There are similar objections to the lenient rules for granting a marriage annulment.
Am I to understand that you are agreeing that we shouldn’t be too lenient with divorce and remarriage in order to remain obedient to Christ’s words?
A beautiful Lutheran lady was interviewed on CBS 60 minutes and she said that she was suing the Catholic church for fraud because the Church misled her into thinking that she was validly married. She said that she did everything the Church required including bringing up her children as Catholics and as she was a good Christian she would never live with a man who was her husband. But now the Catholic Church tells her that the man she was living with was not her husband and therefore the Church deceived her and further has ruined her reputation and besmirched her character. She said that there was never any question of the validity of the marriage until after twenty years of marriage, her husband decided to “date” a younger woman. After being unfaithful to the marriage of 20 years, he then applied and got a marriage annulment. So if you are going to say “Whoa” to the Protestant idea that a marriage can die, why don’t you say the same about the lenient Catholic marriage annulments. Also Take a look at the book by Sheila Rauch Kennedy and she has a webpage in which she describes her anger at being told that her marriage to a Kennedy was annulled. When she asked her husband to explain what it meant, he told her that the Catholic annulment process is Catholic gobbledygook.
First, how do you know annulments are lenient? Because annulments occur at all they must be lenient? You do realize that not everyone who goes through the annulment process is granted one, don’t you? Some people are told that their marriage is valid and that they are not free to remarry. But in the single explanation given so far for a Protestant interpretation if the couple decides that their marriage is dead through some circumstances or actions or whatever…then the marriage is dead. That probably amounts to what, about 100% of the people who think that way, also thinking that they are free to remarry? In other words, about 100% annulment rate.
I’d say that is way more lenient.
Do any Protestants or Protestant Churches say at that point, “You/I can divorce. But you/I are not free to remarry because you/I have a valid marriage already.” ?
He added that no one really believes it. This is her testimony in her book. So are you going to be evenhanded on this or do you give Catholics a free pass, but for those who say that the marriage died you say “Whoa”?
I think I am being honest. The Catholic Church acknowledges the indissolubility of marriage. I am no expert on the annulment process. I am curious about how Protestants interpret the verses that I’ve listed below and I’ve heard one other interpretation about marriage dying.
I apologize if my show of emotion with the “whoas” bothered you. It seems like it might have. I guess I should try to write with less emotion. I should have just said what I think: the idea that a marriage can end because the married couple decides that it is dead makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I believe it is unbiblical (at least, I couldn’t find anywhere that said that), and a man-made tradition that disregards Jesus’ words.
It also ignores Paul’s words in Romans 7: 2-3: “Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband
as long as he lives; but if her
husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But
if her husband dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.”
It is clear that a marriage ends when a person dies. (biblical)
Not when a marriage supposedly dies. (man-made idea)
I imagine that when an annulment occurs, oftentimes, no matter what the outcome, somebody isn’t gonna be happy about it. If it is granted, someone may be happy, someone may not. If it is denied, someone may be happy, someone may not.
Finding examples of people who are dissatisfied with the annulment process (as you mentioned above) proves nothing.
To rephrase my original question, I’m curious to know how non-Catholic Christians interpret these verses:
“…whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matt. 5:32),
“…he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matt. 19:9)
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:11-12)
“Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.” (Luke 16:18)
and Saint Paul:
“To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should not divorce his wife.” (1 Cor. 7:10-11)
Please understand that my only intent with my original post was to try to find out how non-Catholic Christians interpret the words in the verses above. So far you’ve given me one explanation about marriages dying that I had never heard of before but that also makes no sense to me. I imagine going through an annulment process or divorce would be horrible. I’m not trying to judge those things or people that have been through them. I empathize.
But I don’t think I should have to avoid understanding parts of the Bible that I am confused about because the topic might not be pleasant.
