Although we felt LEADERSHIP had to deal with the very tough issue of clergy divorce, we wanted to do so within the parameters of our journal's mandate: providing practical help for local church leaders. Thus, we only examine the question from one perspective, fully realizing many additional questions could be asked and profitably explored.

Ordinarily, we would be content to examine the issue from this one perspective. But because clergy divorce is a complicated, explosive issue, we asked several Christian leaders to respond to our Forum's wider implications. The many important questions they ask, each of which could be the kernel of another article, demonstrate the complexity of the problem.

It's most discouraging to hear ministers discuss their experiences with divorce without even raising the question as to whether or not their divorce was on biblical grounds. These men speak sincerely of their experiences of love and acceptance from church sessions and people, but no one spoke of the ...