I came across this article and found it very interesting. The article is about a Professor Smith, a Political Scientist from the University of Washington, who did research and found that evangelical Christians fight for rights concerning the sanctity of life; like abortion, homosexuality, sex education, prayer in schools, etc, but nowhere in the mix was the topic of divorce. The sad part is, the divorce rate among evangelical Protestants is just as high as the divorce rate for the public, but the church has followed suit with the culture and made divorce a private matter. In the words of the author "evangelicals allowed culture to trump Scripture". Are Christians to busy preaching against very valid issues to pay closer attention to its own body of believers? Why are we not as passionate about divorce destroying the "traditional family" that we fight so much to hold onto as we are about fighting a homosexual's "right" to be married. Smith believes that divorce will actually cause more detriment to a family than homosexual marriages will and from what I have seen and read this will turn out to be very true if Christians do not step up and speak out against divorce. Not only speaking out publicly, but in the church as well. I'm sick of hearing pastor's say there is life after divorce, which is very true but why are we not helping believer's avoid having to face life after divorce. Is the church going to continue to conform to the worlds standards and beliefs about divorce or are we going to rise up and tell the church that no divorce is not okay and there is hope for restoration.
Robyn, I agree with you 100%! It is ironic how we fight so strongly about the major social issues such as the sanctity of life, sex education, gay marriages, and prayer in schools, and yet we have not spoken out against the greatest enemy to families today...divorce! Christians have become so accustomed to hearing the word "divorce" that to them, it does not seem like a big enough issue to challenge. However, divorce should be the main issue that we should be confronting. I mean, why speak out against abortion when the secular world can argue that our children will end up in a broken home anyway? Why worry about who is teaching our kids about sex when neither of the parents is involved in their child's life because they are more concerned about having the divorce papers signed than the struggles their kids are going through. I think you hit it right on the nail with this post. For Christians, all our time and energy should focus on attacking the issue of divorce. Only then will we have authority to attack the other major issues that plague our country today. Great post!
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ReplyDeleteThey should be ashamed of themselves. Firstly, put your house in order before you are qualified to make changes in another person's life. They should focus on issues destroying marriages rather than politicking.
ReplyDeleteDecember 8, 2010 9:34 PM
Wow! What an insightful article. It is sad that we have accepted divorce as a norm as Christians. It should be confronted because at the rate it is going right now in Christian households, it might become even a bigger issue than abortion or homosexuality or it might even lead to higher rates of these two issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comments. I think society has come to accept that divorce is just the process of marriage. It has become so normalized that its almost an implied term with marriage (as though marriage is not fully complete until divorce is reached). It is such a shame. Marriage and the beauty that it brings should be at the top of our agendas not only for Christians but society overall. How can a new generation make a way towards change when no one is teaching them change?
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