It may be largely because of all the scams on the Internet or just wondering why a person would be inerested in someone from so far away rather than someone nearby.
But if you establish a friendship online slowly with a person with whom you share many common goals, interests, and morals, you can help alleviate this concern.
Clossil, that's an excellent question. If you know the man well, it might be worthwhile to ask him what specifically he meant by it.
If he's married, claiming to be married only on paper, and asking you to lunch, that's a big red flag as I see it. Beware!
Perhaps he's separated from his wife and in the process of going through a divorce. Perhaps he's in an unhappy marriage, but not willing to take steps to improve it or end it.
But as long as he remains married (and maybe even if his marriage ends), I would recommend being careful and avoiding getting too close too soon to him.
Proverbs 31:4-7 is one of my favorite passages dealing with consuming alcoholic beverages.
Even persons I know who claim to drink only in moderation typically admit to having been drunk at least once in the past.
Furthermore, even one drink negatively affects certain characteristics.
Though alcohol has some medicinal benefits when taken in the proper dosages for specific ailments, there are lots of other medicines now that can often provide medical benefits as good or better without the harmful potential side effects of alcohol. And even drugs like penicillin should only be taken in moderation and only when necessary.
The American Heart Association urges persons who don't drink alcoholic beverages not to start. And the American Medical Association urges advertising for alcoholic beverages to be limited only to retail establishments.
Personally, I choose to abstain from consuming alcoholic beverages and God has blessed me to be happy and healthy.
I basically agree with Country Ivy's responses, cupcakeme.
Personally, I have a profile on three websites, though the other two require paid membership to use many of their services, and I've not considered it worth the expense. Indeed, on one of the other sites, none of the persons seem to share enough in common with me that I would choose to devote my limited time to communicate with them regularly even if there was no membership fee.
Indeed, I find that I meet lots of people via engaging in various activities I enjoy such as visiting libraries and museums, attending seminars and lectures, and hiking.
Online websites are just one way to meet persons one shares interests with. But the more websites one belongs to the more likely it is to find people one shares common goals, interests, and morals with.
It only takes a few minutes to copy and paste a profile once one has been created. It also only a few minutes to do an "advanced search" for other persons on that website that match certain characteristics whatever they may be (religion, smoking and drinking habits, marital status, activities, interests, etc.)
Personally, I am happy being single, but CDFF has enabled me to communicate with various persons, develop a few online friendships, and maybe someday I'll meet a special person to be married. But at the friendship stage, until one gets in a romantic relationship, the more good friends one has the better.
There are many possible reasons for this. The earlier posters already mentioned a few of them.
It's also possible a person chooses to remain single. Jesus apparently remained single all his life. The Apostle Paul was apparently single during his ministry.
Both Jesus (Matthew 19) and Paul (I Corinthians 7) advocated singleness for those with the discipline to maintain it.
For emergency phone calls, I think anytime is typically acceptable.
However, for routine phone calls, persons need to respect one another and phone at times that suit the other person best.
The time a person normally sleeps is probably a bad time, and that time varies depending on the individual.
Also, the time someone is working, cooking, eating, or devoted to some other specific thing may be a bad time, too.
Fortunately, most persons now have answering machines and/or voice mail that can take a message if one is asleep, in the shower, eating, cooking, etc. A person can listen to the message and decide when to return the phone call.
