{"id":3086,"date":"2015-10-22T12:36:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T18:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3086"},"modified":"2015-10-22T12:36:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T18:36:48","slug":"on-remarriage-missing-the-forest-for-the-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/10\/on-remarriage-missing-the-forest-for-the-trees.html","title":{"rendered":"On remarriage: missing the forest for the trees?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Bottom line on top: \u00a0the majority of self-identified Catholics<\/a> simply don\u2019t believe there\u2019s anything wrong with divorcing and remarrying, in about the same proportion as they think that cohabitating is just fine, as well and, presumably, were they asked by Pew researchers, would have said that consensual nonmarital sex is OK.<\/p>\n

Now, some of these folks are cultural Catholics who don\u2019t really take the church\u2019s moral teaching all too seriously in any case. \u00a0But others can\u2019t be so easily dismissed.<\/p>\n

What do they think of Jesus\u2019s words about remarriage being equivalent to adultery? \u00a0I\u2019m not sure, really. \u00a0Do they think this is somehow a peculiar metaphor for \u201cbad thing\u201d and refer solely to \u201csocial-justice\u201d issues, in a case where divorce means abandonment and a woman left without means?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read in the past proposals to think of the \u201cadultery\u201d, and thus the sin, as referring to the one-time event of the marriage ceremony itself, not the ongoing relationship. \u00a0I saw this argued in an extended form a while back, and was reminded of it by a piece a facebook friend shared today<\/a>, which says that we should hold remarried folk to any higher a standard than anyone else \u201cwho has sought forgiveness for past sins.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But this doesn\u2019t make sense if the sin is adultery<\/em> specifically, and Jesus, of course, doesn\u2019t say anything that suggests that the wedding event itself is the issue.<\/p>\n

Perhaps their answer is along the lines of \u201cthe early church put words into Jesus\u2019s mouth because they had their own agenda\u201d?<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s more a matter of the modern tendency to rationalize sins into a \u201ccan\u2019t be helped\u201d non-sin? \u00a0Cheat on an exam? \u00a0Take your pick of justifications: \u00a0everyone does it. \u00a0The test-makers were in the wrong because the high-stakes test shouldn\u2019t have been imposed anyway. \u00a0Or: the student simply didn\u2019t know any better, so shouldn\u2019t be held responsible. \u00a0With respect to the idea of asking a civilly-remarried couple to refrain from sex: \u00a0it\u2019s treated as a joke, almost an embarrassment to suggest it \u2014 and because that\u2019s the case, because it\u2019s just so preposterous to imagine this, the answer is to move this off the Sin List, or at least create a new list, Sins That Just Can\u2019t Be Helped.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps the list is this: \u00a0Sins That Are On the Sin List for Purely Arbitrary Reasons and May Be Ignored in Real Life. \u00a0\u00a0Kind of like our approach to immigration: \u00a0sure, working with false ID or off the books is a crime, but the government has pretty much stated they don\u2019t care if it\u2019s for the cause of allowing an illegal immigrant to get a job.<\/p>\n

And, by the way, guess what else is on this list?<\/p>\n

Non-marital sex, in general. \u00a0(\u201cPre<\/em>-marital\u201d implies there\u2019ll ultimately be a marriage, so I avoid that term.) \u00a0How many of these Catholics who have divorced and remarried, had in the interim period not hesitated to have sex with a boyfriend\/girlfriend, then go up to communion the next day? \u00a0Oh, and, of course, contraception. \u00a0Have you ever heard of someone refraining from communion for that reason?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing that, in reality, most priests, most laypeople, however diligent, would hem and haw about \u201cconscience\u201d if asked point-blank whether a cohabitating couple should refrain from communion, and, even more so, a contracepting couple. \u00a0But it\u2019s remarriage that\u2019s sucking all the oxygen out of the room, because some German bishops are speaking openly about it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really have a point. \u00a0And I have other topics on which I really intended to blog, and I have to finish up my lunch break and go back to setting up a valuation. \u00a0And I expect that most of my readers would rather I finished up a more politically-minded draft post. \u00a0But there it is.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bottom line on top: \u00a0the majority of self-identified Catholics simply don\u2019t believe there\u2019s anything wrong with divorcing and remarrying, in about the same proportion as they think that cohabitating is just fine, as well and, presumably, were they asked by Pew researchers, would have said that consensual nonmarital sex is OK. Now, some of these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn remarriage: missing the forest for the trees?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bottom line on top: \u00a0the majority of self-identified Catholics simply don't believe there's anything wrong with divorcing and remarrying, in about the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/10\/on-remarriage-missing-the-forest-for-the-trees.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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