Christian marriage

Dear Editor,

I have been reading much of the June 2020 issue of en today, especially as I am ‘shut in’ by the issues surrounding the Covid-19 virus. I was interested to see how several letters and articles have provoked us to think again about matters that we have taken for granted. Many of these are matters that brothers and sisters in other countries have had to live with because of the environ-ment (physical and spiritual) in which they live. We should be able to pray for them more intelligently.

I will just comment on one item, that of Christian marriage. I love the approach to marriage that we have been brought up on (not the excessive expenditure, of course), but we have to ask, as did your writer, what is scriptural. In fact, there is little specific guid-ance on this point in Scripture, merely good (very good) marriage principles. Like your writer, I respect those that see it differently.

Some years ago I was on a missionary visit to a Muslim country where the only legal marriages were Islamic ones. What should Christians do? I was asked to take a wedding for a young couple. We had to ask the sort of questions that your author asked and came to the same conclusion. On my computer I designed a marriage certificate based on our British one, together with a covering letter of explanation should the couple leave that coun-try and want/need to legalise their marriage.

We had a wonderful service which was a great witness in the Muslim neighbourhood.

God bless your ministry at en.

Yours sincerely,