Dinesh D'Souza: I'm Not Having an Affair

Christian Post ^ | 10/18/2012 | By Jeff Schapiro

[x]

I didn’t know that he was some kind of head of a Catholic college. Which one? I guess if he has been separated from his wife for years, the school knew about it when they hired him. I wasn’t even aware that he is Catholic.

Dinesh was born Catholic, but considers himself a nondenominational Christian.

He was head of Kings College in New York City.

It's a Protestant and evangelical college associated with the Campus Crusade for Christ.

FWIW, Kings College was the original pre-revolutionary name of Columbia College/University.

[Eva]

D’Souza already resigned and his resignation was accepted. Enough said. I could care less about this issue and King’s College, for that matter.

[darrellmaurina]

79 posted on Tue Oct 23 2012 16:21:30 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by sitetest: “Mr. D’Souza is a fallen-away Catholic. It’s reasonable to think that he’s not entirely familiar with evangelical Protestant culture. As a Catholic, it didn’t occur to me that it would be objectionable to Protestants for someone to become engaged after two years of separation, but before divorce. If you’re okay with divorce, it seems like a quibble to me. For us Catholics, short of obtaining a declaration of nullity (not as easy as some folks think, although perhaps easier than it should be), divorce and remarriage mean a choice between a new “marriage” and the Church. So, whether you get engaged before, during, or after the divorce, it’s all catastrophic, if one has been a devout Catholic.”

I may need to thank you for this explanation. I do not know if it is correct, but it’s the only one I’ve heard yet for D’Souza’s shocking statement about getting engaged while still married that makes the remotest amount of sense to me at all.

I’m pinging to a number of Catholic Freepers asking for their reactions.

I’ve been assuming until now that the president of a conservative Christian school would understand the fundamentals of marriage. However, it’s crossed my mind in the last couple of says that I have no idea what “nondenominational” church D’Souza is attending, and there are some very “loosey goosey” churches out there which call themselves evangelical. He had a Calvary Chapel background in California but that doesn’t mean he was attending a Calvary Chapel church in New York City.

For whatever it’s worth, a divorce in my theological circles would have to be for crystal clear biblical grounds, which as a practical matter means adultery. I’m aware of one situation where divorce and subsequent remarriage was authorized, but in that case it involved an unbelieving spouse who openly abandoned the marriage and the children, apostatized from any form of Christian belief, committed adultery, was placed under formal church discipline, and would have been excommunicated if a resignation from church membership had not happened.

Here are some further comments by Rev. Tim Bayly, a PCA minister who pastors a particularly aggressive church; his father turned down the presidency of King’s College years ago.

Let’s just say Rev. Bayly is a lot more fiery than I’m being in this situation. He’s blasting not only D’Souza but evangelicals in general for letting this kind of gross wickedness happen:

http://baylyblog.com/blog/2012/10/dinesh-dsouza-highlights-marvin-olaskys-christian-fidelity

In other words, please don’t assume that all Protestants have a low view of marriage and divorce. That emphatically is **NOT** the case.

It may, however, be the case in whatever church D’Souza is now attending.

If so, we as evangelicals need to get our own house in order. On this point, the Roman Catholics are better than too many of us in defending marriage.