While same-sex marriage has been in the news lately, many religious leaders have been public about their opposition to it. The Bible is very clear that the act of homosexuality is a sin. As President Mohler states, the Bible also forbids many other sins including divorce. In his article on CNN, he ends with this admission:
"The church failed miserably in the face of the challenge of divorce. This requires an honest admission and strong corrective.
At the same time, this painful failure must remind us that we must not fail to answer rightly when asked what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. Love requires us to tell the truth." (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/21/my-take-the-bible-condemns-a-lot-but-heres-why-we-focus-on-homosexuality/)
Today, while perusing the headlines, I came across one that caught my eye. "'Should I Divorce?' 10 Ways To Tell If Your Marriage Is Over" was posted on Huffington Post's website. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/should-i-divorce_n_1542985.html) In reading this article, all 10 things, except for #5 "One of you cheats", occurs in most, if not all, marriages. For example, item 6 is that there is selfishness in the marriage. Duh! Every marriage is made up of two incredibly sinful sinners. If you ever spend much time in a nursery, you will learn quickly that no one needs to teach kids to be selfish. It is bred into them from the start. We spend the rest of our lives trying to control our selfishness and think of others before ourselves. Thus, every marriage will have selfishness involved in it. Should society tell them to throw in the towel just because one of the spouses is selfish? NO, no, a thousand times NO!!!
But this article says that this is a sign of a marriage that is not worth saving. Thank goodness for the comments. If anyone bothers to read the comments, they would find many people pushing back and calling this article "Bull", "silly article", and "PSY101 nonsense". Unfortunately, most will not. They will take the article at face value. Marriage is hard work but the blessings that come from it are unmeasurable. Our society has turned marriage into a commodity that can be accepted or discarded at the whims of the participants. (Huffington Post also has an article "You've Decided To Leave Your Spouse -- Now What?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-gordon/youve-decided-to-leave-yo_b_1547142.html?ref=topbar that tells you what to do when you will split with your spouse).
Divorce is a symptom of a society with an over-active consumer mentality. "I want what I want and when I do not get it, I will go find it." Instead, the Bible tells us to be content with what we have (Philippians 4:11-12; Hebrews 13:5), love God first and love others before ourselves (Matthew 22:34 - 40). These verses, taken to heart by both spouses, would fix 9 out of the 10 items listed in the article (and it would do a lot to take care of infidelity as well). As Christians, we could condemn divorce. I think a better approach is to foster better marriages, both before they happen and after.
The Bible speaks against homosexuality as well as divorce. Christians need to speak against both when given a chance.
