Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage

One of the most popular topics in Lee Strobel’s book Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary was the chapter about the marriage setting when an unbelieving spouse is married to a believer. This book expands and builds upon the themes in that chapter and focuses on understanding your unchurched spouse and learning how to live out your faith authentically in front of him or her. Lee, an atheist for the first years of his marriage to Leslie, has a unique corner on what drives the non-Christian in a marriage to be the way he or she is. The Strobels use their own story for illustration purposes, but they also have interviewed many couples who were or are in this situation. Half of the book’s ten chapters are from Leslie’s perspective and half are from Lee’s. In addition, the Strobels also deal with the marriage settings in which one spouse is more spiritually mature or in which spouses are of different faith backgrounds (e. g., Christian-Jewish marriages).