Chapter 12

The dating game describes a very traditional, conservative way that young unmarried guys and girls are allowed to interact in. It’s kind of cute how the guys are so bashful, and they have to go through all the trouble of requesting permission in writing from the girl’s parents to be able to see the girl, and then go on visits…it sounds like such a pain though! They probably must be so happy once the parents and the girl accept them, that they wouldn’t even think of pursuing another girl, which is probably not allowed in the community, given the zero divorce rate. This protective environment the Minimites created for their children is one of the main reasons why most of them decided to adopt this lifestyle. I wonder if these marriages are indeed happy ones since it sounds like the two are pretty inexperienced when it comes to knowing what they want or look for in a relationship. What happens if they get married and realize they are not suited for each other, since as mentioned in the text, once there is mutual acceptance the marriage happens pretty quickly. On the other hand, they have been raised to be religious and obedient (maybe that is partly they don’t get divorced). However, this is their culture, and they seem to have found a way to make it work.