Carefree T
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- Sep 13, 2010
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Hello to all,
My situation is interesting. I've been dating a wonderful girl for about three years. But when our relationship began, we were both secular subjectivists with no particular religious beliefs. But in the course of time I came to the Church (I was chrismated somewhat over a year ago), and at this point I've been strongly considering Paul's words about binding "harlots" to the Body of Christ, and as such I've brought it unto myself to consider my relationship as a sort of duty, which is not to say I don't love this woman and that I am legalistically pursuing this relationship because of what was written in the New Testament concerning fornication; I do truly love her and she I, and she is accepting and supportive of my faith even if she doesn't understand it.
Anyway, before my conversion we were carnally bound to each other, but not to anyone else on both our parts. I intend to marry her (as the intent should be in a romantic relationship), but she has never been baptized by any church and grew up in an a-religious family, though she has said she would be willing to marry me in my church by my priest because I believe it must be that way and she accepts and understands that. Is it acceptable to the Church to marry an Orthodox Christian to a non-christian in these circumstances? She is very skiddish about being "forced" into religious "obligations" and I would never will her to be baptized without a full understanding of what that means and entails. I'm not trying to convert her explicitly or implicitly and I make that clear by my actions. She wants to be baptized some day, but she has comfort-related reservations about the formality and "strangeness" of Apostolic Christian praxis compared to the more "comfortable" ("culturally relevant" I'll loosely say) Christianity of her nondenominational friends. If she doesn't want to take on the full meaning of baptism into Christianity at the time, would the Church marry us?
I've just been fretting about this for a long time now. I know the standard answer will be to ask my priest, but until I have the courage to discuss it with him, I would like my fellow Orthodox here to give me some input.
My situation is interesting. I've been dating a wonderful girl for about three years. But when our relationship began, we were both secular subjectivists with no particular religious beliefs. But in the course of time I came to the Church (I was chrismated somewhat over a year ago), and at this point I've been strongly considering Paul's words about binding "harlots" to the Body of Christ, and as such I've brought it unto myself to consider my relationship as a sort of duty, which is not to say I don't love this woman and that I am legalistically pursuing this relationship because of what was written in the New Testament concerning fornication; I do truly love her and she I, and she is accepting and supportive of my faith even if she doesn't understand it.
Anyway, before my conversion we were carnally bound to each other, but not to anyone else on both our parts. I intend to marry her (as the intent should be in a romantic relationship), but she has never been baptized by any church and grew up in an a-religious family, though she has said she would be willing to marry me in my church by my priest because I believe it must be that way and she accepts and understands that. Is it acceptable to the Church to marry an Orthodox Christian to a non-christian in these circumstances? She is very skiddish about being "forced" into religious "obligations" and I would never will her to be baptized without a full understanding of what that means and entails. I'm not trying to convert her explicitly or implicitly and I make that clear by my actions. She wants to be baptized some day, but she has comfort-related reservations about the formality and "strangeness" of Apostolic Christian praxis compared to the more "comfortable" ("culturally relevant" I'll loosely say) Christianity of her nondenominational friends. If she doesn't want to take on the full meaning of baptism into Christianity at the time, would the Church marry us?
I've just been fretting about this for a long time now. I know the standard answer will be to ask my priest, but until I have the courage to discuss it with him, I would like my fellow Orthodox here to give me some input.