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Relationships with believers

What have been your experiences in relationship s with religious believers?

Mark9393 6 Feb 9
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My wife believes that she should believe. She does not actually believe in God she just pretends to and professes to because it's a good idea. I have known her for over twenty years and can tell you she actually does not believe but does not even know it. I can't tell her this, it is something she will have to discover on her own. She is so worried about social stigma I doubt she will ever give it any thought.

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I won't even go out with a believer, much less build a relationship with one. I greatly prefer people who live their lives rationally, and simply cannot relate to most theists very well.

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My first non-marriage was to a heathen and it worked okay for the time it lasted. But we were still pretty young.
My only marriage, which came much later in life, was to a Born Again, and I have to admit I wasn't fully informed (ignorant) as to all the ramifications at the time. I remember telling my mother, a devout protestant all her life, and her reaction being a very guarded sigh.
We talked about our different beliefs early on and I thought we had agreed to allow each other space. It didn't bother me at all if she wanted to read her bible, go to church, etc, as long as it didn't interfere with our marriage. That lasted about 5 years and then it began.
She tried to convince me that we couldn't be together in an afterlife if I didn't firmly believe in God/Jesus. We had several of these conversations until I felt we had talked it to death, so to speak. I couldn't talk to her about it again. It got to feel like I had to compete with God in my own house. Very uncomfortable. The last time she tried was about 3 or 4 months before announcing that she wanted a divorce.
As time went on, she became more and more involved, even dragging me to a few church related functions. I wasn't comfortable there, but she was my wife and did ask me to go with her, so I did. She would invite some of her christian friends over to the house which I didn't mind, and we had some fun times and good conversation together. But she herself was getting deeper and deeper into it. I should have identified with those signs.
I'm sure this concern about being alone for all eternity is largely the reason she divorced me. I was her fourth husband (yeah, I know, right?) She's now working on her fifth who I'm told is also a Born Again. Imagine that.

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For some people, religion is part of life. For others, life is part of religion. Avoid the latter at all cost.

See my own story above.

@bbrich57 I know that al too well. 11 years ago I was a fundie and married one not so much. Apostasy took place around 4 years ago and I'm still married. But I'm sorry, I do not have the solution even for myself yet. My marriage still hangs on a thread, and I would have given up on it long ago were it not for the children. If you can get out, my honest suggestion is that you do so.

If you are willing to make it work, there are some factors to consider. Not all may apply, but here are some things that usually happen:

  • you can just not talk about religion. My wife has given up rational discourse. I have not, and that leads us to having very shallow conversations.
  • she is under pressure from the congregation to convert you. She must pray, preach, call to church, and that can become heavy.
  • if you do not convert, she will be seen as a lower citizen. If only she prayed right, offered proper testimony and so on, you would certainly start believing.
  • some churches only allow women to actively participate in the community when accompanied by the husband. I know, this sucks, but it is hopefully very rare.
  • any disagreement will be seen as disrespect, anger, backlash, or sinful effect of disbelief.

One thing that works for me is to take the same approach as must be taken with SJWs: never apologize. If anyone takes offense that you do not want to go to church or pray, that you manifest disagreement or mockery, the appropriate answer is either "so what?" or "not my problem". It forces people out of their victim narratives, which Christians love. Other than that, I'm sorry.

@hlfsousa Oh, I'm already out as you say. It was her that couldn't take my beliefs more than I that didn't tolerate hers. But as time went on her beliefs seemed to get even more fundamental and as she began to believe more and more that Christians were being persecuted, a conspiracy theory if ever I've heard one, she also saw me as part of the problem instead of the solution.
She was getting so into it that she wasn't hearing me anymore, not even if she was the one that stuck up the conversation, or asked the question. It became frustrating to repeat myself over and over again, and sometimes it got loud. I almost felt I had to shout my answers to snap her out of whatever mental state her head was in. It got very bad near the end. I tried to contain my frustrations, but with her head so far up in the clouds it wasn't helping.
If she had been able to just leave those differences out of our marriage as we had done the first few years, or be more open minded about it, we'd still be married, I'm sure.

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My husband is a believer but he's lax. He hasn't been in a church other than for a funeral or wedding since we met. I can work with that. We have had a few religious discussion but nothing heated or antagonistic. He told me once that one of the reasons he loved me was because despite my not being Christian I was the most caring and sane person he's ever met... considering he was raised in a Southern Baptist community... well... couldn't help but turn an eyebrow to that one. I'm still not sure he caught it but we never spoke of that again.

AmyLF Level 7 Feb 10, 2018
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Dunno. I didn't completely dump religion until the Trump election, when childhood missionary kid (MK) friends flooded my Facebook page with hate memes against minorities.

My ex is a Christian, but during our marriage I chipped away most of his taboos, even showed him how to drink wine, routinely go skinny dipping in isolated ponds and rivers, watch racy movies, introduced him to the fun of mild B & M (he LOVED it), showed him how to use vulgar language, etc.
He was very religious before, but I corrupted him.

I've been in Thailand since 2010, and haven't felt motivated enough to pursue a romance, being demisexual.

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I have had a difficult time negotiating with a former partner that chalked his passivity up to his Catholic beliefs. I can't have a productive conversation with an imaginary being as an invisible participant. It has often been a way of not taking personal responsibility for one's actions. That said I will not put myself in that position again.

Oh, you are so right about taking responsibility. The hypocrisy is astounding!! I'm STILL reeling from it.
It was "God's will. He will forgive us our sins," in spite of them being old enough to know better and knowingly committing "sins against (their) God" at the time.

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In my experience, it depends on how strong your own unbelief is.

My two relationships that were with non-believers (or otherwise not religious at all, even if not atheist) were the two best relationships I had. And the ones that ended with the greatest heartache. Go figure.

My last relationship was with a believer. As I've said here before, I will never ever ever be with a believer again. Through NO fault of his, it felt like I was stifling a big part of my true self for three years. Not to mention the time away from life that his going to church took. Not to mention the $5,000 a year in tithing from our joint account. And, not to mention the bibles and crosses in the house. I seriously don't get the need to be show-offy with religion. And to ME, displaying bibles, crosses, and making your grace before meals known to others, is show-offy.

Never Again. Life is too short.

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I dated a Pentecostal once. I remember one time a friend of hers overdosed and died and she told me her friend was in Hell. I ended the relationship not long after that.

How tragic 😟

That is a terribly sad and narrow minded outlook.

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Mind your own business and don't push your non belief at them. My wife is a Catholic... yep... I just don't make those non believer remarks in her direction... it stays great that way. In a new relationship I would open up about it.. that's being honest. You'll hear that later if you don't ...

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Usually pretty short-lived.

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