Modern March | a Christian blog

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Gores Headed for Divorce: Could the SBC Have Saved Them? Posted: 08 Jun 2010 09:00 PM PDT As Vice-President of the United States, Al Gore and his wife Tipper were in the public eye more often than most couples in the 1990s. With paparazzi always lurking, the Gores were consistently seen as the quintessential couple by the world, especially in the wake of the well-documented marital affair of Bill Clinton. Of the two families, it seemed the Clintons would be the likely candidates to eventually split. While the Clinton marriage remains strong, as least in public, it has been reported that Al and Tipper are calling it quits. As a rising star in the political world, Al Gore was widely known as a Baptist. Receiving less attention, however, was his apparent disdain for the Southern Baptist Convention. Though baptized in a Southern Baptist church, Gore always maintained his allegiance to the church he grew up in, New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Carthage, Tennessee. New Salem Missionary has never been affiliated with the SBC. During a 2002 interview with Newsweek, Gore stated, "I am a Christian. I am a Protestant. I am a Baptist." In an interview published in the New Yorker in 2004, Al and Tipper exposed that they had disassociated themselves with the SBC due to its conservative bent, citing that they felt that the denomination was intolerant and hyper-fundamentalist. Their contempt for conservatism begs the question: Could an acceptance of the SBC's standards saved their marriage? It is no secret that the SBC stands by the Biblical view on divorce, standing on the foundation laid by Jesus in Matthew 19:6 and 5:32. Jesus commands in Matthew 19:6, "So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Gore further stated in the New Yorker interview that he was "ecumenical now." He also revealed that he was not a fan of the public faith regarding global religions that then-President George W. Bush had shown: "You don’t hear very much from them about the Sermon on the Mount, you don’t hear very much about the teachings of Jesus on giving to the poor, or the beatitudes. It’s the vengeance, the brimstone.” Of course, no one may truly know what happened behind closed doors in the Gore household and we can only pray and hope as the body of Christ that they can reconcile. However, their open lean towards Liberalism may have left them open to real danger in their marriage. Instead of seemingly only focusing on the social justice of the Gospels, perhaps they should also set their sights on other parts of Scripture that may seem a bit too "conservative," like the sanctity of marriage. Filed under: Articles, News & Commentary

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