Alienation of Affection
December 9, 2008
“Alienation of Affection”!
How often have we heard this term bandied about in a court of law as couples
are divided back into two separate people? However, the term can
be applied to another quite dissimilar situation, and that is where we
are going with this topic.
One of the definition
searches revealed this:
An alienation of affection
lawsuit is one in which a spouse can sue a third party if his or her partner
leaves the relationship for another person. To win, an alienation
of affection lawsuit needs to prove that:
1. Love
between the married spouses must have existed.
2. The marital
love must have been alienated and destroyed.
3. A third party's
conduct has to be proved to be malicious interference with the marriage
relationship.
Although there are three
reasons listed, let’s deal with number three; where someone that is an
outsider provides an interference with the relationship.
I think the accusation
can be made that the Conservative Coalition, aka the Moral Majority and
the conservative fundamental Christian political activists have provided
a malicious interference between many people and God.
Portraying God as malevolent
deity who is only interested in punishing wrongdoers is unfortunate.
Language such as “God hates Fags” and the comparable slogans miss the point
of what God is. There is no doubt that God hates sin, but he loves
sinners. Some of His greatest disciples were terribly broken people
to begin with. But portraying God in such a hateful way blocks the
message of salvation and a hope for eternal life.
Many modern day Christians
are much like Peter the Apostle who insisted that non-Jewish Christians
absolutely had to be circumcised. In other words it wasn’t just about
accepting the gift of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection;
it was all about observing the laws as well.
In his letter to the people
of Galatea, in the Bible the fifth chapter of the book “Galatians”, Paul
frames the issue by referring to a spirit-filled life made possible by
accepting Jesus Christ as Savior. In that reference he provides the
limits for spirit filled Christians by referring to Christ’s commandments
– “love your neighbor as yourself and love God with all your heart, soul
and mind!
If the majority of Christians
would manifest those directives I believe that it would change a lot of
opinions of what Christianity truly means. With more positive examples
many then would no longer be turned away from God’s love thus eliminating
the “Alienation of Affection”!
