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In the Vineyard thread, somebody made a comment that suggested that when they were Pente they used a "word from the Lord" as a glorified pickup line.

This got me thinking, I know a lot of Pentes have tons of issues with relationships and sex. Such things however are necessary to continue the human species, while some have pointed out that the average Pente female is considered an "old maid" if she doesn't get married by 21 or so.

As the thread title suggests, I remember that my ex once told me that it really happens, a man walks up to a woman (or vice versa) and tells them that God said we should get married. But you can't just go out and do that right away in most places. I'm pretty sure she was lying anyway. My ex was AOG at the time (She claimed a few years ago that she isn't anymore) so I have a general idea how they work in this way...but the ones I'm asking about are the more extreme, the UPC and some of the other crazy groups, ya know, the ones where the women have insanely long hair and wear dresses.

So in an environment so fraught with manipulation, and so (outwardly) hateful of dating, sex, and women in general even more so of free expression by women in either of those areas, how does one get from being single to being married? Most people AFAIK, date until they find somebody they love, who loves them back and it goes on from there. Somehow I get the feeling that it doesn't work that way with Pentes, especially considering that not everybody ends up liking the same gender or plain old missionary style vanilla lovin' and I get the idea that the Pentes don't care what YOU like, they want you to do what THEY want. I get the feeling that means they want you to be as miserable and repressed as a lot of them are...or at the very least doing whatever you do in dark shadowy places in secret so that you'll feel guilty about it later.

So how does one date or find a partner or a mate? Is it "grab the first person that looks interesting so I can get away from mom and dad" or follow the recommendation of the local "Prophet?"

I met my ex at church, but it wasn't a Pente church and I suspect she was in her own way trying to either bring the madness of Pentecostalism with her, or get away from the insanity. I can't say which...but we never went to any one Pente church more then once while we were together. In fact, we usually went to a Baptist church because it was closest to home. So I really don't know how that aspect of Pente social life works.

So how does one get from point A = Single to point C = Married (or whatever form of partnership) in Penteville?