[Granville-Hough] 23 May 2009 - Fornication
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough at oakapple.net
Fri Sep 3 05:29:04 PDT 2010
Browsing through old church minutes suggests what might have gone on in
the community. Sometimes it makes interesting reading. Grampa
---------------------------------
Fornication in Old Zion Hill Community of Sullivan's Hollow.
Just reading the old Zion Hill Baptist Church minutes, one would get the idea
that the most popular sport among lonely farm women was fornication.
Now, it is my understanding that it takes two to fornicate, so why was
there only women being charged with this social sin? Not a single man
was so charged in the 28 years of fairly good minutes of the old church
and its concerns for the community.
Of course there is a fairly simple explanation. If men and women
fornicate long enough and frequently enough, someone gets pregnant, and
it always seems to be women. Then there comes a time when this pregnancy
cannot be concealed from others. When such a pregnancy becomes obvious,
the question has always been: Youve been fornicating! Whos the man?
If the man can be named and faced with his paternity, he sometimes
agreed to a shotgun wedding, or at least that was the term used in
Sullivans Hollow. Sometimes these marriages worked out as well as the
average. Woe be the female who could name several males who might be
guilty, or who finds the guilty male is long gone. Then there is no one
to bring in for the shotgun ceremony. Alone and forlorn, she had to face
the church conference and beg forgiveness for the unintended pregnancy.
Generally the church voted for exclusion. If she got properly married
later to a forgiving and compassionate man, such as Joseph the
Carpenter, she was usually brought back into the church.
More information about the Granville-Hough
mailing list