closed fellowship

I think that girl's mother is doing the right thing in keeping her away from that boy, and Paul does too. Look at this:

2 Corinthians 6:14-16
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
(NIV)

Jehovah's Witnesses deny the diety of Jesus Christ! Unless they repent, they are in big trouble, and not only would it be irresponsible for a mother to let her daughter date an idolater - it would be sinful!

~snip~

AJB4 said:

About the Jehovah's Witness, I agree that she should keep her away, but what about other churches that DON'T deny the deity of Jesus Christ.

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That'd be a little different I would think.

InDeoHonorium2 said:

Sorry, I cannot post here anymore! I am being repressed !!!!!!

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I will start another thread about the validity of the Bible and give it an [open] tag.

Post there.

Well I suppose everyone has some sort of "closed fellowship" to a certain extent in one form or another (unless you're a Unitarian...). The question is how far do you carry it? Obviously, the girl's parents let her talk to someone who is of a different religion, otherwise they wouldn't have been dating for a year.

Parents usually want what's best for their children. Perhaps they feel that at 15, maybe she shouldn't be getting serious right now, particularly with someone there doesn't appear to be a future with. As parents, we do our best to guide our chldren toward a successful happy life. If she wants to date the boy after she turns 18, and is a little more mature and able to make good decisions, then she is free to do so.

I really don't agree though, with the sweeping generalization that people in the RM movement "don't talk to anyone who goes to a different church." I think you may have overstated your case a bit.

In Australia, it's far from the case. While we wouldn't include JW's or Mormons, we tend to have a lot to do with the denominational churches.

Our church just hosted a weekend-long program on Suicide Intervention and Prevention. We sent out invitations to all the churches in town for that. Meanwhile, one of the smaller Pentecostal churches in town has been sending their teens to our Kid's Church (Sunday School) all year so they can learn to be leaders and start one up at their own church next year. Another church in town sends their youth to our Friday night youth-group. We do a lot of things like that.

Interestingly - we still get accused of being closed though. I received those accusations when I started school here when I was in Year 11. I never could understand it. When I started, I was the only christian in the whole year group. By the time I left 18 months later, half of the males in the year were coming to church with me. Not quite sure how that could've happened if we were so closed, but that's what they used to say.

As far as dating goes... there's a world of difference between not dating and closed fellowship. While I'd certainly have no problems about my daughters having friends that are JW's, I'd definitely disourage dating them.