When life coach and televangelist Paula White went into her marriage 18 years ago, she thought she’d end her life with her husband, Randy. Divorce was not anything she ever wanted to happen, she recently said. Now separated from Randy and continuing her own ministry, White has found herself in the midst of a wide debate as more evangelicals show acceptance of divorce.
“The fact is as many have been critical or judgmental [about the divorce] … I’ve also found thousands that have reached out to me in a way that maybe they never did,” said White in a live interview Monday with CNN’s Larry King.
The famed pentecostal preacher’s divorce announcement in August compounded with the divorce case of another power couple – televangelist Juanita Bynum and Bishop Thomas Weeks III – that same week fueled discussions on whether Scripture allows the separation of marriage partners as both couples received support.
“I think conservative Christians are becoming more liberalized in the sense of, I guess, making more room for the acceptance of divorce and remarriage,” said Mark Galli, Christianity Today magazine’s managing editor, according to Religion News Service. “You’ll see a lot of churches that plunge right in and have divorce ministries. … Marriage is a really difficult thing in our culture right now.”
Meanwhile, theological conservative John Piper called the widening grounds of legitimate divorce “tragic.”
Both Paula White and Bynum continue to have a strong following even after their highly public divorces. White has out a new book, You’re All That!, and Bynum said she believes her experience may broaden her ability to reach people.
Read about it here.
[From me]
How can we as believers talk about family values when ministry and career seem to be valued more than the family? I agree with John Piper. This is tragic. Marriage isn’t a high school steady that you break up with and move on. God can and does use people who have experienced divorce. But it is not His ideal. Divorce happens to fine people and many never wanted it. But shouldn’t people regardless if they are in ministry or not be doing whatever it takes to save their family instead of making statements like it has broadened my ministry?
Our priorities should be God, family, and ministry in that order. But too often people confuse ministry with their personal relationship with God. It is a sad day for God’s Church when the divorce rate among believers is the same as those outside the faith.
What do you think?
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