This is a interesting resolution that the SBC passed at their convention.
What is interesting to me is this part I bolded.
It called for churches to proclaim the biblical view on marriage's permanence, perform wedding ceremonies only for men and women qualified scripturally to be married to each other, counsel couples and families going through difficulties, declare God's mercy to those who have divorced without a biblical basis and pray the "next generation will see the gospel not only in the counter-cultural nature of our verbal witness but also in the counter-cultural love and fidelity of our marriages."
Hmmm
Friday, July 2, 2010
Southern Baptists Getting Serious About Divorce
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4 comments:
This is somewhat encouraging, but talk is cheap.
We, who call ourselves Baptist, believe that we are eternally secure in our relationship with Christ, and that our marriages are a testimony to the world of the relationship between Christ and the Church. We are supposed to forgive our spouses just as Christ forgives us. It is a permanent relationship. If there were to be abuse, addiction, or adultery, and the day were to come that I could not live with my wife, then I would live separately from her. But I will never be free to divorce and remarry, no matter what she does. No other way of looking at it would demonstrate the secure relationship between Christ and the believer.
I guess I am interested in this because
(1)Is there agreement among Southern Baptists among what are the scriptural requirements to be married. You know beyond man and woman and don;t marry your mother or brother.
(2)Is the SBC looking at imposing a universial norm on this
(3) If 2 is true then how will it be enforced
I just thought this was interesting because it appears at the very least it looks like some think having a SOuthern Baptist wedding cermony y should not be so easy in the future
I am just curious where people see this going.
I am not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. My Church is Missionary Baptist, and there are other organizations who use that name. But I know enough about it to tell you that the SBC can not impose any requirements upon the individual congregations. Each congregation is an sovereign body of believers. I doubt that anything will change, which is what I meant by "talk is cheap".
When I was young, it was difficult to find a pastor who would officiate at a wedding if one or both of the candidates for marriage were previously married to a person who was still alive. If they had married outside the church, they were welcomed back into the church with the belief that their adultery was covered by grace, but they were considered to have two living spouses. Very quickly that concept died out, and now the divorce/remarriage rate among Baptists is probably higher than among the unbelievers/heathen/world. I am not holding my breath to see if this SBC resolution will change anything.
"I know enough about it to tell you that the SBC can not impose any requirements upon the individual congregations. Each congregation is an sovereign body of believers. I doubt that anything will change, which is what I meant by "talk is cheap". "
That is true in theory but in reality it seems the SBC Convention has a lot of power to impose their will. They do seem to expell Churches more and more over certain issues. They do have a good bit of control over the Seminaries. So that is one reason I am wondering where this is going . They do have some bite
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