OK you potential Bishops out there

[Black Diamond Bay]

Originally Posted by DrumNFeather

I'm not sure how appropriate it is to know a fiance's past transgressions...if the person has truly repented and has been forgiven, then the Lord (throuh proper authority) has seen fit to forgive and allow the person to move on. When dating and making decisions about maraige, you fall in love with who they are, not who they were 5 years ago.

I don't agree with that. I don't think you need to know every nitty-gritty detail of every little transgression. But I also don't think there's anything wrong with asking about some of the big ones either. Not because it's a question of worthiness, or forgiveness, but because there are sometimes still consequences for those sins. Who wants to get blindsided by your husband's ex-girlfriend showing up one day with his 6 year old illegit son wanting to collect on child support? It happened to one of my cousins.

I dated a guy who told me on our second date that he just wanted me to know upfront that that particular scenario was a possibility for him, and if I couldn't deal with it there wasn't any point in continuing to date. I still dated him, but in retrospect I probably wouldn't again. Not because I felt like he wasn't worthy, or because I was afraid of having to pay back child support, but because I think his little walk on the wild side had some consequences (not std's) that were a lot to deal with. To his credit he was very open about it, with me. I know his wife has struggled with some of that stuff, and in retrospect I'm not sure I'm cut out to take that on. Probably why we broke up three times. Anway, I assume he was just as open with her as he was with me. So she knew what those issues were, and decided she could handle it. Which is totally fair. I know a few girls that have all kinds of lingering issues from previous trangressions, and I don't think it would be wise for someone to marry them without being aware of what those issues are.

Although honestly, I don't know how you could date someone without figuring it out. After a couple of weeks it's obvious. At a minimum I'd think you'd at least suspect.