Monday, May 23, 2011

Divorce and Remarriage



Of all the teachings of Herbert Armstrong that he taught, the most vile was the Divorce and Remarriage doctrine.  Hundreds of families were destroyed by this asinine teaching.  Rod Meredith had his hand in destroying countless marriages too.  He forced apart long time married couples in the Dayton area who had been previously married.  Meredith was as sick as Armstrongism when it came to enforcement.  Of course that all changed when Herb decided he wanted to marry his secretary.  Suddenly it was ok for couple to remain married.  Some tied to go back to their previous spouses, but too many years had passed.

There is a thread on Facebook about people who's families were destroyed by Armstrong and Meredith.  Two are quoted below.

My Story: In 1968 when I was 4yrs old, and my sister was 9mos old. A pastor from our local WCG congregation came and told my parents that because my father had divorced his 1st wife, and later married our mother. Their marriage was not valid according to God, and therefore was not accepted, and honored by God. He told my father to move out immediately because he was living in sin. My dad did, and because they told him not to have contact with us, he moved about 500 miles away. My sister and I never got to bond with our dad. Because my dads' income was what we lived on, we fell into a terrible poverty. Mom tried to hold down the fort working 2 menial jobs, and trying to pay 3 tithes, there wasn't enough to sustain us, and we had to go on welfare. Then 4yrs later in 1972, while we were at church, the pastor walks up out of the blue, and tells my mother that the D&R doctrine had been amended, and that she was free to reconcile with her husband. My mom looked at him and said "you've got to be joking". Later she said she'd wanted to slap that pastor. I was later able to spend a little time with my dad, but the damage had been done, and we never bonded, and years would go by without us seeing, or talking to him. He is alive today, and I've forgiven him, but i haven't seen or spoken to him in 9 years.
___________
My parents had a different problem. My dad was in the Church, but my mom wasn't, she hated it and hated that my dad sent them so much money. It destroyed their marriage (I have to admit it might have fell apart anyway who knows). My mom tried to get a divorce, but back then (1960's) it was really hard to get divorced. My dad wouldn't allow her to get a divorce. She had no means of support being a stay at home mom and didn't want to leave her children. My dad could not divorce her because he knew he could never remarry and find a new partner. They lived together for years without speaking, the children had to relay messages, plus my dad became abusive towards my mother and she fought back. The police were constantly called to our house. Eventually they threatened to take the children away, so my mother stopped fighting, and became an alcoholic instead, and then a drug addict, and then became mentally ill. Eventually they threw my dad out of the church and after studying the Bible himself he decided that the D and R rules were wrong, and he went and made up for lost time having many girlfriends. My mom got put in a mental hospital and never regained her sanity.

4 comments:

MrDPB said...

Ok, so you say it is bad to separate people who have been happy together for many many years. But what does God say? It seems people answer to flesh more than truth. God is looking for those who put him first and putting marriage above the law of God is bass ackward with the two great commandments. No minister or church forced anyone to separate. The people didn't HAVE to do it, it was their choice to do it. They were taught and told to make a choice, so they did. There are many thousands of people living today with the new lies teaching that multiple marriages are okay. I've studied all the arguments for multiple marriages but people can't take the truth. Just like Sodom and Gomorrah the people today call good evil and evil good. But that is one of the biggest reasons this land and churches are under the curse of the reprocusions of breaking God's law and not obeying HIM! Blame God and the bible not HWA ... With that being said, no one is perfect, even you or I. So truth is to be coupled with mercy. You seem to show no mercy and spout your version of truth that many can prove is wrong.

The doubtful disputation spirit is well seen in your first paragraph of the web site ... there is something wrong with that spirit. Receiving the Love of the Truth is difficult. Claiming you have all the truth is easy ... man has done it for a very long time.

Anonymous said...

What kind of unsympathetic response is that to people who suffered un HWA. I didn't take their posts as "blaming" God as you said. You said the people had a choice but that goes to show how you really "don't understand".

The people felt like they had no choice because if they didn't obey "God's government" that someday they would go into the LAKE OF FIRE.

Fear is why they did what they did.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Mr.DPB is pretty damn stupid!

km

Anonymous said...

Divorce and remarriage doctrine was never about members marriages it was about power and control. Members being divorced was the achilles heel they could use their power to wedge inside your life and control and destroy members lives.

Behind closed doors they couldn't care less if a member was remarried to a divorcee it was an excuse to gain control and destroy marriages. Look how quickly they dropped the D&R when Herbert Armstrong married his Secretary.

They really only wanted the ministerial elite married with families. The sheep members were to have messy lives. To be always the bridesmaid never the bride, both spiritually and physically.

That spirit of desiring to control and destroy members is still there. But it's more subtle now as their power has been watered down with all the splinters.