Will wonders never cease?
Some decent advice from the SBCers…
Christian couples should marry sooner, an ethicist and a pastor with the largest Protestant denomination in the United States argue.
Andrew Walker, director of policy studies for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Jon Akin, senior pastor of Fairview Church in Lebanon, Tennessee, made the argument in a column for the Baptist Press earlier this week. While not advocating a specific age for marriage and noting the diverse situations for people, young people should still look toward marriage sooner, they said.
“We do not advocate a specific age; rather, we believe that young people should make themselves ‘marry-able’ younger,” wrote Walker and Akin.
“They need to push against the cultural norm that extends adolescence for an indefinite period of time and reach maturity more quickly so they can be ready for marriage sooner than the national average.”
Walker and Akin also stated that it’s “impractical and unhelpful to advise and encourage young men and women who reach sexual maturity at the age of 12 or 13 to wait 15 years before marriage and still remain pure.”
“Ultimately, there are Southern Baptists who will agree and disagree with us, which is expected given our denomination’s size and vastness. Even some in our own churches would disagree with us,” continued Walker and Akin.
“The question of when a couple is ready for marriage is one that requires wisdom and discernment for each person considering marriage and, ideally, the involvement of a local church that seeks to shape and influence potential spouses in a way that prioritizes and mirrors the Gospel in covenantal fidelity.”
[…]
Walker and Akin are not the only SBC ethicists in recent years to advocate for marriage coming sooner. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, also made a case for marrying early.
Al Mohler. Hmm. How about that.
Well, I guess even stopped clocks are right twice a day…
Patriactionary 
Eric
August 21, 2014 at 12:43 am
I’m still in disbelief that the SBC had the balls to come out and say this. If they take this one step further and start lobbying for lower AOC laws and ending age discrimination in marriage I may have to give Protestantism a second look—LOL
As a side note, though, the AOC in the Vatican City State is 12, but Pope Fannie is too busy preaching tolerance for ‘alternative lifestyles’ to bring that one up.
Doing what these guys suggest would probably be an irrevocable blow to Radical Feminism and be a bigger offensive in the Culture Wars than most people, including Christians, realize.
infowarrior1
August 21, 2014 at 1:14 am
The southern baptists according the Gary North due to some systematic strategy they applied were able to kick out the leftist infiltrators and cause the liberal agenda to grind to a halt. I think Gary north in his book how presbyterian church got subverted highlighted some of the strategies.
A.B Prosper
August 21, 2014 at 2:57 am
Nice to hear people standing up for good sense and pushing back.
A caveat though for people to marry young, they’ll need resources to start a family. These days people are in school till 22 or later, in debt and won’t b able to handle the basic responsibilities often at 30 or more. They are doing the right thing ironically, delaying family formation until they can pay for it but its destructive culturally.
The proper response to “have children in poverty” now that people can control fertility easily is something less polite than “shove off”
And note this late marriage issue isn’t a new thing. Wikipedia notes
It seems clear that the average age of marriage during the Early Middle Ages was comparatively high, in the early twenties, and quite equal for men and women. The reason for this can be found in traditions brought forward from the Germanic tribes, but equally in the fact that habitation was confined to small areas, a factor that enforced restrictions on population growth.
I suspect there was a lot o fornication and non reproductive sex and self satisfaction going on just like now,
In economic terms not everyone can do a trade either.We can’t all be plumbers for example . This means for younger marriages to work we have to change the economic culture even more than the social one.
To do this we can either use economic regulation to make hiring nationals of whatever nation the best choice ,in essence forcing inefficiency into the system or we can push people to clan and kinship arrangements.
I like the later but it will have very drastic consequences and if it becomes widespread it will destroy Anglo Saxon society more thoroughly that the Cathedral could . In essence our society has been built around the concept of “nothing larger than the extended family” . There are economic and social control reasons for this but in essence kinship societies can be better for certain groups but on aggregate are less stable, less organized and produce less surplus wealth.
