Meagan Good, DeVon Franklin to divorce after nine years of marriage

By Karen Butler
Dec. 22, 2021 at 8:14 AM

DeVon Franklin (L) and Meagan Good, who married in 2012, have announced they are divorcing. File Photo by Chris Chew/UPI


Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Harlem and Deception actress Meagan Good and (Seventh-day Adventist) minister/author DeVon Franklin are divorcing after nine years of marriage.

Good, 40, and Franklin, 43, met on the set of the 2011 film, Jumping the Broom, got engaged in May 2012 and tied the knot in June 2012.

Franklin filed for divorce Monday, citing "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for their split.

"After much prayer and consideration, we have decided to go into our futures separately but forever connected," the estranged couple said in a joint statement Tuesday.

"We celebrate almost a decade of marriage together and a love that is eternal. There's no one at fault, we believe this is the next best chapter in the evolution of our love," they added.

"We are incredibly grateful for the life-changing years we've spent together as husband and wife. We are also extremely thankful to God for the testimony being created inside us both and for blessing our lives with each other."

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Amazing Word Ministries Violating the Bible & Ellen White. The SDA GC Is...

Southern Baptist leader, says he has nothing to apologize for

Southern Baptist leader who advised abused women not to divorce doubles down, says he has nothing to apologize for

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey

May 4, 2018 at 8:16 PM

Paige Patterson at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s commencement on Friday. (Sarah Pulliam Bailey/)

FORT WORTH — A prominent Southern Baptist leader whose comments about spousal abuse set off a firestorm last week said in an interview Friday that he couldn’t “apologize for what I didn’t do wrong.”

Wearing a black cowboy hat as he led graduates down the aisle, Paige Patterson set off laughter at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s commencement when he joked about quarreling Baptists. Patterson’s advice to abused women not to divorce has set off a huge public backlash among evangelicals – but not at the conservative Texas seminary where the 75-year-old is president.

The seminary, which instructs women not to teach men and offers them classes in homemaking, this week fired a PhD seminary student from his $40,000-a-year job for simply tweeting about the Patterson debate, telling him that he was “indiscreet” and that his decision to speak publicly about the dispute “does not exhibit conduct becoming a follower of Jesus” and shows he was not properly deferring to “those placed in authority over you.”

As some wondered this week whether the seminary trustees could remove its president, Patterson appeared to double down on Friday, saying in an interview that “allegations have been given on me all my life” and adding that he was being falsely accused but declining to provide examples. During the ceremony, Patterson sat front and center in a red velvet chair, casually twirling his black glasses before addressing the graduates without directly addressing the controversy.

German Bishops Say Catholics Reject Rules On Divorce, Birth Control, Premarital And Gay Sex

Reuters | by Tom Heneghan

Posted: 02/03/2014 3:46 pm EST Updated: 02/03/2014 3:59 pm EST


 




PARIS, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Germany's Catholic bishops, responding to a worldwide Vatican survey, said on Monday that many Church teachings on sexual morality were either unknown to the faithful there or rejected as unrealistic and heartless.

They said the survey, drawn up for a synod on possible reforms in October, showed most German Catholics disputed Church bans on birth control and premarital or gay sex and criticized rules barring the divorced from remarriage in church.

The results will not be news to many Catholics, especially in affluent Western countries, but the blunt official admission of this wide gap between policy and practice is uncommon and bound to raise pressure on Pope Francis to introduce reforms.

Bishops in Germany, one of the richest and most influential national churches in the 1.2-billion-strong Catholic world, have been pressing the Vatican to reform, especially over divorce.

A statement from the German bishops conference called the results "a sober inventory of what German Catholics appreciate about Church teaching on marriage and the family and what they find offputting or unacceptable, either mostly or completely."

Since his election last March, Pope Francis has hinted at possible reform on divorce and at a more welcoming approach to homosexuals. But he has stressed he does not want to change core Church teachings such as the ban on women priests.

WIDESPREAD REJECTION

The bishops' report said many Germans still respect the Church's ideal of stable marriages and a happy family life.

"The Church's statements on premarital sexual relations, homosexuality, on those divorced and remarried, and on birth control, by contrast, are virtually never accepted, or are expressly rejected in the vast majority of cases," it said.

"Almost all couples who wish to marry in church have already been living together," it said. Less than three percent of Catholic couples, it said, use the rhythm method of birth control favoured by the Church rather than the pill, condom or other methods.

While almost all German Catholics approved artificial birth control, the "vast majority are against abortion", it added.

There was a "marked tendency" among Catholics to accept legal recognition of same-sex unions as "a commandment of justice" and they felt the Church should bless them, the report said, although most did not want gay marriage to be legalised.

The report said many Germans cannot understand the rule that divorced Catholics cannot remarry in church and must be denied the sacraments if they opt for a civil ceremony.

Especially faithful churchgoers in this situation see this as "unjustified discrimination and ... merciless," it said.


ADVISORY ETHICS

Pope Francis has suggested the Church wants to show mercy towards divorced Catholics and might ease the rules, taking an example from the Orthodox churches that allow remarriage.

The report said divorced and remarried couples have "become a normal part of pastoral reality in Germany" but gave no figures. In the United States, an estimated 4.5 million of nearly 30 million married Catholics are divorced and remarried.

