Griem’s take his own, or God’s will?

The Rev. Bryan Griem tells us two people of different religions should never marry lest they dilute the commitment to their respective faiths (“Can interfaith marriages be effective,” April 14).

Rather than seeing two children of God coming together in love, he foresees failure in such a union because each do not perceive God identically. He does not see two people who are obeying God’s most basic commandment, that we love each other, but rather sees two people who should adhere to a man-made commandment that they stick to their own kind.

It does not occur to him and his ilk that there is truth in all religions and a marriage between two people of different faiths is just the sort of bridge that we need over the troubled waters of religious strife that afflict our planet.

Alas, Griem is no exception in the world of organized religion, but rather he is a distressing example of religions worldwide seeking conversion rather than a shared spiritual understanding. He is in every corner of this Earth and in each and every town that gathers people together to practice a particular understanding of God’s word. He is part of a curious but pervasive phenomenon in this mixed-up world of ours that seeks communion with a higher power while it employs people with braces on their brains, and all too often, malice in their hearts, in doing “God’s will.”

Help us all to understand, Rev. Griem, where in the Bible it decrees the parameters of marriage as you have proscribed. If you are unable to locate that verse, could you at least qualify your sermonizing with something like, “This is just my opinion.” Perhaps your congregation might benefit from knowing that your thoughts on the subject are a product of your own mind rather than the will of the Almighty.

Dan Kimber
Montrose