Answer this Greg Volz question

[brent]

When a Christian sins it is the local pasters who they are to to be accountbale to.

Whoa. Where is that in the bible. I am not accountable to any man when it comes to sin. I am only accountable to God. Now, if I live my life only for God, then I will keep his commanments. The bible says confess your sisn "one to another." That is you and your offendee, not the pastor, not the Pope. Now if there is conflict resolution or counseling required, then the bible clearly lines out the steps for that.

[brent]

Here are some facts.

STATISTICALLY (and numbers ARE people):
Arranged marriages last exponentially longer than unarranged marraiges. Why? The parents are looking back at family trends, history, etc in arranged marriages. They have insight into their children's lifes that the children themselves will not come to realize until maturity is complete at 25 (yes that's when we all grow out of immaturity supposedly. Ask you insurance agent. That's when the big rate discounts kick in).

Unarranged marriages are all based on short term knowledge, gained through short-term exposure of the couple, colored by dreams of the future. The facts are that arranged marraiges do not start off sickening sweet, lovey-dovey, but the two LEARN to love and are more bonded in old age. It is on average the opposite in unarranged marraiges. They start off based on emotions, not working out in love (the action). The divorce rate of nearly 60% proves that it doesn't actually take that long to realize reality, that we are a nation of socialogical retards, with a jacked up mating system that sets people up to fail.

[sue d.]

unlost wrote

I am going to enjoy Greg's music no matter what.

I'm glad you're able to still get something out of the music, regardless of the personal happenings in the lives of those who performed it.

BTW, there IS someone here who knows what went on and much of the past history - but a public forum is not the place to talk about it without having Greg here to explain. If you feel offended by the divorce, go to Greg himself and ask... that is biblical.

Let's just say that if it makes you feel any better, Greg was still married to Becky during his Petra years and also during his first four solo albums. With the following albums - he was married to Barbara. But none of that means anything... you can still be married and living in a bad situation.

And as a sidenote - in any divorce, there are multiple reasons and factors that go into the problem... rarely is it just one person's fault and just one reason.

[Mountain Man]

Apparently many of you think Christians have the liberty to sin without answering to anyone but God?

Of course not. I certainly see a lot people here calling you out for being a busybody, and rightly so. There are those who God has placed in the lives of Greg and Becky who will do the work of holding them accountable. You're just some nobody on the internet who really needs to mind his own business.

[unlost]

In what ways do you think they are being held accountable?
Again, I say if your spouse leaves you, are you going to reason this issue the same way without demanding an answer?

[Preacherman777]

First of all, I'd like to say that as a fellow pastor, I 100% agree with BeReady about the things he said in his post.

Second, being held to a higher standard is an issue for those who desire to teach others about spiritual things. It is not specific to pastors. Like it or not, Greg has certainly been in that position during times in his career. There is a great deal of influence that comes along with being a "star" perhaps more so for a Christian "star".

Unlost has brought out a very good point about how divorce has become rather socially acceptable in our modern church. It's not that we need to be harsh towards those who have divorced, on the contrary, they need to be loved all the more. But that does not change the fact that when you have such people in elavated positions of ministry or influence, we do have the right to know if they are able to keep their own houses in order, before we can feel secure about being influenced by them.

Also, Unlost was not wrong to ask the question in a public forum, because the question was regarding a public person. There is nothing wrong with trying to find out whether or not anyone knows if there is anything "on the record" about a given subject, before one attempts to impose themselves on a public persons life. He wasn't asking for rumor, speculation or gossip, he wanted to know if anyone had any factual info on the subject and there is nothing wrong with that.

[Preacherman777]

Amy. I do not condone divorce. But, I am sorry, she shouldn't have married that idiot anyway. Christians should not marry into Jehova's Witness. Chapman had albums sold in Christian stores. He even went to a mainline church following his marraige. But, as I understand it he was a JW.

Everything I have read about Gary says that he's a former JW. Are you choosing to hold that against him? Are you saying that this makes it ok to break a covenant? We are all evil before we get saved. Does this fact about what we once were, mean it's forever ok to taint us as something lesser, as an idiot, as unworthy of being honored by a promise of fidelity? It seems you have some interest in speading gossip and rumor yourself, what with the things you are saying. Shame on you.

[brent]

Amy. I do not condone divorce. But, I am sorry, she shouldn't have married that idiot anyway. Christians should not marry into Jehova's Witness. Chapman had albums sold in Christian stores. He even went to a mainline church following his marraige. But, as I understand it he was a JW.

