Can divorced pastors still administer? what is your take?

• laoda99

  3 Sep 07, 01:19

  http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/01/Hillsborough/For_pastors__divorce_.shtml
  
  For pastors, divorce's stain fades
  
  Hours after the Revs. Randy and Paula White announced their impending divorce last week, Christians began discussing how the evangelical power couple had come undone.
  
  It had, in fact, been a tough week for televangelist couples.
  
  The day before the White's revelation, Atlanta Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III alledgedly assaulted his estranged wife, evangelist Juanita Bynum, in a hotel parking lot. The couple had met to discuss reconciliation. But it turned violent when Weeks choked, kicked and threatened to kill his wife, police said.
  
  Both couples' histrionics - the Whites made their announcement from the pulpit of their Tampa church Aug. 23 - rocked the evangelical world and left many tongues wagging about the state of clerical marriage and the ability of divorced clerics to minister. In both relationships, each of the ministers had been divorced before.
  
  "The clergy is supposed to be setting an example for the other lay families," said Adair T. Lummis, a faculty associate at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. "It looks strange to people."
  
  At Without Walls International Church, the Whites' megaministry, Randy White told members that he expected some in the congregation to leave because of their divorce. Indeed, a small exodus appears to have begun. But plenty of the church's 22,000 members say they will continue to support their pastors.
• TheGoodEarth

  3 Sep 07, 02:27

  wow, marriage vows are not for pow-wows.
• SingaporeMacross

  4 Sep 07, 01:06

  with celibate clergy, this is not even an issue.
• Herzog_Zwei

  5 Sep 07, 14:47

  Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:

  with celibate clergy, this is not even an issue.

  For a christian society, without marriage, there won't be any progeny for clergyhood.
• countdracula

  5 Sep 07, 20:49

  Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:

  with celibate clergy, this is not even an issue.

  that one is a little below the belt, not forgetting that the sexual immorality of the catholic priesthood leaves much to be desired....
• SingaporeMacross

  5 Sep 07, 22:49

  Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:

  For a christian society, without marriage, there won't be any progeny for clergyhood.

  Of course.
• SingaporeMacross

  5 Sep 07, 22:52

  Originally posted by countdracula:

  that one is a little below the belt, not forgetting that the sexual immorality of the catholic priesthood leaves much to be desired....

  The sexual immorality of bad priests, you mean to say?
• Icemoon

  5 Sep 07, 22:52

  Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:

  For a christian society, without marriage, there won't be any progeny for clergyhood.

  The clergy is ordained, it is clearly not for everybody. You need the laity as well.
• countdracula

  6 Sep 07, 00:44

  Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:

  The sexual immorality of bad priests, you mean to say?

  ah, you finally figured out, we both made sweeping statements....
• SingaporeMacross

  7 Sep 07, 02:11

  Originally posted by countdracula:

  ah, you finally figured out, we both made sweeping statements....

  Please show me how I have gone wrong with my statement.
• SingaporeTyrannosaur

  10 Sep 07, 20:28

  Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:

  Please show me how I have gone wrong with my statement.

  No matter what terms you may attempt to tack onto the issue, be it "celibate clergy" or "divorce" or whatever it all does not really matter if the people in question simply do not follow the rules.
  
  Being celibate or not have their own potential pitfalls, and I highly doubt the notion of a "celibate clergy" is a cure all for all the issues anymore then being married would eliminate sexual immorality, as we all know you can still get wedding and celibacy vows broken.
• SingaporeMacross

  11 Sep 07, 16:29

  Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:

  No matter what terms you may attempt to tack onto the issue, be it "celibate clergy" or "divorce" or whatever it all does not really matter if the people in question simply do not follow the rules.
  
  Being celibate or not have their own potential pitfalls, and I highly doubt the notion of a "celibate clergy" is a cure all for all the issues anymore then being married would eliminate sexual immorality, as we all know you can still get wedding and celibacy vows broken.

  balanced overview.
• TehJarVu

  11 Sep 07, 16:33

  i have heard an ex-muderer preach
  
  so why can't an ex-married person minister?
• SingaporeMacross

  11 Sep 07, 16:50

  Originally posted by TehJarVu:

  i have heard an ex-muderer preach
  
  so why can't an ex-married person minister?

  the murderer repented, but not the divorcer.
• TehJarVu

  11 Sep 07, 17:29

  Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:

  the murderer repented, but not the divorcer.

  divorcees cannot repent?
  sometimes the husband/wife want to leave them, can they help it?
  
• SingaporeMacross

  11 Sep 07, 17:33

  Originally posted by TehJarVu:

  divorcees cannot repent?
  sometimes the husband/wife want to leave them, can they help it?
  

  Sometimes the fault is due to one spouse, or both have equal faults. But that does not justify divorce. What God has put together, Man must not divide.
  
  Of course there is no point crying over spilt milk, so everybody has to learn to move on.