“The divorce rate of evangelical Christians now surpasses that of the rest of the population in the United States. Evangelicals are getting divorced, and gay folks are wanting to get married, and religionists keep accusing homosexuals of destroying the family. Yikes” (233).
Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. 9780310278429.
This is a rather controversial book but I think he raises a good point although I have only before heard that the divorce rates are the same, not that Evangelicals are divorcing in even higher numbers than others. If Evangelicals as a whole were forced to choose between NO DIVORCE on any grounds and HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE on any grounds I am pretty sure what the result would be. The statistics speak clearly to the fact that we would be willing to accept someone else’ sin before giving up our own. I wonder why 72% of those outside the church think it is full of hypocrites?
Unfortunately, we don’t seem to care that God was pretty clear on his feelings about divorce: “’I hate divorce,’ says the LORD God of Israel, ‘and I hate it when people clothe themselves with injustice,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Malachi 2:16). It isn’t too often in the Bible that God declared he hated things. Many people seem to think that Jesus would be easier going than that but he was pretty clear on the issue of divorce as well: “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Mt 19:9//Mk 10:11-12; Lk 16:18). I guess only certain verses are supposed to be taken “literally” at “face value.”
Why is there such a disconnect between belief and action in the Evangelical church? In our own lives? If this concerns you read today’s post linking to an article on Francis Chan and read Forgotten God!