This is a passage I avoided yesterday. But I have got a day ahead in the readings, and going back I cannot see where the gap is. So that leaves a divorced man looking at the condemnation of divorce.

For we have an epidemic of divorce within the church. Most of it is not for licit reasons: there are a few: adultery (and when the priest is warned about ceasing to love the wife of his youth this is could be one of the reasons) and abandonment despite the clear warning and counsel of the elders to return. If I have read the foundational documents of the reformed faith, that is it: there are no other grounds.

Now if one has had a spouse leave and abandon the kirk and walk away from the faith, that person is free. When the first theologians of the reformed church looked at scripture, and tried to teach the plain meaning, they were aware that these rules could expand.

And they have: many people within the church teach that one can leave if your spouse looks at another woman (porn included) or does not allow for your spiritual growth (for that is violence) or is abusive. The Roman Kirk did not go down that path: they said marriage is for life and accepted their priests would have to deal with unhappy spouses. Regularly. But the canon lawyers have found more and more scruples that allow them to annul, which leads to a worse situation.

And this is something we have to repent of, Corporately. For it will lead to violence within the family, and unrighteousness within the church.

“And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

(Malachi 2:1-16 ESV)

God;s plan is clear. Fall in lust, head over heels, as a young man and young woman, marry, and stay married. There are things you can do to preserve this: Husbands you should lead (in the home and in the church) and keep yourself in shape: women should learn how to love your husband, cleave to him, and stay in shape. There is much written about this, and much good advice.

But that is not the issue for the church at the moment. We have many, many divorced people within the church, often in places of good standing. We have people who have never married, but instead had children with the man of the hour, teaching within the church.

And we are told it is hateful for us to condemn them.

We have people teaching that divorce is acceptable, and we do not stand against them. Well, as a casualty of this churchian corruption, I hate divorce: having been through that wringer once, and spent some years trying to remedy the damage done to my children, I have no interest in doing this again.

And I do not hear any teaching on this from the pulpit, apart from “Man up and Marry these Good women”. Well, I accept that if one is licitly divorced remarriage is an option. I’m quite aware that I am not a good monk. And I’m quite keen on a local photographer. But, marriage needs to be approached with caution. For divorce causes more violence, and there are children involved. I’m fairly convinced that the answers in are Corinthians (where we are commanded to marry unless celibacy comes easy to us, and to use the marital bed for the purpose it was designed for) but those of us who have had our marriages shattered by the false doctrine of this and the last couple of generations need guidance on these issues.

I have but two pleas. The first is that we start confronting the sexual sin within the heterosexual 97% to 99% of the congregation, and stop pretending it is not happening. The second is that as the congregants seek guidance about how to move forward, that the Kirk prays for us, and guides us into reconciliation or remarriage.

For most of us are not designed to be apart, and this society manufactures damaged souls, comforted by moggies alone.