I don't buy it...

If marriage is not a sacrament, why does the Bible say, "God hates divorce?" If it is just a civic agreement for two people to live together, why does God care?

Comments

Unknown said…
I was a Lutheran, but I could never understand how the English could accept the actions of Henry VIII. This is one of the main reasons I became a Catholic.
9/01/2014 12:09 PM
The Archer of the Forest said…
Well, in Henry VIII's defense (not that there was really much to defend), a lot of people want to blame the whole English reformation on his divorce. Frankly, I don't think that's entirely fair. Rome and the landed gentry in England had been having a political cold war for centuries, going back to the Pope backing the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

As for the English accepting the actions of Henry VIII, I personally can't judge them too harshly. He was a dictator that said do it my way or go to the tower and get tortured and killed. I don't think most people, if faced with that, would think twice about following Caesar.

And there was a period between Henry VIII's 3rd and 4th wife that he could have been reunited with the church and gotten married in the Church, granted if some public penance had been exacted. There was a 3 year period when he had no living wife. (The first had died, probably of cancer, he'd had the 2nd executed, the 3rd had died in child birth.) I am virtually certain if Henry VIII had wanted to go back to Rome, the Pope would have jumped at the chance to keep England catholic.
9/01/2014 12:31 PM
Unknown said…
I understand what you are saying. It's complicated. This is why I like Pope Francis' devotion to "Mary, Undoer of Knots." My favorite saint is Thomas More. I am sure I would have renounced the Catholic Faith if I were in his shoes.
9/01/2014 1:35 PM
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