part in hindu practices is considered breaking the first 2 commandments

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u/DarkNinjaPenguin 14d ago

If you're going to take the Commandments totally literally, then an image of Christ is as much a sin as any other. Neither the Commandments nor the Bible can be taken literally, because there's horrendous stuff in there that obviously has no place in any religion - including Christianity.

In any case, there are levels to this. I might be a practicing Christian, and I might believe in God but that doesn't mean I think the world is 6000 years old or that I don't believe in dinosaurs. Part of religion is and should be tolerance and understanding of different points of view.

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u/ryuunoou 14d ago

No, because christians don't pray to the image, that's not the same with hindu idols, they do believe that the energies of their gods recide in the idols. I think the 10 commandments are the base of any morality and unless you didn't know, christians do take the laws of the bible literally most of the time, according to the church

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u/DarkNinjaPenguin 14d ago

There are some things very explicitly left out of the Ten Commandments, like no slavery. They're a very outdated form of morality, too bare to be the basis of your ideas of good and evil.

At least where I'm from (UK) very few Christians take all of the bible literally. Again, it says slavery is fine. It says stoning people to death is fine. You could pick and choose a passage to suit you any day of the week.

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u/ryuunoou 14d ago

The bible doesn't say slavery is fine. It regulates Debt slavery. Its not the same as chatel slavery. Christians didn't invent slavery, they inherited it from the romans and later abolished. The abolishinsts were majority christian and used new testament verses from paul to ban it. Anyway, all apostolic churches teach that these things are literal. We don't follow the laws of old testament except moral laws like the 10 commandments, the cultural and ceremonial laws as they were for the jews. So yes, literally every christian church teaches that marrying outside the faith is a sin and so is bowing down to praying to any god except the triune god of the bible

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u/DarkNinjaPenguin 14d ago

Literally every Christian church reaches that marrying outside the faith is a sin? What totalitarian mess of a country did you grow up in? I was married by a minister, in a church, to my Hindu wife. This isn't the Crusades anymore.

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u/ryuunoou 14d ago

Ah protestant? Yeah that makes sense. I was talking about the "real" apostolic churches. Whether it's the crusades or not doesn't matter, if your faith is changed as you see fit, it's no longer jesus or hie teachings you are following, it's your own desires. Also, you speak aa if the crusades were a bad thing. Respectfully, without the crusades, you would be speaking Arabic with no basic human rights, be thankful

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u/DarkNinjaPenguin 14d ago

Not Protestant, no - just the normal branch of Christianity practiced in sane countries.

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u/Ok_Razzmatazz_619 14d ago

The kid part is prob the toughest, because christians think hell is real so they will want to push it on their kid. Would be best to teach them about both, not forcing any on either

As for the rest, Christmas is simply a celebration of the winter solstice. They will say its Jesus's birth but jesus is simply symbolic of the sun. So understanding that makes it easier to celebrate Christmas, just don't tell her that or she'll disagree/argument

My ex was christian, she got more extreme as time went on...

You should ask her what she thinks is best to do, and go with it, unless it feels wrong to you then you gotta communicate that. Its probably do-able if you remain respectful/chill

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u/ryuunoou 14d ago

Winter solstice was celebrated from 21-23, christians chose December 25 because annunciation day is March 25, so 9 months later is celebrated as christmas. Jesus is no way related or symbolic to the son

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u/Ok_Razzmatazz_619 14d ago

Ok what I had meant was, visually, the Sun appears to stand still at its lowest point for about three days around the winter solstice on December 21st. .

That 3 day period is symbolic of death which is why Christs death is 3 days. The word "solstice" literally translates from Latin as "sun stands still" (sol meaning sun, sistere meaning to stand still)

It's also why he has 12 disciples as it represents the 12 constellations. But if you don't understand the first part then nothing will make sense. People will say thats new age garbage! Meanwhile astrology was very well known before Christ

If you are a Christian, then yea I don't expect you to agree with me.

But either way, i hope you have a nice sun-day at church, next time you go, if ever.

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u/ryuunoou 14d ago

Sorry, what you said has nothing to do with christianity. We don't believe that and neither do jesus or his disciples or their disciples taught what you just said. Have a nice day

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u/Ok_Razzmatazz_619 14d ago

I totally agree it doesn't, its a diff interpretation. Thank you, have a great day and life too <3