Protestants and adultry

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CONCLUSION

Indeed, it shows that family members are the most likely to sexually molest a child. It also shows that the incidence of the sexual abuse of a minor is slightly higher among the Protestant clergy than among the Catholic clergy, and that it is significantly higher among public school teachers than among ministers and priests
catholicleague.org/research/abuse_in_social_context.htm
Ahh…a Catholic source as evidence…perfect. I don’t really know what you’re trying to prove…because it’s obvious that these type things happen/happened with all denominations.

But I’m not going to argue too much, mainly because I think this entire thread is silly (yet I keep posting :confused: ), and I really don’t feel like doing any research to provide non-biased sources against your Catholic source. I guess if I’m going to argue with you, I should at least provide some evidence myself. Have a good one…and don’t beat up any protestants today! 😉
 
Were the ships of whores that accompanied the crusades there for the pleasure of the unmarried knights only?
Prostitutes seem to follow any large military group around. Its a fact of life. I live near a major military base and the nearby town has had a lot ot problems with prostitutes.🤷

Unless you can prove that the Catholic Church said though that prostitutes were permissible for knights to use, then I don’t see the connection to the Op’s question.:confused:

Back to the OP’s original question…Yes, some Protestants seem to ignore the verses in the bible that speak about remarrying.

One reason that I have heard is that the first marriage was not conducted while the individual was a Christian. The second marriage was. So, the first marriage doesn’t count. I realize that this is incorrect from a Catholic viewpoint. I am just passing along what I have been told. Also, some Protestants think that if the spouse committed adultery that they have the freedom to dissolve the marriage. Again, this is what I have been told.

I have known a Protestant lady who was in an abusive marriage. She left her spouse and refused to remarry because of her reading of the bible. She was a very wonderful and sweet woman

I think that society as a whole encourages people to allow their emotions(follow your heart mantra) to rule them. This leads to a lot of self centered behavior. This seems to cut across denominations and even into the Catholic Church.

I do not know if there are consequences for Protestants who divorce and remarry in their Churches as there is for Catholics. I think that would be an interesting question and wouldn’t sound as if anyone was bashing Protestants.

I knew of a man who left the Catholic Church because his priest told him that he couldn’t take communion due to the fact that he had been married 7 times!!:eek: The reason that I know this story is that my SIL was complaining about how cold the Catholic Church was for not forgiving him and allowing him to return to the Church(he wasn’t forbidden from attending)🤷 I think that a lot of people allow their emotions to control what they view as right and wrong, not just PRotestants but Catholics as well.
 
Back to the original question about the seeming acceptance in some Protestant circles of remarriage. I lived in the Bible belt for 5 years. I never saw so many remarriages. It seemed to be very widely accepted. It also seemed to be the overwhelming majority of people identified themselves strongly with some Christian church. I never could figure it out. It always seemd like there must have been some theological reason why they thought it was OK to be divorced and remarried. This isn’t to bash Protestants but is there something to it?

While there are valid criticisms of the old Catholic ways when divorce was so shameful and disgraceful people lied about it, is there a theological reaon why divorce and remarriage seem to be so accepted in some Protestant circles?
 
Not reported facts deal with it
Do you enjoy this sort of thing? I mean, do you have nothing better to do than search for statistics that will help justify your attacks on protestants? Personally, I think anyone, protestant or catholic, who spends time looking for things to help attack the other is someone with too much time on their hands. I guess that’s why they say idle hands are the devil’s tools.
 
It appears that the OP was sincere in questioning the non-Catholic Christian stance in regards to remarriage, and I don’t think this is was thread intended to undermine or judge our Protestant brethren.

But it does point to a fundamental difference between the idea of fidelity in marriage between the Catholic and Protestant mindset. We need to see beyond some implied indictment towards Protestants and look at the real reason why there is such a difference without being nasty about it.
 
