The Roman Catholic Church does however allow annulment. Annulment is different to divorce, because it’s not ending a marriage, it says that the marriage was never a proper marriage, and therefore doesn’t count so cannot be ended because it didn’t exist. They allow annulments if one of the partners was not baptised at the time of marriage, if one of the partners was forced into the marriage, if one of the partners didn’t intend to keep the marriage vows at the time of making them and if one of the partners was mentally unstable at the time of the marriage because this could affect their decision making abilities.
The Church of England disapproves of divorce, but allows them to occur because they accept that by allowing a divorce, the lesser of two evils is being committed in some cases. They believe that denying a couple of divorce and forcing them to stay married, they are sentencing them to a lifetime of unhappiness, which would be the greater evil. In some cases, it is left up to the priest to look at the circumstances and decide whether this is the case or not, and whether divorce should be allowed or not. Also, Christians strongly believe in the importance of families, and that children should be brought up in a secure family unit.
Explain why Jews think that sex outside marriage is wrong
Jews strongly believe that families are extremely important. They believe that sex should be restricted to marriage because they believe marriage to be holy, and that sex is a privilege to only be enjoyed within marriage. The Hebrew word for marriage is ‘kiddushin’ which means ‘made holy.’ They believe that having sex outside of marriage is sinning against God because they are breaking the vows they made during marriage.
They believe that pre-marital sex is wrong, because they believe that children should only be brought up in family units, and that parents should be married before having children. This is so that the children are raised with as much love and support as possible. In a single parent family, it is much more difficult to support a child’s learning and growing up, but Judaism sees marriage as a partnership of love and therefore the parents can equally support their children.
Adultery is considered to be a great sin because one of the 10 commandments is “do not commit adultery” and Jews follow the words of God. The 10 commandments are central to Judaism, and without them the religion would fall apart so it’s extremely important that Jews respect this and follow this commandments.
Another reason why Jews believe that sex outside of marriage is wrong is because the Torah and the Talmud both teach that sex is only to be enjoyed within marriage. The Jewish holy scriptures are central to the religion, and therefore having sex outside of marriage and not abiding by their scriptures is a great sin.
Another reason why Jews believe that sex outside of marriage is wrong is because they believe children should be raised in a stable home. They believe that Jewish children should be taught their Jewish traditions and about their heritage so that they can carry on the Jewish religion. They believe that if sex outside marriage was allowed, then lots of children could be brought up in unstable environments, not learning about their Jewishness and the Jewish faith could die out.
Another reason why Jews think sex outside of marriage is wrong, is that in Genesis 2:18 in the Torah, it says ‘it is not good for man to be alone.’ Judaism regards marriage as extremely important, and that it’s the ultimate mix of companionship, love and intimacy. They believe that in order to have sex, you must be in a loving marriage and that anything else is wrong.
“Living together is just as acceptable in religion as being married”
Discuss
Religions such as Christianity and Judaism teach that cohabitation is wrong. They teach that families are extremely important, and that couples should get married before living together and having sex with each other. They teach that pre marital sex is wrong, because sex is a gift from God and therefore should only be enjoyed within marriage
However, Judaism teaches that it’s acceptable for people to live together, as long as they intend on marrying and aren’t having sex. This is because by living together, couples can develop their relationship and decide if it’s right to get married or not. They consider it to be the lesser evil for a man and woman to live with each other and then get married than to first start living with each other when they get married, discover they cannot stand living with one another and then divorce.
In my opinion, it’s acceptable for a couple to live with each other before being married. I think that it’s important that they know what living together is like before making the ultimate commitment of marriage. If a couple only start living together after getting married, they can discover things they strongly dislike or even hate about their partner, for example if one of them has habits that the other cannot stand. However if they move in together before getting married, they know what living together is like and therefore know if they are ready to commit themselves to one another for the rest of their lives.
