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What are your thoughts on the status of love, marriage, and divorce in American civic and religious culture today?
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In our time marriage is an institution under siege, with up to half of American marriages ending in divorce and the very definition of marriage in dispute. And many are looking for answers. Host Krista Tippett speaks with a renowned rabbi and a New Testament scholar who help explain what the Jewish and Christian traditions actually say about marriage, family and divorce.
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When and How Much to Share (May 8, 2004)
When we're both very tired, simply saying so is sufficient to remind us to mark well our words. To wait until we're rested brings more creative results, especially when disagreements arise. With or without disagreements, we find, are best handled by:
- Holding hands while maintaining eye contact with each other, and/or holding each other close.
- Bringing humor to the other by exaggerating one's own helplessness, and the need one has of the other.
- Telling each other: "Have I told you lately that I love you?"
- Praying together at regular times.
- Often paraphrasing the other: "What I'm hearing is…"
- Writing short notes to each other; calling when we're away.
- Sharing the highs and the lows of the day/week.
Archbishop Patrick E. Trujillo
North Bergen, NJ (WNYC 820 AM) |
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Why the Separation of our Physicality and Spirituality? (May 9, 2004)
I tuned in to the program on "Marriage, Family, and Divorce" in the middle of the interview with Rabbi Dorff, so I may have missed something important. I'm Jewish and I have studied my faith, both in terms of the Torah and classes by rabbis on the Torah's practical application on contemporary ethical issues. Judaism has always embraced and acknowledged our physicality as well as our spirituality.
There are more than ten commandments. Judaism lists 613 commandments from the Torah. Do you know what the first one is? It's near the very beginning of Genesis. After God creates Adam and Eve, he commands them, "Be fruitful and multiply." That is the first commandment of God to man! I don't understand why Christianity has separated body and spirit and deemed bodily functions and desires less than holy. From the little I know of the Christian faith, I believe Paul's teachings created that separation. It sounds to me like Paul was either not fond of women, homosexuals, or simply emotionally disturbed in some way. It doesn't take a genius to point out that if everyone followed Paul's ideal and was celibate, civilization would die in one generation and surely that was not God's intent.
Sheila Schultz
St. Louis, MO (KWMU 90.7 FM) |
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