Thursday, May 28, 2009

Jon and Kate from a Catholic perspective

News has been going around, perhaps unworthily, that Jon and Kate who star in their own reality show called Jon and Kate Plus Eight are going through some marital turmoil because Jon allegedly "tried" to cheat on Kate. We're not even sure if anything happened.

In the few times that I've watched this show, I've noticed that Kate treats Jon very poorly. She treats him like a child who is not allowed to have any of his own opinions. He is like her servant. In one episode, they were in the store with their kids, and Kate like yelled at Jon in front of everyone and said something like GET OVER HERE NOW JON! She completely treated him like a baby. Also, when they're being interviewed on the show, Kate completely dominates. She answers every question. When Jon tries to answer a question, she usually looks at him with a blank stare and is like, what are you talking about? you're completely wrong. I really don't think she acts very nice to him.

Does this qualify him to cheat on her with another woman? Absolutely not. He made a marriage vow with her and he has an obligation to carry it out in good times and in bad, from whatever perspective, be it the relationship as a whole or his own personal situation. Adultery goes against one of the ten commandments, it violates the virtue of chastity and damages the good of marriage.

But what if Jon did cheat on Kate? Is adultery grounds for divorce or annulment? The short answer is no. Something that happens AFTER a marriage is contracted is never grounds for a divorce. Only a pre-existing condition which makes the marriage invalid would be grounds for annulment. If, for example, Jon had never really intended to remain in this marriage till death did them part, or he planned on committing adultery with his wife after they were married. These could possibly constitute grounds for annulment.

Jesus himself specifically mentions that adultery is not grounds for divorce and that people were only accepting it because of their hard hearts.

Another issue I feel needs to be addressed is society's perception of adultery. It seems to be the only thing that is immoral in today's society. Sure, go ahead and have one girlfriend after another, perhaps 3 or 4 per month and have sex with all of them, that's ok. Or go and get pregnant and then have an abortion, that's fine as well. Or perhaps you'd like to enter into a gay relationship, that's totally acceptable. But if a man ALMOST sort of thinks about cheating on his wife then he is lower than the lowest scum on the face of the planet. The woman should just divorce him immediately and save herself from this pig who is only ruining her life. He is not worth any effort to save the marriage. If this is the world's new morality, I don't want it!

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