Why Divorce Should Be Illegal

I often hear Christians say that same-sex marriage is wrong because “the Bible tells me so”. I really have to laugh when it’s a Christian who has divorced that screams this. Certain members of my own family are guilty of this. They try to beat you over the head with Biblical verses to back up their points, but leave out those that would implicate them in sin. Of course, when you mention the hypocrisy, the favorite line is “You’re misinterpreting what the Bible says. And the Old Testament was nulled by the New Testament.” At least that’s what my family members like to argue. This, of course, makes me laugh and laugh, because they have officially lost all credibility with regards to arguing their own religion.

The Ten Commandments specifically mention adultery:

• Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.

Recently I stumbled across a post by Mark, at The Calladus Blog, which states what I want to say so much more eloquently than I ever could. Mark is an Atheist who reads the Bible as it should be read- as an ancient book of mythology. And he sure does know his stuff.

He says:

Jesus had some very specific things to say about divorce.

Matthew
5:31 “It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a legal document.’
5:32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

19:8 Jesus said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, but from the beginning it was not this way.
19:9 Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”
19:10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the case of a husband with a wife, it is better not to marry!”
19:11 He said to them, “Not everyone can accept this statement, except those to whom it has been given.
19:12 For there are some eunuchs who were that way from birth, and some who were made eunuchs by others, and some who became eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept this should accept it.”

Mark
10:11 So he told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 10:12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Luke:
16:18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

[...]There is another part of the Bible that speaks about divorce. From Saint Paul the Apostle:

1 Corinthians:
7:10 To the married I give this command – not I, but the Lord – a wife should not divorce a husband
7:11 (but if she does, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband), and a husband should not divorce his wife.
7:12 To the rest I say – I, not the Lord – if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.
7:13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him.
7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified because of the wife, and the unbelieving wife because of her husband. Otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.
7:15 But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound. God has called you in peace.
7:16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will bring your husband to salvation? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will bring your wife to salvation?

Read literally, these verses are pretty damned specific. If you divorce and then remarry, you are an adulterer. And you are causing the person you have divorced and the person you are marrying to become adulterers also. And adultery is mentioned in the Ten Commandments, right? According to everything most of us have been taught, adultery is not only sexual relations with someone other than your spouse, but the coveting of someone not your spouse- or the spouse of someone else (your neighbor, for instance). Of course, when Christians are faced with Biblical verses that point out their own sins, they tend to denounce those verses. The comments in Mark’s posts prove my point.

Anonymous said…

I think your understanding of these passages is abit how shall I say it’muddled’.

The adultery is only in the divorce not in the marriage after. The tense is present and past tense. Paul also says’ If you are bound to a wife seek not to be loosed, if you are loosed from a wife seek not to be bound but if you do marry you have not sinned’.

The adultery is a breaking of a covenant not a sexual act. This word is used throughout the bible in places like ‘They commited adultery with sticks and stone’ and idols.

Obviously they didn’t ahve sex with sticks and stones.

Likewise what is repentance? It’s not doing an action again. According to Deut, a divorce clearly ends a marriage. One cannot sin against a marriage that doesn’t exist. One cannot get a divorce to fix a divorce. That isn’t logical. Your breaking yet another covenant. The RCC screwed this up about 450 years ago. Up to this time they went with the above but wanted to ‘return marriage to it’s origin.’

Just some commentary.

The above commenter says that adultery isn’t sexual, it’s breaking the covenant of marriage- the divorce- and the sin stops after the divorce is final. Or something like that. Because really it doesn’t make any sense, if you read it out loud once or twice. Let’s break it down, shall we?

The adultery is only in the divorce not in the marriage after.

So, the sin is the actual divorce. I think. So, after the divorce, the sin stops, and getting married afterward- entering into another covenant after breaking the previous one- nullifies the first sin. Here we’ve taken the definition of adultery and made it benefit ourselves. However, look at the above quote from the Man Himself:

19:9 Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”

Oops.

I’m assuming the same Anonymous comes back to reinforce their first argument (which makes no sense, at least to me).

Anonymous said…

‘If a Christian does not turn away from sin then he or she has not truly repented and will not be saved.’

You seem to have an ackward view here as well. Repentence is a change of heart. Not all sins get a do over. If you murder someone you can repent but it doesn’t bring the person back but you can realize the wrongness of your actions and not murder again.

Likewise causing divorce kills a marriage. You can’t bring it back in the same form. You can marry again but it will be an entirely different entity. Liekwise causing another divorce creates the same sin again. Repentence from convenantbreaking is not more covenant breaking.

This is at least logically consistent and doesn’t require people being magically married when they clearly are not.

‘How can you repent if you will not give up your sin?’

The sin is on the divorce-covenant breaking- not in the marriage that follows. That doens’t even make sense. The ’sin’ is not ongoing at all. Jesus said the people are married. It’s impossible for married people to commit adultery with each other. It’s like being a married bachelor.

‘ it seems like the Church is unaware that it is assisting in the breaking of a commandment. Every approving voice in the congregation becomes an accomplice to the newlywed’s sin. The only “out” to this that I can see is if the “once saved / always saved” doctrine is true (I’ll talk about that another time) in which case most of the congregation is out of danger. Even so, should they be so approving of other people’s sins?’

No because they recognize that the sin lies at the divorce not the later action. You are using a very narrow definition that rational people don’t use. Your then inflicting violence and a strawman on the entire thing. There are many other ways than what you have presented here.

With same sex couples(and I do not necessarily disagree with you here) there is a clear line. Not the case with your prior comparison. It’s not really a particuarlly good analogy.

Here again Jesus is ignored when His words don’t align with what a mere mortal wants to believe. Why can’t we non-believers understand that when Jesus said “Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery” he doesn’t really mean that? Sheesh!

So, we have proof positive that the Bible is against divorce, though most Christians (who have had a divorce) try to downplay what Jesus clearly stated. And because they say that same-sex marriage should be illegal because the Bible condemns homosexual relationships, I say that divorce should also be illegal. Since we obviously live in a Christian theocracy this makes complete sense. Don’t you think?

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