Brave church divorce and remarriage
As the feminist agenda took hold of our national mindset, women in pulpits became more common. When Southern culture approved and defended slavery, so did Southern Christians. In that kind of culture, divorce seems like a much less crucial issue.Īmerican Christians have a long history of being led more by our culture than by the Scriptures. Some denominations today are discussing whether to marry and ordain unrepentant homosexuals. As the moral slide continued, divorce turned into a minor issue. Gradually, divorced people took more and more significant places in the church. We developed a man-centered, therapeutic faith that was more about making people happy than making them holy. As so often happens, the doctrines and convictions of the church conveniently changed to reflect the new culture of divorce. Divorce swept through our nation and churches were filled with people who had been divorced. There may have been sin, dysfunction, unhappiness or abuse going on behind closed doors, but our neighborhood was one in which mothers and fathers lived together in lifelong marriage and raised children together. We were not the kind of neighborhood that practiced shunning, but she was not considered respectable. She was a divorcee and, to compound things, had given birth to a child outside of marriage. I remember as a child hearing the whispers and sly comments about the woman who lived across the street and a couple of doors up. Divorce was rare it was something respectable people just did not do. It was pretty easy to enforce an ethic like that in days gone by. Divorcees were not pastors, elders or deacons at least not in evangelical churches. They were certainly not permitted roles of influence in the church. Those who divorced were sinners and were largely marginalized, sometimes shunned. Once, the evangelical church spoke with an essentially united voice on issues related to divorce. Is divorce always a sin, or are there times when obedient followers of Christ are permitted to end a marriage? If divorce is permissible in some circumstances, may those who divorce also remarry? Should those who have been divorced be considered eligible for service as pastors, elders or deacons? What does the Bible say on such topics?
#Brave church divorce and remarriage series#
This series is based on a series I did several years ago on my personal blog – which is now engulfed by spider webs. This is the beginning of a series of articles I will be posting in the weeks (months?) ahead on this topic. If you are reading these posts, I think you will find the book “ Disqualified?” helpful. Having surveyed the biblical evidence, I then turn my attention to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, examining what the phrase, “Husband of one wife” means, and give advice both to the divorced who want to serve in the church and to churches dealing with this issue. I also address the issue of abuse and how that should be handled. Then Paul puts the finishing touches on the structure with his extensive teachings in 1 Corinthians 7, adding abandonment as a second grounds and dealing with other significant issues. Jesus builds the structure in his teachings, reiterating the intent of God’s creation – lifelong covenant – but also establishing the divorce exception as a grounds for divorce. It then lays the foundation with an examination of the passage in Deuteronomy 14:1-4 which necessitates a “grounds” for divorce. This book reviews the biblical evidence on divorce and remarriage, beginning with the cornerstone in the Old Testament – the twin principles of God’s intent of marriage as a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman and the understanding of the brokenness caused by sin. The Kindle version will be released in the next couple of days – not sure what the hold-up is there. It is called “Disqualified? What the Bible Says about Divorce, Remarriage and Ministry.” It is available on. NOTE: I have just released a book which compiles (and edits and expands) these posts.