South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s divorce from his wife of 20 years will become final in mid-March, a judge ruled today. He and his wife Jenny Sanford have spoke openly of their Christian faith.
In a recent FocusFamilyINSIGHT from Glenn Stanton, he juxtaposed Jenny Sanford with Gayle Haggard, both of whom recently published best-selling books on their husbands’ infidelity.
Given the shattered marriage covenants due to the husbands’ infidelities, both women have biblical grounds for divorce.
Is one’s decision more right, more virtuous than the other? Good question.
Both women have important, honorable and ultimately pro-marriage and family reasons for their very different decisions.
Gayle Haggard recently told Christianity Today her reason for staying,
“I stayed because I believe in the teachings of Jesus, that if we choose forgiveness and love, our relationships can heal. …I wasn’t going to let the struggle that had been going on with him disqualify or undo the 30 years of life we had built together… I wasn’t going to let this thing deny all of what we have spent our lives invested in.”
That is a remarkably beautiful statement of profound faith and commitment in the face of a very real and very broken situation. Jenny Sanford said publicly she was committed to and very much wanted to save her marriage. But she later concluded that would not be possible because her husband refused to end his adulterous relationship. She made the love-must-be-tough decision that both love and dignity required for herself, her four boys, even her husband.
Other items from the week’s news:
– The President met with congressional leaders yesterday for a health care summit. Tobin Grant rounds up reactions in his weekly Political Advocacy Tracker for CT.
– A Texas tax appraisal district will begin exempting a $3.3 million jet owned by Kenneth Copeland Ministries from property taxes.
– A group of Ohio ministers complained to the Internal Revenue Service that a house on C Street in D.C. connected to the Fellowship should no longer be granted a tax-exempt status granted to a church. Here’s more from Laurie Goodstein at The New York Times.
– New York Gov. David A. Paterson is planning to announce that he will not run for governor in November after revelations of his alleged intervention in a domestic violence episode involving a top aide, The New York Times reports.
– The Andrews Air Force chaplain’s office rescinded their prayer luncheon invitation to Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, CBN’s David Brody reports. Perkins had criticized President Obama’s call to end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
– James Dobson will give his final Focus on the Family broadcast today before he transitions into his new radio show.
– Obama administration officials will meet with about 60 people from the Secular Coalition for America 10 member groups, including the American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism.
