Christian Youth Preferences in Interfaith Marriage: A Study Case in Surabaya, Indonesia

Interfaith marriages can be legally carried out in Surabaya after the Surabaya High Court approved it in July 2022. Accordingly, the state is no longer a barrier to interfaith marriages. This study explored the preferences that Christian youth have in having a partner of a different religion after the legal barriers are removed. The approach used a qualitative method using thematic analysis to analyze the data with 16 unmarried participants from Christian youth, aged 19 to 22 years old, who were studying at Petra Christian University, Surabaya, Indonesia. The results confirmed that Christian youth remained difficult to accept interfaith couples although there were no legal barriers. Personal considerations, parents, religious communities, and friends prevented them from having interfaith marriages. In conclusion, the legal aspect only made interfaith marriage easier administratively. However, it did not increase the occurrence of interfaith marriages because there were many other factors to be considered.