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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:aeq
From: aeq@pucc-h (the practical mystic)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: What's the poop?
Message-ID: <1831@pucc-h>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 03:34:33 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1831
Posted: Tue Feb 12 03:34:33 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 04:11:32 EST
References: <485@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: the other 1016
Lines: 48

From Karl Malik (dec-star!malik):

> Reading the recent articles in net.singles is like watching 'Happy Days'.
> "living together is a sin", "does the bible allow fornication between
> unmarried adults", "love is perfect and unselfish and everlasting", etc.

> What year is this?  I thought these issues had been laid to rest.

> I'm 36, but I don't recall these issues being important even in my
> early twenties (which I assume (am I wrong?) most of the net.singles
> contributors are).

> Seriously, why are these issues again?

Sometimes I wish everything were as simple as in "Happy Days"....

Much of what you're seeing here is people trying to find an optimal lifestyle
after coming through a period when standard assumptions and legalisms were
demolished.  There is much true freedom that has come about via the women's
movement, even the sexual revolution (at least we are free to talk about sex).
People now have a large, sometimes bewildering, variety of options --
especially if they are trying to live as Christians.  The fact that those
who choose to live a Christian lifestyle now indeed need to choose it 
consciously, after considering the alternatives, rather than just passively
following what they were taught or fearfully obeying laws, can make for a
fuller experience of the Christian life.  But that doesn't make it any less
difficult.  I'm just beginning to get any idea of what love actually is (I
suspect that you were alluding to some of my postings).  People really are
trying to find out the best way to handle their sexuality, their life
arrangements, and their relationships in general.  (A point which was not
touched on in Karl's posting is that another complicating factor is that
nowadays we recognize that a marriage is two human beings, not a man and a
breeding appendage; while this is a good and true thing, it still presents
what appears to the uninitiated, and [as far as I can tell] often to the
initiated, a daunting challenge.)

In summary, there are many ways in which people have more freedom now than
they did 30 years ago.  The questions are much less settled than they were
in the 1950's.  Thus people have many more questions to struggle with now
than they did then.

BTW, several net.singles posters of my personal acquaintance are past 25,
some (including myself) nearing 30.

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."