Anyway, that's a side note to my main point (and interesting in itself... feel free to discuss ;-)). BUT what I wanted to bring up here was the betrothal contract from Vaughn Ohlman's blog (True Love Doesn't Wait):

"It is with great joy in the mighty blessing of the Lord that we, the undersigned, in obedience to God do Covenant or Witness thereto that:

Joshua Phillip Ohlman

and

Laura Marie Camp

Are this the 23rd day of August, 2013 bound in the sight of God and man in the unbreakable Covenant of Betrothal; are now husband and wife to each other; and await the blessed day when they will come together physically.

In this covenant we bind ourselves or our children to the following:

A lifelong continual sexual union in which the body of each spouse belongs to the other.

A union which shall be ever open to the blessing of children; and where the children shall be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A union in which the husband shall love his wife, as Christ loves the Church; washing her in the water of the word.

A union in which the wife shall love and respect her husband, love her children, and keep the home; helping raise her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A union, under Christ, with the husband as its head, the wife as his submissive helpmeet, and the children bound in obedience to their parents.

We make this Covenant with the following purposes and goals:

That fornication may be avoided by the God given use of the marriage bed.

That a Godly seed may be raised up.

That the word of God be not blasphemed.

That God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, replenish the Earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it, may be obeyed.

That the relationship between Christ and the Church may be reflected.

That, above all, God may be glorified.

What God has joined together let not man put asunder."

with room for signing by many witnesses...

I bolded the bits that had me shaking my head... this is just..... gross!!! These people are soooo obsessed by sex!!! Can you imagine signing a contract with your Father-In-Law to be (as well as your own dad) that laid out so much detail about your sex life??? Holy cow!

This is the site that has had a few posts about their view on courting.

The blog says

When does a child become a youth for the purposes of discussing marriage?’ The passages that deal with this have to do with physical maturity and capability:

1) The ‘youth’ has breasts. A woman who is to be married is one who has breasts; breasts which signal her readiness for marriage, and breasts who promise enjoyment for her husband. (I believe that ‘breasts’ here stand as a symbol for all forms of full secondary sexual characteristics.)

2) The ‘youth’ is ready to bear children. Unlike modern society Scripture sees the woman as a bearer, nurser, and raiser of children. The ‘young woman’ is the woman whose body is physically ready for these things, physically mature enough to handle them without damage.

3) She is ready for sexual intercourse sexually and emotionally. Her desire is for her husband, and she is ready to rejoice in him physically.

All three of the above points represent, not a certain exact age, but a level of physical and sexual maturity. Not ‘maturity’ as in ‘been there, done that’, nor even a ‘maturity’ as in ‘have been at this level for a long time’, but a point of arrival.

There can be thus no hard and fast rule that governs all women, but there certainly can be a concept that governs each individual woman. The woman who has arrived physically and sexually at a point where she is ‘ready’ for a husband, is ready for a husband, else we make God out to be a liar.

and goes on with

Calvin and Gill, quoting the Jewish authorities in reference to the term Paul uses in I Cor 7:36, place the lower limit of this at twelve years old for girls. Again, not that every, or even very many, girls reach this milestone at that age (at least in our age. There is some evidence that physical maturity changes from age to age.)

Written by: Vaughn Ohlman

Approved by: Jeff Woodward – Caveat: I would expect the typical range to be between 16 and 19 to be considered marriage in “youthâ€, and I would expect from the early twenties and beyond not to be “youthâ€. But, I think it is best to guard the innocence of one’s children for as long as possible so that the need for marriage would tend to come later rather than earlier. Also, I would generally discourage inter-generational marriages (i.e., someone young enough to be a child or old enough to be a parent), especially in this present age (unless circumstances absolutely required it).

So what circumstances absolutely require this?????

The theonomists are speaking here.

Money quotes include, "We are not attempting to limit our conference to Calvinists, but we feel we owe our participants some kind of assurance that they are coming to meet with other Christians."

In all broad mindedness, they accept that daughters may come without a headship, but a young man interested in pursuing her must speak to one of the staff about his intentions.