Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 05:1 (Fall 1987)
Article: “I Don’t Want A Divorce, Pastor”
Author: Daniel Carro

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FM 5:1 (Fall 1987) p. 44

“I Don’t Want A Divorce, Pastor”

Daniel Carro

Professor of Greek, Biblical Introduction, and Philosophy of Religion,
International Baptist Theological Seminary, Buenos Aires, Argentina;
and Former Pastor of Flores Baptist Church, Buenos Aires.

It seemed to be a typically quiet Sunday morning when Marta came into the church and asked to see me. After the service she told me a long story. She showed me a photograph that she had found in her husband s jacket a few days earlier. The picture showed Jose with another woman and a child in his arms. On a table before them was a big cake with one lighted candle.

Marta began to cry as she related the events. She was convinced that for the last several months her husband had been leading a double life, not uncommon in Latin America. He had been living with her, Marta said, but also with this other woman with whom he had the baby in the photo. The picture had prompted her to look among Jose’s papers, and to her dismay she found a document that indicated that he had already consulted an attorney and was in the process of filing for a divorce. The most incredible part, Marta continued, was the statment in the document that it was she who was seeking the divorce. “But Pastor, I do not want to divorce Jose. I love him. I would rather be dead than divorced.”

I listened to her words, sensed her anguish, prayed with her and for her that God would give her grace and clarity of understanding. I also assured her that my wife and I would come to see her the next day.

Marta, a forty-year-old woman, is a typical Argentinian wife living in a culture in which the rights of women and wives are assured only under certain conditions. She is shy, somewhat dull, and generally she appears to accept with resignation the events of her life. She gives every outward evidence of being dedicated and loving toward her family, but at times her mood seems listless. Marta is obviously deliberate, even slow in her thinking, emotional responses, and physical movements. When she was twenty-five years of age, she had a traumatic experience. She gave birth out of wedlock to her first child, Roberto. It was five years later that she met Jose and married him. Besides Roberto, whom Jose initially accepted as his own child, Marta and Jose had two additional children: Susana (now 13) and Josecito (now 7). Roberto displays a respect for his step-father, although according to Marta, Jose did not give her son much attention after the birth of the other children. Last year Roberto married and moved out of the home.

FM 5:1 (Fall 1987) p. 45

Jose is now 43 years old. His childhood and youth were quite similar to that of Marta’s. Somewhat in contrast to her...

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