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 ...

Coming Soon - The Great Gay Marriage Debate or Why Christians only claim to prefer "Heterosexual Sodomy"

Coming Soon (within the next 12 hours) - The Great Gay Marriage Debate or Why Christians only claim to prefer "Heterosexual Sodomy".


but for now ... Ponder this:

"Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains." Robert Ingersoll

That vacuum being between the Christian's cerumen ... it is time for the uneducated Christian masses to find their dictionary's. That's D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y. You know, that thing you call a door stop. And here is a hint for those that wish to hazard a guess on what Cerumen actually is ... it is not an angel.

When they fall they sure do it well ....

This blog is proudly sponsored by The First Amendment to the United States Constitution which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

That said here is a little introduction from Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Karn Evil 9 First Impression: "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. Were so glad you could attend. Come inside! come inside!... There behind a glass is a real blade of grass. Move along! move along!... Come inside, the shows about to start. Guaranteed to blow your head apart. Rest assured you'll get your moneys worth. The greatest show in heaven, hell or earth. You've got to see the show, its a dynamo. You've got to see the show, its ..." The Oh How The Mighty "pastors" Have Fallen Show. And yes I intentionally left a small "p" on "pastors".

We will start off with ... Todd Bentley ... You remember him. He's the tattooed Canadian evangelist, whose extreme faith healing methods included hitting and knocking down ailing supplicants (kind of like Emeril with his food... BAM), He is perhaps best known for his participation in the Christian-rock driven Lakeland Revival movement, which attracted tens of thousands of worshipers. The charismatic preacher served on the board of directors of the Fresh Fire Ministry group (and apparently "on top off female members of his staff as well") and traveled around the world to spread his message (and their legs).

In August 2008, however, Bentley announced that he would be separating from his wife Shonnah, a revelation that shocked many of his ardent followers. Shortly afterward, Fresh Fire Ministries announced that Bentley would be stepping down from his leadership position and would obtain counseling (maybe with Ted Haggard's therapist - wonder if Ted ever tried a threesome) after it was discovered that Bentley was having a relationship with a staff member (or was it his "member" was having a relationship with a staff person. Or the staff person was having a relationship with Bentley's "staff". (This is to easy ... it's like shooting loaves and fishes in a barrel)

In future posts we will explore other luminaries such as Ted Haggard, TD Jakes (and his now famous son who entertained two undercover police officers with his own "member"), Paula White and so many, many more ... including,but not limited to, folks from my own community in which case the names will be changed to protect the guity ... as Jakie Gleason so poignantly said ... and awayyy we go .....