Jesus' teaching on
Divorce and Remarriage

According to John 4: 17-19
    (speaking to a Samaritan woman that Jesus encountered at a well:)

He *said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus *said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly." The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet."

According to Luke 16:18

"Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

According to Matt. 5:3 (Jesus taught)

�It has been said, �Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.�[f] 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

According to Matthew 19 :1-9

" When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, �Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?� �Haven�t you read,� he replied, �that at the beginning the Creator �made them male and female,� and said, �For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh�? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.� �Why then,� they asked, �did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?� Jesus replied, �Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.�

According to Mark 10:2-12:

"Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away." But Jesus said to them, "For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

Although we "Liberals like Christ" argue that Jesus would be on our side on most issues, if he were walking the streets of America today, that's not the case when it comes to the question of divorce and remarriage. Jesus was a conservative as can be on that matter, as is clear from all of the passages below.

But rather than agree with Jesus, most of the conservative Christians of our America these days agree with us. Even the Roman Catholic Church, which may take a strong line against divorce and remarriage in theory, doesn't always enforce that theory in practice: it allows "annullments" (especially to those who have the means to pay handsomely for them). Niether does it deny the sacraments or marriage in church to those "living in sin". It welcomes people like Newt Gingrich into the fold, despite the fact that he's livng with his third "wife", whom Jesus would clearly consider an "adulteress".

Where Divorce is concerned, even Conservatives are Liberal !

Although Jesus didn't say a word about birth-control, abortion, masturbation or homosexuality, Conservative Christians insist on condemning others for what they perceive as heinous "Liberal" sins.  But when they themselves or their friends decide they want a divorce (for the first, second, or third time), oh how liberal they suddenly become in their interpretation of the clear condemnation by Jesus of divorce !
        Here's just one example of many that could be cited:

The following is an excellent and informative report by an Evangelical Christian on the contrast between what Conservative Christians in America profess and what they practice :

Divorce rates among various religious groups :

Another great illustration is the way the Roman Catholic Church continues to fault ordinary Catholics for divorce and remarriage, while granting "annulments" to the rich and famous:  After Congressman Joseph Kennedy had been married for over ten years, his Episcopalian wife refused to accept an official "annulment" of their marriage (so that the Congressman could marry some one else), because she couldn't accept the implication that the children they had conceived and brought up together would thereby become "bastards" !