Advice for dating a Christian

[Alex K]

One of my exes so far was Christian and I really felt uncomfortable with that. I have no advice. Of course american style dating is pretty harmless, so just go for it. The important thing is to be yourself from the beginning I think. If you're out of the closet and the topic comes up, I'd be honest, otherwise it'll just become awkward in the long run if the relationship works out...

What's the deal with American dating style?

That's a very good question. My impression (though I've only lived there for 2...3 years) is that these kinds of relations are at the same time more formalized and more pragmatic than in Europe. There is something like a rough industry standard of how couples initially meet, encapsulated in the concept "date". There is a standardized idea how dates usually go and how quickly they progress concerning intimacy, what with which things are appropriate on a first, second, third date. While this varies in particular depending on age of those involved, it does not seem to be arbitrary.
There are non-exclusive and exclusive variants, and initially dating is often non-exclusive. Much of these things have been captured in their cliché varieties in American pop culture such as Movies and TV Series and music.
All of this is very alien to me, and barely any (none of the more stable) of my relationships have started like this.

For some reason in my language there's no word "dating", it's just called "going out with someone", and when the two start calling each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, they form a pair and are called a "couple" (though with a different word)

Where are you from? Where I live it's the same.

The problem is I can't just be polite and try to work it out, I'll probably have to denounce BS on religion and that's why I can't be with someone with an irrational position - I won't lie. A deist would be fine as long as she was open minded I guess, but Christians hell no... When I started dating my girlfriend she was supposedly a Christian, though she never prayed, or read the bible or talked about god, it was just a childhood meaningless label without importance - And now that I've rented her a good novel from a native writer about atheism she is beginning to let go Catholicism and on her way to atheism or at least deism. However if we're talking about American style Christian then I'd never date that person, the kind of person who goes to church every week and keeps saying "I'll pray for you" or "God bless our love" - Sex ought to be boring, lol

Here's the thing: If you want to be a bit in your face like that, do it - but try to be charming about it, you know - with a sense of humor. You might even end up with a Christian woman who is having fun verbally sparring with you and teasing you about your atheism. Such a thing could have potential.