Letters
posted 8/06/2001 12:00AM
CT 6/11/01 Issue
Singular Lifestyle
I must confess that I found myself agreeing with Lauren Winner's article on single Christians ["Solitary Refinement," June 11] but was also gently and rightfully rebuked. Why do I, more often than not, talk about relationships primarily in the realm of dating and marriage? Why don't I affirm that God's will is not always the cookie-cutter approach that we often make it out to be?
Her statements on the assumption of marriage producing maturity are bang on. Those who are immature and marry may actually pass this on to their spouse and even their children. It is as if we are saying that single adults will never experience the maturing strains of job stress, mortgage payments, car loans, and unexpected bills, let alone spiritual trials and testing.
If anything, I suspect that they may even become more mature in their faith since they must learn to lean on our heavenly Father for guidance and strength and not just the "arm of flesh" of a spouse.
Mike Thorburn
Pastor, Faith Baptist Church
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada
With approximately 45 percent of the U.S. population 18 and older being single, there is no other era in which I'd rather be single.
We have more opportunities than ever for participating with acceptance in the lives of our communities and churches, but we are still perceived as an aberration to "the system," with marriage being next to godliness in evangelical thinking.
Too often the potentially nurturing contexts of church and family have been used to stifle and depreciate the value of living singly. Singles learn to love broadly and compassionately, as did Jesus.
Winner's article clearly called for the need to be far more intentional about calling out and upholding singleness, and for a new theology of sex.
I was disappointed that the subsequent articles failed, in my mind, to address these issues adequately.
Grace Nolt
Canadensis, Pennsylvania
Living as a single evangelical for 12 years, I shared many of Lauren Winner's concerns about the ways singleness is viewed in evangelical churches. Like her, I was disturbed at singles-only activities in the wonderful Baptist megachurch I attended.
I did not want to miss out on the insights and fellowship of a broader range of Christians. I also wondered how singles, many themselves divorced or from dysfunctional families, were to learn how to have Christian marriages if the only people they associated with were also single!
Three years ago, after much prayer, study, and deliberation, I became a Catholic. One of the many things I found appealing about the Roman Catholic Church is that it sees the single life as a vocation, and not just for priests, monks, and nuns.
I would have become a Catholic in any case, but it's awfully nice to be part of a church in which my singleness is looked on as a vocation and I'm not "you poor thing."
Marilyn Martin
Tucson, Arizona
An Open Debate
In the "Openness Debate" ["Does God Know Your Next Move?" June 11], Christopher Hall tells us emphatically that God could not have meant what he said in Genesis 22:12 with his "now I know," but Hall never tells us the true meaning. In fact, he never defends his theological stand in either Part 1 or Part 2, but either presents a new challenge to John Sanders or changes the subject.
Hall finishes with a threat of a "domino effect," that questioning what the Bible teaches concerning predestination and foreknowledge will unravel "classical Christian orthodoxy." Should we stop asking "What does the Bible really teach?" because we will have to change our thinking?
August 6 2001, Vol. 45, No. 10
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