Abstract
The rise in divorce cases among Christians, and among pastors in particular, has become an unsettling factor in contemporary South Africa. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa (SA) has been selected as a study sample to investigate this problem. From the above problem, the following question developed: “What are the motivations and justifications for AFM of SA (Pentecostal church) pastors indulging in the act of divorce, and what theologically educative measures can be advanced to resolve this problem…?”
It has become incumbent upon researchers, especially theologians, to address this ongoing problem by employing a phenomenological study. Hence, the present researcher has employed the qualitative research methodology, in which the explorative, descriptive and contextual approaches have been applied. Consequently, phenomenological interviews were conducted among nine divorced AFM pastors.
Fieldwork mainly consisted of data collection through in-person and telephonic interviews. This was followed by data analysis, through coding, categorisation and a thematic analysis to draw scientific categories from the collected data. Data analysis was conducted along two notable themes, namely, motivations and justifications/rationale with their subsequent categories and subcategories.
The findings, after data analysis, show that the main motivations and justifications for pastors to divorce their spouses are as follows: ministerial incompatibility; communication breakdown; sexual incompatibility; socio-economic incompatibility; adultery; attitude or abusiveness; conflicting interests; dishonesty; cultural differences; influence of the extended family; academic incompatibility; insufficient time spent together; expired love; and jealousy.
It has been noted that divorce is not a new phenomenon. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 shows that the problem of divorce existed from the days of Moses in the Old Testament. Because the men of Israel were arbitrarily divorcing their wives during Moses’ jurisdiction over Israel, he instructed that this be done in an orderly way – by issuing a certificate of divorce to the wives during the process of divorce. However, in the New Testament (Matthew 5:31-32, 19:1-9), Jesus spoke out against divorce. He stated that Moses allowed divorce because of the hard-heartedness of the men of Israel. Hence, ‘divorce’ is a theological concern that calls for a practical theological intervention strategy.
Therefore, this thesis is concluded by recommending a ‘practical theological theory’ as an intervention strategy based on three aspects: firstly, the history of the AFM church on divorce; secondly, the reasons for divorce among AFM pastors as investigated in this research; lastly, the book of The Song of Songs and the incarnation of Christ were introduced as the basis of a new practical theological theory to ensure stable marriages among AFM pastors.
Dr. L.J. Erasmus