Frank Arthur wrote:
>
> "AMD R700" <AMD.RV770@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> The Bible teaches you nothing. It is an ancient book that has no
> relation to divorce or marriage in the USA in 2008.
>
> Who cares about old times of slavery, ignorance,kings and childish
> stories?
>
I wouldn't go quite that far, but I come to the same conclusion.
Jesus and St Paul were speaking to their own generation. I don't think
that
they expected us to remain in an agonising relation****p just on principle.
In a perfect world it might be possible, but this world is not perfect,
and
never will be. There really is such a thing as the lesser of two evils.
The situation where one partner divorces the other and re-marries, but the
other partner refuses to remarry, is a matter of choice. There are no
easy
answers.
There is only one rule in dealing with a spouse, separated or not: love
the
person. Loving may mean getting out of that person's life. Couples who
have Church weddings still go for St Paul's description of love in 1
Corinthians 13, and those who won't go near a Bible probably know
instinctively what he is talking about. Somebody once said that love is
such a sublime and powerful force that it can't be confined to a few short
years. If you can be truly loving, you automatically fulfil all the
Commandments, as Jesus said.
Frank, a book about books points out that whether you accept the Bible or
not, it is the source of all ideas of human rights, regardless of race,
gender and status, that Western nations all believe in. It wasn't always
that way. In feudal, Norman England, the penalty for murdering a serf was
far less than for murdering a Norman lord. It was a desire for freedom to
have their own Christian beliefs that sent the early settlers to America.
You are lucky to be living in a country which inherited those beliefs.
There are countries today that don't accept them.
And the ethical basis of Christian morality derives largely from Stoicism,
a
philosophy first devised by a Cypriot who taught at Athens about 300 B.C.,
and given a religious flavour by the Roman philosopher Seneca (d. 65
A.D.),
the brother of the Gallio before whom Paul was brought (Acts 18.) Like
the
Christians, Seneca was put to death by Nero. The Stoics were opposed to
the absolute Emperors, and Seneca wasn't the only one they put to death.
Doug L.
--
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage - Shakespeare.
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