When you start dating you are actually inviting someone into your life. When you form a relationship with someone, all of a sudden their opinions about you and what you do, become important. Therefore you invite them to have influence in your life. When you think about it like that, its an interesting process.

This can be a great thing if you are in a good relationship. In this situation your partner will use their influence to help you be the best person you can. It can be a bad situation though in a toxic relationship. In these situations, your partner can use their influence to manipulate you into behaviours that satisfy their insecurities, guilt or own ambitions.

Culture and religion can be very influential here. Both culture and religion are a framework, or a set of rules, within which its members live their lives. There is often very little room for compromise with these rules. If you do not abide by them, you are not a practising member of that faith/culture. So if you date someone who lives within these structures, the influence and opinion they bring to your life will invariably be tempered by the rules of their faith.

The main conflict this has with dating, is with partners who have not been brought up in the same culture or religion. Dating and relationships require understanding and compromise. Religions and culture tend not to, inasmuch as living your life by their set of rules is concerned, allow room for compromise.

I am not saying that culture and religion are good or bad here. I am just saying that if you start dating someone from a different religion or a different culture, be aware that this may have an impact on the development of your relationship. Depending on the person, it could enhance it or it could inhibit it. You need to try and understand where you partner is coming from too in this regard, and the influence their faith has had on their lives and life views.

Asian culture for example is very different to western culture. If Asian culture is important to you, one of the easiest ways to ensure you continue to live under its constructs is to surround yourself with like minded people. Dating is a part of this, dating people committed to Asian culture is important.

However, if you are not particularly interested in Asian people or culture, it could be difficult to develop such a relationship without understanding or compromise.

Similarly with religion, a devout person of Christian or Jewish faith could be a much better person having a partner of similar faith, helping and supporting them through the matters of conscience particular to those religions. Similar beliefs in matters of sexuality also help in setting boundaries in the early stages of relationships in these cases. This is why religious dating sites also exist.

If you do start dating someone from a different religion, its really advisable you do some homework to understand the precepts of that religion. You relationship will face some challenges because of this alone and understanding really is the first step towards compromise and resolving the challenges. It can’t be a one way street though, you partner must make an effort to understand where you came from also. Compromise always has two sides. Its about meeting in the middle.

With inter-cultural dating there is no perfect way to navigate the potential challenges that will come up from time to time. With inter-religion dating there is no perfect way to navigate the potential challenges that will come up from time to time. Lets be honest, with dating generally there is no perfect way to navigate the potential challenges that will come up from time to time. This article was never about saying what is right or wrong, it was only ever written to raise some points to think about. So if you find yourself dating someone from a different culture or religion, spend some time learning about where they came from. It will promote understanding, compromise and harmony in your relationship.