Some Knowledge on Divorce

Divorce has been a developing hot topic for decades now. Have you ever heard someone quote the statistic that 50% of all marriages end in divorce? It's referenced throughout churches, pop culture, and even entertainment. However, this statistic is outdated.

There was a spike in the number of divorces shortly after the Baby Boom, and the children of that generation of divorce were affected. Another spike in the number of divorces occurred in the 1970s, when a group of researchers decided to make a projection of what the divorce rate would be at this time. The divorce rate was not 50% then, and it is not now. Many census surveys indicate a rate more comparable to 25%.

Even though the correct rate is considerably lower than the public's perceived rate, there is still caution to be taken. Some family scientists say that divorce rates increased when California precedented a "No-Fault Divorce", in which there does not need to be a legitimate reason for divorce approved by an authority for it to occur. Why do you think this would affect people's choice to divorce?

A spiritual point of view would bring up the term "covenant." A covenant is an agreement made between two parties under the conditions of a superior party. The inferior parties must play by the superior's rules in order to benefit from the arrangement. When No-Fault divorces were passed, individuals in marriages were no longer inferiors. They weren't playing by anyone else's rules. The idea that marriage was a covenant practically vanished.

You may have heard that people that are religious are more likely to stay married. That's true. With an understanding of what a covenant is, it's easy to recognize that individuals who hold themselves and their marriage accountable to a supreme being find it unreasonable to divorce.

Divorce is a hard event, and often leaves a lifetime of adjustments and adaptations for families to fight through. Although it's unfair to say that divorce is 100% preventable, it IS fair to say that understanding the purpose of a marriage is crucial to its success.