So I just discovered that a church I have been going to for about 2 years now thinks you will go to Hell if you get divorced!

[appolose]

kain_kusanagi said:

The Catholic Church has a similar belief. You have to get an annulment.

It basically boils down to this. When you get married you are making a promise for life. That's why you say, "until death do us part." Since the church doesn't recognize a legal divorce, you can't get married of be intimate with anyone else. The Church would see it as cheating since you are considered still married to the first person.

I don't know all the rules on annulments, but I do know that it's difficult to get one in the Catholic Church.

Now, with that said. Jesus died for our sins. We are sinners and God still loves us even though we sin. The Church may have a rule, but I personly don't think God would be so noneunderstanding as to turn away from a good person of faith if they tried to stay married but couldn't make it work.

To add to this a bit, the general Protestant teaching on marriage is that the only non-sinful reason for divorce is marital unfaithfulness (which, I have speculated, might be able to include spousal abuse).

As for the existance of rules and calling things sinful in general in Christianity, the teaching is that anything unloving is sinful; or, to do everything with love as the intent is to avoid sin completely.  As such, any command that one might find in the Bible should be understood to have been giving with the intent of ensuring a loving action.

And, as kain was also saying, in Christianity, committing a sin (as a Christian) does not mean you're going to Hell; only not professing the Lordship of Christ does.