There are so many variables to a happy marriage, and like it or not, family is one of them to many people, ESPECIALLY those who are products of religious background. The marraige of such people (whether culturally or religiously devout, although the two are often hand in hand) is not of the same type that your average non-religious (and to carry the parallel, non-cultural) couple engages in. It is one where, a match of most or all of the following - cultural values, religious heritage, racial similarity - is, in addition to love (or sometimes in place of it), required for a successful and enduring marriage.
As you go down the ladder from ultra-orthodox to athiest, you find that some of the requirements are relaxed, although the new effort becomes determining whether two people (and their families) sit on the same rung, or at least aren't too far apart. Often, it fails, and often, the more dominant attributes of the marriage win out - whether it be a domineering religion (you'll rarely see a mixed match involving a buddhist and a muslim where the buddhism isn't squeezed out), or the more dominant person of the couple. In the end, what you see, is that it is quite rare when such mixed marriages work. Even if both are non-religious and culturally devoid (more specifically devoid of the culture of their ancestry, since we all have culture, even if is America's de-facto MacDonald's and MTV), simple racism can be enough to sour it.
Seeing as a union like marriage is difficult enough when the cards are played right, why would you want to embark on something where you have an extra 1000 miles to climb?
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