Fundies Divorce As Often as Atheists

[Doug]

Ventura, CA) - Recent legislation, lawsuits and public demonstrations over the legality of gay marriage are just one battlefront regarding the institution of marriage. A new study released by The Barna Group, of Ventura, California, shows that the likelihood of married adults getting divorced is identical among born again Christians and those who are not born again. The study also cited attitudinal data showing that most Americans reject the notion that divorce is a sin...

Christians Have Same Incidence of Divorce

Although many Christian churches attempt to dissuade congregants from getting a divorce, the research confirmed a finding identified by Barna a decade ago (and further confirmed through tracking studies conducted each year since): born again Christians have the same likelihood of divorce as do non-Christians.

Among married born again Christians, 35% have experienced a divorce. That figure is identical to the outcome among married adults who are not born again: 35%.

..."The data suggest that relatively few divorced Christians experienced their divorce before accepting Christ as their savior," he explained. "If we eliminate those who became Christians after their divorce, the divorce figure among born again adults drops to 34% - statistically identical to the figure among non-Christians." The researcher also indicated that a surprising number of Christians experienced divorces both before and after their conversion.

Multiple divorces are also unexpectedly common among born again Christians. Barna’s figures show that nearly one-quarter of the married born agains (23%) get divorced two or more times.

The survey showed that divorce varied somewhat by a person’s denominational affiliation. Catholics were substantially less likely than Protestants to get divorced (25% versus 39%, respectively). Among the largest Protestant groups, those most likely to get divorced were Pentecostals (44%) while Presbyterians had the fewest divorces (28%).

...Barna stated that there is no end in sight regarding divorce. "You can understand why atheists and agnostics might have a high rate of divorce, since they are less likely to believe in concepts such as sin, absolute moral truth and judgment. Yet the survey found that the percentage of atheists and agnostics who have been married and divorced is 37% - very similar to the numbers for the born again population..."
Read the rest here.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Well, I'm not a christian and never was a "born again" but 100% of my marriages (1), ended in divorce. My best friend says (about the multiple "saves" you find in the fundie churches) that the 2nd cancels the first - so I guess you'd need to check and see how many times the person in question (say, my 72-year-old "born again" aunt who's been married 4 or 5 times - we're not sure she is currently legally married to the guy she's living with) has been saved. If it's an odd number, it counts. If it's an even number, it doesn't because of the cancellation effect.

[NeilS]

Paul instructed that the believer cannot initiate divorce. But...the believer must let the unbelieving partner depart if they choose. The believer would not then be responsible. The believer must accept their partner's return. Remarriage is not an option according to Paul.

Given that divorce was higher among pentacostals...I wonder if the divorce rate is higher because the unbelieving partners just got frustarted because of communication problems (i.e., linguistic issues, other tongues)?

It is possible that non-christian partners account for initiating a significantly larger portion of the divorces to christian spouses.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Because I wasn't RC at the time of initiating my divorce (I did RC during my 30s, but recovered by my 40s), the currently unacknowledged "Pauline privilege" got me both a civil (legal) divorce and a religious annulment. I could remarry in "the church" if I'd ever wanted to - my ex-husband the cradle catholic did (twice).