Why aren't other people alarmed that the divorce rate for pastors is 50%?

Question

These are people preaching from the pulpit every Sunday about morals....

Telling you and I how we should live our lives.

People look to them for inspiration/direction

Doesn't this make them a hypocrite?

Sure I sin, but I do not stand in front of a bunch of people pounding my fist on the pulpit and telling everyone else what sinners they are.

There is such a double standard among fundamentalists...pick on the gays because they are fewer in numbers...but, oh no stay away from preaching about divorce because it affects too many....

I think pastors and churches are just afraid of losing the divorced people's monetary contribution to the church...so, they look the other way on this sin....

What hypocrites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

gee, you're not really getting any real answers on this. yes it does make them a hypocrite. divorce is considered a terrible sin, but they choose to do it anyway. everyone turns a blind eye. they even (lots of them) turn a blind eye when a preacher/pastor molests a child. you're right, when it comes to someone being gay, they're all over it. sad, isn't it?

Answer 2

Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducees hypocrites. A man of God must know that the closer he gets to God the more the devil will come at him. If the devil can't get him, he'll get his wife or his children. The devil comes to destroy man and in no way is Satan ever to be considered the friend of man. Satan has been using and abusing men and women for thousands of years since the Garden of Eden.

You just preached a better sermon than most pastors have preached in a long time. We are all sinners and we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That is why God sent Jesus, the visible part of Him as a sinless man, to take away the sins of the world.

Answer 3

The divorce rate for most of the country is 50%, unless your under 21, then it's about 80%. I don't think that divorce is a bad thing, insofar as people should be able to get out of a relationship if it is abusive or they are unhappy with no hope of ever being happy. I don't agree with you that people should be chastised for getting out of a bad marriage.

I think the problem is how people get married in the first place. People get married too young, to quickly, and have unrealistic ideas about how marriage works. I think we need to make it harder to get married and impose a mandatory waiting period of at least 1 year from the time you apply for the license, so that people can take the time to make sure that that they're doing the right thing.

Answer 4

I don't believe in living in misery. If a marriage doesn't work out, for whatever reason, I think it's pointless to continue the relationship just to keep up appearances or because of some ancient nonsense about divorce being a "sin." I'm not suggesting that marriage shouldn't be held as sacred or tossed aside after the first argument, but some relationships just don't work out, or die out, and it's time to move on.

It doesn't surprise me that pastors would have a high rate of divorce, given that so many people look to them for spiritual guidance. Some find it difficult to share their spouses with that many people, and it takes a toll, just as it does on politicians, doctors, police officers, fire fighters, and anyone else in a profession that demands so much time and concentration.

Answer 5

I'm an Atheist and this is a problem I see with some organized religions. Ministers (pastors, priests, etc.) are just people. When congregations start to place them in ivory towers they're bound to be disappointed one way or another. While I can see why people may try to place a higher level of standards for the clergy, they are, after all, just people and perhaps with these pressures, it's a wonder their divorce rate isn't higher than the average withing the general public.

Answer 6

It is alarming. But you seem to be generalizing - not all pastors are doing such things (well, maybe 50% - and that's too much!).

I'll give you an example. Do you know the first place I heard this statistic? My pastor recently told it to me in small group. Thus, be careful not to overgeneralize.

And if you're in a church where a pastor is preaching hateful rhetoric, or where is a hypocrite and not addressing the plank in his own eye...then maybe you're in the wrong church.

Answer 7

I AM AN EX MINISTERS EX WIFE AND YES THEY ARE HYPOCRITES!!!!!
Divorce is not the reason they are, the men who pound their fists have divided hearts...because they are not perfect.
THey preach what they want you to live, yet hide the struggles of their own.
I could not hide my struggles, so I did not make a good pastors wife. I had to be a real person. ANd believe me, being real and admitting weakness makes for more friends than does the piousness of the position of a preacher.
This is a sore subject for me. I was grilled to death for divorcing a man who abused me, critisized me and controlled me to the point of mental breakdown.
The church people saw thru this man, yet continued to put a blind eye to it, while hurling stones at me as I wised up , trusted God and left that marriage behind.
If you ever want some thoughts on hypocrisy and anti-church subjects go to www.wontbakdown.blogspot.com
My site is full of thoughts about hypocrisy.
Good question

Answer 8

If I smoke and tell my children not to smoke because it's bad does that make me a hypocrite? I may smoke even though I truly believe its bad. Pastors can be the same way when preaching against the scourge of divorce. They think it's wrong but it does not mean they are immune from it. You need to remember pastors are still fallible people just like us, they are not infallible. Satan could preach the word of God and it would still be truth.

Answer 9

They're not alarmed because the divorce rate as a whole is about 60% including them! Besides, the Bible says it's OK to divorce if adultery is the condition. A former pastor of mine was in that very situation; his wife ran around on him; he caught her and divorced her. The church didn't blame him one bit! it doesn't make them hypocritical if they do it "by the Book."

Answer 10

It would be impossible for any human being to not be a hypocrite at some point about something.

I think it would be worse for them to indirectly advocate staying in a bad marriage by not getting a divorce. They are just following realistic guidelines, rather than ones set down 2000+ years ago.

Answer 11

Leonard Cohen once wrote in a song,`There`s a mighty judgement comin` but I may be wrong.
I sort of share his sentiments,I think that as the Catholic church has come thru a time of weeding out and purification these past years so too will other denominations,perhaps this is a sign of the times,what I do believe is that Christianity is going thru it`s greatest test(trial) and worse times are ahead.