Divorce: American (Evangelical) Style

David Instone-Brewer writing in the April 6 edition of the Wall Street Journal raises a compelling question relative to the evangelical right and the current field of Republican presidential candidates: “Why are evangelicals so willing to accept divorce among their political leaders?”  Dr. Instone-Brewer points out:  “[A]mong GOP presidential front-runners, only Mitt Romney is in his first marriage.”

Dr. Instone-Brewer offers two answers to his question and a way out of the traditional strict interpretation of Jesus’ teaching on divorce (Matthew 19) which limits the cause for divorce to adultery:

  1. Many evangelicals have privately abandoned the Bible’s teaching on divorce.  Instone-Brewer argues that modern realties (“reasons for divorce go well beyond adultery, and fairly rapid remarriage is common”) and American law have both contributed to the abandonment by evangelicals of what the Bible says about divorce.  In was Ronald Reagan, himself divorced and yet also an icon for conservative evangelicals, who aided in shifting the cultural conversation away from marriage’s mutual obligations toward personal fulfillment when as governor of California he signed the nation’s first “no-fault” divorce law in 1970. The worldview of followers of Jesus in the 21st Century are informed more by the realities of the cultural than by Jesus’ own words. Clearly Jesus offers only one exception for divorce in Matthew 19.
  2. An emphasis on the rights of individuals encouraged by the current crop of evangelical preachers.  This is an insightful observation.  Instone-Brewers specifically mentions Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer with their emphasis “on promoting individual development,” which for some married persons may require they leave their spouse.  If you are going to merely market the gospel rather than proclaim it, the message is highly dependent on the consumer. And if point number one above is true, the message is by necessity driven by the whims and desires of hearer.  The prominent “pulpits” in America today look more to the culture than to the word of God for their authority.  Success in ministry is defined more by audience response than by faithfulness to the character and calling of the Church, a character and calling defined by Scripture, not by polling data.  The authoritative gospel is abandoned because it doesn’t play well to the focus groups.  Personal fulfillment trumps moral obligation in the 21st Century.

How can we have our cake and eat it to? How can we abandon the Bible’s teaching on divorce, fulfilling our own desires, while at the same time saying we have not abdonded the Bible’s teaching on divorce?  Dr. Instone-Brewer offers this way out of the evangelical dilemma: “new scholarship.”

As it happens, new scholarship supports a slightly less strict biblical understanding of divorce than the traditional one. Scrolls found near the Dead Sea, which confirm indications found in ancient Jewish authors like Philo and Josephus, show that the key phrase “any cause” was actually the name of a type of divorce. That is, Jesus did not reject divorce for any cause but rather, he rejected “Any Cause” divorce.

This “growing scholarly consensus” expands Jesus exception for divorce from adultery only to also include abuse, neglect and abandonment.  In 1 Corinthians 7:15 Paul seems to support this view when he says that marriage partners who are abandoned by their spouses are “no longer bound.”

None of this quite explains why evangelicals are letting their divorced conservative candidates off the hook.  Most, if not all, of the divorced candidates in the current presidential race – both Republican and Democrat – do not meet even the “new scholarships'” interpretation of the grounds for divorce.  When were Giuliani or Gingrich or McCain “abused, neglected, or abandoned” by their spouses?

David Instone-Brewer is senior research fellow in rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House in Cambridge and the author of Divorce And Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities (2006, Intervarsity Press).

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About Paul Edwards

Paul is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of God and Culture in Detroit, Michigan and Founding and Teaching Pastor at Redeemer Church of Waterford, Michigan.

1 thought on “Divorce: American (Evangelical) Style

  1. That explanation sounds like the the boys in the old testament days when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”. The fact of the matter is, all divorce I have ever seen comes from one issue, sin! Most women will not cheat on their husbands, especially if they are being loved like Christ loves the church. Infact, most women will not cheat even when they are not being loved like that. They are not made up that way. A man on the other hand, is much more prone to wander and much more prone to leave the God he loves. The issue with our political leaders is a tough one, who would we have to vote for? We can’t even keep this problem out of the pulpet or deacon board, how much less from a godless political figure? We are unable to get a simple answer out of most of them. Thank the Lord He is able to use even a wicked king. I know this sounds rough but we have little choice but to vote for the lesser of two evils. I’am 54 yrs old and cannot think of one single President that I would vote into my local church pulpit. Power corrupts. One more thought, we as christians are sometimes willing to put more weight into an issue like divorce than the Lord does. Remember, there are six things the Lord doth hate, yea seven are an abomination to him, and not one of them is divorce. Divorce is a sad event that ruins the fabric of family and society, but is is repairable with Gods love and correction if the person is willing to submit and accept where the problem starts.

    Sin is a monster of dreadful mein;
    To be hated need but be seen,
    But seen too often, face to face;
    It is first despised, then pitied, then embraced.

    Sin will always keep you longer than you had wanted to stay,
    Cost you more than you were willing to pay,
    And take you farther than you had wanted to go.

    O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:23-25

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