I watched the first three or four minutes of the Bayless Conley “Answers” show today (Feb 24, 2013). He’s kind of right up there with Kerry Shook – it seems like every other program is about marriage.
He’s doing another marriage sermons series (or possibly, this is a repeat of the one he did last year), and he’s letting his wife on stage to deliver the sermon to married men, letting them know what their wives want or need.
The world does not need another marriage series or marriage sermon. Really, we do not.
When about 50% of the population and 50% of Christians over the age of 20 are un-married (this includes never-married, divorced, widowed), marriage sermons are not applicable or of any use to a large portion of your church members and television audience.
The divorce rate among Christians is just about as high as it is for Non Christians (which some Christian sources have disputed). But it does seem to me that even if one wishes to dispute the exact percentage of divorces among Christians, it has to be pretty high if even secular (or Christian sources such as Barna) have taken notice.
As I’ve said before, I don’t have all of life’s answers. I don’t have a solution for how to stop divorces, or put a stop to unwanted prolonged singleness among Christian women, but I do know that another sermon series on marriage is not the answer, because it has not worked to this point. Pastors need to stop giving these “how to have a great marriage” sermons all the time.
Family- and marriage- centric conservative Christian, evangelical, and Baptist churches have been braying about marriage, family values, parenting, the value of children, for three or four decades now, and the never-ending pulpit-pounding and river of books and pamphlets and blogs about those issues by Christians has not helped most people, nor has it stopped sexual sin, divorce, or un-wanted prolonged singlehood.
It’s more than time that pastors, Christian organizations, and churches began paying attention to meeting the needs of un-married people over the age of 30 (especially the ones who have remained sexually pure). Simply acknowledging that they even exist would be a huge step in the process.
While the conservative Christians remain fixated on giving yet more marriage sermons, and bemoaning the liberal attacks on “traditional families” and “traditional marriage” they continue to ignore the needs and problems and mere existence of people over the age of 30 who are not married or who have never been married.
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(end of Part 1. Please see Part 2, The Parable of the Neglected Unmarried Christian. (Link): Click here to read Part 2.)
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Related posts this blog:
(Link): Kerry Shook Devotes Yet *Another* Show / Sermon to Marriage
(Link): Kerry Shook ‘Shark Weakness’ – yet another marriage sermon | Marriage centric sermons
(Link): Why Do Churches Treat Singleness Like a Problem? via Relevant Magazine
(Link): Study: Conservative Protestants’ divorce rates spread to their red state neighbors
Christian Pundit 