I was a member college/singles small groups during my time at GC. The term Swerver was bandied about by our small group leaders quite often, with tapes on the message passed out to anyone who wasn't convinced that dating was equivalent to worldliness/sin. Godly dating or dating with a purpose was lumped in with promiscuity. The idea was that you should "guard your heart" and thus not even consider a relationship with anyone of the opposite sex (until you get counsel, your elder approves, and you basically propose). Do not even talk to one female more than the others, it was often said. Do not show "partiality!" The swearing metaphor: having a crush on Girl A and talking a lot to her, and then later changing your mind and pursuing Girl B, and then Girl C, swerving all over the place with your heart, but each time showing partiality to one girl over the rest of your sisters in Christ. It got to the point where they asked all single members of the church to never be alone in another room with somebody of the opposite sex without having two members of both sexes in the room with you. This was not a junior high group, we were in our 20's!
The biblical justification they used, I later came to find out, was the exact same verse Jim McCotter used when he first introduced the principle under a different name in the beginning of the movement. McCotter first advocated GC's courtship methods. His words:
What we call 'dating,' the Bible may call 'partiality' (James 2:9). What we call 'boyfriend/girlfriend,' the Bible may call a 'clique' or a 'faction' (Galatians 5:20).
John Meyer of Summitview Community Church in Fort Collins has a booklet published that they handed out, which used the exact same verse and reasoning as Jim's ancient teaching, without mentioning Jim at all.
The funniest thing about it is that even among the most "plugged in" members, it seemed like EVERYONE had a crush on somebody else. With so much pressure to act like nobody cared, it simply pushed everything underground and made it secretive. Leaders and non-leaders alike knew who had a crush on who, and the people who liked each other had to act like they didn't even when it was so blatantly obvious that they did. I've never been in a church with so much gossip and so many secrets. Most of them time the people who you thought would end up together, simply based on how they acted around each other, did. It really created this atmosphere of incredible sexual tension, awkwardness, and ultimately provides an incentive to tow the GC line because if you do a leader might finally approve of you asking the person you like to marry you.
Make no mistake, however, that most of the people I knew that got together "The GC Way" spent plenty of time beforehand flirting with each other, pretending like they weren't really flirting, and otherwise putting on this whole charade of "I'm godlier than thou." Also, if you are a male small group leader paired with a female small group leader, your chances of marrying are very very very high.
