The Washington Post Magazine, Date Lab, April 14, 2019
From the above article:
“Certain things about me seem very conservative,” 37-year-old lawyer Mary Thuell told me. “Church is very important.”
In fact, Mary is a Sunday school teacher and sings alto in her Episcopalian church choir. Like a lot of women her age, Mary is dating with an eye toward a lasting partnership and, eventually, children. But Mary says that a lot of the men she goes out with have trouble reconciling her ostensibly traditional values with the fact that she is also polyandrous. She believes it is possible to build and maintain stable, intimate, and loving relationships with multiple people. She does not believe in “exclusivity” as a marker of how much someone matters to you.
Chad wasn’t blind-sided. Typically, Date Lab participants start the night with almost no prior knowledge of the other dater. This time, the sensible minds at The Washington Post Magazine thought it best to brief Chad in advance that his date was poly. He was pretty chill about the whole thing –“especially on a first date,” he said, ” . . .because pretty much everyone is polyandrous at that point.” And this is not his first rodeo. “In my 20s, I had been through stints of dating multiple people –what they call ethical non-monogamy. .,” he said. “As long as you have open, honest conversations about what the relationship is supposed to be, it can work out really well.” And that’s enough about Date Lab.
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Today, church attendance and/or membership have little to do with one’s relationship with Christ. Many have joined the locals for many different reasons. And there is no relationship with Christ at the time of joining. Attendance can change so that the teachings are accepted and practiced, and character changes. Even then, there is no perfection. But the church community becomes one within which lasting relationships can be made, and characters strengthened.
Within you, members should be able to safely fellowship with others who are committed to learning more about Christ so that they might follow Him better. Unfortunately, there will be those who have come with insincere reasons, some knowingly.
Some churches require a commitment to a statement of faith to serve in the choir or teach Sunday school or carry out other church duties, but not all. Even for the churches that do, there can be great variance in the character of Believers, some weak and less disciplined and some well disciplined and strong. Your relationship with Christ must be a personal thing. It cannot be based on what others do or profess.
Matthew 7:15-21 (KJV)15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree brunet forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brunet forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that brunet not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that smith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.