Yugo's a member now, so I'll have to come out of the inter-faith marraige closet eventually - hahaha. I might as well.
My husband is Roman Catholic, or a Bosnian Croat as we say. He was born and raised in a small city that is shared between Roman Catholics and Muslims so, despite coming from rural Bosnia, he still has a very strong familiarity with my faith - probably even moreso than I do with his.
He chased me for a long time, longer than I probably know. I remember the first time I met a large group of his friends it was at his apartment. The purpose of the party was for them to meet me and when I walked in, one of his female friends gasped and said, "Oh my God! It's THAT girl! He used to make me go to the cafe where you worked every day, for hours. I ****ing hated you and I didn't even know you! Hahaha!"
I love him, simply - but I also was very enthusiastic about this marraige because there was a post-war atmosphere of "every inter-faith marraige counts", a means of rebuilding what was lost.
We don't have a lot of religious tension between us because we tend to have identical political and social views. We were both furiously disappointed with the election of the Panzer Pope, for example. I go to Church with him sometimes, and he comes to Mosque with me sometimes - all of our "House of Worship friends" (the people we see there and nowhere else) accept us both.
Children we discussed many times. We decided at first that we would raise them to be Bosnian, and after that they can choose whether or not they will be Roman Catholic or Muslim or whatever else. Tens of thousands of Bosnian children were raised this way, but then we decided it's simply too communist to work for us, since we're both very religious.
We thought we'd raise any sons as Christians, and any daughters as Muslims - since we both believe this arrangement empowers each gender best. Then we grew beyond that as well - because if we're willing to have one of our own children a faith other than our own, what does that say about our level of belief?
So we talked it over with our religious mentors - his uncle, a Catholic theology professor, and my Imam. They didn't have much to offer us but we left with an impression that... the choice we've made, to marry, has presented us with our own unique problems - just as every couple has - and this is one of them.
They both recommended simply raising the children with both - I would take them to Mosque, he takes them to Church, and we let them grow in whichever way they choose. It will be strange for he and I to raise what is known in our country as a half-breed, a child of a mixed-marriage. Both are families are probably the two most homogenously religious families in Bosnia.
Every, single Bosnian family has two, three mixed marraiges somewhere in the family tree - my family has one, that we know of (great-grandmother/great-grandfather), and his family has two - also in the great-X generation.
