Why preachers would rather condemn same-sex marriage than preach on divorce

March 30, 2015

John Pavlovitz speaks out about preachers who use their pulpits to warn that LGBT people, by wanting to marry, threaten the sanctity of marriage. But at the same time, these preachers carefully tiptoe around talking about straight divorce. He hastens to add, “Please hear me, divorced people: This is not about you at all; and well, that’s sort of the point.” Divorced people are not threatening the institution of marriage any more than LGBT people are. “Attacking the LGBT community is a way for pastors to take a calculated sin stance around marriage; one that’s based on a risk-reward payoff.” It’s all about the numbers.

He writes, “It makes sense from a business standpoint: If a preacher came out with the same regularity and ferocity, railing against the “sinfulness” of divorce, as they do about LGBT people even desiring marriage (or even existing for that matter), pretty soon he or she would be speaking to a half-empty building, and they know it. Much of their physical and financial support would evaporate, and their whole operation would be in turmoil.”

Read his entire post here.

 

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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