Christan Weddings

[banryuu]

In the past month or so two of my closest friends have gotten married. They are both very religious and had strongly Christian ceremonies. Nether of which took place in a church but we all can't be so lucky.

The first wedding (in an orchard) I was a maid of honor and the baker in charge of making the cake. I kept myself so busy that I'm not sure was the scriptures were. Her father is a Chaplin he did the sermon and a church service in their house the next day. (I did almost everything for the brunch following the service that no one cared that I didn't attend.)

The second wedding was last night (on a sail boat), thought this pastor had a habit of droning on about 'Christian marriage' her dad sang "I want to grow old with you" (badly but with humor). All and all I had a decent time.

I am very happy for my friends and wish them all the best, but I wasn't comfortable the whole time.

I would like to know if anyone else has wedding stories to share, or how you may feel about these situations.  

[Athena_Ritashe]

I honestly think the best thing to do when attending a religious wedding or funeral is to tap into the common emotion that is there. I went to a funeral in march, first one ever, and the priest kept going on about how she was in heaven, and so on. I felt a little uncomfortable, especially when they did a communion and everyone was like "you can do it, we don't mind if you aren't a member of the church." Uh, human sacrifice, no thanks. But I was able to share the feeling of loss her family and friends felt, and that was the reason why I went.

So while you can't share the sentiments of the religious ceremony you can appreciate the feelings they evoke.  

[banryuu]

Exactly!

My uncle passed away about 5 years ago and I still remember that at his funeral the pastor barely talked about him or his life (outside the church) it was nothing but a commercial for the church. It pissed me off honestly, that they found it more important to try to get more people to attend their church then to honor the one man who believed in them.

On the other hand 3 years ago my grandfather passed away and after the sermon people took turns instead of only talking about his life and memories they preformed for him. The (Methodist) pastor played an accordion, Franciscan nuns did a chant, my cousin sang, and a family friend played his ukulele and sang a song they wrote together. (Grandpa was many things including a musian and ran a recording studio.)  

[Falhalterra]

For funerals, because of my grief, it's easy to tune out all the religious babble and mourn who I've lost in my life as well as everyone else who lost that person.

With weddings, I'm generally uncomfortable that I have to attend Church weddings most of my life. My dad, granddad, and I don't believe in God either and we are not religious at all. We always feel uncomfortable about it.

Heck, just because we have like, two pastors in our family in Indiana, we decided the next day to go 'our' church, as we have most of our family buried there and because the relation to the Pastors. Dad, granddad and I looked like we were ready to hightail it out of that joint in a heartbeat. xD And a little later, we left unnoticed...kinda. lol We so felt like the devil's advocates that day and my dad joked about it. xD  

[Caffeinated Tea]

I went to a wedding once, and it was religious, but tolerable. :3

What I couldn't stand, however, was my Grandmother's funeral. DX
The (I believe it was the priest? My grandmother was Catholic) kept droning on and on: 'I'm sure we are all looking forward to seeing her in heaven, in the presence of the Heavenly Lord God, and may she live on with the Holy Spirit inside of all of us...' and so on with the Christian/Catholic talk.
I don't know how I lasted through it, because I was only about 6 or 7 at the time. gonk  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

I grew up in church, and I'm usually comfortable in Episcopal or Catholic settings. Other Christian denominations are likely to make me to burst out laughing. I wouldn't have a problem going to a Christian ceremony, but I'd have to keep an eye on my automatic laughter.

 

[banryuu]

I spent more then 13 years of my live in a Methodist church centered life. I've been to countless retreats and worship services... but the more I heard and saw the harder it was to swallow.
Now that I've learned what huge hypocrites I was surrounded with I find it harder to sit through wedding and funeral where they talk less about the people we are there to honor and more about God, Heaven, Christian life, and church recruitment.
I still attend the functions to suport my friends and family.  

[Athena_Ritashe]

I wonder what my wedding would look like. I'm Atheistic Buddhist and my bf is Catholic. I am not getting a traditional catholic wedding. Let us invoke the name of christ during my wedding day? I don't want such a curse! Yeah, if I get to the marrying point we will be having a lot of interesting discussions.  

[banryuu]

I would like to see that. A Buddist/Atheist/Catholic wedding. Your best bet would be a natural setting like a beach, orchard, and garden. Where you could celebrate your life and love without having a religious atmosphere.

Neither of the two weddings I went to this year took place in a church though both were very religious. So it seems that it is becoming more and more acceptable for weddings to be outside (location and weather depending) no matter the religious preference.

Its okay my fiancé is Atheist and I'm Agnostic, I've had some bad experiences with uber-religion... (but then again I've had some good time running around church, be cause my dad was the building manager.) Nether of us really want a ceremony at all. If anything we will just have a reception for our family and friends after we go to the court house. J.o.P.  

[a390984092ff]

I think respect goes two ways. I'm not going to avoid a wedding based on religious issues.

I'm not going to offer to say grace or anything, but I'll go and have as good a time as I can.

My wedding was not religious and I would have been hurt if religious families refused to attend because of my "non-religiousness".  

[MahouTragicQueen]

During the school year I attended religious services 3-4 times a week. A wedding would be no problem.