As far as I know, adultery is a forgivable sin. Unless you know the state of someone’s heart and soul, and the level of formation they are at, no matter what religion they are,neither you nor I are in a position to draw any conclusions. Everyone on the earth is still in the process of life. Perhaps we as Catholic believers could demonstrate the love and joy of living in Christ so as to provide an example to those in need of one.

Peace,
Kelly
 
Back to the original question about the seeming acceptance in some Protestant circles of remarriage. I lived in the Bible belt for 5 years. I never saw so many remarriages. It seemed to be very widely accepted. It also seemed to be the overwhelming majority of people identified themselves strongly with some Christian church. I never could figure it out**.
It always seemd like **there must have been some theological reason **
This is what I want to know. I am not trying to bash protestants. I have been all over the web trying to find a definitive answer. It is impossible to get a clear understanding of what Protestant denominations believe regarding adultery. Here is a typical answer from a Baptist website.

Expert: Dr. Tim Gladu
Date: 7/26/2007
Subject: Adultery

Question
I came back from work one day and my wife was gone. She refuses to pick the phone and does not reply text messages. No one that I know seems to know where she is. Not even her mother. If I sleep with another woman under this condition, is she not to blame?

Answer
Sunny,

If you sleep with another woman other than you wife then it is adultery. If divorce her under the circumstances then you could re-marry in the eyes of God** you would be justified**. You can not blame anyone for your actions, we all have to answer to God for our sin and He does not blame others for what we do. Look at it this way. Remember a guy named Adam, he tried really hard to blame his wife for his actions, and I think you can remember what God told him. I can not imagine what you are going through. You just need to remember that you are responsible for your own sin and no one else.

en.allexperts.com/q/Baptists-954/Adultery.htm

Where is the scripture that says that if you divorce your spouse becasue he/she is cheating on you then remarriage is not adultery? I have heard that protestants that want to divorce and remarry will actually have an affair because that will justifiy their divorce and they are free to remarry without committing adultery.
Any truth to that?
 
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Our_Refuge:
…Where is the scripture that says that if you divorce your spouse becasue he/she is cheating on you then remarriage is not adultery? I have heard that protestants that want to divorce and remarry will actually have an affair because that will justifiy their divorce and they are free to remarry without committing adultery.
Any truth to that?

I’m sure that happens sometimes, but in no way does it “justify” a divorce, in my mind anyway. Seems like they are trying to fool “they system”, but they cannot fool God.
 
In one of the Gospels, Jesus says clearly that there is no marriage after divorce. IN another, he says that but he adds an exemption. The word, if my memory is correct, is porneae. It relates to an incestuous sexual relationship. Now, some translators use the term adultry in place of it. The Catholic Church has always understood it to mean a marriage that was unlawful.

What it comes down to is a matter of authority and translation. Catholics hold to the authority of the Church to define the rules of marriage. Protestants do not have that option, so they resort to the Bible. Depending on the translation, they see divorce as an option in the case of adultry, which is a commonly held belief. Since Jesus said this was ok, remarriage afterwards is ok, too.
There are a good number who feel that marriage after divorce is verboten as well. Some preachers that I know will not marry a couple if one is divorced.

It is not acceptable to assume that Protestants endorse adultry. The vast majority do not. There are some that do, but it is because they are the ones doing the adultriating.
 
As far as I know, adultery is a forgivable sin. Unless you know the state of someone’s heart and soul, and the level of formation they are at, no matter what religion they are,neither you nor I are in a position to draw any conclusions. Everyone on the earth is still in the process of life. Perhaps we as Catholic believers could demonstrate the love and joy of living in Christ so as to provide an example to those in need of one.

Peace,
Kelly
Its a forgivable sin IF the person repents and stops sinning. If you are continuing to live with the person that you are committing adultery with then you are still in sin. That has nothing to do with Christians loving one another or even passing judgment on each other.

Remember Christ didn’t just tell the woman caught in adultery to go about her merry way. He told her to ‘sin no more’

I am pretty certain that all sins are forgivable, aren’t they?:confused:
 
We live in a society that tells us to follow our hearts and we can’t go wrong. The problem with this is that sometimes our emotions(which are pretty fickle) lean toward doing bad things.

