BALANCING CULTURE & FAITH

The longer I’m married to my husband, who is Indian-American, the more I hear “so, how do you deal with culture and faith?”  Well in all candor not lightly because both are sensitive subject matters for people across the globe.    These are topics that my husband and I discussed continuously while we were dating/courting.  They are topics that are important to many of us which is why,  quite often, intercultural & interfaith relationships are frowned upon,  or as many conclude “bound to fail.”   And this is one of the reasons my husband believes his parents were so adamantly against our marriage.  Not only am I an African-American woman with no prior knowledge of all his cultural traditions, I am also a Christian woman.  A woman of another faith that would not be practicing Hinduism with them.   Instead I am of a faith and culture that they concluded to be substantially  different than their own.   So how exactly did we come up with a means to balance culture and faith within our marriage?  Here are our 3 quick tips/what works for us for balancing culture and faith.

3 QUICK TIPS ON BALANCING CULTURE AND FAITH

1.) Talk/Communicate/Discuss.  We talked about the importance of continuing family traditions without comprising one’s faith , or morals, and values.  This is particularly important for those in intercultural and interfaith relationships because family traditions are often linked to culture and there is a fear for many families that once someone marries “an outsider” that the culture will cease to exist.

2.) Decide.  We decided as a couple that we would celebrate the cultural aspects of festivals and other pertinent celebrations.  For example, Diwali is the festival of lights and a major festival for Hindus.  As a family we celebrate the meaning and significance of good’s victory over evil without the offerings to the numerous Gods as that would be a sacrilegious act for a Christian.

3. Understand.  We understand that culture exists without religion but religion is often intermingled in culture.  As written by Nancy Davis, in What is Culture, “Religion, however, is not the same as culture or ethnicity; it can overlap either. Technically, religion is defined as a set of beliefs. But while some religions confine themselves to the realm of ideas or beliefs, other religions extend into the realm of behavior and prohibit or mandate certain actions as well.”   Whereas, culture in the most simplistic of terms consists of: the language, dress, food, arts,  festivals, and music of a specific group of people.  For more details on topic this check out learning about culture.

Are you in an intercultural relationship and/or interfaith relationship? How do you balance culture and faith? Interested in knowing more about this or have questions for us? Write us at [email protected].   Share this post! Post a comment below! Like our content? Subscribe to get our post delivered directly to your inbox (no spam), latest recipes, freebies/deals, and more!

Coming soon! Our Indian wedding & Stepping into my first Indian Temple and MORE…

Growing Up Gupta