LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP) — Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist megachurch pastor chosen to offer the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration, says the Bible does not permit a woman to divorce a spouse who is abusing her.
In audio clips on his Saddleback Church website, the Purpose Driven Life author says the Bible condones divorce for only two reasons — adultery and abandonment.
"I wish there were a third in Scripture, having been involved as a pastor with situations of abuse," Warren said. "There is something in me that wishes there were a Bible verse that says, 'If they abuse you in this-and-such kind of way, then you have a right to leave them.'"
Warren said his church's counseling ministry advises separation and counseling instead of divorce in abusive marriages, because it's the only path toward healing. "There's an abusive cycle that's been set up," he said. "Separation combined with counseling has been proven to provide healing in people's lives."
Warren said there's nothing in the Bible that says a spouse must tolerate abuse. "There's nowhere in the Bible that says it's an attitude of submission to let somebody abuse you," he said. "That is not submission. So we recommend very strongly separation."
He defined what he meant by physical abuse.
"When I say physical abuse, I mean literally somebody is beating you regularly," he said. "I don't mean they grab you once. I mean they've made a habit of beating you regularly. You need to separate in that situation, because that's the only thing that's going to solve that."
Obama's invitation to Warren has been criticized from the left because of his opposition to gay marriage and from the right for giving the president-elect credibility with religious conservatives.
But recently his views on domestic violence caught the attention of Because It Matters, a blog by a lifelong Baptist and abuse survivor who uses the pseudonym Danni Moss to give anonymity to her children, family and former in-laws.
Moss said Warren's commentary "expresses a distinct lack of understanding about the nature, heart and spiritual roots of abuse."
"I think he believes he is doing right and doesn't realize his ignorance or how much he is hurting people, so this is offered without personal judgment," she said. "But I also believe categorically that it is dangerous."
A women's rights blog called The New Agenda called Warren's views "alarming," especially in light of recent statistics showing a 42 percent rise in reports of domestic violence from 2005 to 2007.
"Warren's views give abusive spouses one more tool to control their victims: the Bible," the blog said. The New Agenda said Warren's teaching "undermines the resolve of women who are debating ending an abusive marriage" and "omits mention of contacting the police, seeking medical attention or obtaining legal assistance to secure orders of protection for yourself and your children."
Warren said God does not hold people accountable if they were divorced before they became a believer in Christ.
"Of course not," he said. "You didn't know. He doesn't hold us accountable for what we don't know."
On the other hand, he continued: "Some of you were divorced after you became a believer, and as you look back on it now you say, 'I told myself it was for a right reason, but now I realize it was more my selfishness than anything else.' You have the maturity to admit that."
Warren also fielded a question about whether a Christian spouse should remain in a "miserable" marriage.
"God sees you as one, and the Bible says they become one, and so the answer, the Bible answer, is yes," Warren said.
"I often say to people when they're facing this decision, really, you're choosing your pain in this moment, because it's going to be painful either way," he said. "If you stay in the marriage there is the opportunity for reconciliation and for the loss of pain, but there is going to be short-term pain on the way there. There's no way to not have pain."
Warren said there is an "immediate feeling of freedom" after a divorce — but in the long run, "there is lifelong pain in divorce."
"Does God expect me just to live with this pain?" he asked. "No, I think he expects us to ask him for wisdom to do the things that would cause the pain to begin to be solved. He says we're one and as Christians, as believers, the Bible says a husband is to sacrifice for his wife and the wife is to respect her husband."
"So if that's not happening," he said, "I think you have not only the right but also the responsibility to keep pushing for that, to not just settle for the pain."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.