Everyone needs to congratulate Henry King for finally freeing himself from a wife he’s tried to leave for nearly three decades.
In 1993, he first filed for divorce from Lynn King citing “cruel and inhumane
treatment.” Because a judge said there wasn’t enough evidence of that, the divorce didn’t go through.
Now you might think that trying to get a divorce might be a sign that this marriage is broken… but they chose to stayed married. At least that’s what Lynn wanted.
Lynn is a Pentecostal Christian who believes marriages must last until death because those vows were “promised before God.” Also, she says, the Bible forbids divorce. Henry is literally bound to her for life now.
He tried to divorce her again in 2016, years after state law changed to allow divorces for couples whose marriages were “irretrievably broken” for at least six months… but Lynn King challenged that as well. A legal battle dragged on for a while but the divorce was finally granted last year.
End of story? Of course not. Lynn then filed a lawsuit against the State of New York saying that allowing the divorce to go through violated her religious rights because it was forcing her to go against God’s wishes.
Now a judge has dismissed her claim, saying she doesn’t have standing. He said there’s no “constitutional right to remain married” and that her religious marriage (the spiritual side of things) is separate from her legal marriage (which can absolutely be dissolved).
A lot of wasted years of his life! Maybe hers, too. Fairy tales can turn into horror tales. She's going to come to think of the divorce as a form of being "tested" by her magic man in the sky.
It's a terrible story! I am so sorry that a man was forced to live in a marriage against his will. Freedom is the most precious thing people have. When someone violates a person's boundaries and freedom, they have the right to go to a human rights court and defend their position. In this case, the husband should have hired a good lawyer from a law firm specializing in family matters. Unfortunately, some people do not know how to distinguish between the spiritual world and the state's laws, which they must abide by. In general, in such cases, you need to know how to assert your rights and use the help of professionals.
I never married and never regretted it.
I married twice, and the second one is great!
Same here as well. Looking at the way this fucked up piece of shit planet turned out boy am I glad I never bought any kids into this world.
Apparently, religion would like to have the 'right' to own another person . . . forever.
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