Along with the increasingly disturbing statistics about the decline of clergy physical health, comes the unpleasant reality that the clergy divorce rate is now above the average in society as a whole. In contrast to earlier years, getting a divorce doesn’t destroy a pastor’s acceptance in the church. In one way, that is good. Plenty of people in our society have gotten a divorce but have many other excellent qualities and gifts that contribute to society. Yet the very increased acceptance of divorce in the church, for both conservative and liberal churches, removes the pressure to maintain a marriage among the clergy.
The fact that the rise in divorce rates among clergy is happening all across the theological spectrum raises a special challenge for us. While forgiveness and acceptance are good qualities in the church, we do need to struggle with what it is within the ministry that works against successful marriages and whether we are failing to access the resources of our faith that should strengthen the bonds of marriage.
In addition, once we recognize that there are factors in the ministry that threaten marriage bonds, this should alert us to the necessity of being especially attentive to our marriages and the need to attend to them with special care. Our inability to maintain our marriage bonds cannot but weaken the witness of the faith that we are seeking to proclaim.
Over the next several days, I hope to suggest to you some strategies that clergy, congregations, and judicatories can take to assist in helping clergy maintain their marriage vows.
