My Sister's Multi-Faith Marriage

My name is Priyanka Singh and I’m a Sikh woman. Today, I’m going to be writing about an experience in my life that has made me look at multi-faith marriages in a new perspective and gain more insight about problems faced in a marriage like this.

2 years ago, my sister, a practising Sikh married a Catholic man, David Richmond. She had fallen in love and decided to get married. Despite her strong feelings about both of them respecting each other’s faiths, beliefs and values, she was still faced with disapproving attitudes which was to be expected. In our culture and faith, it is not usual to marry someone who is not a Sikh; it is seen as shaming the faith and the family’s name.
 

Our parents were against her decision to get married and when she went against their wishes and got married anyway, they turned her away. It was not until a year later, did our parents speak to her again.
 

As I had still kept in contact with my sister, she made me aware of all the challenges she faced being in a multi-faith marriage and how it would often make her doubt the decision she made to get married. One of the main challenges she faced was deciding whether to bring up her newly born daughter as a Sikh or Catholic. As her husband had been raised a Catholic, he was determined to raise his daughter as a Catholic, however my sister wanted her daughter to be raised as a Sikh to become more knowledgeable about our culture and to give her parents comfort in knowing that she had carried on her faith through her daughter. In the end, she came to the conclusion of teaching her daughter about both faiths so she can make the decision for herself in the future. Although my sister had eventually come to this conclusion, she had faced many disagreements with her husband. This highlights one of the many problems faced in a multi-faith marriage.

--David was raised as a Catholic and was a practicing one, who went to mass regularly and even Sunday school classes so it would make sense for him to want to raise their daughter as a Catholic. However, he was conflicted as he didn’t want to put any religious pressure on my sister or their daughter so he too finally came to the conclusion that it should be the personal choice of their daughter. Although he felt disappointed he wouldn’t be able to give his daughter the same opportunities that he had being raised as a Catholic, he was happy to share his experience of being one. He was also keen on their daughter learning about Sikhism.

Overall, I found my sister’s multi-faith marriage had proven to be successful as both her and her husband were happy with decisions made involving their faiths. I have also found multi-faith marriages in general to be faced with many problems one must overcome, many of which include the possibility of excommunication from the community, disapproval from parents or disagreements about your child’s faith. These problems, I have found, however difficult to overcome, can be dealt with in time and with patience.

E.L