Before I share my answer, I want you to reflect on yourself and ask yourself how religion has affected your friendships and relationships.

Has it helped you gain friends by going to a private school where everyone shares your beliefs?

Has it broken a relationship when you realized that your s.o. doesn't believe what you believe?

Has religion made relationships stronger for you by growing your faith and friendship?

Cool, now that you've thought about that, I can share. How does religion affect my relationship with my very best friend? It doesn't. Not very surprising, or at least I hope it's not. In this day and age, I hope that we can throw religion aside for the sake of our friendships, at least a little.

What I mean by that is not that you need to denounce Jesus to people that don't believe just so you can fit in. Please, PLEASE stay true to your faith because it is an important thing to have.

I mean that the world is ever growing more and more accepting and if you are going to let religion get in the way of possibly becoming friends with others then maybe you need to go back and read some scripture to understand what religion is supposed to be.

I say religion doesn't change or even play a role in my friends because it honestly doesn't even come up, and when it does I am lucky enough to have such a supportive friend that she doesn't care!

If I am telling her a story and say that I am so blessed or God is so good or something along those lines she just goes with it. Why is that important? Because she is an atheist. Yea, this Catholic girl has an atheist best friend and I couldn't honestly care less. She has never once used it against me, nor I to her.

I don't tell her that she is going to hell because she doesn't believe and that isn't just because I don't believe that. I just don't think that it is even worth thinking about.

If I preface a statement by saying that "I know you don't believe in..." she literally looks at me and tells me to share anyway because she knows that it is something that I want to share with her and she is more than willing to listen and agree with me. I do the same with her.

If it ever does come up and she says something about not believing in God I certainly do not go off on her and tell her my beliefs. She is always strong in her beliefs of everything and being religious is a choice. You can believe in whatever and as long as you don't shit on what I think is right then I won't shit on what you think is right.

I don't think that religion should even be playing a role in friendships or relationships these days because we are more accepting than that. I know that we are.

If you are very strong in your faith and you think that having a partner who is strong in faith as well is important, by all means, find them. I am not saying that you need to nix it all the way. I am just saying that we need to be more accepting.

Finding a partner or friend who supports you should be at the top of your priority list and not what religion they are. I know for a fact that when I get married that she will be standing up there, as my maid of honor, in a long Catholic ceremony because I know that is important to her.

Want to know something else? She goes to church on rare occasions with her parents who are very religious. She does that because it makes them happy and she wants them to be happy.

That is the kind of person that you need to be looking for in a friend and partner. Do what you will with this but religion plays no role in my relationships and it shouldn't in yours either.