Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
At the end of the column are conventional and electronic addresses where you may send your opinions on a situation that affects more and more congregations each year.
The problem came up again last week in the very public tribulations of Atlanta mega-church pastor Charles Stanley.
I was reminded of Southwest Virginia pastors I know who had little in common with Stanley or each other - only a call to ministry and the fact that they faced divorce.
One such minister left the pastorate of an evangelical congregation when his wife left him and their children. After several years away from the ministry, he was called to another church. Even though he had strong support in the vote to hire him, there was significant opposition because of his divorce and subsequent remarriage. Several families withdrew from the congregation, and he quit that pastorate after a few months.
Another didn't consider the pastoral ministry until after her divorce. She decided to go to seminary and later took the pastorate of a small, rural congregation in a mainline denomination. After a couple of years, she left the pulpit. Though they were not the only factors, her gender and marital status contributed to strain with some members of the congregation.
A third was pastor of a large mainline congregation. When he and his wife decided to divorce, he offered to resign. The congregation rejected that offer. Remarkably, church members were overwhelmingly supportive of both their pastor and his ex-wife. He later remarried and continues as pastor.
Now Charles Stanley - one of the better-known and most talented TV preachers in the country - and his congregation are facing the hard decisions that surround divorce in the pulpit.
Stanley's "In Touch" television ministry is seen nationwide on Christian broadcast and cable stations. He sells thousands of audio tapes of his sermons each month.
A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, he is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta. The church lists 14,000 members at its downtown and suburban sites, where about 7,800 attend services in a typical week.
Stanley's name has never been connected with any sordid tales of financial irresponsibility, marital infidelity or other moral lapses. He is by most measures one of the most successful Christian ministers in the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
Yet he is about to lose his pulpit because of the D-word: divorce.
Last week, after a reportedly contentious four-hour congregational meeting on the subject, Stanley said he will give up the pulpit if his wife's pending divorce of him becomes final.
Stanley and his congregation are representative of the conservative faction of the Southern Baptist Convention. One of the fundamentals he has preached is that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God, and that Christians are bound to obey it.
The New Testament letter of 1 Timothy includes a chapter on the qualifications of "bishop" or "overseer" and for "deacon." Those holding such offices, the apostle Paul wrote, should not be drunkards, or greedy, or violent. They should be well-thought-of and have well-behaved children.
And they should be "the husband of one wife."
There has been and will continue to be fierce debate in the Christian church about exactly what that means. For Stanley and many in his congregation, though, it has meant that only a man with an intact first marriage can fill those roles. And it applies - by extension, at least - to pastors, as well as to the specific offices cited in the Scripture.
So, Stanley and First Baptist Church of Atlanta are left in a theological hard place.
Stanley, 62, insists he has been trying to reconcile with his wife - who initiated the divorce proceedings - since their separation in 1992. He obviously continues to be well loved by a majority of his congregation.
But even his son, Andy, pastor of the church's satellite congregation in the suburb of Dunwoody, believes he should resign. Andy Stanley quit his pulpit this month in protest of his father's refusal to step down from his.
Charles Stanley's congregation last week agreed to allow him to remain as its preacher but temporarily relieved him of administrative responsibilities. It also charged its board of deacons to recommend a church policy on qualifications for pastor and deacons, including the subject of divorce, within 90 days.
Finally, Stanley told the congregation that he would resign if the divorce becomes final.
At the time Stanley became pastor in Atlanta in 1972, there is no question he would be been fired at the first hint of marital discord. But almost a quarter-century later, attitudes have changed. Divorce does not carry the stigma in society or in the church that it once did.
Though conservative evangelical denominations, including Southern Baptists, were among the last to accept divorced pastors, many of those congregations have relaxed their once-rigid prohibitions.
But they have not had to make that choice in Atlanta before, and now the church faces a tough decision. Since it seems likely Stanley's wife will proceed with the divorce, should the congregation accept his resignation?
How would you vote, and why?
Send me a letter to The Back Pew, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491. Or send it to roatimesinfi.net via e-mail. Get your responses in by Aug. 28, and I'll include as many as possible in a follow-up column on this issue.
by CNB