The German bishops suggested the Church should move away from what it called its "prohibition ethics" of rules against certain acts or views and stress "advisory ethics" meant to help Catholics live better lives.

In sexual morality, it should find a way of presenting its views that does not make people feel it is hostile to sex.

The report further said the Vatican should "take married couples and families seriously" and actively involve them in preparing the synod due to discuss possible reforms in October. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)


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Todd Bentley's New Wife Breaks Silence

Todd Bentley's New Wife Breaks Silence
Thursday, 15 October 2009 04:36 PM EDT Adrienne S. Gaines News - Featured News

The new wife of former Lakeland Revival leader Todd Bentley said she believes it was wrong to begin a relationship with the evangelist before his divorce was final.

In an interview with MorningStar Ministries founder Rick Joyner, who is overseeing Bentley's restoration process, Jessa Bentley said her relationship with Todd Bentley began after he filed for divorce from his first wife, Shonnah. But she now believes they should have waited six months to a year after the divorce was final before beginning a relationship.

"Even though Todd was getting a divorce and Todd was already separated, it was still wrong for us to have anything romantic, regardless if anything physical happened or not," Jessa Bentley said. "Even that emotional line that we crossed, I think is wrong. I think it was a sin. I think it was a mistake. I think we missed it."

She said she doesn't regret marrying Bentley, but repented for "being deceived" and "allowing things to happen that shouldn't have happened."

"We hurt a lot of people," she said. "For that, there's nothing we could say to take that away or to make it right or justify it. It was wrong, and it was sin. ... We made a huge mess. I want to apologize, I want to repent for that." (Watch video.)

Joyner's interview is the latest in a series of videos he has created to update the public on Todd Bentley's restoration process, which he has been overseeing since March. After leading popular revival meetings in Lakeland, Fla., for nearly four months, Bentley suddenly stepped down in August 2008 after announcing that he and his wife, Shonnah, were separating.

At the time, leaders of what is now known as Transform International, which is no longer affiliated with Bentley, expressed concern about the evangelist's relationship with Jessa as well as his alcohol consumption, which a senior board member said had "crossed the line."

Jessa Bentley, 26, said she met Todd Bentley, 33, two years ago when he visited California to lead a conference. She and other church members struck up a friendship with the evangelist, and a year later she moved to Canada, where Bentley's Fresh Fire Ministries was based, to participate in their internship program.

After the Lakeland Revival began, she moved to Florida and helped Bentley's first wife, Shonnah, with the couple's three children. She later became part of the ministry's staff.

Jessa said Fresh Fire staff knew Todd and Shonnah Bentley were having marital difficulties. But the problems grew worse after the revival began, and the couple eventually separated.

"When [the marriage] broke, he broke," Jessa Bentley said. "He crumbled and fell apart."

She said church and Fresh Fire leaders largely weren't available when Todd needed someone to talk with, so he began confiding in a small group of ministry staff. Because she was often the only woman in the group, she would comfort him when he cried.

"He was crying a lot and weeping and crying out to God and praying," she said. "And when there was a group of us, there were a lot of guys, so not a lot of them would be there to comfort him in the way that he needed."

"I did hold him when he cried [when] there were other people there," she continued. "No one else knew what to do. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't just going to walk away from that. There was no one there for him, really, except for the few of us."

She said their relationship was sparked through those times but formally began after the Bentleys separated. Bentley married Jessa earlier this year.

Jessa Bentley said she believes she was deceived part of the time. "I did make up excuses," she said. "I did try to justify it. I did try to say that this was right. But in hindsight, looking back, I realize, it was wrong-period."

She said the couple wants to make things right, but they believe they will have to pay a price for their mistakes. "There are consequences we're walking out, and there are going to be consequences that we're going to have to live with, a price that we have to pay for the rest of our lives because now we're married, and because we made mistakes, we created sins," Jessa Bentley said.

Todd Bentley said Jessa did not break up his first marriage, but that their relationship "shouldn't have happened the way it happened."

He said he and Jessa are not trying to justify their actions. "I'm going to have to bear something the rest of my life, Jessa and I together are bearing something," he said. "And that's difficult. It's cost me my family, ministry, reputation. And nobody did that to me. No anybody in Canada, not a leader. Me. My sin cost me. ... But God's grace, goodness and mercy far outweighs."

Joyner said the Bentleys' situation has been challenging to him personally, but believes Christians "need to find God's grace and His purpose now."

"If we want to receive God's mercy ourselves we have to learn to sow mercy," he said. "If we want to receive His grace, we have to learn to sow grace."

Likening the Bentleys to the biblical King David, Joyner said Israel may have followed Absalom after David committed adultery with Bathsheba because they thought God could no longer be with him after what he did.

"But God was still with David," Joyner said. "And I think there's something in the lesson, in the challenges, of this situation. Nobody's being challenged more than Jessa and Todd in this situation and will be from now on. But they're overcoming it. And I believe the body of Christ is overcoming too."

Bentley continues to minister through Fresh Fire USA Ministries based in Pineville, N.C.

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Source: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/23631-todd-bentleys-new-wife-breaks-silence

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