Quote Originally Posted by The Celtic Viking View Post
They get marriage. I don't really see what you're getting at. Having sex is not a requirement for it.
Yes it is, the marriage can be annulled if it is not consumated, so a man and a woman who are asexual but emotionally co-dependant do not have the same legal protection/bond as a sexually active couple.

Quote Originally Posted by Megas Methuselah View Post
Yeah, I noticed a lot of people who go gospel often burn out. This usually happens to be people who weren't raised with religion but, as you said, converted of their own accord as young adults.
Quote Originally Posted by Rhyfelwyr View Post
Haha yeah I noticed the parallel with myself, but I've never heard of a Calvinist burnout.
"Evangelical Burnout" is a result of poor preaching and shallow emotional support, the theology breaks down as soon as it comes up against something difficult because it's more about having a communal experience than anything truly spiritual. Idaho knows about the sort of people we get here in Exeter. Often they are young students, vulnerable without parental support, and they are taken in by the "community" of the Church which teaches them it's poorly thought out theology.

Rhy is suffering from something else though, likely he is coming to terms with his religion and beginning to integrate it into his life, rather than suffering huge amounts of angst.

Quote Originally Posted by miotas View Post
I don't see what the church has to do with getting married. If any two people want to get married in the eyes of the law then let them, if the church doesn't want to let a specific couple marry then who cares what they do. A priest doesn't have to marry a specific heterosexual couple if he doesn't want to, but that couple could still get a legal marriage. Why should any other couple be any different?
Well, see there's the rub, isn't it? The first extension of marriage rights was the right to marry outside Church and have it legally recognised. In Britain we have "equality legislation" that would allow a priest to be prosecuted or sued if he refused to "marry" a homosexual couple should homosexual "marriage" be legal in the UK.