2 Interfaith Weddings on New Years day

Today, I officiated two interfaith weddings – between a Palestinian Muslim and a Lebanese Christian, and British Atheist and a Mexican Christian. The second wedding was a surprise, last minute call, literally last minute call; friends of friends. There have been many Jewish-Muslim, Muslim-Hindu and other combinations. I had to learn a lot to officiate Christian-Jewish and Christian-Hindu weddings. 

What the couples have chosen to do must be admired by one and all, in this divisive world, where people have difficulty in agreeing, difficulty in getting along – they are setting a new standard – of accepting and respecting the God-given uniqueness of each other.

About 40% of weddings in the US are interfaith weddings and a new report just came out, and 22% of the weddings are interracial.

The day is not far when there will not even be a mention of these, as the interfaith and inter-racial weddings become a norm. Do you remember the days when most everyone glanced or stared at inter-racial couples? If you thought inter-racial means black and white, then you have ways to go to understand the phrase.

Years ago, a good friend’s daughter’s wedding was a sore disappointment for her – they went ahead and carried forward with the wedding without Muslim and Christian clergy, I am sure they missed a critical part of marriage – to experience what they have seen a marriage to be while growing up. That prompted me to officiate the weddings to bring a sense of completion to the couples

I love the emotion and love flowing between two people while officiating the wedding, they look so beautiful.

More at http://interfaithmarriages.blogspot.com/

Thank you
mike
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is a staunch defender of human rights and his book standing up for others will be out soon, and a movie "Americans together" is in the making.  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links atwww.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are atwww.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Interfaith Weddings - Wedding bells

I'm preparing wedding sermons for a Muslim woman marrying a Jewish man. Sermon will be both in Judaic and Islamic traditions. It's such a joy to officiate the interfaith weddings, it's good to see two entirely different individuals learn to respect the otherness of others and accept each other. Today, in the United States, nearly 42% of weddings are across the faith lines.

I am blessed to have performed Jewish-Christian, Hindu-Christian, Jain-Muslim, Atheist-Muslim weddings and it's a pleasure to see them all do well.

In the long run society would produce tolerant people who would respect the other person's practices.

My friend Ilan Leibowitz asked me what their future offspring or souls will bring to humanity.
There are many good things, to list a few;

1. One of the outcomes would be learning to respecting other faiths
2. Rightfully religion becomes a personal rather than communal or household belief
3. Individual responsibility for one's actions rather than blaming the religion.
4. Minding your own faith, each faith is beautiful
5. A future world with lesser religious conflicts.
5. Write in your own thoughts

Please visit - http://interfaithmarriages.blogspot.com/ or
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/InterfaithMarriage

DOES QURAN OPPOSE SUCH MARRIAGES?
Doesn't God love couples who live in harmony?

# 1 - Islam is not a religion of imposition, nor does it advocate forcing others to behave.

# 2 - Quran is a book of guidance to create peaceful societies where each person minds his own faith. No one has a right to punish for one's belief unless someone is adversely affecting his/her space, food and loved ones. God waits till the Day of Judgment to decide about one's faith.

# 3 - Interfaith marriages do not rob any one of anything.

# 4 - Quran treats all humanity as equal -it even inculcates those values in its rituals. It particularly freed women from the oppression of men and usually everything Quran addresses is binary - i.e. if it addresses men to lower the gaze, it advises women to cover their bosom. If it talks about day, it is followed by night; if it is good behavior then the talk is about bad behavior.

It has allowed Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women without even converting. But God has not banned the vice versa, giving room for discretion. However, because a majority of women around the world are dependent on men for livelihood, men have always played it out to keep the children in their religion fold for security reason rather than spiritual reason.

# 5 - No choice, unlike Muslim Majority nations, Jewish Majority Nation or even Hindu Majority Nation where interfaith marriage is prevented, and the couples are even killed, thank God for the United States, if two people want to marry, we have no choice but not to accept it. Islam emphatically teaches no compulsion, but its followers do not follow, America follows it.

# 6- What does God really want? Nothing more than harmony, peace and a well functioning world, after all it is his creation. A Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim will add to that peace and harmony.

# 7 -  A Muslim friend said, it is not legal for a Muslim woman to marry an Atheist, and here is my common sense response.

If a Muslim woman wants to marry an Atheist man, and remain a Muslim but lives happily, and leads marriage - that is her choice and that is what God wills.

God is always right, there is no doubt about it – his guidance is for our good, he wants the world to live in harmony.  There was a time when women were considered a chattel, Quran removed that non-sense and made man and woman each other’s protectors, guides, confidants and friends on equal footing.  The believing men subscribed to the rules of the social order and were accountable where as non-believers at one time did not care for any rules and marriages went awry. That is not the case today. Atheists today are as responsible as theists and a Muslim woman can be as happy with a Muslim, Jew, and Christian as with an Atheist, Hindu or Pagan, and it is not going against God’s guidance.

Thank you
mike
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 - text/talk
Interfaith wedding officiant
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.