Banning child marriage in America: An uphill fight against evangelical pressure

Jim
Society & Culture
Child marriage

Salon: “[There is a] link between evangelical Christianity and child marriage actually [that] has been explored recently in the wake of stories of failed Senate candidate Roy Moore’s proclivities. Evangelical communities still push for child marriages between girls in their “middle teens” and men in the mid-twenties or older. According to these groups, younger girls make better spouses because they are blank slates and can be more easily “molded” to serve their future husbands better. What is even more troubling in these communities is that the predominant narrative is that it is the young girl who is pursuing the older man, which means that the pregnant 15-year-old is the one who “sinned” by overcoming the resistance of the adult man who had sex with her.”

Discussion

Profile picture for user Bert Perry
Bert Perry
Mon, 03/12/18 9:26 pm

Is the problem here teen marriage, or idiotic/sinful marriage? If indeed it was likely that Mary was in her teens, I think we have to say the latter is the real problem.

That noted, if we demonstrate that 95% of marriages under age 18 are idiotic—too sexual abusers, losers, etc..—I am not going to get too worked up about the need to tell one honorable, mature young couple to wait a couple of years to spare 19 badly formed couples the misery of a poor union, or the degradation of continued sexual exploitation.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.