The Watchtower, “Questions From Readers”
“That por·neiʹa can rightly be considered as including perversions within the marriage arrangement is seen in that the man who forces his wife to have unnatural sex relations with him in effect “prostitutes” or “debauches” her. … If, on the other hand, the lewd practices were engaged in by mutual consent, neither mate would have a basis for claiming por·neiʹa as a Scriptural ground for divorce. … Such a case, if brought to the attention of elders in the congregation, would be handled like any other serious wrongdoing.”
Answering whether lewd practices by one marriage partner towards the other are a Scriptural basis for divorce, the magazine extends the 1972 definition of the Greek term inside the marriage, names oral and anal intercourse among the acts covered, allows a wife subjected to them against her will to seek a divorce, and directs that a couple who engage in them by consent be dealt with as serious wrongdoers.
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Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, Questions From Readers
Confidence note. Document opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full. The first quoted sentence follows the page 704 marker; the three passages are separate paragraphs of the same answer, joined here by ellipses. Only as much is quoted as is needed to establish what the rule was.
Corroborated by. src-chg-p-w-1978-0215-qfr-marital-withdrawn
Notes. The organisation’s own index lists this article under ‘1974, fornication (porneia) as grounds for divorce’.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-p-w-1974-1115-qfr-marital