INTERFAITH MARRIAGES: Two interfaith weddings on News Years day

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Two interfaith weddings on News 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 wedding in the US are interfaith weddings and a new report just came out - 22% of 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 routine. 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 disappointment – 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 in interfaith weddings.

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 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.

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UPDATES.

Interfaith marriages are becoming a common place, and in a few years, it will be a norm. Even though I have officiated ceremonies for Jewish-Christian, Hindu-Christian, Atheist-Jain and several other combinations, a majority of them are between Muslims and non-Muslims. These include in particular Muslim women with Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Jain and men of other faiths. I have a few articles that I hope to complete and publish them in Islam Online and other respected Islamic journals and bring relief to so many men and women who fall in love and want to get married.

God loves those who get married and stay married, because without marriage you and I would not have existed, marriage adds dignity to the relationship. Many Muslim scholars and I view that, the larger purpose of Islam is to create a cohesive world, Islam is universal enough to accommodate all views.

SpeakerMike Ghouse@gmail.com
www.InterfaithSpeaker.com
Google Profile - over 12 Million Views

ABOUT THE WEDDINGS

It is disappointing to many a religiously oriented first-time marrying couples. Their clergy or a parent invariably insists that the other person to convert to their faith tradition, some do, and some fake it and some are not comfortable with the idea at all.

When a couple is deeply committed to marry, they go ahead and get married any way but sorely miss out on the ceremony. Over the years, I have seen too many couples miss out on the joy of that additional sense of completeness that comes with a religious ceremony. Marriage is between two individuals, and their families and friends ought to be supporters and cheerleaders to celebrate and complete their joy.

As a Pluralist, I have chosen to officiate the weddings of such couples to reflect the essence of Bride and Groom's tradition. I laud such couples who embrace genuine humanity by respecting the otherness of other, and accepting each other's uniqueness. If the couple prefers to please the religiosity of their parents, relatives and friends, the sermon would include reflections and essence of the faith of the couple.

I am blessed to have performed some uniquely beautiful combination of weddings; Jewish Bride and a Christian groom; Muslim bride and Jain groom, Hindu Bride and Muslim groom, Christians Bride and Atheist groom..... it was such a joy to see their families cheer at the end.

I had a difficult father of a Christian groom who was vehemently against the Hindu girl marrying without conversion, he did not even want to be a part of the wedding, but I felt, a good heart to heart conversation will make a dent, and it did. The man who did not talk with his son for two months and did not want to be a part of the wedding was greatful for the semblance of Christian wedding and then hung out with the kids for celebrations. Oh, there are lots of good stories to share.

By the way, officiating wedding is not my business, I do it for the joy for fulfilling the religious needs of the couples.

Mike Ghouse is a member of the American Marriage Ministries, a non-profit established in Washington State in 2009.

"We provide all people the ability to celebrate marriage and other religious functions according to their beliefs. We believe that this is an innate human right and is also protected by the 1st Amendment. Our values come from the understanding that all people, whether religious or not, have deep personal values and should be treated with respect, acceptance, and understanding."

Marriage is a celebration that brings people together, and we want to extend that ethos further by being a church comprised of a wide cross-section of people that have found common ground in the service of bringing people together.

To begin, the legal dimension to officiating a wedding simply involves completing a piece of paper, the marriage license. The marriage license is the legal document of marriage. It is filed for by the couple from their local government prior to the wedding.

The role of the minister is to conduct the wedding, have the couple present their marriage license, make sure that the information is correct, and complete the license. The couple then returns the completed license back to its office of issuance.

Personally, Mike is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, interfaith, politics and civic affairs.

Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several periodicals across the world. The blog www.TheGhousediary.com is updated daily. Two books are poised to be released this year on Pluralism in America, and Americans Together building a cohesive America. Details at www.MikeGhouse.net

WEDDING OFFICIANT

Mike officiates the interfaith weddings for couples, and delivers a pluralistic sermon to reflect the humanity in respecting the otherness of other, and accepting each other's uniqueness.

If the couple prefers to include the religiosity in the sermon to fulfill the desires of the parents, relatives and friends, the sermon would be tailored to include reflections and essence of the faith(s) of the bride and the groom.

Mike is committed to perform interfaith weddings, and he is a member of the American Marriage Ministries to serve couples the ability to celebrate marriage and other religious functions according to their beliefs.

Mike has performed a variety of combinations - Jewish-Christian; Muslim-Hindu; Jain-Muslim; Muslim-Jewish; Atheist-Hindu and other combinations.

Mike Ghouse can be reached through SpeakerMikeGhouse@gmail.com or text message him at (214) 325-1916