[RoadTest]

"You must not be familiar with Paul's encouragement of celibacy. (1 Corinthians chapter 7)"

I'm very familiar with it. He never encouraged it as a doctrine to be imposed without exception as the Roman church does. His exceptions here are at least as notable as the mention of being like him, as he was, traveling without a wife.
He said by all means marry. There's nothing wrong with it.

Peter did.

[mollynme]

Of course. The Bible does encourage marriage but my point was that celibacy is not unscriptural.

[RobbyS]

The Bible says nothing about Peter's wife, only about his mother-in-law. Maybe she was dead by the time Peter became a disciple. In any case, Rome imposes its discipline only on men who volunteer to live celibate lives. How is this fundamentally different from the demand of certain churches that their pastors not get a divorce?