Why I'll always admire Dennis Prager

One of the concerns that Dennis Prager expressed upon his announcement that his 17 year marriage to Fran was ending was that he might lose credibility or moral clout due to his marital status. This is a valid concern, namely because a huge constituency of his listeners are Christians, among those Catholics, and divorce is the big "D" word within those circles (eventhough the rate among Christians and non-Christians is the same, and in some cases, Christians have a higher divorce rate.)

Callers to the show that professed a Christian faith wrestled with his ideas about divorce citing, rather misquoting, the old testament as saying, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Dennis gently reminded them that that scripture verse is not from the Old Testament, and that it's a New Testament idea.

For many Christians, especially those who share a deep love of those ascribing to the Jewish faith, it's often difficult to remember that Jews do not follow the New Testament teachings of Jesus. Many of them are well versed in the New Testament, but we must remind ourselves that they do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and therefore do not follow his teachings in the same way Christians do. They might to a certain extent, but not to the extent that followers of Jesus Christ would and should, and often don't. :)

Dennis said several times that nowhere in the OT, does God expressly forbid divorce; it only says He hates it. I'm not a NT scholar, but I know that there is much more talk of staying together and serving one another in that section of the Bible than there is in the Torah. Once again, Christians must remind themselves of the differences between themselves and Jews. Again, they aren't checking what Paul has to say about marriage, they're looking at Moses' revelations. It's a difficult distinction, mainly because everyone is rooting for marriage to work, but it must be done. Dennis is not a Christian. Therefore Dennis isn't going to follow what the New Testament has to say on the subject. (Though he sure can quote it better than many Christian callers can.)

But if there's one thing that speaks volumes of Mr. Prager's integrity during this season, it's been his unwillingness to disclose any details about their separation. (For his announcement, see this site.) On the one hand, it's difficult for people not to know why something has ended. It leaves much room for speculation. But on the other hand, for a man to cover the dignity of his family the way that Mr. Prager has, says a great deal about what kind of man he is.

People frequently call his show saying, "I feel like I know you," and he always responds, "You do." And on Friday, he reiterated, "I'm not a talk show host, I'm a man who happens to have a talk show." He insists that he is the same on the air as he is off. I, for one, believe him.

No one but his closest friends can really know why he and Fran feel it is necessary to sever the bonds of their marriage. But it's really not for us to know. In the meantime, he's not lost one ounce of respect from me, since the way a man conducts himself through a trial is even more telling than when everything in his life is fine.