by Jared Garrett

Created on: February 10, 2008   Last Updated: March 22, 2010

Are rules made to be broken? Do laws constrain our lives and restrict our freedom? Whatever your answers to these questions, it is a fact that all kinds of organizations, from clubs to religions to nations, use rules to guide their members and patrons. The Christian faith is one of these entities that uses rules to guide its adherents.

One set of these rules is the set that guides dating rules for Christian teens. Now, it only slightly bears mentioning that there are so many Christian denominations that the rules for each will not be exactly the same. However, it is true that the majority of these sects have a common set of rules to guide their young people in their dating habits. Here are the top five rules that most Christian denominations use.

1. No sex outside of marriage
That's right, the abstinence thing. Christian tenets, harking all the way back to the Bible, require that couples have no sexual relationships outside of marriage. This includes before and during the marriage and even after any possible divorce. What is more, this does not apply only to the sex act itself. This even includes any oral sex. Kissing is usually okay, even before marriage, but it should be reigned in so that appetites are not exacerbated by temptation to go further.

This rule is based on the Christian belief that the sexual relationship is something ordained of God for the testing and use of His people. This is not to say that all Christian sects believe that sex is only for the creation of life, and that contraception is bad.

2. Group dating until age 15 or 16
Many people believe that children should be allowed to experience the world and make their own decisions about religion, church attendance and conformity to rules. While this may be valid for older youth, obviously smaller children need to be guided because they simply do not have the capacity to make heavy-duty decisions on their own.

The early teen years are difficult years due to puberty and the incredible emotional swings that teens are empirically subject to. Thus, Christian teens are often expected to go only on group dates until they are about fifteen or sixteen years old. This way the concern about puppy love encouraging youth to do things they will regret later is reduced. What is more, often group dates are shared amongst young people who share similar tenets and values, so later single dating will usually be drawn from the pool formed on group dates.

3. Marry a Christian
Marrying into your own faith has been

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>