Christian divorce rates in US

[cradlecathlic26]

Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) % who have been divorced

Non-denominational ** 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%

What does everyone think about this?

 

[bengal_fan]

i think a lot of those catholics don’t count their “annulments”… lol

 

[bengal_fan]

i would also like to know how many of the divorces in other denominations involved ex-roman catholics.

 

[Mickey]

i think a lot of those catholics don’t count their “annulments”… lol

:tiphat:

 

[cradlecathlic26]

why would that make a differance?

 

[inthecloud]

There is a lots of commentary on that study.
It was made among church going people not nominals.
And I understand that they counted the annulments and remariages. Remarriend catholics are about the same number as divorced protestant clery.
The low church evangelicals do had higher divorce rates.
And states were they are more common tend to have higher divorce rates that states were Catholics and Lutherans are more common. Sometimes about 3 times higher.
One explanation as Bengal Fan said is that many evangelical churches tend to atract seeker types that come with a baggage already. Divorced people for example (even excatholics). That might help explain the high divorce rates among Non Dem protestants.
But that is now the only one. One Texan marriage counselor who is Baptist commenting on the study said that the prevalence of “magical” thinking among evangelicals that precludes them to go to theraphy and let everthing in Gods hands, the tendency to marry young, the fact that many may come from poor or troubled background, the teachings on spousal sumission might have a role in a higher divorce rate. She said that some things might be blamed on southern culture (white and black) in general and not necessarily on theology.

 

[Righteousone]

Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) % who have been divorced

Non-denominational ** 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%

What does everyone think about this?

I think this is the human side of life.

 

[ralphinal]

I had a psych professor who studied the whole divorce thing years ago. It almost drove him crazy (crazier). The stats defy the logic of the world. Couples that cohabitate prior to marriage are much, much more likely to divorce. Couples who have sex prior to are also more likely to, but not as bad as cohabitating. He wanted to figure out why. He could not come to a conclusion other than there must be something in the understanding of marriage that some Christians have that make them less like to divorce.

Sometimes God marries people, sometimes people marry people. When God is there, it will last, when we do it without him, it will be difficult. We live in a disposable society. Some even think of humans as disposable. Why should marriage be any different to them?

 

[MH84]

Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) % who have been divorced

Non-denominational ** 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%

What does everyone think about this?

Source of information? You just can’t copy and paste so much without citation.

 

[bengal_fan]

He wanted to figure out why. He could not come to a conclusion other than there must be something in the understanding of marriage that some Christians have that make them less like to divorce.

my theory on it has to do with the idea of “temporary commitment”.

dating is a temporary commitment. we are “committed” to each other until one of us wants to break up. until then though, we will sort of pretend like we are married. even so far as it is possible to “cheat” on each other. take this idea of commitment being temporary and keep adding things to it that are only supposed to be within marriage: sharing of finances, planning life together, sexual activity, cohabitation. the closer we associate real marriage with these temporary commitments, the less likely we are to understand what the permanent commitment of marriage is supposed to be like and the more likely we are to still view it as temporary. this opens the mind and heart up more and more to the idea of divorce. it goes back to our society’s courting practices.

 

[ralphinal]

my theory on it has to do with the idea of “temporary commitment”.

dating is a temporary commitment. we are “committed” to each other until one of us wants to break up. until then though, we will sort of pretend like we are married. even so far as it is possible to “cheat” on each other. take this idea of commitment being temporary and keep adding things to it that are only supposed to be within marriage: sharing of finances, planning life together, sexual activity, cohabitation. the closer we associate real marriage with these temporary commitments, the less likely we are to understand what the permanent commitment of marriage is supposed to be like and the more likely we are to still view it as temporary. this opens the mind and heart up more and more to the idea of divorce. it goes back to our society’s courting practices.

I agree. I also think that the concept of a covenant versus a contract come into play. A contract can be broken or altered. A covenant canot be changed so easily.

 

[bengal_fan]

I agree. I also think that the concept of a covenant versus a contract come into play. A contract can be broken or altered. A covenant canot be changed so easily.

i agree, but covenant has an air of religion and faith about it and i was trying to keep it in a purely secular form. but you are totally right.

 

[cradlecathlic26]

Source of information? You just can’t copy and paste so much without citation.

Im sorry…
www.religioustolerance.org

 

[cradlecathlic26]

I personally feel like faith has the most to do with it. With God in your life, you can workout any problem!

 

[MH84]

Im sorry…
www.religioustolerance.org

Thanks for the link. No need to apologise, its just helps to acknowledge the work of others. It also makes one’s posts more credible I think.

 

[inthecloud]

barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=95

Born Again Adults Less Likely to Co-Habit, Just as Likely to Divorce

August 6, 2001

(Ventura, CA) Americans are increasingly likely to engage in co-habitation prior to marriage, and those who do so have a higher likelihood of experiencing at least one divorce during their lifetime. Strangely, although born again Christians are less likely to engage in co-habitation, they are just as likely to experience a divorce. These are among the findings from a new study by the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California that examines the changing nature of household relationships in the U.S.

Atheist are using the studies to say that religion does not help the family.

