Potter's House, a controversial, to put it politely, Christian sect, has made national headlines amidst reports of alleged spiritual abuse of its members. The reader is encouraged to read the full article. I wish to take issue with their teachings on marriage. Ex members report pressure from leaders to get married young.
One of them reported:
“If you are single, your pastor will tell you if someone is a good choice to marry. And they firmly believe in marrying them young. If you are not married by 25, something is wrong.”
I once bumped into some Potter's House members in a suburban shopping strip. They asked me how old I was, and if I was married. I told them my age, and that I was single. They tried to tell me that being single was a sin. It appears that this is what they teach their members, and cause a lot of damage to peoples' lives as a consequence.
At the time, I was too polite to challenge their rebuking of me. I can only speculate that they take the Adamic procreation mandate, initially given to Adam, and later reiterated to Noah, Ishmael, Jacob, and Jacob's sons, as a binding Christian command. (See Genesis 1:28, 9:1, 7, 17:20, 28:3, 35:11, and 48:4).
This takes some very creative hermeneutics, to say the least. No Christian member of the clergy should teach such nonsense. While the Bible teaches that marriage is a good thing, as the apostle Paul taught in his first letter to the Corinthians, marriage and singleness are choices. Regardless of their situation, faithful obedience to God is commanded.
It would be a good thing if news stories like this cause people to leave Potter's House. It is disheartening to think about all the people whose lives they have negatively influenced.
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