Last Friday Meghan Duke wrote about Kate, Prince William, and cohabitation before marriage . Meghan noted that cohabitation isn’t really practice for marriage. That’s certainly true, but she failed to address one of the advantages of cohabitation: “milk testing.”
According to Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York and the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, many modern couples want to “ test the milk before they buy the cow .”
In a television interview, Dr Sentamu was asked whether it was appropriate for the Prince, who is in line to become head of the Church of England as King, to have been living with his bride before marriage.
He said he had conducted wedding services for “many cohabiting couples” during his time as a vicar in south London.
“We are living at a time where some people, as my daughter used to say, they want to test whether the milk is good before they buy the cow,” he said. “For some people that’s where their journeys are.
“But what is important, actually, is not to simply look at the past because they are going to be standing in the Abbey taking these wonderful vows: ‘for better for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health; till death us do part.’”
Dr John Sentamu argued that the royal couple’s public commitment to live their lives together today would be more important than their past.
Doesn’t it say somewhere in the KJV, “Thou shalt test the milk before thou buyest the cow” and “fornicate not, unless that be where thou are on thy journey”?
Oh, no wait, it doesn’t say that at all. In fact, I think it says kinda the opposite, doesn’t it? When the archbishop finally gets around to reading the Bible he’s going to be in for a big surprise.
(Via: The Politics of the Cross Resurrected )
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…