[Granville-Hough] 23 May 2009 - Fornication

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 10:59:11 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Fornication - 23 May 2009

Browsing through old church minutes suggests what might have gone on in 
the community. Sometimes it makes interesting reading. Grampa
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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: ôYouÆve been fornicating! WhoÆs the man?ö 
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 
SullivanÆs 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.