We should make those choices with our eyes open I think.
ballista74
August 21, 2014 at 6:10 am
They can talk all they want, but it still won’t make it happen, especially at the hands of these people. This makes such a pronouncement as this hot air, and consequently worthless. The proof in the pudding (so to speak) will be if these same people (and more) see that they are the actors that are pushing marriage off 15 years – in other words, that they are the very men that caused this.
TL;DR No signs of repentance from these people.
Will S.
August 21, 2014 at 9:27 am
@ ballista74: I fear you’re probably right. Still, nice to at least see some lip service to the right thing…
@ Eric: What’s ‘AOC’?
@ infowarrior1: That is an excellent book.
So is this one of his (very pertinent to our discussion):
http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/21ce_47e.htm
Click to access the_failure_of_american_baptist_culture.pdf
@ ABP: It may be a challenge, certainly, but I think earlier marriage would ultimately be better for our society, despite the challenges. Maybe less vacations, gadgets, etc. but why waste one’s most fertile years in pursuit of higher education and careers, rather than first settling down.
Kilrud
August 21, 2014 at 10:15 am
I think he means Age of Consent, and I agree. I keep hearing about how Age of consent laws were pushed by early feminists, and probably to regulate the sexual marketplace by cutting out marriage competition. Actually, lot of feminism (and female behavior in general) is an attempt to regulate the SMP, why else would there be such vehement opposition to slut shaming except to lower the common denominator and level the playing field to floozies? On the other end, women calling each other sluts is an attempt to make them step back in rank put a price-fix on sex.
Will S.
August 21, 2014 at 10:25 am
Oh, of course, Age of Consent.
Yes, feminists want to take control of women’s SMV, by whatever means they can; whether through opposing slut-shaming, or opposing laws enabling mail-order brides, or whatever…
Peter Blood
August 21, 2014 at 11:51 am
To get (and stay) married young, both husband and wife have to be not infantile. That’s the tough one in our current culture.
Will S.
August 21, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Indeed.
deti
August 21, 2014 at 12:37 pm
That’s a start, but not anywhere close to fixing this. The SBC might start with its own Dr. Mohler, who has stoked the fires of this problem with his insistence that husbands “earn” sex from their wives and show themselves “deserving” of sex.
No, Dr. Mohler. A husband becomes deserving of sex and has earned sex by standing at an altar and saying “I do” to God, the woman he marries, and her family. It’s a done deal right then.
So, Dr. Mohler and SBC. Can we count on your support too for across the board abolition of his-fault divorce, alimony, and presumptions of maternal child custody? Will you support reform of child support laws and policies? Yeah, thought not.
Right now, women aren’t marrying young because they don’t want to and they don’t have to. And when they do marry, their expectations and demands are out of this world unreasonable. Men aren’t marrying young because they cannot, and because the rewards are too small and the risks positively gargantuan. Until you, Dr. Mohler and SBC, understand that, this problem that YOU helped create will continue to fester. Until then, your proclamations are cheap and meaningless, and are just talk.
Will S.
August 21, 2014 at 12:42 pm
Well said, deti.
Kilrud
August 21, 2014 at 1:17 pm
I think you got the cart before the horse, Peter. by waiting 10-20 years for marriage people can choose to remain infantile through their 30’s, while getting married forces you to grow up.
Will S.
August 21, 2014 at 1:28 pm
That’s a good point, Kilrud; I’ve seen people become more mature, once married and having kids. Shoot, even folks who have kids out of wedlock end up being forced to deal with reality, a bit more than they otherwise would have done…
Peter Blood
August 21, 2014 at 3:58 pm
Then those people were juvenile, not infantile. There’s been a turn in our culture where what used to be a mass of juvenile people are now a mass of infantile. Witness Social Justice Warrior Rage.
Deti: spot on. Also, isn’t Russell Moore an influential Southern Baptist who is part of the problem?
Peter Blood
August 21, 2014 at 3:59 pm
I think it was the Clinton years where we took another turn for the worse, and became infantile.
Will S.
