Dennis Prager Show - The Case Against Unconditional Love Aired: 2021-06-15 Duration: 08:08 === Unconditional Love vs. Marriage Bondage (08:00) === [00:00:00] I have a provocative question. [00:00:01] I don't normally describe questions I raise as provocative, but this is, and it's meant to provoke, by the way, not to provoke anger. [00:00:11] It's meant to provoke thought. [00:00:14] And that is, what's better for a marriage? [00:00:18] One in which one or both spouses announce, under no conditions will we get divorced? [00:00:26] Will I divorce you? [00:00:28] Or one... [00:00:29] Where that is not said. [00:00:32] As you will have inferred, I worry about any time people are rewarded no matter how bad their behavior. [00:00:43] That's why I am 100% opposed to unconditional love and unconditional anything. [00:00:51] I don't. [00:00:56] It's not that I don't understand it. [00:00:58] I should be more precise. [00:00:59] I oppose it. [00:01:02] Let's be really direct here. [00:01:09] I don't believe in unconditional salaries. [00:01:16] None of you do, I assume. [00:01:17] Well, that's not true. [00:01:19] There is a big movement for guaranteed basic income. [00:01:25] You don't have to work. [00:01:26] We'll pay you anyway. [00:01:31] I guess a lot of people yearn for unconditional everything. [00:01:35] No matter how I treat you, you won't divorce me. [00:01:39] No matter how I act, God and man will still love me. [00:01:45] Not my cup of tea. [00:01:47] All right! [00:01:49] Oh, I had a terrific call from somebody that I was going to take. [00:01:53] Yeah, it was sad. [00:01:54] Somebody said they've actually experienced that. [00:01:59] Is Line 1 working, Sean? [00:02:00] Do you want to check if Line 1 is working? [00:02:04] All right, let's see. [00:02:10] All right, let's go to Don in Clarksville, Tennessee. [00:02:14] Hello, Don of Clarksville. [00:02:17] Hi, Dennis. [00:02:18] Thanks for taking my call. [00:02:19] Thank you for calling. [00:02:22] So I believe it would be more virtuous. [00:02:24] For the spouse to want to honor God who hates divorce and would rather knowing that God only allowed for the hardness of one's heart for divorce to occur. [00:02:39] And I don't believe that the motivation for my staying in that marriage as a result of knowing that would be one of either servile fear, that is... [00:02:50] Uh-oh, I better mind my P's and Q's or she's going to out me. [00:02:54] Or one that trusts her that, wow, you mean to tell me she's actually going to forgive me for what I just did? [00:03:02] That is amazing. [00:03:04] And if you'd allow me two examples. [00:03:07] Sure, go ahead. [00:03:10] One is, you mentioned the other day you were talking about divorce and you were talking about it being... [00:03:16] A person remaining in a marriage, you mentioned slavery or you mentioned bondage. [00:03:22] I would submit to you that the person who remains in prison because he doesn't want to reveal secrets of the United States of America is one for a higher goal or a higher value, willing to put himself under bondage for a greater good. [00:03:39] You're always speaking about... [00:03:41] Right. [00:03:42] What is the greater good? [00:03:45] The greater good is that that bond you've made before God, that you would not break that covenant. [00:03:50] And the greater good could also be that you would want to remain there for the betterment of your children. [00:03:55] I think that's actually a greater goal as well as your own self-serving interests. [00:04:02] All right. [00:04:03] Listen, you're a good man. [00:04:05] You're obviously a good man. [00:04:08] I respect every word you said. [00:04:12] And in some cases... [00:04:14] It works. [00:04:18] I am involved very deeply in religious life, both Jewish and Christian. [00:04:24] It's a very rare life in that way, in other ways. [00:04:30] And I wish that deep religiosity guaranteed a good marriage. [00:04:38] But almost everybody listening who is... [00:04:43] A religious knows that that's not necessarily the case. [00:04:47] Even people who share values may not get along. [00:04:51] Values is like oxygen. [00:04:55] You can't live without shared values. [00:04:58] You can't live without oxygen. [00:05:00] But oxygen is not enough. [00:05:03] You need nitrogen. [00:05:04] You need hydrogen. [00:05:07] You need food. [00:05:08] You need a lot of things to live. [00:05:11] And a marriage needs a lot of things. [00:05:13] Shared values is not enough. [00:05:15] Shared values is essential, but not enough. [00:05:22] This may simply be a theological difference. [00:05:26] As I said, I am one of the greatest proponents living today of Judeo-Christian values. [00:05:34] Look, on the Internet, I actually give example after example of what... [00:05:39] Judeo-Christian values are. [00:05:42] I don't just use the term. [00:05:43] I give example after example of what Judeo-Christian values are. [00:05:49] Type in Dennis Prager, Judeo-Christian values. [00:05:52] I devoted about six or ten columns some years ago to defining it. [00:05:59] Having said that, on rare occasion there may be a difference. [00:06:05] I'm not talking, obviously, there's a difference between... [00:06:08] Jewish and Christian theologically, there's a difference between Protestant and Catholic theologically, but values Catholics and Protestants share, and so do Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. [00:06:25] But this may be an example, the attitude toward divorce in the Old Testament and the New Testament. [00:06:36] The line that God hates divorce, one line out of the prophets, can be certainly compared to God hates war. [00:06:47] Right? [00:06:48] There's no question God hates war. [00:06:51] Sometimes war is necessary. [00:06:53] I worry about spouses taking... [00:07:05] About a spouse, any spouse taking their spouse for granted. [00:07:10] I don't like people taking anything for granted. [00:07:13] Do you know why America is now in danger of being lost as America? [00:07:18] I mean, serious danger. [00:07:21] Existential danger. [00:07:23] Because we took it for granted. [00:07:26] That's why. [00:07:30] People thought you can't lose America. [00:07:32] You can't lose free speech. [00:07:35] Just embedded into our souls. [00:07:41] Anything you take for granted, you'll lose. [00:07:44] And then, all of a sudden, you might know what you had. === Anonymous Call (00:22) === [00:07:51] Okay, let's see here. [00:07:53] Anyway, it was an important call. [00:07:54] That's why I started with it. [00:07:57] An anonymous in Northern California. [00:08:00] The famous anonymous of Northern California. [00:08:04] Hello, Dennis. [00:08:06] Hi. [00:08:06] Uh-oh. [00:08:07] One minute.