The media also gives us the impression that if we forego sex or live a life of chastity that we will blow up into tiny, firey bits! Okay that is a bit of an exaggeration but you all know what I mean.😛

I think that this type of thinking probably leads some to wrongly assume that God wouldn’t want them to be uncomfortable by being forced to deal with a lifetime without sex.

I know that SOME Protestants(again not all) are so afraid of being accused of believing a work driven salvation that they don’t like to teach how Christians should act. They tend to let the Holy Spirit guide each individual, trusting that a true Christian wouldn’t want to commit a serious sin anyway.

I’ve heard individual Catholics express the same type of ‘follow your heart’ mentality.😦
 
Oh yes, I was not suggesting that repentance is not necessary! What I want to point out is that across all religions there are those still in some error or sin. Whether by ignorance, weakness or design. The struggle with sin is part of our heritage as son and duaghters of Adam and Eve, so I think it is not really a valid stance when someone starts to p(name removed by moderator)oint a group and talk about “their” sins. It is only by the grace of God that any of us are able to make headway against it. If we also happen to be blessed to be Catholic and have the fullness of Christ’s life available to us, then I just think the next step is to share that with the world rather that label it. So that maybe more people could have the blessing of being able to “go and sin no more.”

Peace,
Kelly
 
Oh yes, I was not suggesting that repentance is not necessary! What I want to point out is that across all religions there are those still in some error or sin. Whether by ignorance, weakness or design. The struggle with sin is part of our heritage as son and duaghters of Adam and Eve, so I think it is not really a valid stance when someone starts to p(name removed by moderator)oint a group and talk about “their” sins. It is only by the grace of God that any of us are able to make headway against it. If we also happen to be blessed to be Catholic and have the fullness of Christ’s life available to us, then I just think the next step is to share that with the world rather that label it. So that maybe more people could have the blessing of being able to “go and sin no more.”

Peace,
Kelly
I certainly understand what you are saying and I agree up to a point.🙂

I remember how frustrated I was as a new Christian that I had so little guidance in how to act. My friends seemed to think that just believing and reading my bible should be enough for me. They couldn’t understand why I needed advice on what was sinful behavior and what wasn’t.

Pointing out that certain broad actions are sinful isn’t judgemental and might actually help some Christians.
 
From what I have heard some Protestants say, they see divorce as sinful. However, God can forgive sin. So if they divorce and later repent, God forgives it. But they are still divorced so they are free to remarry.

The Catholic view is that marriage is a permanent bond. Divorce may be sinful. If the person repents, God forgives the sin. However, the original marriage bond still remains so the person who remarries is actually, in God’s eyes, still married and thus is committing adultery.

This is a difference in understanding and interpretation of scripture.
 
Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except [it be] for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
 
Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except [it be] for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
What is the word used for fornication in the origionalGreek? Also, isn’t it in Luke where he does not include any exceptions?
 
From what I have heard some Protestants say, they see divorce as sinful. However, God can forgive sin. So if they divorce and later repent, God forgives it. But they are still divorced so they are free to remarry.

The Catholic view is that marriage is a permanent bond. Divorce may be sinful. If the person repents, God forgives the sin. However, the original marriage bond still remains so the person who remarries is actually, in God’s eyes, still married and thus is committing adultery.

This is a difference in understanding and interpretation of scripture.
I think that this might be an example of the difference in Protestant view on forgiveness and Catholic(Yes, all Protestants are different)

I’ve noticed that when some Protestants say that they are forgiven of sin they believe that they are also relieved of the consequences of that sin. So, not only are they forgiven of living apart from their wives(Divorce) but they are forgiven from any uncomfortable results of that divorce.(possible life long celibacy)

A good thread might be to explore the differences in Catholic and certain types of Protestant Churches concept of forgiveness
 
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