divorce

I have known a number of men serving as pastors who have been divorced and remarried. In one instance, for example, a man was married to a woman who became a lesbian. In another instance, it was a more traditional issue with a wife leaving her husband for another man.

In your understanding of Scripture (passages like I Timothy 3 or Titus 1, etc.), can a divorced man serve as a pastor in some instances?

So in one of the SBC threads this week, I was asked to try and present some solutions or tools that could help our churches and parachurch organizations with the topic of abuse. I found this article earlier today and wanted to share it with you all for input and discussion.

8 Ways SBC Churches Can Strengthen our Response to Domestic Abuse

Our views regarding divorce and remarriage differ quite a bit in this discussion forum. Such differences reflect our individual attempts to harmonize a number of Scriptures and Biblical pinciples, not from a “liberal-conservative” continuum.

SI is a very conservative website, but all our members live in the real world in a real culture. Our lives are never ideal, but some of us have more traditional situations than others.

One of the most unsettled issues in the Christian world (although most claim to have settled it — but they have not) is the relationship of the Law to the believer, specifically what applies and how it applies.

This issue comes up when we deal with tattoos, for example. But today’s issue is about divorce and remarriage. Some top commentators suggest that the main point of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 is to prevent someone who is divorced and remarried to return to the first spouse. The concessions to human nature about divorce might be the secondary issue.

When I saw the headline about one in 7 Americans thinking that divorce is not sin, I thought I would put up a SI poll. Like many pastors, I think it can be and often is a sin, but not necessarily so. I do think sin as always at the root, however.

What is your take? Please take the closest choice; choose “other” only if the choices avaialble are not close (or cover most bases).

Poll Results

Do you believe divorce is a sin?