This is a hard one to start. Too many thoughts invading my head. I guess the beginning would be best.
Some ladies in our church are going to a “Women of Faith” conference in Seattle in June. When I first heard of it, I was wary, because of the name. Having lived in northern FL, and having been around “name-it, claim-it” people (and, I suppose I must admit, having been one myself at one time), I am wary of anything with “of Faith” in the name. Christianity has seemingly gone to where our faith is equal to God’s grace. That, though, is another topic for another day. (See? I told you there were too many thoughts!) Secondly, I was wary of the conference when I saw who was going to be there ~ Allison Allen, Patsy Clairmont, Dr. Henry Cloud, Mary Graham, Nicole Johnson, Carol Kent, Max Lucado, Marilyn Meberg, Beth Moore, Nicole C. Mullen, Nichole Nordeman, Anita Renfroe, Lisa Smith, Luci Swindoll, Sandi Patty, Sheila Walsh, Thelma Wells, Ayiesha Woods. Most of these people are great. I think it woudl be fun to sit in on Luci Swindoll’s session. But they have Sandi Patty (who changed back to the real spelling of her last name when she came back to Christian music after 10 years) as a speaker.
See, all of these thoughts started because I was looking up old Christian musicians to add to my Zune. I ran across “First Call” and decided to read about them. I remembered vaguely that there was some scandal with one group and another Christian singer that were travelling together. Well … “First Call” singer MaraBeth Jordan and solo singer Michael English had an affair. MaraBeth got pregnant. I do not know if their affair would have ever made it public had this not happened. Both were married. I couldn’t find out any info on where MaraBeth is now, but Michael English has reentered the Christian music realm, singing once again with the Gaithers on their Homecoming show. He is remarried. Somehow this led me to find Steven Curtis Chapman … he started an accountability group for Christian singers like English and Sandi Patty.
I have a hard time with divorce and remarriage. As far as I can tell, God says you can only get divorced if there’s been adultery committed. If that has happened, He commands the woman to remain unmarried.
Sandi Patty and Amy Grant made me sad. I was saddened by Amy Grant becasue she said on Regis & Kathy Lee that “(she) never inteded to be a Christian singer.” Apparently it jsut kind of happened, and wasn’t related to her singing songs like “El Shaddi”. Now she is divorced and remarried, but it’s okay.
What has happened to people? What, more specifically, has happened to Christianity, that we can just dismiss divorce as if it is nothing?
I used to love Sandi Patti. I had her tapes, I wished I could sing like her. I thought she had an awesome ministyr of leading people in worship of God.
Sandi Patty got divorced and said it was over “irreconciable differences”. Two years later, we find out she was having an affair with a back-up singer. About a year later, she remarried. She admitted to having a different exta-marital affair too.
Ten years later, she came back from the void and everyone in the Christian realm decided to forgive her. I heard Sandi said it was “okay” with God that she’d gotten a divorce.
Today I read an interesting set of articles. http://www.av1611.org/crock/spatti.html This link will take you there . The newsletter carries you through the whole process, from 1993 to 1998, when she came back. These articles talk about how Christians use psychology to diminish sin. Being a student of psychology, I think there are
