One of Dalrocks comments, in his reply to DarwinCatholic… said this
I put the question to one of the saintliest people I know, a 97 year old blind Pentecostal woman. She just smiled and said “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The radiance on her face convinced me that she was talking about a present reality, not a future hope.
There are people among us whose righteousness leaves us both priveledged to witness. Their life convicts us without them speaking a word. They are not merely concerned with what is going on here.
The question is where to find them. Well, if you live in the States, and you have money, you can do what DarwinCatholic did ) from the same thread)
So just to clarify: when I talk about what I’ve found looking for a spouse to be like in conservative Catholic circles, I’m talking way, way conservative: Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation, the big homeschooling and traditionalist networks, Theology on Tap, and the very conservative colleges like Steubenville, UD, Thomas Aquianas, Ave Maria, etc.
In a culture in which 50% of marriage fail, you have to be pretty damn counter cultural to put yourself out side of that world.
Yeah. I’d add the Navigators, the more hardline presbyterians, Tandem ministry, in New Zealand Laidlaw College… but the main universities in NZ are secular. Way secular. Studied in them. Work in them. In my field there is no religious university that offers training — and the two schools recruit after an intermediate year.
For most of us, isolating ourselves in Darwin’s darn counterculture is not going to work. We are not Amish. We have to live in the usual world.
Now… there are Christian fellowships and ministries attached to our universities. They need our support — to nurture our students get them in a group where they can meet each other while doing silly things. (much of this should be single gender. The girls will be playing with hair straighteners and other things I do no try to understand while the boy swill be playing touch league or world of warcraft. The only thing that has changed is that WoW does not need 20 sided dice and that girls can now post photos of their new home making projects).
If a young couple meet because they are involved in helping at youth group, or tramping, or playing elite sport, or studying a hard course, or playing in an orchestra… then they are doing a task. You can find out if you like them, and if they are sensible. You can get a sense of their taste.
And if that matrix of shared interests includes the church, a few Sundays spent arguing theology does not hurt. But all those structures, which existed when I was young… have been alienated from my sons.
I agree that we have to be counter-cultural. We need to subvert the courts, and treat child protection with great suspicion (For they truly treat us the same way). The task for religious men is to remake these structures for the young people who follow. Then let them fly — into secular vocations, to the mission field, and to their homes.
