Posted on 06/21/2014 1:41:03 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
ATLANTA -- It's long been believed that half of America's marriages end in divorce and the problem is just as bad in the Church as the rest of the country.
But when Harvard-trained researcher Shaunti Feldhahn tried to find the actual research to prove those points, she couldn't. It started her on an eight-year odyssey to find the actual facts.
A Demoralizing Belief
The Atlanta-based researcher and author realized the widespread belief that marriage failure is as bad in the Church as the rest of the world demoralizes Christians and can even cause them to question their faith.
"For a pastor it means 'all my work doesn't mean very much,'" Feldhahn told CBN News. "For the average person in the congregation there's this subtle feeling like, 'If that's true: if on something as important as marriage, doing what the Bible says doesn't change anything, what does that mean about the Bible?'"
(Excerpt) Read more at cbn.com ...
One more example of the need to ignore the vicious and ugly tripe shoveled by godless atheists.
Yep - this stat has been used by pastors to give them something to preach about - and by atheists as a way to poke fun at the church. Since many in the pastorate fell for it hook, line and sinker - they are culpable in the lie.
You are right, but unfortunately, this tripe was shoveled from the pulpits too.
Great post. Thank you. This information needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
[The divorce rate for first marriages is lower than for remarriages.]
Feldhahn cited one example where a pastor tracked 143 couples who he had married. "It was 25, 27 years later. Less than 10 percent had been divorced," she stated.
Ping for later
BTTT
In other words don’t believe all media.
The Good News
In her book, The Good News About Marriage, Feldhahn lays out what she found during her eight years of investigating the complicated, complex divorce statistics.
First, the divorce rate is way below 50 percent and much lower for those who attend church.
Feldhahn estimates the overall divorce rate for the country is around 31 percent. The studies of people who regularly go to church all show a much lower divorce rate for them.
"Maybe 15 percent, maybe 20 percent for all marriages. First marriages, second marriages, third marriages," Feldhahn explained.
Feldhahn cited one example where a pastor tracked 143 couples who he had married.
"It was 25, 27 years later. Less than 10 percent had been divorced," she stated.
I have tried to explain this to people in different churches but it just doesn’t seem to stick. For every divorced couple out there, there has to be two lasting marriages to counteract it in statistical averaging. Someone who has several marriages under there belt, so to say, really drags the statistics down because each of their marriages and divorces are counted as separate events, whereas the lasting marriage is one event.
The whole 50% divorce rate was a myth
Thanks for this encouraging article.
I’ve never been in a church where 50% of the marriages ended in divorce. While some people had been divorced before they got saved, after they are saved, what I’ve seen is that divorce is rare.
Christians believe that marriage is God ordained and God honoring and take their vows before Him seriously.
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