Atheism & Divorce: Divorce Rates for Atheists are Among the Lowest in America
From Austin Cline,
Your Guide to Agnosticism / Atheism.
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Why Do Conservative Christian Defenders of Marriage Get Divorced More Often?
Conservative Christians of all types, evangelical as well as Catholic, tend to link their conservative brand of their religion with proper moral behavior. By far the most popular context is marriage: they claim that a good, solid marriage is only possible when people acknowledge conservative Christianity’s claims about the nature of marriage and gender roles. So why is it that Christian marriages, and especially conservative Christian marriages, end in divorce more often than atheist marriages?

The Barna Research Group, an evangelical Christian organization that does surveys and research to better understand what Christians believe and how they behave, studied divorce rates in America in 1999 and found surprising evidence that divorce is far lower among atheists than among conservative Christians — exactly the opposite of what they were probably expecting.

atheism.about.com/od/atheistfamiliesmarriage/a/AtheistsDivorce.htm

 

[inthecloud]

A appraisal of the study:

adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html

But Dr. Ammerman demurs. “There are huge numbers of Catholics in recent years who’ve had marriages annulled,” she said, noting that they would never call themselves divorced because “they’ve gone to great trouble to stay in good standing with the church.” As for the statistic on agnostics and atheists, that’s a group that’s hard to measure because it’s so small, said Dr. Popenoe. “Statistically, they’re only 5 percent of the population,” he said, “and I suspect that’s a very highly educated group,” which means it would have a lower rate of divorce, according to other studies.

But not everybody is willing to reject the Barna statistics out of hand. Some people see them reflected in daily experience.

Dallas therapist and Southwestern Seminary graduate Dr. Roy Austin believes that some more mainline Christians with an active faith might very well have a better chance at lifelong marriages than some people who follow fundamentalist theology. “I’m not supporting those statistics,” he said, referring to the Barna study. But what Dr. Austin calls “magical thinking” is often a factor among evangelical and fundamentalist couples he counsels, he said, and that leaves them less prepared for the rigors of marriage. “The atheist doesn’t believe in God and so doesn’t depend on God to save or fix a marriage. It’s just ‘the two of us,’ and that takes the magic aspect out of it,” he said.

At the same time, his 25 years of counseling shows that religious people can have an advantage in marriage. "If religion is not used as a magic pill but as a source of spiritual and moral strength and guidance, then it can be a major contributing factor to preserving marriage," he said.

But many fundamentalist or evangelical couples base their marriages on “very irrational and unrealistic principles,” he said. “They say, ‘Put God first in your marriage’ whatever that means to them ‘be faithful in church, be a good Christian, pray a lot, attend church, and God will work everything out for you.’ Then they find out that’s a lot of hogwash.” He’s also seen problems when some fundamentalist men, in leading the household, become “cruel dictators” who “expect their wives to become servants.” Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Marriage and director of the Center for Evangelical Spirituality in Bellingham, Wash., believes that men should head the family, but that means they ought to be servant-leaders. “I think in many ways Christian marriage is harder,” he said. "We’re expected to forgive. We’re expected to give of ourselves. Paul tells husbands that they ought to have the mind of a martyr.

 

[MarkBrown]

Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) % who have been divorced

Non-denominational ** 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%

What does everyone think about this?

It is horrible! We all should work hard to reduce that number to zero.

 

[JMBNH]

It’s definitely the marrying younger I think that does it more than anything. There’s a big evangelical mindset among guys to ‘get a wife’ rather than getting married only when they are really sure they want to get married to the person they are marrying. Most evangelicals at about 21 who have been going out with someone 18 months will get married kind of by default, and people who don’t have people question ‘why aren’t they engaged?’ Largely it’s because they all want sex at that age more than marriage (among guys) and because they are pro-cpontraception that does not necessarily mean children relatively soon after marriage, so getting married early is less likely to be an issue.

I actually get criticised by evangelicals for not ‘looking for a wife’ even though I don’t know any girls I’d want to marry, or that would want to marry me, and I know a LOT (not many Catholic which is more of an issue). This even though I’m 22.

 

[MH84]

It’s definitely the marrying younger I think that does it more than anything. There’s a big evangelical mindset among guys to ‘get a wife’ rather than getting married only when they are really sure they want to get married to the person they are marrying. Most evangelicals at about 21 who have been going out with someone 18 months will get married kind of by default, and people who don’t have people question ‘why aren’t they engaged?’ Largely it’s because they all want sex at that age more than marriage (among guys) and because they are pro-cpontraception that does not necessarily mean children relatively soon after marriage, so getting married early is less likely to be an issue.

I actually get criticised by evangelicals for not ‘looking for a wife’ even though I don’t know any girls I’d want to marry, or that would want to marry me, and I know a LOT (not many Catholic which is more of an issue). This even though I’m 22.

Thanks for this post, it is a very honest one IMO. I agree with this:

Most evangelicals at about 21 who have been going out with someone 18 months will get married kind of by default, and people who don’t have people question ‘why aren’t they engaged?’

Im not talking about evangelicals in general, but most people in our society. If they are not having sex or going “steady” with someone they must be gay or there is something wrong with them in some way.

Being a Catholic is slightly different because celibacy and virginity has been a large part of the culture within the Church.

In this society I feel that one would feel like an outcast if he’s not with a girlfriend or is not married. Or if he’s not “getting any”.

Also, another point we have to consider is that being a practicing Christian (of whatever denomination) is how much of the decision to get married is based on one’s sexual desire. I think its a huge part.