extramarital

• ‘I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart’.

  Sermon on the Mount
• What God has joined together let no man seperate

  Mark 10: 7-9
• The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin

  Catholic Church
• Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery

  Mark 10
• Extramarital sex is still frowned upon in todays society
• Christianity and Extramarital Sex:

  • Jesus condemned aadultery in the gospels (Mark 10: 7-9)
  • Some Christians (Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants) reject all sexual relationships outside marriage
  • should be a virgin when they get married and have no other sexual relations during their marriage
• What God has joined together let no man separate

  Mark 10: 7-9
• The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin

  The Catholic Church on sexual relations
• When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house ... if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4 then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is [b]an abomination before the Lord,

  Deuteronomy 24 - old testament
•  In Matthew 5 31-32 Jesus seems to give one acceptable reason for divorce when he says “anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become and adulteress and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery”
• Why the change on divorce being extra marital sex:

  • Lisa Sowle Cahill argues Christianity's stance against divorce was to protect women
  • adultery was a crime that virtually only women were accused of -- WOMAN caught in adultery what about the man
  • Divorce was exclusively a male prerogative
  • Church's ban on adultery stopped men keeping concubines and the ban on divorce - stopping them abandoning women
  • Christianisation of marriage protected women and children from the consequences of extra marital sex
• Roman Catholic Teaching on Divorce:

  • Christians believe marriage is intended to be a relationship for life
  • sacred vows before God cannot be broken - two have become one flesh in marriage
  • Catholic church forbids divorce between 2 BAPTISED Christians in a marriage that as been consummated
• Divorce:

  • Church of England - divorce is better avoided but is sometimes acceptable - things may not always work out
  • priest will try and help them resolve their difficulties
  • divorce may be the kindest thing for all concerned
• Liberal Protestantism and divorce:

  • marriage ends when the love dies between two people and Jesus taught that the right course of action is the most loving thing to do therefore divorce would be allowed
  • Jesus lived in a Jewish Society 2000 years ago - interpret his message for today's society
  • social stigma of divorce no longer exists