I have nothing left to say about religion.

a dozen, and if they won't go away, you can just kill them.



Of course, if this nimrod had actually been smart, he would have told her he wanted HER to divorce HIM, which she could have done on her own and the church could say nothing about it since she was initiating a one-sided divorce and he couldn't stop it. But that would have cost him some money, so . . . .

I mean, there are cases for a man having a God-Given right to off his wife all over the Old Testament ... perhaps he discovered she wasn't a virgin when they wed and her father couldn't pay the required 30 shekels of silver in restitution or whatnot ... And sounds like he couldn't find ANYone to join in on a stoning, even if he paid them ... sheesh ... what IS a good Christian Man to do?

Probably claim he thought with Trump as President, this sort of thing had become legal ... and he'll probably find some deplorables from Alabama to fund his legal defense, too ...

killed his wife; I think his original claim was suicide

BELIEVE. POWER. BELIEVE.

Not so okay with remarriage; there are strict limits on that.

But if he wanted to remain an elder, he couldn't divorce. Divorce would have meant losing that title.

It wasn't a doctrine against divorce that was the problem, it was having standards for an optional title within the organization.

The church I was in a long time ago had a similar sort of issue. A lay minister was too proud of his position to admit the truth. To hold the position, people had to be able to have at least some respect for what he said when he gave advice in private or from the lectern. He had to uphold the organization's principles and values, and one way to show this was to have a good reputation and to have a well-run household. He didn't have the latter, and so he manufactured the former. In the end, he helped create the circumstances for several people being kicked out, numerous families leaving, and another lay minister's resignation. Some of the best seeming candidates for these posts are the worst because of their pride and vanity, and the way they need to feel respected and loved no matter what rot they have to hide. And the truth eventually came out, but only after the son had left home so the father's "dignity" could stay intact and he could continue to think people respected him. By then I was long gone, but still knew people that attended.

The other option is that he wanted to marry somebody else. In which case he could have divorced, but if he remarried for any but a handful of reasons that often can't be stretched to apply to a given situation his church membership would have been at risk, but his position as elder untenable. If his wife was dead, however, he could remarry.

(Just google 'united church divorce' and the appropriate links pop up.)

It's almost like there's some sort of history of this sort of thing.

Guess one way or another I'd still have needed an attorney.