[soc.religion.christian] + 3256 Re: Divorce; a reference. jhpb@g

HWT@bnr.ca (H.W.) (11/30/90)

Joe Buehler writes:

> A proper understanding of divorce being so basic to a proper
> understanding of marriage, I think diversity on this issue is definitely
> a result of infidelity to God's revelation.

It seems to me that the modern 'problem' of a high divorce rate is the other
side of an ancient problem: many marriages don't work.  The difference is
that in European and American society, women were (in general) unable to
support themselves, and put up with abusive husbands.  Now they can and do
leave and get a divorce.

A friend of mine (or was it in this group?) told me about a priest whose
marriage preparation classes resulted in 50% of the couples deciding not
to get married.  I suspect that those who went ahead had far fewer divorces.
It is, in general, easy to get married, even easy to get a church wedding.
Most priests don't seem eager to probe the nature of the relationship
carefully, either in formal marriage preparation courses or informally.

(Personal anecdote: our marriage preparation course consisted of spending a
weekend with our priest, his wife, and another couple (close friends of ours)
at the priest's cottage.  However, as he'd know my wife since she was a
child, and is a very preceptive man, this was quite adequate.)

I think it should be at least as hard to get married as it is to get divorced.

Henry Troup - BNR owns but does not share my opinions |
P.O. Box 3511, Stn. C. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 4H7|
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