When Calvinism Comes to Dating
I heard Eugene Osterhaven wonder if some take the Kuyperian world-and-life-view too far. The instance he cited was the formation of a Christian Goat Breeders Society in the Netherlands. The question is, What distinguishes a Christian goat breeder from another?
I supposed one function of a Christian Goat Breeders Society is to breed Christian goats only with other Christian goats. And inasmuch as it is the Calvinists who form such societies, I suppose we can go a step further and say that the Society provided a service by which Calvinist Christian goats would be bred only with other Christian Calvinistic goats.
I came across a video which reminded me of that story. It is one of those dramatizations based on real life events. If you have not been around the small group Calvinists who at the same time think (1) that presuppositional apologetics is essential to the true faith and (2) that they are called to work for a theonomic government, and (3) that Christian courtship means a father must vet men who want to pursue their daughters, you will feel you have entered an alien world. You have. For those who know this world or are part of it, this video will portray a world you have either (1) observed or (2) been part of.
Meanwhile I was interested to find that the gurus of Christian patriarchy don't like the courtship ("I kissed dating goodbye") movement. It's too tame for them. No, they believe that dating and courtship are violent. They view Courtship as Warfare: "...marriage is not safe, and the wooing which leads to marriage is not safe. It is war, and the quicker our children understand this the better. It is war against sin. It is the breaking of families and established orders. It is secession and union all in one, penetration and insemination, not merely lacy ruffles and Pachelbel canons but velvet-gloved violence. All this courtship conceals."
Below is the video. Watch it, laugh, and weep.
From Calvinistic vetting services and courtship as violence, Good Lord, deliver us.
Well, before computers and the Christian, Calvinistic, online, dating service, we, Navigators, had potential romantic relationships vetted by our local Navigator Representative.
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