{"id":153338,"date":"2022-07-19T09:30:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T13:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-should-i-do-a-bible-study-with-my-protestant-boyfriend\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:00:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:00:05","slug":"ask-a-priest-should-i-do-a-bible-study-with-my-protestant-boyfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-should-i-do-a-bible-study-with-my-protestant-boyfriend\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Ask a Priest: Should I Do a Bible Study With My Protestant Boyfriend?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<address>Q: Is it wise for me to do a Bible study with my boyfriend? We have been dating for a little over a month. He is Protestant and I am Catholic. I am less worried about our different ways of worship than about whether it is appropriate for us to get too spiritually close to each other in a new relationship. I wasn&#8217;t really that worried about that until I saw some articles online, in which some Christian sources said it was a bad idea. I&#8217;m curious what the Catholic take on this is, as it seemed like a good idea to both of us, and a great way to put God first. \u2013 M.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A:\u00a0It&#8217;s great that you want to put God first in your life &#8212; and presumably first in any relationship\u00a0you have with people.<\/p>\n<p>Your question is worth examining at several levels.<\/p>\n<p>First, early on in romantic relationships it is a good idea to keep a healthy distance, especially in spiritual matters. This might seem odd at first glance. But getting too close spiritually, too soon, can carry risks.<\/p>\n<p>A Bible study can prompt a person to reveal very personal facets of herself. In this situation it would be easy to let down the drawbridge and give people a deep look into your soul.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of thing might be OK among a group of your trusted Catholic girlfriends. But the dynamic can be much different if you do it one-on-one with a young man. It&#8217;s too easy for spiritual openness to slip into premature emotional intimacy and dependence.<\/p>\n<p>This in turn can tempt you to think you have already found your soulmate for life. This can cause you and your friend to jump the gun.<\/p>\n<p>Experience sometimes shows that this kind of emotional and spiritual intimacy, if unchecked, can even lead (unexpectedly) to physical intimacy. It can happen to anyone, even &#8220;good Christians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But let&#8217;s try to state all this positively: Healthy courtships take time. You don&#8217;t want to open yourself up too quickly. Good relationships, good friendships between a young woman and a young man need time to develop. It takes time to build trust.<\/p>\n<p>You mention that you are less worried about your religious differences. It might be worth pausing on this point.<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, your friend will likely have a shorter Bible (Protestants don&#8217;t recognize the seven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholic.com\/magazine\/print-edition\/how-to-defend-the-deuterocanonicals\">deuterocanonical<\/a> books), and he will likely interpret things much differently than you will (for instance, the Bread of Life discourse in John 6).<\/p>\n<p>Catholicism depends on Sacred Tradition (the teachings of Christ and the apostles that were passed down orally) to help interpret the Bible, while Protestantism tends to embrace <em>sola Scriptura <\/em>(Scripture alone). Suffice it to say that it caused rifts at the Protestant Reformation, and it still causes rifts today.<\/p>\n<p>That your friend is interested in doing a Bible study indicates that he is probably serious about his faith. Which means that he might have some firmly set ideas. Some of those ideas won&#8217;t be compatible with Catholic teachings. It wouldn&#8217;t be surprising if he tries to win you over to the Protestant way of seeing things.<\/p>\n<p>And this leads to a related, longer-term issue. The Church doesn&#8217;t encourage mixed marriages. Experience has shown that religious differences can cause lots of tensions in a household.<\/p>\n<p>Children can grow up confused about religion. And it&#8217;s not uncommon for couples to avoid fights over faith by adopting a kind of indifferentism. A Catholic could be tempted to water down the faith or stop talking about it altogether, for the sake of &#8220;domestic peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now, obviously I don&#8217;t know much about you or your friend. He might be the nicest guy in the world, and sincere about his faith.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, differences in religion could complicate things sooner than later. You might want to see what the Catechism says about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p2s2c3a7.htm#1633\">mixed marriages<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, it would be good for you to maintain a solid prayer life and a regular sacramental life.<\/p>\n<p>It might help, too, if you could find a spiritual director. This could be a regular confessor or consecrated woman or even an older Catholic laywoman who is solid in the faith. A director could help you stay prudent \u2013 and ensure that God will truly be at the center of any relationship.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 1.125rem;\">Keep learning more with <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1.125rem;\" href=\"https:\/\/rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com\/ask_a_priest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ask a Priest<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Got a question? Need an answer?<\/h3>\n<p>Today\u2019s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. AskACatholicPriest is a Q&amp;A feature that anyone can use. Just type your question <a href=\"https:\/\/rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com\/ask-a-priest-question\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a>\u00a0and you will get a personal response back from one of our priests at RCSpirituality. You can ask about anything \u2013 liturgy, prayer, moral questions, current events\u2026 Our goal is simply to provide a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information. So go ahead and ask your question\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Is it wise for me to do a Bible study with my boyfriend? We have been dating for a little over a month. He is Protestant and I am [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":145952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3718],"tags":[3619,5056,4263,5395,4071,4955,5691],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-153338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-a-priest","tag-bible-study","tag-boyfriend","tag-dating","tag-mcilmail","tag-mixed-marriage","tag-protestant","tag-wise"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Ask a Priest: Should I Do a Bible Study With My Protestant Boyfriend?&quot; - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-should-i-do-a-bible-study-with-my-protestant-boyfriend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Ask a Priest: Should I Do a Bible Study With My Protestant Boyfriend?&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q: Is it wise for me to do a Bible study with my boyfriend? 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