Study Suggests Why Religious Marriages Are Less Likely to End In Divorce
I’ve actually seen other studies over the years that say Christian marriages are more likely to end in divorce, especially the younger the couple were when they first married.
I don’t often see liberals harping on this so much (at least not so much in their professional or mainstream publications) to score Brownie Points in the Culture Wars as much as I do the secular or Christian conservatives.
I think many Christians want to keep “advertising” or marketing the faith (and/or the Bible) as something that, if you just try it, your life will be better and happier. But that isn’t always the case.
Sometimes Christian men end up being abusive towards their wives or committing adultery (I have (Link): many examples on this blog of this).
No where does the Bible say that being a Christian or putting faith in Jesus or the Bible will make a person immune from divorce, feeling lonely, suffering health problems, or whatever other problems in life, yet Christians keep promoting the faith as though this is its purpose.
Of course, if a faith cannot or does not help me in this life time (and being a devout Christian for over 35 years sure didn’t help me with my earthly problems), I don’t see the point in following that faith.
This article makes reference to Institute for Family Studies, and the noxious Bradford Wilcox, so take any thing they have to say with a grain of salt – they’re generally a bunch of marriage-worshippers – and Wilcox leans towards shaming singles for being single, or for trying to depict singleness as being horrible, wrong, sinful, or worse than being in hell.
Contra to what one of the people (is it Wilcox?) says (or seems to imply) in this article, churches are not hot-beds heavily populated by “marriage friendly” singles – not single men.
If you’re a single, Christian woman who has been advised by her family or church (as I was when younger) to be “equally yoked” and to consider a church a prime place to find eligible husband material, you know that the single women in most churches vastly out-number the single men.
Most men in most churches are either already married or are 83 years old with white hair.
(Link): Study Suggests Why Religious Marriages Are Less Likely to End In Divorce
Excerpts:
Dec 21, 2021
by Leonardo Blair
Religious marriages are slightly less likely to end in divorce because religion tends to motivate less cohabitation, a known risk factor for divorce, a new research brief from the Institute of Family Studies suggests. But it’s not the only reason.
The brief, which crunches data from more than 53,000 women ages 15 to 49 from the National Survey of Family Growth from 1995 to 2019, shows how age at the time of marriage is also a factor.
And depending on when marriage happens for a woman, the impact of religion on divorce can have no effect.
While the IFS researchers couldn’t conclude how religion can foster a higher likelihood of stable marriages, they presented three possible explanations.
“Religion might induce people to ‘make lemons out of lemonade,’ it might give people institutional or community support, or it might positively alter the quality of romantic pairings,” they wrote.
The report suggests that religion contributes to marriage stability because it changes the experience of marriage and may change who women marry in important ways.
“Religion could alter the potential spouses to which women are exposed. Via church communities, religious women may be able to access a larger and more marriage-friendly pool of potential spouses,” the researchers said.
“Second, religion could alter the criteria that women have for selecting partners. Knowing that cohabitation is disfavored and desiring the companionship of a committed union, religious women might more actively pursue ‘husband material’ partners earlier in life than other women,” they added.
Researchers noted that “religion might alter the dynamics between partners in important ways.”
Related Posts (on this blog):
(Link): Fewer Americans Think Marriage is Needed To Create Strong Families, New Poll Suggest
(Link): Study: Conservative Protestants’ divorce rates spread to their red state neighbors
(Link): Men Who Have Children Younger Die By Mid-Life -early marriage also involved, says researchers
(Link): The Nauseating Push by Evangelicals for Early Marriage
(Link): A Case Against Early Marriage by Ashley Moore (editorial)
(Link): Codependence Is Not Oneness: What Christians Get Wrong About Relationships
(Link): Do You Feel Shame About Being Single? By John Amodeo, PhD
(Link): Getting Married Is Not an Accomplishment by N. Brooke’
(Link): Do You Need a Partner to Have a Happy Life? by D. LaBier
(Link): Statistics Show Single Adults Now Outnumber Married Adults in the United States
(Link): Single Adult Christian Pressured Into Marriage by Her Church – And Regrets It
(Link): Are Single People the Lepers of Today’s Church? by Gina Dalfonzo
(Link): I Married Young. I Was Widowed Young. I Never Want A Long-Term Partner Again by R. Woolf
(Link): The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake – by David Brooks – and Related Links
(Link): Nearly 4 in 10 American Adults Live Without Spouse or Partner As Single Population Grows: Pew
(Link): Marriage-Pushing Zealot Wilcox Suggests that Being Single is Immoral: National Review Article
(Link): Why We Thought Marriage Made Us Healthier, and Why We Were Wrong by Bella DePaulo
(Link): Convicted Sex Offender on the Run for 20 Years Found Living New Life as Pastor in Alabama
(Link): Higher Share of Unintended Pregnancies are Aborted in Blue States than Red, Data Suggests
Christian Pundit 