The battle between Love, Marriage, and religion.
Truly love is difficult to find yet we know that love is one
thing virtually everybody believes should be shared by human.
That is we believe it is good to love and to be loved because
love can heal all wounds. However, it seems there are
situations where love is ignored specially by those who preach
and teach love to humanity. That is those who claim to be
religious are those who frequently deny love its rightful place
just for religious reasons.
There are cases of love being denied because of religious
differences. For instance a young man who is a Christian fell
in love with a Muslim girl. The family of the girl insisted that
the man must convert to Islam before he can marry their
daughter. The man could not do that so that was the end of
the relationship. Christians are not excluded in this issue
because they are also involved. It is said that the Jehovah’s
Witness do not allow their members to marry a non-member
except if the person will convert and become a witness.
Some youths were discussing this issue; one of them is a
catholic while the others were protestant. From their argument
it was clear that each Christian sect would not like their
member to leave for another sect even though it is another
Christian family. The reason is not far-fetched. They do not
teach the same doctrines.
A religious mother would like to see her children follow her
footsteps. May be that is why it is difficult for parents to
allow their children take another path that is different from
theirs. Yet, we know that few parents do give their children
the liberty to choose what they want in life so it means that
at times it is even the lovers themselves that would want their
partner to convert before they can get married or start any
meaningful relationship.
The young single men and women that are so religious will
always want to find a partner that shares their religious point
of view. That is why most of them always want to know the
faith of the one they meet. It is a fact that a relationship may
work better if both partners are of the same religious sect but
does it mean a relationship between lovers of different religion
will not work out even if both partners agree to respect each
other’s religious view. Then another question may be what
faith the children will be introduced to since it is parents that
first point a religious path for the children.
Well, it is possible for lover to get married despite their
religious differences and I trust some people have tried it and
it work. This is because people still change their religious faith
even after many years of marriage. That is a husband or wife
can see reason to change church or religion after many years
of marriages and I trust the other partner can live with that.
In my research for ways to improve religious tolerance among
humanity, it was noted that inter-religious marriages is
recommended because if we can learn to live happily with a
partner that is of another religious sect then the external
world and their struggle for religious superiority will have no
effect on us.
Finally, religion is the only source of hope to many people so
they placed it above every other thing even above love. So
any time there is a battle between love and religion. Religion
wins most of the time. It is only in few instances has love
proved to be stronger than religion. Is there anything we can
do to reverse the trend and confirm that love is the greatest of
all commandments or do we continue to allow love to weep
each time religion stands of its way?