Could you lose your job if you get a divorce?

If you teach at Wheaton College in Illinois, the answer is yes.

Click here for an interesting report.

How can they fire the professor who divorced his wife? When professors sign on at Wheaton College, they sign a faith statement that includes clauses about marriage. Administrators cite Matthew 19:

1When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
4″Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5and 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’[b]? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
7″Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
10The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
11Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage[c]because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

What do you think? Are there gray areas in this text? Should Christians divorce one another when adultery is not involved? Should Wheaton College have been able to dismiss a faculty member based on his personal life?

Filed under: Catholicism, Christianity, Religion and Ethics | No Comments »

Polygamy, the practice of men having multiple wives, was allowed throughout all denominations of Mormonism; even Joseph Smith practiced polygamy for some time. But in 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also called the LDS Church, the main denomination of Mormonism) outlawed polygamy in an edict from the president of the community at the time. Those who continued to practice it were (and are still) excommunicated from the LDS Church. (To learn more about the LDS Church and Joseph Smith, click here.)

Then in 1920, a man named Lorin C. Woolley began proclaiming that men who were not members of the LDS Church had the authority to justify polygamist marriages. In 1935, the Fundamentalist LDS Church formed, uniting those polygamists who had been excommunicated from the LDS Church and who followed Woolley’s thinking. Estimates from ReligiousTolerance.org and MormonFundamentalism.com place the numbers of FLDS polygamists at anywhere from 1/6 to 1/3 of Mormons in the United States today. The FLDS Church is currently under the leadership of Warren Jeffs, the third leader since the co-founding of the denomination (his father was the second). Most of the members of Jeffs’ church can be found in Utah and in Colorado City, AZ.

It’s important to note that just because polygamy is permissible by the FLDS Church, it is not legal by U.S. law. Jeffs himself (pictured above) is currently serving two consecutive prison term for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl (who he apparently forced to marry an older man, who just happened to be her cousin).

This gives us some context for this week’s events. A 16-year-old girl from a ranch in Eldorado, TX, recently called the police claiming she was a member of an FLDS sect and had been forced to marry a man three times her age. She claimed that man sexually abused her and assaulted her, and that she had been forced to have sex with many other men on the ranch. Police began to investigate and eventually raided the compound. They took 416 children into custody, and arrested several of the adults. Some women have left voluntarily while others are standing by their husbands – and by Warren Jeffs.

Now a slew of negative imagery is coming out through the media – Warren Jeffs banning television, dancing, and fishing; Jeffs allowing the use of iPods but only to listen to his sermons; the FLDS Church excommunicating men and reassigning their wives and children to other men.

What do you think? Was Woolley correct that men have the authority to allow polygamist marriages? Did Jeffs go too far in his restrictions? Are estimates correct or is polygamy extreme and unique to just this sect? Do these actions reflect on the entire FLDS Church? What about the LDS Church?

Filed under: Christianity, Cults, Religion and Law, Sects | 2 Comments »

If you’ve been living in a cave for the last few months, here’s a quick update on the Dalai Lama:

Tibetan Buddhism developed in India and Tibet. Its leader is called the Dalai Lama (“wisdom teacher”) and serves as both Tibet’s head of state and as its spiritual leader. However, Tibet is under Chinese rule. After attempting to overthrow the Chinese government in 1959, the Dalai Lama was exiled to Dharamsala, India, where he still lives today.

Because China is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, many Tibetans saw this an opportune time to protest China’s rule — when the entire world was watching. In protest, Tibetans rose up, rioting against the Chinese within Tibet. While Tibetans claim hundreds have perished as a result of the Chinese backlash, China claims only a small number of Tibetan protesters were killed for their outbursts.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago — the Chinese government offered to speak with the Dalai Lama if he would concede that Tibet should, indeed, belong to China. The Dalai Lama refused. Now China is claiming that the Dalai Lama not only supports the uprising, but actually orchestrated the violence. The Dalai Lama claims he had nothing to do with the rioting. Read more here.

What do you think? Could the Dalai Lama have anything to do with the recent violence in Tibet? Would he support any type of violence? What do you make of the recent uprising?

To learn about another conflict between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government, click here.

Filed under: Buddhism, Religion and Politics | 2 Comments »