So, I was reading Sarah Kropp's blog and she talked about this article in Christianity Today on promoting early marriage in the church. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/16.22.html. I read it and thought that it was really interesting. Basically the premise is that the church has taught purity and virginity so intently that they have forgotten to teach about marriage and how to know when you should get married. It promotes Christians marrying in their early 20's (if they fall in love with another Christian of course) rather than waiting until their late 20's to early 30's when they are more settled. The author talks about how we are created as sexual beings with an innate desire to be sexually active. This is all good for the single Christian if you get married when you are 20 years old and don't have to stifle that desire for the next 10 years. By the time that many believers get married currently, most have either lived with a boyfriend/girlfriend, had sex, or at least played around with some type of sexual activity. Also, for all those women who are wait on the perfect man through their 20's and into their 30's, the chances of finding a Godly man are already slimmer (there are 3 available Christian women to every 2 available Christian men at age 30.), and even more difficult to find is the man who has remained a virgin. So 1 out of every 3 Christian women who wants to get married will basically be forced to marry someone less spiritually active/interested than she is. Christians are also having fewer children. Not that the point of Christianity is to repopulate the world with our children, but there are fewer and fewer Christians (possibly in part due to less children being raised in Christian households.)
Anyways, all that to say, the author believes that the church should do a better job of advocating for earlier marriage, encouraging young Christians who are interested in each other to pursue a relationship, and by setting Christians up on dates with each other.
So, I'm not sure what I think. I think there is a lot of truth to what the author says. Alan and I got married young. It has worked fine for us. We have been able to learn how to be adults together. What do you say to those who haven't found the right one yet though? It's easy for me to advocate earlier marriage, but that's because I already have my husband. And, I hardly think that simply advocating getting married earlier will fix the marriage crisis that is currently affecting the church. Maybe this is one aspect of one solution, but every Christian young person will not find the right person in their early 20's, nor will they all be mature enough to get married or in a place where they can at that age.
Bottom line: the church needs to stand up and preach the sanctity of marriage, the way you determine who should be your mate, and how to go about finding a mate, rather than solely teaching adolescent Christians singularly about purity as virginity. They should pair purity with the teaching that sex within a Christian marriage is a viable solution to the sexual desires one has (quote Paul on that one- although he also says that the possibly more difficult calling is the one of singleness). The message is quite counter-culture. Isn't that what we're suppose to be though?
Read the article. I'm interested in what people think...
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