There is a place where religious intermarriage is now praised, even touted as a positive sign of a better future. Such an unlikely and rare attitude is developing in modern Montenegro, one of the countries that emerged out of the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Marriage between two people of different faiths is widely viewed in the United States as fraught with peril. The term “irreconcilable differences,” a common ground for divorce, aptly describes those whose deeply held religious beliefs are incompatible with one another.

But intermarriage in Montenegro is hailed as part of a spiritual re-awakening: making religion not

a communal or national mandate, but a personal commitment, a covenant made between a person and their God.

Bucking a trend elsewhere in southeast Europe, Montenegro is seeing an increase in youth and young professionals who believe in God and who hold religious and spiritual teachings in high regard.

This is ironic for a country ruled throughout most of recorded history by clergy. Up until 1918, Montenegro was an autonomous region, sometimes claimed by the Ottoman Empire, sometimes included under Venetian rule, but never wholly conquered.

This autonomy came from both the country’s inaccessible and mountainous terrain (from which “Montenegro” gets its name) and its historic loyalty to Orthodox Christianity.

For centuries, despite who claimed the region, the actual rulers of Montenegro were the Vladikas, the Prince-Bishops of the Orthodox Church who (because Orthodox Bishops are prohibited from marrying) passed leadership from uncle to nephew.

Even after the Kingdom of Montenegro was established, the last King prior to the Communist takeover, Nikolas I, married two of his daughters into the family of Czar Nicholas Romanov of Russia simply because “they are Orthodox Christians like ourselves.”

But that lack of distinction between national identity and personal religion had devastating consequences for the people of Montenegro. In the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the

Communist Dictator Slobodan Milosevic stoked religious bigotry as a tool against both Bosnia and Croatia, suggesting to “believers” that Serbia was a “protector of the Christian Faith” against the Muslims of Bosnia, and the Roman apostates of Croatia.

And so the devout Orthodox of Montenegro were sucked into Milosevic’s bloody wars. They eventually realized the godless Communists’ deceit and renounced their alliance with Serbia,

officially apologizing to the Croatian people. But international sanctions still fell on the country and did lasting harm to their economy.

Montenegro is still not a member of the European Union, and it is only just now pulling out of “third world” destitution.

Montenegrans today have seen the harm caused when government endorses one religion and outlaws others. Inter-sect marriage is celebrated in the hope such mistakes are in their past.

There are parallels here with what has happened when California defaulted to adopt Atheism as its official religion. In the set of religions that worship a god, you have those who worship

Yahweh, Krishna, Allah, Jehovah and, of course, all sets include the empty set, those who worship “no one.” The worship of “no one” became California’s only “sanctioned” religion, with every other belief ridiculed, banned from public expression, and even denounced in official state pronouncements and K-12 education.

How does this affect Idaho? The Gem State has now become a haven for those fleeing California’s religious hegemony. Unfortunately, some of these religious refugees want to make Idaho an official protectorate for their religion.

Charismatic evangelical Christians, like Pastor Doug Wilson, have endorsed a purge of “non-believers” from Idaho’s state government.

These refugees, however, join California in being wrong. Balkanization of competing religious states is not the answer and has an unblemished track record of ending in disaster.

As the people of Montenegro now realize, learning to live in harmony, maybe even in falling in love with someone whose religious ceremonies and symbols are different from yours, can be spiritually challenging in a way that renews and deepens faith.

And with that renewed faith comes peace and security. At least, in Montenegro, that is their shared hope.