The question of "should they marry" is pointless, given that people of different faiths will marry. The question then becomes, "How should faith groups respond to and support interfaith families?" Much more fruitful topic for discussion, surely.

LKT (teabagsinfusion) has a point. How should we respond to and support interfaith families?

If you follow the link you'll find several essayists have responded to the question.

One says, they shouldn't but once they do we should do everything in our power to support them. That's not my position, but it's worth considering when you are choosing a mate. It is difficult to be in an interfaith couple, all else equal.

Another essayist says whether it or not it is wise from the individual level, it is good for society. (She's an atheist and she thinks this is a good way to kill off religion.)

My curve ball suggestion is that interfaith marriage is good for the Episcopal Church. There are so few of us. Have you noticed how many Catholic-Other couples join the Episcopal Church relative to other sources of new membership? A lot. We are accepting, we are open (and interfaith couples tend to be open if they are religious to begin with), and we are supportive (though there is room for improvement here). These are broad brush statements, and don't apply to every congregation.

Picking up on what John Chilton wrote, would anyone know how the Episcopal Church went from 3.4 million members in 1964 to 2.1 million in 2007? Was it all owing to the turmoil of the sixties, plus the more recent revolution in the status of women in the church, or something else? Please forgive my off-topic inquiry. -- Craig

Takes us off topic, Craig, but fair question. It was all of the above you list plus the secularization of Sunday (blue law repeal, youth soccer) -- none of which is unique among mainline churches in the U.S.

Plus some additional factors of interest.

1) Episcopalians couples have fewer than 2 children per couple.

2) Children of Southern Baptists and other evangelical churches that left their churches used to move into mainline churches. Now they just drop out of church all together.

Increased interdenominational marriages no doubt play a role, too - tempered by the likelihood those couples weren't highly religious to begin with.

Where do they get that statistic of 37% and what do they consider an interfaith marriage? I'll assume a Christian marrying a Jew is interfaith. A Baptist marrying a Roman Catholic? An Episcopalian marrying a Lutheran? In that latter case there may not be a whole lot of negotiation needed.

37% means over a third of marriages. With the predominance of Christians in this country, it seems unlikely that we are talking two separate religions.

And "have a spouse of a different faith" suggests that there isn't any conversion on the part of either partner. So, I guess a third of the married people in my church must have spouses going to the worship space of some other religion.