Three cheers for the "sanctity" of Christian Marriage .... PART 1

Three cheers for the "sanctity" of Christian Marriage ....

Divorce rates among Christian groups: The slogan: "The family that prays together, stays together" is well known. There has been much anecdotal evidence that has led to "unsubstantiated claims that the divorce rate for Christians who attended church regularly, pray together or who meet other conditions is only 1 or 2 percent". Dr. Tom Ellis, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Council on the Family said that for "...born-again Christian couples who marry...in the church after having received premarital counseling...and attend church regularly and pray daily together..." experience only 1 divorce out of nearly 39,000 marriages -- or 0.00256 percent. I say "Liar, liar, your pants are on fire ..." A recent study by the Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on these estimates. Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21. 1 They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points. The survey found: 11% of the adult population is currently divorced. 25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime. Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience.

George Barna, president and founder of Barna Research Group, commented: "While it may be alarming to discover that born again Christians are more likely than others to experience a divorce, that pattern has been in place for quite some time. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is that when those individuals experience a divorce many of them feel their community of faith provides rejection rather than support and healing. But the research also raises questions regarding the effectiveness of how churches minister to families. The ultimate responsibility for a marriage belongs to the husband and wife, but the high incidence of divorce within the Christian community challenges the idea that churches provide truly practical and life-changing support for marriages." According to the Dallas Morning News, a Dallas TX newspaper, the national study "raised eyebrows, sowed confusion, [and] even brought on a little holy anger." This caused George Barna to write a letter to his supporters, saying that he is standing by his data, even though it is upsetting. He said that "We rarely find substantial differences" between the moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians.

Barna Project Director Meg Flammang said: "We would love to be able to report that Christians are living very distinct lives and impacting the community, but ... in the area of divorce rates they continue to be the same." Both statements seem to be projecting the belief that conservative Christians and liberal Christians have the same divorce rate. This disagrees with their own data. The survey: Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) % who have been divorced Evangelical - Pentecostal 34% Baptists 29% Mainline Protestants 25% Mormons 24% Catholics 21% Lutherans 21% The divorce rate in America for first marriage, vs. second or third marriage 50% percent of first marriages 67% of second 74% of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.” According to the US Census Bureau The divorce rate in America for first marriage is 49% The divorce rate in America for second marriage is 68% The divorce rate in America for third marriage is 73%

Don't you just hate when your words that you utter on record come back to "bite you in the ass"? In a small Maine weekly newspaper The Ellsworth American to be exact, the Reverend James Heard of The Church of Life and Praise, was quoted as saying "The gay lifestyle is not natural; it’s against nature." “The human anatomy,” he said, “is not created for a gay lifestyle. The lifestyle is a sin, as far as the church is concerned. It dishonors God’s creation and displeases God.” Really? The HUMAN ANATOMY “is not created for a gay lifestyle" ... but a heterosexual Christian male, placing his penis in his female wife's/girlfriends mouth or anus IS NATURAL. Does this not also displease God. And if he is such a fool to believe that none of his church attendees do not practice either of these things he is sorely mistaken or just plain ignorant. But then again this so called "Church" totally ignores the topics of premarital sex, having children outside of wedlock, cohabiting outside the bonds of "Christian marriage" ... and ... and ... the total acceptance of parishioners attending church dressed like they should be standing on a Boston street corner flagging down "johns" instead. But it must be OK, for these folks have found the Holy Spirit ,and pretend to speak in tongues ... and then ... they go home, with their unmarried partners and continue to sin. I can just imagine the other times that they practice speaking in "Tongues" ... IE Screaming out "Oh ... jesus ... christ ... i am ... i am ... cumming" ....... ! or as Frank Sinatra said "When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out. " .... to Be Continued ... So stay tuned for more jocularity ...