The Problem with “Don’t Eat Alone with Women”: Good Character Is Better than Strict Rules

For Vox, Karen Swallow Prior critiques the extreme nature of the Billy Graham rule, which says men and women who are not married should not meet alone to avoid temptation. Prior, who teaches at Liberty University, a conservative evangelical school, recounts her personal experience with the rule after a male colleague refused a ride to his office: “Once I realized why my colleague had turned down my offer, I felt a twinge of embarrassment and awkwardness, as though I’d invited him to a game of strip poker instead of a three-minute ride to the other end of campus.” Prior argues that people should use prudence, moderation, and moral character to judge the appropriateness of situations: “As many critics have pointed out, excessive attempts to avoid potentially sexualized situations only sexualizes them further.”

Read at Vox

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