Wife Informs Pastor of Preacher Husband's Television?
 

A pastor has a prohibition against tv in his church.

Knowing this, a lay minister's wife turned him in to that pastor for having a television.

Did she have a moral obligation to do so?

Did she "turn him in" voluntarily? Or was she asked about it and told the truth? Big difference between the two. I wouldn't "tattle" on my spouse, but neither would I lie if asked a direct question.

If he was deliberately deceiving the pastor after having agreed to not have TV...I wouldn't say that she had a "moral obligation" to do so, but I can understand that she might have been annoyed enough with him to do so. Nothing wrong with holding him accountable for his actions. ...it does trample on the marital relationship a bit, but then...again, if he was being dishonest, he was doing that himself.

Funny.... Hilarious...

but hey...Now the Divorce can be justified....:)

No, but if the pastor asked her bluntly she had a moral obligation to either tell the pastor to mind his own business or to tell the truth and not lie about it :saycheese

LOL!

there are LOTS of issues going on in this situation.

nuts.

If I were the wife and the pastor asked me a question, I would send him to my husband for the answer.

Is that one of the biblical excuses for divorce? :runhills:runhills

Exactly

If she volunteered the information...then I would say she wasn't being a very wise wife. At the very least, she should have said something along the lines of, "Pastor, I am not available for ministry right now, because we have a TV in our home." Instead of throwing her husband under the bus, it would have been a bit more (or a lot more) discreet for her to take the blame. At the same time, her husband would have probably been asked why he was "allowing" this, and then he would've had to be truthful.

If she is in leadership in some capacity, then she would've had an obligation to tell on herself, don't you think? Regardless of who purchased the TV? And unless she never watched it herself, then she would be equally guilty of violating the rules.

Good answer.

See, that would be easy enough. :) "Pastor, you'll have to ask my husband about that." *smile* *walk away*

Well, if your husband commits a murder and you knew it, under law you don't have to testify against him.

Quite honestly, I agree with Ferd. The legitimacy of the TV rule is not really the heart of the issue. The true questions are:

* Was the husband being dishonest?
* Was the wife put in a situation where she had to answer a difficult question and chose honesty?
* If so, why would the husband put her in such a position?
* If she volunteered the information, what prompted her to do so?

I was going to bring up that point myself... :)

Your testimony against him doesn't count in court, but if you assisted him or hid his crime or helped him cover his tracks in ANY way, you could be placed in jail for conspiracy or such charges. And I imagine that, for a Christian at least, honesty should be pretty important.

I'm not real fond of folks who break rules behind the pastors' back just so they won't be kicked out of their leadership positions. Either abide by the rules, or remove yourself from the position. There's no gray area. Its called: Ethics.

That's a good policy, uh....use their own rules against them. Say you are submissive to the husband and he is the head of the household, deal with him Pastor.

Perhaps it was her way of getting rid of both-:)

I thought of all of those plue
*what is going on between the husband and the wife
*why is the husband trying to be involved in ministry in a church where he cannot be in agreement with the pastor


the list goes on and on. this deal is LOADED.

Says who?
If you knew about it and did nothing you are an accessory to murder after the fact.

Or have their wife buy the TV so they can say they never bought a TV, or I really like this one.......put the TV in the garage and say they don't have a TV in their home.

I don't know all of the circumstances, but the wife informed the pastor, and then he confronted her husband. The husband was given an ultimatum, so he left.

Left the church or left the wife? did the wife go with him or stay behind?

did the dude leave all church or just that local church?

answering these questions should clear up a lot of the other questions.


AND the dude should have left that local church the day he bought his Tv.

Here's an idea: How about the wife addresses the issue with her husband rather than the pastor.

Sounds like she was wanting some change in her life.

That kind of stuff happens a lot in controlling authoritarian churches where Pastors are manipulators and not shepherds. I have even heard of Pastors telling wives to leave husbands, NOT because of sexual infidelity but because the husband left or has a TV or whatever. In those churches a wife might feel they have to tell the pastor everything.

The Pastor pits family members against family members. Scandalous

My thougths exactly!

And we wonder why many husbands stay home while their wives go to church.

Not really...that happens all across the board, not just in authoritarian churches

Left the church. His wife went with him.

I don't know where they have decided to attend.

Obviously it's not the only reason. Just a contributing factor in some churches.

My husband doesn't have a TV.....















































He has 3 of them!

Anyone that would like to confront him about it, feel free. I'll just watch the confrontation from the sidelines.

This is what I think, if she was a happy camper, she wouldn't have said anything.

DING DING DING!!!!!: YOU GOT IT RIGHT!!!!
YOU WIN THE PRIZE WITH THIS ANSWER!!!
IN MY OPINION THERE IS NO OTHER ACCEPTABLE ANSWER.
I do not answer for my husband and he doesn't answer for me.

:scoregood:amen

There was another system years ago where family was encouraged to turn their own family members in for violating silly rules put in place by fools.

************************************************** *******

He should take her "People Magazine" down the pastor and drop the Paris Hilton Memoirs on his desk.

If she actually informed and did not just answer the Pastor's question then there is no doubt in my mind she had displaced loyalty issues. While I completely believe in honoring your pastor, her first obligation was to the vows she made before God to her husband. I just don't believe it was hers to tell. If she disagreed, she should have prayed that God would speak to her husband if He was displeased with his behavior. God could do the job without causing problems in their relationship. For what it's worth....

You 2 are prolly right about this but....seems underhanded to me. She, no doubt received kudos for turning him in and all sorts of condolences for his leaving. I dare to say there are larger issues in play. Almost always is.

Adolf Hitler would be proud. This was the concept he had with the "Hitler Youth Movement".

Also when the Soviet Union was Communist they solicited children and other family members to report on any unapproved activities of their relatives.

I read several good suggestions on here of how the situation could have been handled;

1. First if the wife was asked the question by the pastor she should have referred him to talk directly with her husband.

2. If the wife just volunteered the info then I think she was flat out wrong unless the husband had lied to the pastor about the situation. She should have worked this out with her husband.

So, what happens to a minister who's spouse has a TV in the home? Should they lose their license? What should happen, if anything?

Is the spouse saved?
Does the minister sign the AS?

Then the minister should ask the local Pastor they sit under.