About one third young Dharmics (Hindu, Sikh and Jain) marry to Christians in America, and this rate is expected to increase over years. Most Christian spouses who marry to a Dharmic may be ready to live married life with religious equality and without imposing own religion on the Dharmic spouse. However, there may be some other Christians who believe in using the wedding as an evangelical opportunity and, sometimes, they expect Dharmic to accept “unintended” religious conversion for marriage. Below, information is provided with the objective of helping young adults make an “informed” decision, whatever that decision may be. If you have any personal experience, share it here.
Wedding in a Church: What does this mean to a Dharmic?
Churches from different Christian denominations have different expectations. A Hindu (Jain or Sikh) marrying in a Roman Catholic church…..
1) must sign a pre-nuptial (view here the form for USA India) that the children from this marriage will be raised only as a Christian. It is understood that the Hindu is ending his or her Hindu heritage. After divorce, this affidavit will have serious legal consequences.
2) may be expected the Hindu intended spouse to Baptized and converted to Christianity (less likely),
3) Hindu will have to attend conversion classes in the church before the marriage, and
4) the Hindu will be requested not to have a second marriage (by the Hindu ceremony). The church priest will get “A Letter of Dispensation” from a Bishop with such an expectation, before the church wedding.
Do only Christians go to heaven?
If you want to know why a Christian spouse may want Dharmic spouse to convert to Christianity, see this video and read this interesting article.
In Christianity, exclusivism holds that salvation exists only through faith in Jesus Christ. If you want to know your friend’s view on this point, you may ask the first question “Will (did) Mother Teresa go to heaven?” 
follow by a second question “…and how about Mahatma Gandhi?” Read text message exchanges between two teens Pooja Patel and McKenna Smith on the same subject.
If you want to know real life experiences of Hindus who married to Christians, read the 2009 Burkley University’s report (go to 45 interviews) and read experiences on this site.
Bible’s intolerant teachings for other faiths
About Two themes found throughout the Bible are religious exclusivity and religious intolerance. The Gospel of John and Peter gives frequent message that the followers of other religions hold invalid beliefs which were wrong, deluded, immoral, and/or heretical. Some of the acts of intolerance cited were actually ordered by God, like… “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you may nations…then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy” and “do not leave alive anything that breaths. Completely destroy them…as the Lord your God has commanded you.”
They certainly would have been considered the most serious crimes against humanity if they were ordered by humans in modern times. Read Bible on HIndus? and more.
Youths’ dating experiences
Hinu: I converted without knowledge of my family.
Robin: I am a Christian mother (Catholic) of a son who is planning to marry a Hindu girl. I struggle with, and I have struggled with the exclusivity of Christianity for quite some time.
Vineeta: I m a Hindu and was married to a Christian for 15 years and have two children.
Savio: I’m a Goan Catholic and my girlfriend is a Gujarati (Hindu) from the States. We met each other two years ago and we’ve since fallen in love with each other. …..Your views please?
Anu: I am a Christian (Lutheran) getting married to a Hindu fiancé in December. We will celebrate a Hindu shaadi in India and receive blessings from a Christian priest in my home country. However, I wish to comment on what you said about Christians and baptism. I find it an intolerant statement that….
Pradeep: I am a Marthoma Christian in love with a Hindu girl whom I have know for 15 years. (My parents) want the girl to convert. My parents have agreed to she following her religion however want her to convert for a church marriage.
D-Patel: A Christian dumped her after a few years of dating because she is a Hindu!
Diva: We were madly in love & wanted to get married but he said he can marry only if I am able to accept his Christian faith and before marriage I will have to be baptised.
Ankur: I have a Christian girl friend….but the problem is that her family is asking me to convert by Baptism.
Armstrong: My family is insisting for her conversion.
Saurav: My Christian parents don’t want Hindu rituals.
Christians out just to evangelize a Hindu? Read the article below.
How to convert Hindu students to Christianity
What is the “best insurance” against a religious fanatic?
Most Christians considering interfaith relationships with a Dharmic may not use marriage as an evangelical tool. But it is important to find out, sooner than later, if the one you are dealing with is going to be intolerant to what you are. One of the most critical tests is to ask “What if I decline Baptism of our children?” If ultimately Baptism is expected, then you should wonder what is the difference between your intended spouse and the Molly?
Be a friend on Facebook. Return to InterfaithShaadi.org. To share your experience, read.
Sanathana Dharma is the eternal religion, the universal road, and the transcendent tradition.
