Considering divorce over religious differences?

Considering Divorce Over Religious Reasons?

Couples who have religious differences can at times face insurmountable hurdles in their marriage, but many couples peacefully coexist as well. Successful interfaith marriages reflect open-mindedness and tolerance of each other’s beliefs. This concept also applies to those who belong to sects that are part of the same world religion, such as Catholicism and Protestantism, rather than opposing world religions, like Buddhism and Islamic.

Even if you belong to the same religion when one spouse experiences a change in the intensity of their beliefs during the marriage it can cause friction between the partners. For example, perhaps a couple considered themselves Jewish but did not adhere to any particular guidelines when they were first married. Then at some point in time, one spouse decided to follow the tenets of devout Judaism. As a result, their behavior drastically changed resulting in significant disruptions to the way the two always did things.

Religion vs. lifestyle

Lifestyle factors are more likely than belief systems to be the source of marital strife. Even in the case where both spouses belong to different religions this fact alone doesn’t necessarily cause problems in the marriage. This is true particularly if both are only loosely observing their religion. More significant conflicts tend to happen when religion begins to play a larger role for one spouse, thus changing their lifestyle.

Continuing the example above, in which your spouse decides to begin following a strict form of Judaism, they will need to adhere to increased restrictions to their diet that were previously nonexistent. Suddenly cooking for the family might require  a work around to satisfy different dietary needs within the same household. The devout spouse may also begin attending synagogue Friday nights and Saturday mornings and be unable to operate machinery from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. These behaviors can cause large disruptions to a family’s normal routine.

Since most kid’s sports, clubs and social events occur on weekends, the onus of driving them to and from their activities will start to fall entirely on the non-devout spouse. The friction caused by these lifestyle changes are cited more often than simply differences in religious beliefs when marriages end in divorce.

The best decision for you

California is a no-fault state, so getting divorced due to religious differences will follow the same procedures as any other causal factor. Should you find yourself contemplating divorce for any reason, you can get more information on how to do so during a consultation with one of our divorce attorneys in Irvine.

Posted in California Divorce Lawyer.