Divorce in Christianity

To understand divorce in Christianity, a few things are very important to understand. The first is that in Christianity, a husband and wife cannot directly divorce each other — they have no such right. They have to file an application in the civil court of their area, and specific grounds are given under this Act — specific grounds are given in Section 10 — that if these particular things exist in the husband, the wife can file; if they exist in the wife, the husband can file. To understand these grounds, it is necessary to go into their detail — what are these grounds? The first thing to understand is adultery — where a man has sexual relations with a woman, with her consent, and they are not married to each other — that is called adultery. The first condition is that they are not married to each other; the second condition is that they are doing this of their own free will. In the definition given in Section 3 of this Act, there is also 'incestuous adultery' — adultery with a relation such that even if your wife were to die, you still could not marry that relation, under Christian law, being someone with whom you have a blood relationship. If a wife accuses her husband, or a husband accuses his wife, of incestuous adultery, proving it is a separate matter — divorce can also be granted on this allegation; if this ground of incestuous adultery is proven, divorce will follow. The second thing in Section 10 is desertion — that if, for two years or more, the husband has not been in contact with the wife, or the wife with the husband, and he or she is also committing adultery. When I use the word 'zina' [adultery] here, keep in mind that I mean 'adultery,' and when I speak of 'zina bil jabr,' that will mean 'rape' — that means rape. If for two years or more the husband has had no contact with the wife, or the wife with the husband, and he or she is committing adultery — Section 10 gives the husband only one ground, that he only has to satisfy that one ground of adultery, and divorce will follow. For the wife, besides adultery, they have provided that if the husband abandons the Christian faith, leaves Christianity, adopts another religion, even then the court will grant you a divorce. If the wife alleges that the husband has committed incestuous adultery, has committed bigamy with adultery, has married after committing adultery with some other woman, has committed rape — if this adultery has been going on for more than two years, then too she can file that petition. Now one thing that comes up here is that whenever this petition is filed, an opposing party will be created — the person from whom you are seeking the divorce — if it is the husband, the wife becomes respondent number 1; if the wife is the petitioner, the husband becomes respondent number 1. Here the intent of the law is that the person with whom the adultery was committed will also be made a party — made respondent number 2. If the wife alleges against the husband that he committed adultery with a certain woman, that woman too will be made a respondent. Now there is an exception as to where the person with whom adultery was committed will not be made a party — Section 11 provides an exception, that if it is proven that the woman with whom adultery was committed was a prostitute of no fixed abode, she will not be made a respondent there; or if the petitioner says, I do not know who the person committing adultery was, but he/she committed adultery, and I have proof; or says, I saw them committing adultery with my own eyes but I do not know who that person was, I do not know who he/she is, I saw it happen and they ran away, I don't know who it was — then the person with whom the adultery was committed will not be made a respondent. But for the satisfaction of the court, once the whole case has been set up in court and the husband or wife has filed a petition for divorce, with all these allegations, or even just one allegation — this will not be accepted mechanically simply because these allegations were made. The petitioner will have to prove that yes, these are the allegations, I have made them, and I am proving them. The point to note is that if you have these grounds, you can file a divorce case; if you do not have these grounds, you cannot file a divorce case. You don't like your husband, you don't like your wife, the wife is quarrelsome, the husband is violent, the wife does not do the housework, the wife is ill-mannered, the husband does not do the housework, the husband does not provide adequate maintenance — none of these are grounds for divorce in Christianity. In Christianity, they have bound the marriage bond extremely tightly, such that a marriage bond will not break so easily. Now if they cannot prove it, the petition will fail. If they can prove it, the petition will be accepted. This is how a marriage is dissolved under Christianity, under Christian law.