Your premise that Christians are supposed to be intolerant to the people who don’t believe in Jesus is flawed. Jesus taught us to love everyone, as evident from His words and also His implication to the people of that time to love the Romans who were ruling at that time. The verse you quote under religious intolerance is hugely misquoted: that was when God sent them as a judgement upon the Canaanites and Hittites and other nations which were doing things like child sacrifices. It’s not nice of you to give people the wrong idea about Christianity, just because of shallow reading and misquoting! But yes, Jesus is exclusively God.
Dear William,
Thank you for sharing your views.
You said, “Jesus is exclusively God”, is not that Jesus is “Son” of God? Please also clarify when a Hindu pray to Lord Krishna, is he or she praying ultimately to Jesus? The same way, when a Muslim pray to Allah, is that Muslim actually praying to Jesus, the Allah(God)?
Please clarify what you found in this article that is misquoted from the Bible. We will correct it.
Jesus said Love thy neighbour. In context of interfaith marriages, can a “Hindu” marry to a Christian? Can a Christian love and truly respect the “Hindu” spouse in their marriage? Let us know if you are a believer that the Hindu party must be converted by baptism before the church wedding.
Sorry for the delay in replying! I was caught up in my college coursework.
I’ll respond to your reply first. Please read carefully!
1. God exists as a trinity, according to the Bible. The Trinity involves 3 persons: The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So yes, Jesus is both God and the Son of the Father.
Many people think the trinity is a meaningless concept. I encourage you to watch this video which explains this difficult concept quite simply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYFSN-Ix7iE
2. Jesus told us to address our prayers to God the Father in the name of Jesus. That is because we really can’t approach God without being holy like Him.
Jesus changes that because of His sacrifice on the cross, by which He gives us His righteousness and holiness freely. All that we have to do is accept that we are not good enough in God’s standards (which is true, our inner thoughts are rotten, even if we look like good people outside), and acknowledge that Jesus’s death and resurrection is the only thing that can let us approach God,
So when someone prays to God, He doesn’t have an obligation to answer them, unless the prayer is in the name of His Son.
And someone who prays to “Krishna” isn’t praying to the God of the Bible, beacause they are different people. Just a basic comparison will reveal irreconcilable differences which will tell you quite bluntly that either Krishna is real or the Triune God of the Bible.
Please remember that although our society teaches us otherwise, all religions are not one, and all gods are not the same. Especially Christianity. You may say “All religions teach the same things, like love others, be gentle….” But I will say this: All religions are at best superficially similar, but are fundamentally different.
I will elaborate on these differences with a few examples, please follow:
The Bible says man can never be good enough (Romans 3:23) to approach God. Instead of asking you to try to be “good enough” to get into heaven, the Bible tells you to put your trust in Jesus, and He will give you His righteousness (Phillipians 3:9, Romans 5:17). The focus on Christianity is not on becoming a “good person” and do “good deeds”, but it is on getting into a relationship with our Creator and allow His love to change our hearts. There is no need to follow the law if we love God: we would automatically do everything that is demanded by the law.
On the other hand, all other religions talk about what things you could do as “good deeds” to get “positive karma”. Many religions also talk about “eradication of desires” “emptying of the mind” and many such sophisicated but unnecessary and unreal concepts. First: positive karma won’t help you. Why? You still have done wrong things. Just because a criminal did more good than bad doesn’t mean the judge can let him go. He will have to pay for his crimes. Other religions have no way to deal with this except by compromising on the character of God (either they say He simply forgives them, or ignore it altogether; both are incorrect: God is the very definition of justice and cannot overlook past mistakes.).
The only way is through Jesus, because there is no way to approach God without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Any other method or idealogy simply falls short or goes off in the wrong direction.
3. What you misquoted I will respond to again, maybe citing all of it in a later comment. I’ve written too much today 😅!
4. Jesus said to love our neighbor. Yes. That is the love and concern that I have for everyone (including you) and that comes as an overflow in our heart of God’s love for us. It is automatic, like how I mentioned earlier. “Love your neighbor” doesn’t mean “Marry your neighbor”. It is not romantic love that Jesus speaks of here!
5. Yes, the Bible instructs a man to love his wife the way Jesus loved humans, unconditionally. (Ephesians 5:25) That’s a heavy statement.
6. Baptism is just a public statement of faith. Personally, instead of seeing this as some ritual that needs to be performed in order to legalize the wedlock, I would say the man and his girl should be united only after they agree that Christ is Lord alone, and our only hope of reaching God.