Divorce rates among Protestant Ministers

[st_ignatius110]

We have NO evidence in the Holy Scriptures that indicate she was living. None. His mother in law is mentioned. NO mention of a wife doing anything with Peter, or any one else for that matter. not one mention.
Also, no mention of Peter leaving a wife.

Tertullian says that he believes Saint Peter was married and that he simply remained celibate.

 

[David_Zampino]

He left her behind. It might have been easier for him/her…had he not been married to begin with.

We don’t know this. This is not part of Scripture, nor of the infallible Magisterium.

 

[David_Zampino]

Tertullian says that he believes Saint Peter was married and that he simply remained celibate.

Tertullian WOULD say that!!!

 

[David_Zampino]

I’m wondering if anyone knows of any studies examining the divorce rate among Protestant Ministers.

TIA
AlbertaRose

I know of at least two divorces among my fellow students when I was a student at an Episcopal seminary. And that was not all that long ago. Nor was the class large.

I also know that the divorce rate amongst graduates at a couple of key Protestant Universities ranked above the national average.

 

[Zooey]

This is purely anecdotal, but for 60 years, in & out & all about the various branches of Methodism, I have only met 2 divorced Methodist/Free Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene pastors.
One I never knew well enough to get into the subject. The other was from this area, & I knew the story: He had married very young, to a woman who turned out to be [congenitally, by all accounts] mentally ill, and she tried to kill him. He was divorced, & remarried years later…and only then, did he go into ministry.

As I say…anecdotal. But perhaps helpful…

 

[tapiocapudding]

I have no statistical information, but my grandfather is a retired protestant minister and he left my Nana after 30 or so years of marriage for a woman half her age…

 

[st_ignatius110]

Tertullian WOULD say that!!!

I KNEW someone would say that.

 

[udoc89]

I know of at least two divorces among my fellow students when I was a student at an Episcopal seminary. And that was not all that long ago. Nor was the class large.

I also know that the divorce rate amongst graduates at a couple of key Protestant Universities ranked above the national average.

This made me think. In the years I was an Episcopalian, two of my favorite ministers were divorced, as was the bishop who confirmed me.

 

[free2pray]

We have NO evidence in the Holy Scriptures that indicate she was living. None. His mother in law is mentioned. NO mention of a wife doing anything with Peter, or any one else for that matter. not one mention.
Also, no mention of Peter leaving a wife.

Have you looked at this scripture? 1Cor 9:5 “Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other Apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?” NKJV

Paul says here that he and his companions have the right to have wives and to have them come along with them, even as Peter (who is Cephas John 1:42), and the brothers of the Lord Jesus had done. Paul also gives the requirements of church leadership in his Pastoral epistles in 1 Timothy and Titus. Here he says that a Bishop and a Deacon must be “…the husband of one wife…” (1 Timothy 3:2,11-12; Titus 1:6). These and many other scriptures indicate that marriage was never forbidden by the Lord or His Apostles even for Clergy. However, Paul does say that it is easier to be concerned solely for the things of God when unmarried (1 Cor 7:32-33) but he says you can marry if you wish (1 Cor 7:2,28)
Hebrews says that marriage is honorable among all… (emphasis added)
The Catholic church has adopted a policy that requires their ministers to be celibate, but this is tradition based off of an ascetic philosophy that was held by some of the early church fathers. This belief was called apatheia a passionless state devoid of any desire or emotion that is one’s own. The problem with this is that this is Neo-platonic, or in other words it is a Greek philosophy that has been blended into a form of Christianity. The Church has never been able to fully agree on this issue and it seems best to me not to require others to follow a standard that was not commanded in scripture or was consistently commanded by the early church or church fathers. Though, I don’t see any reason to be against celibacy altogether either.