August 21, 2014 at 4:33 pm
@ PB: I won’t speak for deti, but I have certainly criticized Russell Moore for his cluelessness, many times in these pages…
infowarrior1
August 21, 2014 at 4:50 pm
@deti
Why don’t you contact Albert Mohler directly? Saying this on an obscure manosphere board aint gonna turn him around anytime soon.
Eric
August 22, 2014 at 12:23 am
Kilrud:
You should check out this guy’s blog:
http://theantifeminist.com
He’s worked out that same theory about the AOC in some considerable detail.
Eric
August 22, 2014 at 12:28 am
Will:
I’ve always been amazed that more Fathers’ Rights MRAs don’t see that lowering the AOC laws would be an enormous benefit to them in things like child custody/divorce cases. Even if our draconian divorce laws were unchanged, the wife would effectively lose control once the children obtained the legal age to make their own choices.
What’s worrisome though is that the trend is going upwards. Obamacare actually defined ‘dependent children’ as up to the age of 26; my suspicion is that Hillary and her femihag colleagues slipped that provision is as ‘trial balloon’ for raising the AOC to that age.
Will S.
August 22, 2014 at 1:05 am
Indeed, Eric.
BTW, it seems to me, that adulthood in all particulars – right to vote, serve in military, driver’s licence, drinking alcohol, and sex – should surely all be at the same age, whatever we settle upon.
Why should someone be considered mature enough legally to engage in one or more of those things but not all of them?
Eric
August 22, 2014 at 2:11 am
Will:
Good point: and another I’ve never understood is when ‘minors’ are forced to testify in court against their adult lovers. If they’re legally presumed unable to give consent to sex; how can they presumed to give consent and competent legal testimony?
It just shows that our society’s attitudes towards these things are on about the level as Mediaeval witch-hunts; or more accurately, Roman ‘spectacles’ given the way the stories are trumped-up in the media.
Will S.
August 22, 2014 at 7:22 am
Indeed, and it all goes to show that there’s little rational consistency in the law, despite how much we’d like to pat ourselves on the back for having rational laws. No we don’t; else we wouldn’t have an injustice system that seeks to redistribute men’s wealth to women, on the basis that the men failed to keep the women ‘happy’…
On the level of witch-hunts, indeed. And kangaroo courts…
Kilrud
August 22, 2014 at 10:26 am
Thanks Eric, I’ll start checking him out. As for minors testifying, it happens on much more than just statutory rape cases. You raise a good question though, especially since young children can be fed a narrative, as was seen with the satanic molestation hoax.
@Peter, that’s a good point; I have seen some people stay exactly the same after having a kid. I can’t vouch for the authenticity, but I remember a screenshot of a facebook conversation about a young woman giving her 3 year old up for adoption because it was hard for her to find a man. I would say that most people are just being engineered to be juvenile longer, though.
Eric
August 22, 2014 at 8:19 pm
Kilrud & Will:
On the subject of ‘minors’ testifying (and prog insanity in general)—here in the US most states have a legal drinking age of 21, although 18 is the so-called ‘Age of Majority’. But if an 18-21 y/o is arrested for some-alcohol related incident, they’re tried as adults, not as minors; even though the law they violated says otherwise.
Typical Libtard insanity…
Will S.
August 22, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Exactly, Eric; that kind of thing makes no damn sense, but it endures… Nobody has decided to challenge it…
infowarrior1
August 22, 2014 at 11:26 pm
@Will S.
As long as liberals can ensure that your children and their young children remain a captured audience the bad ideology can live on indefinitely. Ideologies unlike people do not have lifespans, it will not go away unless destroyed by a rival memetic monster.
Will S.
August 23, 2014 at 12:28 am
Alas, indeed, infowarrior1.
Eric
August 23, 2014 at 10:47 pm
Will:
I remember a story in the local media awhile about a decorated platoon sergeant returning here on leave from Iraq. He was qualified by the Army to operate shoulder-fired rockets, but he was turned down for a handgun purchase because he wasn’t 21.
Will S.
August 24, 2014 at 2:42 am
Old enough to kill and die for the empire, but not to buy a weapon for himself.
Absurd…