The divorce rate in the Bible belt exceeds that of the national average by almost 50% in some states. Eighty-Eight percent of our young people who take the pledge of sexual abstinence prior to marriage can’t seem to keep it. Something is eroding our ability to keep our promises to God and to each other. Meaningless Words and Broken Covenants is a book designed to expose and check this erosion within the Church.

The book opens with an imaginary scenario much like the movie Ground Hog Day–but with a twist. Instead of watching Bill Murray repeat the same day, as in the movie, the reader watches a man live a day in which words have lost all meaning. The scenario paints a picture of a world in which all agreements are off. Promises are merely empty babble, and sacred covenants are made and broken with indifference. This fictional scenario is becoming frighteningly close to reality today. From the mundane to the most sacred, our words are losing their ability to transport reliable meaning.

The ideas are packaged within the context of a medical model. “Meaninglessness” is the name assigned to this sickness in which words begin to lose their meaning and agreements built on them crumble as if they had never been established. The first few chapters look at some of the symptoms of this strange disorder–lying, empty words, damaged relationships, and self-control problems. These symptoms are discussed and then illustrated with true stories from fifteen years of counseling experience.

The second part of the book sheds Biblical light on the concept of covenant. No mere agreement, a covenant is a union. Although Christians have changed the way they look at their covenants with Christ and their marriage partner over the last two thousand years, God has not.

The final section of the book challenges contemporary thinking on divorce and remarriage within the Church. A longstanding taboo blocks honest discussion on this topic. But we must look at it or risk becoming increasingly irrelevant to the society in which we live. Research indicates that our children are far less interested in the faith of their father if it could not keep him with their mother. Empty words about God’s love combined with the refusal to exercise it in marriage are alienating an entire generation of Christian youth. It’s time for a change.

Meaningless Words and Broken Covenants challenges every Christian to step up and replace the bar to the standard Jesus set for marriage. If the Church is without salt, it has nothing to offer the world but empty words. The book asks the reader to take a solid and achievable step towards putting salt back in their relationship with God and with their fellow man.

Our fast paced, word-gorged world has taught us to ignore words, and the price for that mistaken attitude is far higher than most suspect. The book is thought provoking and hard hitting. Although we have come to disregard our words, Jesus has not. He said, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Mat. 12:36).