Hi Conf!
Thank you for your careful response.
I do wish it weren't so heavily predicated on the belief that homosexuality is wrong and that homosexual couples cannot be married, because I can and will (if you want) drop that on its theological head, point for biblical-historical-scientific point.

I understand that this is a more challenging position for some, but it is not the nature of the Christian faith to be simple.

Scripture isn't much help on the adult-youth side of the equation as it relates (or doesn't) to the modern Western world. People were able to be married as soon as they "came of age" biologically in Jesus and pre-Jesus times, and we have no idea for sure how old David was when he got into a relationship with Jonathan, only that he was "a youth" and "beautiful", and at least 10 years younger than Jonathan.

This is also a hole in psychology. Almost everything we know about human development is based on studies of Western kids in the last century. Almost everything we know about adult-youth relationships is based on criminal cases, and does not include anything about relationships that had the support of their community because there aren't any such things in our society.

Of course, it doesn't help anything at this point to go down that hole any further. It doesn't matter if the harm done from a cross-generational relationship is because of a set of innate processes or from societal hostility because we have the hostility anyway. And obviously, harming a child is unacceptable on all counts, Biblically and extra-biblically.

*Sigh*
~CSL