Title: Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches | |
Revival_Centres_Discussion_Forums > Bible, Beliefs, Scriptures and 'The Word' > Revival Doctrines we 'USED TO BELIEVE' | Go to subcategory: |
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Anonymous | |||||
Date Posted:02/09/2006 1:55 PMCopy HTML $%*'`[RCI Shame]%*'`@Recently in South East Queensland:Divorce is allowable, but remarriage is adultery, even if the engagement has been okayed. They have no idea, do they?Divorceis frowned on in the RCI and is publicised asan act that God hates. But under special circumstances the church will make allowances if the head council of pastorsperceive an extreme situation. In this case the church leadership has allowed a woman to divorce fromher husband due to her partner's ongoing mental instability and violent behaviour. This wonderful lady was free from her abused lifestyle and went her merry way.In due course she met another beau and was allowed to keep company. How nice it was for RCI oversight to allow her this freedom. She was engaged and both members fellowshipped often, enjoying each others' company in the church they believed to be righteous.That was until the cult showed its true colours...Shock! Horror! They made plans to marry! But they were told that remarrying constituted adultery as she was still tied to her divorced partner in theLord'seyes. Even though the church allowed her to divorce and commit to another engagement, after the appropriate cooling off period beenpassed, all in accordance with the assembly guidelines.They tried reasoning with the oversight and the hierachy above them, but no compromise would be found. They simply were NOT allowed to marry. When they and other family memberspersisted in petitioning the church leadership for compassion, they were all ex-communicated. This family were longstanding members of the church and stood by the RCI even throughout the split of 1995.Shame Revival Centres International... you're a shame and a disgrace to the whole Christian community. We turn our backs on you and your controlling evil little empire.
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dogmafree | Share to: #1 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:02/09/2006 3:46 PMCopy HTML Yeah what a lot of crap! The thing is this lady and her family have allowed themselves to be subjected to this controlling regime for many years. They've probably stood by like obedient church mice while similar injustices were dispensed to others in the church. But now it is their own predicament.
This reminds me of the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment. (http://www.janeelliott.com/workshop.htm) In these workshops, there are those that are treated unfairly, and other bystanders will be aware that if they intervene or stand up for that person, they will suffer the same treatment. The intimidation that they experience tends to open their eyes to it all. The philosophical argument that Jane Elliott makes is most appliccable to the discriminatory regimes that these kind of organisations are. It is soul destroying riding along on a passage of self righteous conformity to the system, whilst those around you are treated with such injustice, and then going on telling yourself they were just 'dead branches'! How fucking twisted that system is! the Dog. "for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" Shakespeare (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)
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Ex_Member | Share to: #2 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:02/09/2006 9:42 PMCopy HTML Reply to : RCI Shame [Anonymous] When I was in the RCI I was under the impression (and I was quite young) that divorce and remarriage was OK under the following circumstances: 1. You divorced before you got'saved' (ie spoke in tongues). I am not sure how they handled people who came from other churches but it seems that you got a 'clean slate' at your baptism and could remarry. 2. The other partner committed adultery. 3. The other partner leaves the RCI. I personally know of one couple who number 3 definitely applied to. She left the RCI BUT NOT THE MARRIAGE and he began dating ANOTHER WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. She was devastated as they had 2 kids and she was trying to maintain the marriage even though she stopped attending meetings. I know that the husband eventually forced her out and remarried another RCI woman. And this happened in Melbourne, the RCI Mecca. Then I personally knew another couple who separated because the husband was beating the wife. The wife went to the oversight and the husband was put out but she was later told that she had to reconcile with him or risk being put out herself. As his violence had gone on for quite a while, and she was quite a strong willed girl, she and her family refused to accept the oversight's edict and they left for the RF some months after the split. This too was in Melbourne and both Lloyd and Simon were directly involved in the RCI decision in that situation. But divorce has long been a sticky issue for Christians anyway and I expect the Revival Centres won't be able to solve the matter any time soon. Many fundamentalists hold the view that divorce can be ok, but remarriage is not. I found the following online and it seems to sum the positions up nicely:
