My pastor told me that divorce and contraceptives are just as big of abominations as homosexuality...?

Question

is that true?

Answer 1

Why are you consulting your pastor on issues about which he has no idea. These are social issues with legal implications. None of these is an abomination including Homosexuality. These clerics commit more sins under cover of the Church than the common man. Sooner you reject them it is better for you.

Answer 2

Not in the slightest.

Divorce exists because we are human. Humans make mistakes, and we grow and we change. Throughout your life you will never stop changing, and people who you may now love and care for may not be there in the future.

Think about when you were yonger. Didn't you have a freind. A best freind, one who you shared everything with and went everywhere with. Are they still with you now? If so then you are either very lucky or haven't changed at all.

Divorce is there so that people in unhappy marriages, and leading miserable lives can escape these things. My parents divorced and they are both now happier than I've ever seen them. Any God who would condemn a couple to misery because they, for whatever reason, no longer love each other is not the God I imadgined.

As for contraception. Contraception allows people to sleep together without creating children, but it also prevents infectious disease and ultimatley death. In some African countries AIDS is spreading at an allarming rate because people believe God condemns contraception. Once again, any God who does that knowing that the result could be a horrific disease is not the God I imadgined.

And finally, homosexuality. I happen to know a Gay couple, and there is more love and tollerance in their relationship than is some hetrosexual couples I've known. Homosexuality, is not a defect or a sin nor is it something that a person can just shut away. It's not a preference, it's the other side, a side that is not evil or wrong in any way. Once again, any God who condemns those he created for being something that they cannot change nor have any control over is neither a God I imadgined nor is he a God I want to have any part of.

Please, try to open your mind and see that things are not as clearly defined as you think, that there is good and bad in everything and that nothing is ever just wrong or just right. There are excpetions to everything. The only things that I would consider to be always wrong are rape and phaedophilia.

Answer 3

As one Pastor remarking to yours-He's greatly confused..with part of it. We all know that Jesus was not into loving divorce- unless there was cheating, or if a believer is being forced away from the church, or if there is abuse (see the answer to abuse and divorce that was on here like a week ago) Anything aside form those reasons- is called adultery. All sin is equal in God's eyes so adultery is just as bad as homosexuality which is just as bad as "little white lies"-all are sin. As for as contraceptives- I've been married for 5 1/2 years and have no kids- the Bible does not speak ill of this at all. I know it's a weird Catholic thing to use them- but the Bible doesn't say that anything is wrong with them. In a day and age that we can plan the right time, financially and with maturity, to start a family- we'd by fools not using the brains God gave us if we didn't use them.

Answer 4

I don't know if that can even be true. I didn't think they were around at the time the bible was written. I do know that different religions have different views. Roman Catholics are very strict about it while Protestants views range from none allowed to being very lenient. Remember a lot of things in the bible are left to interpretation. Many things aren't just spelled out. When we asked our pastor about if sex was only to be used for pro-creation and not just fun he said the church has different views on it. This coming from a church that we later found out was non-accepting of gays. I highly doubt that sex between a married couple that did not want to have children at that moment in time would be seen as an abomination against god. The bible apparently does say that all sins are equal in the eyes god, and if this is true then technically he is correct. Remember these people follow church doctine with the rules being passed down from their higher ups. So I have 2 words for you...HAVE FUN and have kids when you are ready.

Answer 5

I do not know about contraceptives, but divorce leads to adultery which is definitely a sin.

Please review Gen 2:24, Matt 5:32, Matt 19:9, Mark 10:11-12, and Luke 16:18.

There are more verses that deal with this subject, but I could not locate them at this time.

As far as labeling one sin, "just as big" as another....Sin is sin and all sin will keep someone from the father. I hope this helps.

Answer 6

I wonder how he would know that. No, there is nothing wrong with any of those things - they are just things. It is we humans - not God - who assigned labels of good or evil. Let's think about these things logically for a moment.

There are all sorts of ways these things can be terrible (people divorcing over trivial matters or not thinking about the impact on the children, contraceptives as an aid to being promiscuous, homosexuality can be ugly and unhealthy) but there are also great reasons for these things (people divorcing because they are teaching their children an unhealthy way to live by staying together, contraceptives when a new couple is struggling financially and would not be able to provide for a family, or same sex couples who can not find love any other way involved in a committed relationship together that is loving and fulfilling).

This world is so full of perspective and circumstances that it is simply unreasonable to put blanket labels on things. Even "Thou shalt not steal" - would you condemn an impoverished woman stealing bread to feed her children as a sinner? I would not. There are so many shades of grey in this existence, the most we can say is these things are not right for us - or are no longer right for us. We should not judge another since we can not walk in his shoes and for all we know, we would do the exact same as he, given his circumstances.

Peace!

Answer 7

sin is sin. If your religious group believes these things are sin then they are all the same. Which one does not matter.
James 2:10 says if you stumble in one point you are guilty of all.
Divorce was discussed by Jesus who said it was allowed because of the sin of the people so I do not believe it is an unpardonable sin. It is not the best thing--but maybe that should be a discussion for before you get married--it should not be taken up so lightly--it is supposed to be a serious committment. Contraceptives-- God opens and closes the womb. If you choose to try and control it that is between you and God alone. The Bible says children are a blessing....
I read on an e-mail that said it is strange that we apply for a curse (credit debt) but we work to avoid blessings (children).

Answer 8

If you are Catholic we aren't supposed to use Contraceptives. "God designed conjugal love between a husband and wife to be a beautiful, selfless, total giving of one to the other, and is open to the transmission of life. Since acts of contraception are not selfless, not a total giving of one to the other and are not open to the transmission of life, contraception, which actually means "against conception" is inherently wrong."

Divorce is more accepted than it once was. However in the Bible it states that once you have been married in the eyes of God you are married for life. So if you get married in the church and some day get divorced you are only legally divorced from your partner and still married in the eyes of God. So you have to get the marriage anulled through the church. As far as I know this pertains only to the Catholic Church.

Answer 9

NO.

Although God hates divorce, He does allow it.
Contraceptives (preventing pregnancy) are merely our current technology for being responsible with our bodies and the health and well being of our wives.
Neither is any more a sin that the other thousands of sins that we commit on a daily basis.
We are saved by GRACE.

Answer 10

Well....I think I get his point....but I'm not sure I agree with what he said.

In my way of thinking, the modern Protestant Evangelical movement in America makes MUCH too big of a deal out of "homosexuality" as the big sin that we need to be "fighting" against...and I think, possibly, he may have meant that sin is sin is sin and we should stop classifying homosexuality as a separate "kind" of sin.

But I'm not sure that's what he meant.

Divorce? Contraception?

Methinks your pastor might just be a wacko.

Answer 11

No - none of those things are abominations. Divorce happens, contraceptives are inanimate objects, and homosexuality is a part of nature.