July 2012 Ensign - When he Stopped Believing

[Portland Ute]

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/07/when-he-stopped-believing?lang=eng

If this has already been discussed, please delete this post/thread.

I think the message from the Church is clear: A spouse losing faith/leaving the church is not a "dealbreaker". The approach should be to love one another and move forward together.

I think this takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of spouses that think leaving the church should be a dealbreaker.

It also makes me believe this is becoming a fairly large issue if the church has decided to address this in the Ensign.

[Jacob]

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/07/wh...eving?lang=eng

If this has already been discussed, please delete this post/thread.

I think the message from the Church is clear: A spouse losing faith/leaving the church is not a "dealbreaker". The approach should be to love one another and move forward together.

I think this takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of spouses that think leaving the church should be a dealbreaker.

It also makes me believe this is becoming a fairly large issue if the church has decided to address this in the Ensign.

I think you are reading a bit much into it. It is a wonderful essay apparently written by a regular member, not the ensign staff our a church representative. I've no doubt that this is a problem for a significant portion of members, especially wome, and I'm glad to see this approach encouraged. But, I don't believe the church had ever taught that unbelief is sufficient cause for divorce, though I hope this benefits those members who have thought that it was, especially those married to an unbelieving spouse.

[Portland Ute]

I think you are reading a bit much into it. It is a wonderful essay apparently written by a regular member, not the ensign staff our a church representative. I've no doubt that this is a problem for a significant portion of members, especially wome, and I'm glad to see this approach encouraged. But, I don't believe the church had ever taught that unbelief is sufficient cause for divorce, though I hope this benefits those members who have thought that it was, especially those married to an unbelieving spouse.

I'm not sure we disagree on any of this.

Regardless, this was published in the Ensign. That doesn't just happen.

And, while I agree that the church has never taught that unbelief was sufficient grounds for divorce, there seems to have been a pretty strong opinion especially amongst women that this was certainly the case.

[Commando]

I don't know who thinks getting a divorce over this is a good idea anyway- especially when there are kids involved. If the next life is so important to you, you think you'd have faith that it exists and that you'd find someone new when you get there if your current doesn't make it to where you want to be.

[Jacob]

I'm not sure we disagree on any of this.

Regardless, this was published in the Ensign. That doesn't just happen.

And, while I agree that the church has never taught that unbelief was sufficient grounds for divorce, there seems to have been a pretty strong opinion especially amongst women that this was certainly the case.

Yes, we mostley agree. It's just that, when an apostle speaks, the message is clear. When Anomymous writes an essay, it's nice, but won't do much to get rid of the muddled message, if it was muddled. I suspect you might be right that many women would have had this misgiuded thought of divorce when first learning of their spouses disbelief. They are crushed. But I would be surprised if many using it as primary cause for divorce. But I certainly hope more cab take this woman's attitude.
OTOH, what to make of her claim that her marriage is more celestial now? We certainly can't let that stand now, can we? How did that make it through correlation? Someone clearly overruled the commitee.

[grapevine]

I seen talks of people with less active spouses or those that married out of the church how they deal with it. Basically is how you deal with that situation. Church leaders have never said it was ok to marry out of the church. Same with divorce how divorced members coped. Writers that talked of there less than ideal situations.

[jay santos]

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/07/wh...eving?lang=eng

If this has already been discussed, please delete this post/thread.

I think the message from the Church is clear: A spouse losing faith/leaving the church is not a "dealbreaker". The approach should be to love one another and move forward together.

I think this takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of spouses that think leaving the church should be a dealbreaker.

It also makes me believe this is becoming a fairly large issue if the church has decided to address this in the Ensign.

I don't love the article, but it's a start. At least there's an acknowledgment that those who lose their faith might be decent people.

[Paperback Writer]

I don't love the article, but it's a start. At least there's an acknowledgment that those who lose their faith might be decent people...and not porn addicts

Couldn't resist mentioning the porn boogeyman.