How Cross-Cultural Marriage Brings The World Closer Together
In all relationships, but specifically in marriage, we are making a commitment to surpass personal, cultural and even spiritual borders. When it comes to uniting our differences, a shared spiritual basis is what binds couples together through the twists and turns of marital growth.
The commitment to sharing a spiritual life with another person requires vulnerability. It can be daunting, yet this is arguably the most fundamental need for a healthy couple. Why is it such a key step?
When the going gets tough, don’t we need a deeper purpose? Don’t we benefit from a solid faith that holds us up? If a moment arises where we can’t love our spouse from our point of view, we can learn to love from God’s point of view. When we share a bond with God as well as each other we are never alone, and once we get past our challenges we will have an amazing and powerful union that can cross any bridge, no matter the distance. As laid out in the sliders on the Insights Page, this type of commitment is not only essential for our couples, but this is the environment that our children want to grow up in.
In intercultural relationships the importance of a spiritual glue to hold us together through thick and thin is even more evident. Whether we are crossing the street or traversing an entire ocean, we all bring our own luggage–the unique aspects of ourselves–into the relationship, and even when differences between husband and wife are few, marriage in itself is a lifetime commitment to learn and grow together.
Around the globe, there is an increase in the number of interracial couples. Certainly as Unificationists, we gather with families of all races, nationalities and cultures every Sunday. It’s like the world is rising to a new challenge. More and more couples are surpassing cultural differences to build something that will stand strong.
When we unite spiritually our impact can span the globe, as ties within each couple create a unique web unlike any other. Reverend Sun Myung Moon spent a lifetime educating people on the importance of building strong marriages and united families, as they are the building blocks of a world of peace. With a marked emphasis on cross-cultural marriage, he states in his autobiography, As a Peace Loving Global Citizen, “There is no faster way than a cross-cultural wedding to reach the ideal of a peaceful world.” Beyond its potential to build us into spiritually motivated peace-building people, marriage inherently brings the world closer together.