Being the first institution established by God at the genesis of time, one
would think that marriage ought to be receiving much support and affirmation
from religious people and established church bodies. The evidence is mixed,
however.
For many years, we church people have falsely assumed that since we love Jesus,
marriage would just automatically work for us. After all, if Jesus is in me
and Jesus is in you, and if we are married, those two Jesues wouldn't be fighting each other,
would they?
Well, unfortunately, we have forgotten that as human beings and living sacrifices
on the altar of the Almighty, the sin which is often still alive in us keeps
giving strength to those "living"
sacrifices to walk off the altar. And those "off the altar"
episodes, which are quite frequent among professed Christians, are exactly the
problem with church people and marriage.
Fortunately, however Christian leaders have awakened to the fact that it is
going to take more than mere "profession
of faith" to help marriages
thrive and succeed. After all, we are human and sinful, and unless we understand
and learn to follow the biblical principles of relationship, we are no different
from those without faith.
Mike McManus of Marriage Savers* writes: "For the
first time in history, key leaders of America's Christian religious denominations
and ecumenical groups representing 241,000 churches and 159 million Americans
met and agreed to develop a strategy to strengthen marriage in America."
The preceding assertion was made about a meeting called by Free Methodist Bishop
Kevin Mannoia, the new president of the National Association of Evangelicals,
a fellowship of 51 denominations with 45,000 churches attended by 30 million
people, Mannoia announced, "Marriage is foundational in the life of the
church and culture. Our role can change the rate of divorce."
Subsequently, we can read the sentiments of some of the leaders who attended
the event. Dr. Eileen Lindner, associate general secretary of the National Council
of Churches of Christ (NCCC), representing 35 Mainline Protestant, Orthodox
and African American denominations with 52 million members, stated: "It
is a wonderment to me that in all these years, we have not found common ground
in marriage...It is clear we do not give attention to marriage counseling."
Dr. Bill Merrell, vice president of Southern Baptist Convention which have15.7
million members, said: "We are looking for ways to become more actively
involved in strengthening marriage." William Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop
of Baltimore and past president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
which oversee 62 million members, declared: "Catholics view marriage as
a sacrament, a covenant between the husband and wife, which Christ sees as permanent."
Of course, the Catholic dioceses adopted "Common Marriage Policies"
in the 1980s which typically requires six months of marriage preparation, the
taking of a premarital inventory and attending "Pre-Cana" classes.
The result, according to McManus, is that Catholics have America's lowest divorce
rate.
* Mike McManus, Marriage Savers, ethics and religion column, May 3,
2000.
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