Raistlin Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Anyone out there have any stories about churches that arrange marriages? I know of two churches that practice this--Maranatha ministries and Christ Community Church. The amount of brainwashing and control the church exerts over impressionable young people is astounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geezer Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Not in the context of church but my mother was sold by her family to the oldest son of the family that lived down the road. Younger people are not aware that this practice isn't as far distant in the past as they would like to believe. In the case of my mother she was 14 at the time. This was in rural northern Indiana around 1919 or there about. And this practice wasn't uncommon in rural areas. She had my oldest sister, who is still living, at age 15. Families were large and resources were scarce. Boys helped farm the land and girls had babies. That was just the way it was. Kids in rural areas didn't go to school or if they did they rarely went beyond the 6th to 8th grade. Girls consumed resources but weren't considered an asset when it came to producing those resources. Much like in ancient times their value was in the money or assets they could be traded or sold for. A quick check of the internet will confirm that marriage for love is a relatively new concept. Marriage in past times, and not as far in the past as young people today think, was for social and economic reasons not love. And the divorce rate was small probably because women were considered property. My father-in-law had an 8th grade education. He was raised in rural Kentucky. He retired from the Illinois Central Railroad as their Chief Statistician. He went to work for the RR at age 13 in the yard and worked his way up to Chief Statistician and retired with 52 years on the job. Times have definitely changed. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Wow Geezer, interesting history. Thank you for sharing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenstar Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Oh goodness! I was a Maranatha for a while.. I had almost forgotten them. damn... I don't remember any arranged marriages though - but I wasn't there long enough, maybe, but I wouldn't put it past them. They did wash my feet, some sort of bizarre candlelight ritual one evening - which actually really creeped me out... I think I left shortly thereafter. I'd forgotten how weird christianity can be. I probably wanted to block it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator TheRedneckProfessor Posted December 10, 2013 Super Moderator Share Posted December 10, 2013 Hey! You're from Ashboro! Greetings from a fellow Tarheel. I was at Camp Maranatha nearly every summer as a child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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