Advice please

Submitted by Francesca (United States), Dec 25, 2006 at 08:06

I am an American who has been dating a wonderful Turkish/Muslim man for one year.

Things are getting serious and we are starting to talk more about the future.

He has told me that he would convert to Christianity if it were important to me. He has also told me that we can raise our children Christian. He says that he is willing to adopt my religion since his religion is (and always has been) unimportant to him, while I am very religious. He is, however, culturally Turkish, so whether it is possible to separate the culture from the religion, I am not sure.

My family will not acknowledge this relationship. They have never met him, nor have they expressed interest in meeting him. If I bring it up, things get quite tense. I am quite close with my family, so as you might imagine, this situation is starting to feel absolutely terrible. I feel like I can't go forward in this relationship without my parents' blessing.

I recently went online, in search of answers as to why my family is acting this way, and it all started making more sense. When I read these postings, or about Betty Mahmoody, I can understand why my family is getting so undone about all of this. My family is pretty internet savvy--so no doubt, they've read these sorts of accounts themselves.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".