Opinions on interfaith marriages

The Washington Post hosts a panel about religious intermarrying as Chelsea Clinton, brought up in the Methodist denomination, and Marc Mezvinsky, who is Jewish, are set to be married. The panel includes Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Deepak Chopra, and others of various faith backgrounds.

Some of the statistics posted on the front page:

Statistics show that 37 percent of Americans have a spouse of a different faith.

Statistics also show that couples in interfaith marriages are “three times more likely to be divorced or separated than those who were in same-religion marriages.”

Another relevant statistic regarding the younger generation: “Less than a quarter of the 18- to 23-year-old respondents in the National Study of Youth and Religion think it’s important to marry someone of the same faith.”

It seems to me that it could be very difficult to be married if both spouses take their separate faiths seriously.