Spirituality

One relationship, two faiths

Q: I have fallen for a man who is a Buddhist and although there are no problems right now, I wonder how it might be with our very different faiths once we have children?

A: This is a difficult question and one that needs to be addressed before you go any further with your relationship. It is not something that can be left until you have children, or it will cause serious problems. Only honest open discussion will resolve it.

Do not make the mistake of splitting the family spiritually by bringing up one child in your religion and another in his. That could have disastrous consequences for the family as a whole.

How committed are you to your respective religions? This is the type of question you need to be asking. Perhaps you could have a joint discussion with each of your spiritual advisers as well. Doing so could help to bring clarity of thought to this dilemma. All the best with this challenging issue.

Iris welcomes your questions but cannot give you personal answers or guarantee that your question will be answered on this website. Questions may be edited to protect the writer’s identity. Responses should under no circumstances replace medical, counselling, legal or other appropriate professional advice.