Couples Counseling with Interfaith Clients
The United States is seeing an increase of interfaith marriages, and religious beliefs have a powerful effect on marriage. Interfaith, which involves different religious beliefs between a couple, are considered to be heterogeneous, or different. While there is greater tolerance in communities for interfaith marriages, religiosity still affects marital satisfaction. “Problems can arise when one partner explicitly or implicitly values his or her culture of origin over that of the other partner.” (Gurman p. 512) While Kessler makes a distinction between culture and religion, a study on marital satisfaction and Jewish-Christian couples points out that “Judaism is both a religion and ethnic identification” …show more content…
It is thought that of all the religions, Jews are the most likely to marry outside their faith. With the premises that Judaism is both a religion and ethnic identification, religion is a large part of the ‘cultural surround’ that creates macrocosmic social pressures. While a very few clergy and pastors consider a marriage between a Christian and Jew a threat to the Christian population, many Jewish rabbi’s frown upon and do believe that intermarriage is a threat to the existence of the Jewish people. Since the Jewish heritage is passed down through the mother of a child, if the husband is Jewish and he marries a Christian woman, if she does not convert to Judaism, their children are not considered Jewish. (Greenstein 1993) Additionally parents may feel that their child marrying outside of their religion is a rejection of them. This outside pressure can have impact upon a couple’s marital …show more content…
A therapist’s Guide to Transforming Relationships” the authors talk about Traditional Behavioral Cognitive therapy and the key elements that it misses. TBCT put great emphasis on accommodation, compromise and collaboration. All of these things are helpful for couple’s therapy. The problem with TBCT is that it tends to “force feed” the couple collaboration. The couple is able to collaborate while in treatment but studies show that this collaboration doesn’t last over time. Additionally couples that are having marital distress due to opposing religious beliefs may not be willing to compromise their beliefs. TBCT overlooks the concept of acceptance and Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT) picks up that
The United States is seeing an increase of interfaith marriages, and religious beliefs have a powerful effect on marriage. Interfaith, which involves different religious beliefs between a couple, are considered to be heterogeneous, or different. While there is greater tolerance in communities for interfaith marriages, religiosity still affects marital satisfaction. “Problems can arise when one partner explicitly or implicitly values his or her culture of origin over that of the other partner.” (Gurman p. 512) While Kessler makes a distinction between culture and religion, a study on marital satisfaction and Jewish-Christian couples points out that “Judaism is both a religion and ethnic identification” …show more content…
It is thought that of all the religions, Jews are the most likely to marry outside their faith. With the premises that Judaism is both a religion and ethnic identification, religion is a large part of the ‘cultural surround’ that creates macrocosmic social pressures. While a very few clergy and pastors consider a marriage between a Christian and Jew a threat to the Christian population, many Jewish rabbi’s frown upon and do believe that intermarriage is a threat to the existence of the Jewish people. Since the Jewish heritage is passed down through the mother of a child, if the husband is Jewish and he marries a Christian woman, if she does not convert to Judaism, their children are not considered Jewish. (Greenstein 1993) Additionally parents may feel that their child marrying outside of their religion is a rejection of them. This outside pressure can have impact upon a couple’s marital …show more content…
A therapist’s Guide to Transforming Relationships” the authors talk about Traditional Behavioral Cognitive therapy and the key elements that it misses. TBCT put great emphasis on accommodation, compromise and collaboration. All of these things are helpful for couple’s therapy. The problem with TBCT is that it tends to “force feed” the couple collaboration. The couple is able to collaborate while in treatment but studies show that this collaboration doesn’t last over time. Additionally couples that are having marital distress due to opposing religious beliefs may not be willing to compromise their beliefs. TBCT overlooks the concept of acceptance and Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT) picks up that