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Japanese Yes, an atheist and a Christian can date or marry, though Scripture and many churches discourage it. Paul told Christians not to be “unequally yoked with unbelievers,” but told those already married to unbelievers to stay married. A Catholic needs church approval for such a marriage, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America will not bless one.
What does the Bible say about marrying an unbeliever?
The Bible does not mention dating, so what it says on the question concerns marriage. The law of Moses forbade the Israelites to intermarry with the nations of Canaan and gave a religious reason: “for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods” (Deuteronomy 7:3–4). First Kings says that King Solomon’s foreign wives “turned away his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4), and Nehemiah later cited Solomon when he confronted Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab (Nehemiah 13:23–27).
In the New Testament Paul wrote: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). The passage does not name marriage, but some churches apply it to marriage; the Westminster Confession of Faith uses the phrase in its chapter on marriage. Paul does speak to marriage directly when he writes that a widow “is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39).
What if a Christian is already married to an atheist?
Paul told the Corinthians not to leave an unbelieving spouse: “if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:12–14). If the unbelieving partner leaves, “let it be so,” because “God has called you to peace” (7:15). He added, “how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband?” (7:16).
Peter wrote that husbands who “do not obey the word” may be “won without a word by the conduct of their wives” (1 Peter 3:1–2). Timothy, Paul’s companion, was “the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek” (Acts 16:1); Paul credits the faith Timothy received to his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5).
Can a Catholic marry an atheist?
Yes, but only with a dispensation. Canon law calls this situation “disparity of cult.” Canon 1086 says that a marriage between a Catholic and a person who “is not baptized, is invalid,” and that no dispensation is to be given unless the conditions of canons 1125 and 1126 are met. Under canon 1125, the Catholic party “is to declare that he or she is prepared to remove dangers of defecting from the faith and is to make a sincere promise to do all in his or her power so that all offspring are baptized and brought up in the Catholic Church.” The other party must be told about this promise, and both must be instructed about the purposes and essential properties of marriage.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says such a marriage “requires even greater circumspection” than one with a baptized non-Catholic (1633). “Differences about faith and the very notion of marriage, but also different religious mentalities, can become sources of tension in marriage, especially as regards the education of children. The temptation to religious indifference can then arise” (1634). It also gives the Catholic spouse “a particular task,” quoting 1 Corinthians 7:14, and hopes the other spouse may come to “free conversion” (1637).
The rule turns on baptism, not belief, so it applies to agnostics in the same way. An atheist who was baptized in another church falls under the rules for a “mixed marriage,” which “cannot be celebrated without the express permission of the competent authority” (canon 1124). If the atheist was baptized Catholic, the impediment does not apply, but a priest or deacon may not assist at the marriage of “a person who has notoriously rejected the Catholic faith” without the local ordinary’s permission, and that permission requires the same promises (canon 1071).
Can an Orthodox Christian marry an atheist?
Not in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Its instructions for weddings say that the non-Orthodox partner “must have been baptized, in water, in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and that “the Church cannot bless the marriage of an Orthodox Christian to a non-Christian.” The instructions do not use the word excommunication, but they state the consequence of marrying outside the Church: “A baptized Orthodox Christian whose wedding has not been blessed by the Orthodox Church is no longer in good standing with the Church, and may not receive the Sacraments of the Church, including Holy Communion, or become a Sponsor of an Orthodox Marriage, Baptism or Chrismation.”
What do Protestant churches teach?
Protestant churches differ. The Westminster Confession of Faith, a doctrinal standard of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and other Presbyterian churches, says: “It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent. Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord” (24.3). It goes on to say that those who profess the Reformed faith “should not marry with infidels, papists, or other idolaters.” The Church of England, by contrast, tells couples that “you can marry in church regardless of your beliefs, whether or not you are christened and whether or not you have been a regular churchgoer.”
Can an atheist marry a Mormon?
An atheist can marry a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a civil ceremony, but not in a temple. The Church’s General Handbook allows a bishop or other Church officer to perform a civil marriage when, among other conditions, “the bride or the groom is a member of the Church or has a baptismal date” (38.3.1). A couple married civilly may later be sealed in a temple only if “they both have been members of the Church for at least one year” and “they are prepared and worthy” (38.4.1.1).
How common are these marriages?
A 2015 Pew Research Center analysis of its Religious Landscape Study found that 39 percent of Americans married since 2010 have a spouse in a different religious group, compared with 19 percent of those who married before 1960. Eighteen percent of those married since 2010 are in marriages between a Christian and a religiously unaffiliated spouse, against 5 percent of those who married before 1960. Among unmarried couples living together, 49 percent live with someone of a different faith. Pew notes that the survey counts only marriages still intact, so it may understate how many interfaith marriages there were before 1960.
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