The Upper Room

1:04 AM

-1

I would like to dispute the removal of this answer: http://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/6025/1283 The removal was justified by David Stratton as: the question is "what evidence is there?", not "Is the evidence valid?". For now, I'm deleting this because it doesn't answer the actual ques...

discussion

Anonymous

2:33 AM

@curiousdannii I think you live in Australia. It may be different there.

@curiousdannii I'm not sure if it's exclusively a Protestant phenomenon.

@fredsbend Eh? "Mass" is one word, while "worship service" is two words.

Does anybody know whether the Bible has something to say about arranged marriages? Are they allowed? Orthodox Jews arrange marriages for whatever reason. It seems that the Hebrew Bible, at least, can be used to justify arranged marriages. And yet, American culture, which is largely influenced by Christianity, seems to lean towards love marriages.

How can love marriages be justified?

I have no problems with arranged marriages myself, as long as they are not abusive or forced.

Is it selfish to marry for love, without any consideration of what your parents or your future spouse's parents have to say on the matter?

I think some people find happiness within themselves, so love marriages would work for them, whereas some people find happiness within community, so arranged marriages would work for them.

In China, some families are not so rich, so when they take their children to restaurants, the families would buy food for the children and watch the children eat. It's a bit sad, because the adults don't get to eat the expensive food, but at the same time, it's emotionally touching that the adults would sacrifice so much for their children.

Likewise, some children would save up their red pocket money for buying a house for themselves and their spouses when they grow up. Aw...

fredsbend

4:54 AM

@Anonymous Does "liturgy" sound like a common, well know word? How about "mass" outside of Catholics? Everybody knows what "worship" means. Everybody knows what a "service" is.

@Anonymous Not selfish, but it is foolish to marry without the parent's blessing. If your not arguing about money and sex, your arguing about the kids or the in-laws. Best to try to minimize those things before you seal the deal.

@Anonymous China's one child policy has drastically affected their culture, especially in regards to how parents treat their children. You might have heard of the "little emperor" problem. The issue is that several generations of the one child policy creates a scenario of six adults doting on one child with no competition for attention. The parents plus four grandparents, all are eager to get time with the child.

This has also indirectly affected the "tiger mom" characteristic. Parents have a lot invested in only one place. Their child's future success is directly related to how well they will be cared for when they are elderly.

Chinese family dynamics, especially those not outside of China, are very interesting.

Flimzy

9:03 AM

@Anonymous "mass" and "worship service" are different things.

@Anonymous The bible certainly talks about arranged marriages... and AFAIK, never condemns them. It just speaks about them as a matter of fact (as they were at the time those portions of the Bible were written)

Anonymous

12:05 PM

@fredsbend Nowadays, the Chinese have included an additional policy that, if the two individuals in marriage are only children, then they can have two children. Though, I recently heard in the news that that's too expensive...

@fredsbend Rural families and minority families are allowed exemption. The one-child-per-family policy applies to the Han Chinese.

@fredsbend I think Chinese immigrants in the US still have that Chinese mindset, but their children are definitely more westernized.

Zoe

3:24 PM

Not sure if you guys can see this video: facebook.com/video.php?v=363133973756461

Matt Gutting

Not at work, no. :-(

Zoe

It is AWESOME.

It's like a game of chess but so awesome

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