It's funny how this is contrary to anecdotal evidence in the Australian church and the warnings of the Old Testament about being led astray by pagan spouses. Could it be because Australian Christians tend to date non-Christians rather tha marry them, our lower lever of commitment, or something else?
That Christians seldom lost out via exogamous marriages is also in keeping with modern observations of high-tension religious movements. Female Joehovah's Witnesses frequently marry outside the group (Heaton 1990). Seldom does this result in their defection, and it often results in the conversion of the spouse. Indeed, this phenomenon is so general that Andrew Greeley (1970) has proposed the rule that whenever a mixed marriage occurs, the less religious person will usually join the religion of the more religious member.
(Rise of Christianity, p. 114)
