The Null Device

While mainstream society moves away from the formal courtship rituals of their ancestors, a subculture of conservative Christians in the US is going the other way, throwing out the concept of "dating" and replacing it with betrothal, in which couples swear vows of commitment to each other, and then get to know each other.
two years ago, when Kara was 14 and Casey was 20 and heading off to medical school, they pledged their lives to each other in an improvised ceremony at their church that they called a betrothal. They exchanged matching signet rings, promised to be faithful and considered their vows as binding as a marriage. Only then did they set about getting to know each other and thinking of themselves as a couple. Last month, with their parents' permission, they decided they could start holding hands.
Leading someone on is prohibited in the Bible, he said, citing a passage from First Thessalonians that warns against "defrauding." His first book opens with a bride's nightmare in which her groom stands at the altar, holding hands with the phantoms of all his previous girlfriends.

Never mind premarital sex, this is saying no to premarital romance, or as they say, "preparation for divorce". Though it makes one wonder whether mutant strains of the subculture will arise in which casual premarital sex is considered to "not count" if you don't exchange names (much like the way that oral sex doesn't count among some fast kids in the Bible Belt).

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