An interfaith marriage and our new baby

Religion, spirituality and faith have been particularly highlighted over the past 5 months as my husband, who is a dedicated practicing Hindu, and I get ready to welcome our baby.  I was raised very Catholic (school in the Dominican Republic run by nuns, my mom had Bible readings each night at home, etc.) and still very much find solace in my faith (part of my 90 minute meditation practice every morning consists of reading the Bible).  When my husband and I got married, plenty of family members approached me with questions: What’s going to…happen?  How are you going to make this…work? What are you going to do about…you know...religion? I always found these questions to be quite odd.  Here, I had met my soulmate, the man of my dreams, everything I didn’t even know I wanted in one person, and I just couldn’t imagine worrying about our different faiths.  “It will just work itself out” I would think to myself and answer those around me.

And it has worked itself out.  As I write this I can’t help but get a bit emotional at how beautifully it has all come together.  Respectively, our faiths have only deepened more.  We’ve come together and fueled our belief in something greater than ourselves, an energy that is powerful and that speaks to the billions of people on this earth in different “languages”.  We believe these “languages” have manifested in different religions (Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc., etc.) but all point in the same direction, with the same purpose, and arriving at the same message.  We routinely converse about God, The Universe, that greater energy, and we constantly help each other deepen our faith.  If there is one characteristic of my husband that I adore, that I know is foundational in the strength of our marriage, and that I know has helped me evolve into a better version of myself, it is this one. 

So, how are we going to take all of this goodness and integrate it with our baby? One step at a time.  We’ve agreed that the purpose of bringing a soul into this world is to create the opportunity for him to have a positive impact on the world, hopefully helping the human race evolve even more (see my most recent article on this by clicking here).  We’ve decided that we can create this opportunity for him by building the right container for him to be in.  And so it has become our mission to expose him to as much faith and love as we possibly can. 

Once we found out that our baby could hear our voices, my husband started reading him the Bhagavad Gita at night.  We read him a section and then have a brief discussion on the takeaways, just to make sure our little one is understanding all (and us too!).  I read him the Bible every morning, along with A Course in Miracles.  We hope the little one is already coming up with his own opinion on this greater energy and his own conclusions on his manifestation to be a force for a greater good. 

Our integration of faiths is only becoming more and more exciting!  We can’t wait for his baptism a few months after his birth, where I dream of doing something incredibly traditional (my mother is already planning on having his outfit made in Santo Domingo).  We are also looking forward to doing our child’s Mundana next year, the Hindu sacrament where a child’s head is cut/shaved. 

We do not see the need to pick one religion, any of them will lead him to the message of love and faith.  What we will do is walk the message alongside with him, each day and each moment as best as we can.  We will use all of the “rituals” in our religions as milestones to remind him, and ourselves, as to what matters most, and the importance of incorporating this energy into our daily lives. 

The questions on what religion we are going to choose for the child are starting to come.  My answer: What does it matter?  As long as we focus on love and helping him be a force for good in this world, it will work itself out.  We could choose a religion and have no faith and no foundation in love.  That is the opposite of what we want.  I could not be more confident that it will all work itself out again.  

I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below.  If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends and family!

Lots of love,

Judith