Furthermore…

It goes on every day. A person is faced with a tough decision having moral and spiritual ramifications. A ’sensible’ friend is sought out and presented with a summary of the situation. The advice offered is worldly, straight out of the culture, what everyone is doing, the ordinary. Reference is made to a few cases, perhaps involving mutual acquaintances, and how they were handled, with what outcomes. And oh yes: “no one follows those impossible rules of the church.”