I’ve not had any close personal experience with divorce myself, but I’m old enough to recall when divorce was not taken so matter of factly as it is today. A divorce was sometimes enough to undermine a political or business career. If I recall correctly, it became a factor in Ronald Reagan’s candidacy for governor. A couple in my parish who were long time parishioners divorced after a decades long marriage. Some of their friends said “I don’t know whose side to be on.” It was awkward.
When I was a kid, divorce was simply something unthinkable. My mom and dad not being together was something which would not ever have occurred to me. But simply because most kids take family unity for granted, divorce is like an earthquake in their life, over which they have no control.
And while no one has control over the adversities of life, some are more—or less—resilient than others.
I think perhaps we have become too accustomed to divorce, accepting it as something that occurs just like rain showers and thunderstorms, something we have to accept. But we’ve come to accept a lot of things that are unacceptable—abortion, promiscuity, gender fluidity, same sex marriage—the list could be long. To quote one part of the linked article:
“In the decades since my parents’ divorce and through the years of my marriage, I have learned that no-fault divorce is one of the biggest lies our culture tries to get people to believe. In truth, “no-fault divorce is destroying women, children, and men. More precisely, divorce destroys marriage, and the destruction of marriage harms every party involved. The legality of no-fault divorce just makes it infinitely easier to hurt people.”