Everything I have read about Gary says that he's a former JW. Are you choosing to hold that against him? Are you saying that this makes it ok to break a covenant? We are all evil before we get saved. Does this fact about what we once were, mean it's forever ok to taint us as something lesser, as an idiot, as unworthy of being honored by a promise of fidelity? It seems you have some interest in speading gossip and rumor yourself, what with the things you are saying. Shame on you.

I do not know the specifics of their relationship. I only know what I was told by fellow label reps/producers who were doing damage control when that went down.

There is no good reason to break the covenant, unless it is a situation where there is abuse on some kind.

There is no interest in spreading gossip. It just proves a point. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Shell]

The point is, we would have to know Greg and Becky personally to know the circumstances, and that isn't the case with the majority here. Unlost doesn't seem to understand that; he's assuming because we don't know the circumstances, we're not dealing with issues and continues to demand information we don't have. He should go ahead and contact Greg himself like it was suggested.

[BeReady]

Preacherman, I totally agree with your above posts as well. Unlost has the right to ask his question on a public forum. I don't believe he was being malicious, a gossip or a busybody. He was just asking a question. I think it is unfair to ascribe motive here or to call people names.

Brent, thank you for your kind remarks and interaction. I again must concede to you that the 1 Tim. passage does refer to church leaders. But I must respectfully disagree with you on the passage from James. IMO anytime you present your understanding of Scripture to a group of people. whether in speech, print, or song, you are assuming the role of teacher and the passages of Scripture which apply to teachers (ex. James) apply to you. That's why James warns us not to enter into that responsibility lightly.

[js3971]

To more fully understand this question and its answer we must first take a closer look at the word divorce itself for a better understanding of its meaning.

Let's break the word down into its smaller parts: divo and orce. What do these words mean? Nobody knows, and thus nobody knows the answer to the original question.

[Preacherman777]

There is no interest in spreading gossip. It just proves a point. Nothing more, nothing less.

You called the man an idiot and said she should not have married him for such and such unverified reasons, clearly implying that this somehow made the divorce less detestable. Maybe it's just me, but I'd call that careless and certainly a sloppy application of biblical instruction.

[brent]

No it has nothing to do with the bible. It is a personal opinion of mine. There were MANY people around them that thought the same in the musical community. That's neither here nor there.

The biblical reasons for them to get married are none. Technically, salvation is about reconciliation, and not feelings. Marraige and love is an ongoing action, not feelings. Life on earth is to be about being a bond servant to Christ, loving your neighbor as yourself, loving your wife as Christ loved the church. It is about wives submitting to their husbands. Moses was the one, according to scripture, that allowed divorce. God didn't ordain it. It was tollerated. We all have free will to make life altering decisions. If we exercise that free will, marry someone, and cannot reconcile with them, then we are not only failing as a spouse, but as a Christian. Arranged marraiges worked, and those people did not have the warmies at first, or thought that they met their "soul mate" (which is a crock of poo, there is more than one possible person on this planet for everyone). So, why can't believers? I say because they probably aren't truely sold out to the concept of it all and/or have given over to retalliation.

I think that it was ironic that Amy published her own justifying words, with practically a whole CCM magazine and a radio show hosted by J. Rivers, explaining her position, and slamming people like Vestal Goodman who tried to intercede. True, only Amy and Gary know the real poop. But, Gary was no Billy Graham. People in the industry knew it. They were more likely to accept a divorce of the divine Amy Grant, because of the image and reputation he had. Usually, if the man will be the true head of his house, it won't take much time at all for a submissive wife to see God working in him, and work/live in unity.

Again, I do not know them. But I do know people that were cleaning up the mess and image of CCM after her, Sandy Patty, Leon Petillo, etc, etc, etc.

Again, since CCM is not a ministry in and of itself, but is a platform for ministry, there is no seminary, there is no internship, there is no review board, there is only time. What ever is done in silent will be shouted from the roof tops. Whatsoever you sow, that shall you also reap. It takes time for the real goose eggs to surface.

[Shell]

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with "warm fuzzies", but if you don't realize it won't last indefinately and try to build a marriage on it, you'll be in trouble. You really need to be sure you want to wake up next to this person for the next 50 years or so and can help each other through the difficult times. There's a place for getting insight from people around you who you trust. They can be objective and help you realize what you you may be getting yourself into. You should stop and give it some consideration if everyone around you thinks the person you're marrying isn't right for you.

[e5c4p3artist]

Email for Becky Britton-Volz: [email protected]. It's not like it is a big secret or anything. She has posted it herself on a number of websites, including this one.