I recently began dating an old friend with conservative Christian religious beliefs. Obviously, I don’t have the rationalists-only filter that DA has, and I don’t want to deconvert her. (Her personal relationship with Jesus—that is, the mental feelings that she’s constructed around the idea of Christ—are important to her, and I don’t want to destroy that.) Nevertheless, here’s what’s happened:
In conversation with me, she quickly clarified some nagging doubts about the inclusiveness (and other characteristics) of her old, conservative church. She’s started attending a Congregationalist church instead. (For those unfamiliar with Christian denominations in North America, this is as liberal as you can get and still be explicitly Christian). For a while, she even considered attending the Unitarian Universalist church, since I would be willing to join it with her, but in the end she decided that it didn’t fit.
When we started, I expected the relationship to founder on religious differences, but I agreed to give it a shot anyway. And I seem to have affected her religion instead. I’m not sure what this proves, even when restricted to the one example, but it’s been a surprising few months for me.
I recently began dating an old friend with conservative Christian religious beliefs. Obviously, I don’t have the rationalists-only filter that DA has, and I don’t want to deconvert her. (Her personal relationship with Jesus—that is, the mental feelings that she’s constructed around the idea of Christ—are important to her, and I don’t want to destroy that.) Nevertheless, here’s what’s happened:
In conversation with me, she quickly clarified some nagging doubts about the inclusiveness (and other characteristics) of her old, conservative church. She’s started attending a Congregationalist church instead. (For those unfamiliar with Christian denominations in North America, this is as liberal as you can get and still be explicitly Christian). For a while, she even considered attending the Unitarian Universalist church, since I would be willing to join it with her, but in the end she decided that it didn’t fit.
When we started, I expected the relationship to founder on religious differences, but I agreed to give it a shot anyway. And I seem to have affected her religion instead. I’m not sure what this proves, even when restricted to the one example, but it’s been a surprising few months for me.