The thing that is most concerning about the fundamentalist approach is where they use the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:31-32 to support the idea that ONLY in cases of infidelity is remarriage allowed:
They interpret these verses most literally and while many churches leave room for divorce, they then refuse remarriage. So people who marry psychologically or physically abusive partners are forced to live a life of celibacy and loneliness even if they are the victim. Hardly seems fair, but hey, when has God ever been fair...at least in the Bible. Or what of people who simply marry the wrong person, are forced into marrige (like in the RCI) does God truly doom them to a loveless, unhappy life? According to most Christians, yes. The more liberal view is that while divorce and remarriage is a sin, they are not unforgivable sins, and so people can get on with their relationship with God after remarrying. Another view is that Jesus was talking only to his hearers in 1st century Palestine where divorced women were left desitute and men may have been divorcing them on a whim with no care for their welfare and that the 'heart' of those verses are more about justice than about legislating on divorce. You see, this is what happens when you legislate morality based on an archaic Middle Eastern religious text. |
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Ex_Member | Share to: #3 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:02/09/2006 9:57 PMCopy HTML
Great comment! Really! It is funny how people will stand idly by, even be complicit in carrying out these kids of injustices agains others, then cry foul when it happens to them or their families. It is hard to be compassionate to people like them sometimes. |
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Fled | Share to: #4 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:03/09/2006 6:59 PMCopy HTML _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When I was in the RCI I was under the impression (and I was quite young) that divorce and remarriage was OK under the following circumstances: 1. You divorced before you got'saved' (ie spoke in tongues). I am not sure how they handled people who came from other churches but it seems that you got a 'clean slate' at your baptism and could remarry. 2. The other partner committed adultery. 3. The other partner leaves the RCI. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ In regards to 3. The other partner leaves the RCI. .........This rule did change somewhat post 1995 The new ruling was that if one who left the RCI had either committed adultery or remarried, then the spouse who still remained in the RCI was then free to date or remarry. or remarry first which then meant that the |
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outaegypt | Share to: #5 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:05/09/2006 9:45 PMCopy HTML REPLY TO:It is funny how people will stand idly by, even be complicit in carrying out these kids of injustices agains others, then cry foul when it happens to them or their families. It is hard to be compassionate to people like them sometimes.
While you are sitting there and everything in your life is fine, you are so blind to the injustices around you. The indocrenation is so strong and the blind faith in the Over site so unquestionable that it would not even enter your deluded mind that maybe the folks coming under whatever criticism or discipline are being delt with unfairly. It's not untill it happens to you personally that things become clear because you cant justify the oversites behaviour when you have experienced their hypocricy first hand. Dealing with them first hand takes all room for doubt away. And then the scales really fall off! But I feel we need compassion, when you finally see the truth through experience, it's like coming out of a deep sleep- Your there but your not aware! We have all sat by idly ignorant of other peoples pain that doesnt make us un deserving of compassion when the table turns, it just means we were equally brain washed. As I hear it, I'll repeat it,
Its up to you if you believe it!
Allegation big and small,
soon revealed before us all.
outa here- Outa Egypt!
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MothandRust | Share to: #6 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:13/09/2006 2:51 PMCopy HTML Instagram and Twitter: @mothpete
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Anonymous | Share to: #7 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:13/09/2006 11:50 PMCopy HTML what is the deal with divorce. Never understood it.. 1 - M & F get married. F screws a different M. M divorces and re-marrys - all OK, F is basically buggered UNLESS abstains from further sexing. 2 - M&F get married M&F hate eachother guyts M divorces, goes off and marries a different F, but is classified as adultery 3. M & F get another F and have a threesome, they get the camera out and record it. then we watch is and have a toss, masturbation is fornication?? confused...?? |
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MothandRust | Share to: #8 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:17/10/2006 7:16 PMCopy HTML
Instagram and Twitter: @mothpete
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Anonymous | Share to: #9 | ||||
Re:Marriage, divorce and remarriage in the Revival churches Date Posted:20/11/2006 10:05 PMCopy HTML At least things are starting to look a little better up there.
I remember when even a seperation in the face of spousal abuse was not allowed. |