Dear friends! From now on, our weekly newsletter’s subscribers will be the first to receive an article that has never been published before. We are constantly working to improve our newsletter and hope to continue pleasing you with interesting and unique material!
From the point of view of state legislation, such a marriage is quite acceptable, but from the church point of view, there are certain difficulties in concluding such a marriage.
Firstly, such a marriage cannot be blessed by the Church, since in the Church it is impossible to perform the Sacrament of Marriage with non-Christians. Secondly, and this is, perhaps, the most important thing, this marriage is impossible due to inner convictions: the main thing in marriage is like-mindedness. But how can two people have like-mindedness when even their faiths are different? In the “Foundations of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church” there is such a remark: “The commonness of faith of spouses, who are members of the body of Christ, constitutes the most important condition for a truly Christian church marriage”. Therefore, if there is no commonness of faith, any other oneness is also being questioned.
Furthermore, the question of raising children is also important: to which faith will they belong? Neither an Orthodox Christian (faithful, of course), nor a Muslim will ever agree that his child be raised in other faith. Thus, even if there is some sympathy between representatives of different religions, in the future, the issue of religious affiliation of children will become a rather serious problem.
And one more thing: we need to remember that love for God must exceed any other love, whether it be love for parents, spouses or children. And if we betray God for the sake of our loved one, this will be the worst that could happen to us.
Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/mozhet-li-hristianka-vyyti-zamuzh-za-musulmanina
Scripture teaches we’re not to be unequally yoked to non-believers. I’d take that as far as to say an Orthodox Christian should marry ONLY another Orthodox Christian, and a truly devout one at that. Better to stay single than to wind up compromising and possibly regretting it later.