They broke up for their faith. Asking questions brought them back together
CBC
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Career. Relationship. Josh Murphy and Caroline Rex, who both grew up in strict religious communities, say they almost lost it all because of their faith.
Rex was raised evangelical baptist in Lubbock, Texas, before moving to Pembroke, Ont., in Grade 8. She met Murphy, an aspiring filmmaker, in high school.
He grew up mostly evangelical, and the two attended a youth group together at a church in the Ottawa Valley.
As a teenager, Rex's goal was to become a missionary overseas, and she imagined a future married to a pastor with the same dream. At the time, Murphy was struggling to reconcile his religion with his love of movies.
"For so long, I believed I wasn't good enough for Christianity, and that my desire to do film was incompatible with my faith," he recalled.
Murphy went so far as to quit film to be with Rex — but it wasn't enough.
"I broke up with Josh, because I was taught we were 'unequally yoked,' which means we were on different spiritual levels," said Rex, who ended things in 2016.
"Thankfully, our story doesn't end there," Murphy added.
The couple document how questioning what they'd been taught helped them find a path back to each other, and to their faith, in a video produced in collaboration with CBC Ottawa's Creator Network — a topic that became even more urgent as they prepare to welcome their first child.
"It was very scary to find out that you were pregnant, especially with having these questions linger," Murphy said, explaining why they set out to tackle some of that uncertainty in their video titled Those who wrestle with God.
Statistics Canada's latest numbers reveal more and more Canadians, particularly younger generations, are re-evaluating the role faith plays in their lives.
The 2021 census showed the proportion of non-religious Canadians has more than doubled in the past 20 years to 34.6 per cent, up from 16.5 per cent in 2001, while the share of the population who identifies as Christian has shrunk. While 19 per cent of Canadians 65 and older said they had no religion, that number rose to 36.5 per among those ages 15-64.
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