Posted on 08/06/2013 12:01:51 PM PDT by Morgana
August 6, 2013 (Breakpoint) - If I asked you to name the “hot button” social issues of concern to Christians, you’d probably cite abortion and gay marriage right away. Of course, the coarse and hyper-sexualized nature of popular culture might also come to mind.
But what probably wouldn’t come to mind is the high incidence of divorce. Given the clear biblical teaching on the subject and its impact on families and children, that is, to put it mildly, more than a little odd.
Actually, as one Christian leader rightly puts it, our lack of attention to the subject is a “scandal.”
That leader is Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. I recently came across a three-year-old podcast—better late than never, especially in this case—in which he labeled our indifference to divorce “the scandal of the Evangelical conscience.”
The podcast began with an interview of Mark A. Smith, a political scientist at the University of Washington. Smith had recently written a paper entitled “Religion, Divorce, and the Missing Culture War in America.”
As Smith studied the culture wars across the U.S., he was struck by the issue that was conspicuous by its absence: namely divorce.
For instance, during its existence, the Moral Majority “mobilized and lobbied on many political issues, including abortion, pornography, gay rights, school prayer . . . and sex education in schools.” In contrast, divorce ranked “so low on the group’s agenda that books on the Moral Majority do not even give the issue an entry in the index.”
This makes no sense. As Smith noted, “from the standpoint of simple logic, divorce fits cleanly within the category of ‘family values.’” In fact, “divorce seems to carry a more direct connection to the daily realities of families than do the bellwether culture war issues of abortion and homosexuality.”
Click "like" if you support TRADITIONAL marriage.
So Mohler asked Smith, why the silence on divorce?
Smith’s answer is that “the inclusion of divorce on the agenda of the Christian right would have risked a massive alienation of members,” so the issue went virtually unmentioned.
Or, as Mohler put it, “evangelicals allowed culture to trump Scripture.” According to him, “the church largely followed the lead of its members and accepted what might be called the ‘privatization’ of divorce. Churches simply allowed a secular culture to determine that divorce is no big deal, and that it is a purely private matter.”
This happened despite the clear scriptural teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life.
As divorce has been privatized—fenced off from Scripture, Christian teaching, and from the community—so has marriage. If marriage is merely a means to happiness or sexual fulfillment (instead of a sacrament, a life-long commitment of sacrificial love open to the creation of life), no wonder same-sex couples argue that they deserve the same happiness and fulfillment available to heterosexuals.
In addition, what Mohler calls the “real scandal”—the fact that “evangelical Protestants divorce at rates at least as high as the rest of the public”—creates a “significant credibility crisis when evangelicals then rise to speak in defense of marriage.”
No, divorce is not an unpardonable sin but, as Mohler insists, it is a sin, and our acceptance of this particular sin while inveighing against other violations of God’s plan for marriage is hypocritical.
My point here is not to pour salt on the wounds of divorced Christians—they deserve and need our compassion; but it’s to get the Church to acknowledge the beam in its own eye and, thus, end a silence that is not only conspicuous but scandalous.
Great testimony.
Thanks.
I think we’ve all been there at some point or another.
I know it. It’s all over Scripture. That’s what scares me.
“I haven’t heard divorce encouraged, trivialized, or permitted in any Evangelical church I’ve ever attended.”
When I was Baptist the subject never came up at all. Now mind you this was in the 1980’s when divorce rates were already shooting up and many kids in my Sunday school class were products of divorce. I knew this because they came every other or every so many Sundays when the “other parent” had time with them.
A lot of what these churches, really any church should do is not only talk about the harm divorce does to children and society. More than this churches should stress the importance of the benefits of what marriage, a solid one man, one woman, marriage does for society and children.
I found an interesting article about marriage and what one church is doing to encourage it.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
A free wedding weekend
http://www.alliancelife.org/article.php?id=830
That church is actively working to get people married.
“That church is actively working to get people married.”
Getting people married and keeping them married are two different things!! Marriage, or Holy Matrimony is a Sacrament, or at least in my church it is. Trouble is most don’t view it this way. Go in marriage only for lust then that marriage is doomed from the beginning. The American Indians did better with arranged marriages because the couple was forced to find favorable attributes in one another. Not so in a culture with no fault divorce.
That is still true in many parts of the world.
But what we have to work with is the culture we are in and we have to do the best we can with what we have.
People who are unchurched and yet walk into a church looking for something, cannot be rejected because we don’t like their lifestyle or lifestyle choices. They must be discipled.
God will change them to do what is right by changing their hearts.
Jesus rejected no one even though He told them to go and sin no more.
“That is still true in many parts of the world.
But what we have to work with is the culture we are in and we have to do the best we can with what we have.
People who are unchurched and yet walk into a church looking for something, cannot be rejected because we don’t like their lifestyle or lifestyle choices. They must be discipled.”
I was talking about the culture we are in. Our culture is going down the toilet. That is what this article is about. Divorce is so high people don’t bother to get married and just live together. It’s cheaper than divorce and less painful in a breakup. Most that do get married are so two and three times! I have seen this myself. Somewhere along the way these churches are failing. Don’t like their “lifestyle”? Oh sheese some of these so called churches are accepting their “lifestyle” to the point they marry the two men or two women.
“presently no screen name” is just another churchian slut who is trying to justify her filing of divorce against her loyal husband. My message to “presently no screen name”... Shut up, go back to the kitchen, and make your husband a sandwich.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.