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Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by huxley(m): 10:36pm On Apr 17, 2009
[size=18pt]Divorce and remarriage
                            U.S. divorce rates for various faith groups, age groups, & geographic areas
[/size]


Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm


Divorce rates in the U.S.:

"There is consensus that the overall U.S. divorce rate had a brief spurt after WW2, followed by a decline, then started rising in the 1960s and even more quickly in the 1970s, then leveled off [in the] 1980s and [has since] declined slightly."  However, such gross statistics are misleading. There are a number of factors involved that obscure the real data:

[list]
[li]The normal lifestyle of American young adults is to live together for a period of time in a type of informal trial marriage. These relationships frequently do not endure.[/li]
[li] Couples enter into their first marriage at a older age than in the past. [/li]
[li] A growing percentage of committed couples have decided to live in a common-law relationship rather than get married. This is particularly true among some elderly who fear reduction in government support payments.[/li]
[/list]





The current U.S. divorce rate:


The media frequently reports that 50% of American marriages will end in divorce. This number appears to have been derived from very skimpy data related to a single county or state. However, it appears to be reasonable close to the probable value. The Americans for Divorce Reform estimates that "Probably, 40 or possibly even 50 percent of marriages will end in divorce if current trends continue. However, that is only a projection and a prediction."




Divorce rates among Christian groups:

The slogan: "The family that prays together, stays together" is well known. There has been much anecdotal evidence that has led to "unsubstantiated claims that the divorce rate for Christians who attended church regularly, pray together or who meet other conditions is only 1 or 2 percent". 8 Emphasis ours]. Dr. Tom Ellis, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Council on the Family said that for ", born-again Christian couples who marry, in the church after having received premarital counseling, and attend church regularly and pray daily together, " experience only 1 divorce out of nearly 39,000 marriages -- or 0.00256 percent. 9

A recent study by the Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on these estimates. Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21. 1 They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points. The survey found:
[list]
[li]11% of the adult population is currently divorced.[/li]
[li]25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime.[/li]
[li]Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience.
[/li]
[/list]

George Barna, president and founder of Barna Research Group, commented:

    "While it may be alarming to discover that born again Christians are more likely than others to experience a divorce, that pattern has been in place for quite some time. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is that when those individuals experience a divorce many of them feel their community of faith provides rejection rather than support and healing. But the research also raises questions regarding the effectiveness of how churches minister to families. The ultimate responsibility for a marriage belongs to the husband and wife, but the high incidence of divorce within the Christian community challenges the idea that churches provide truly practical and life-changing support for marriages."

According to the Dallas Morning News, a Dallas TX newspaper, the national study "raised eyebrows, sowed confusion, [and] even brought on a little holy anger." This caused  George Barna to write a letter to his supporters, saying that he is standing by his data, even though it is upsetting. He said that "We rarely find substantial differences" between the moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians. Barna Project Director Meg Flammang said: "We would love to be able to report that Christians are living very distinct lives and impacting the community, but ,  in the area of divorce rates they continue to be the same." Both statements seem to be projecting the belief that conservative Christians and liberal Christians have the same divorce rate. This disagrees with their own data.

The survey has come under some criticism:

[list]
[li]David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University has said that the survey doesn't make sense. He based this belief on his assessment that Christians follow biblical models of the family, making a bond that "the secular world doesn't have, It just stands to reason that the bond of religion is protective of marriage, and I believe it is."
[/li]

[li]Tom Ellis of the Southern Baptist Convention suggests that the Barna poll is inaccurate because the people contacted may have called themselves born-again Christians, without having previously made a real commitment to God. He said: "We believe that there is something more to being a Christian, Just saying you are [a born-again] Christian is not going to guarantee that your marriage is going to stay together."
[/li]
[li]Some researchers have suggested that religion may have little or no effect on divorce rates. The apparently higher rate among born-again Christians, and lower rate among Atheists and Agnostics may be due to the influence of financial and/or educational factors.
[/li]
[/list]


One reason for the discrepancy of beliefs about divorce rates among born-again Christians may be that their churches are unaware of the true number of divorcing couples in their midst.

[list]
[li]Many couples would find it difficult to continue attending services in the same congregation after their marital separation. Meeting at church would be awkward. So, they drop out.
[/li]

[li]Many probably find that the climate in their church is very negative towards divorcing couples. So, they move to other congregations that are either more accepting of divorce, or are unaware of their marital status.
[/li]




Barna report: Variation in divorce rates among Christian faith groups:

[table]
[tr][td]Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate)[/td][td]% who have been divorced[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Non-denominational **[/td][td]34%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Baptists[/td][td]29%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mainline Protestants[/td][td]25%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mormons[/td][td]24%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Catholics[/td][td]21%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Lutherans[/td][td]21%[/td][/tr]

[/table]

** Barna uses the term "non-denominational" to refer to Evangelical Christian congregations that are not affiliated with a specific denomination. The vast majority are fundamentalist in their theological beliefs. More info.

Barna's results verified findings of earlier polls: that conservative Protestant Christians, on average, have the highest divorce rate, while mainline Christians have a much lower rate. They found some new information as well: that atheists and agnostics have the lowest divorce rate of all.  George Barna commented that the results raise "questions regarding the effectiveness of how churches minister to families." The data challenge "the idea that churches provide truly practical and life-changing support for marriage."

Donald Hughes, author of The Divorce Reality, said:

    "In the churches, people have a superstitious view that Christianity will keep them from divorce, but they are subject to the same problems as everyone else, and they include a lack of relationship skills. , Just being born again is not a rabbit's foot."

Hughes claim that 90% of divorces among born-again couples occur after they have been "saved."


Variation in divorce rates by religion:

[table]

[tr][td]Religion[/td][td]% who have divorce[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Jews[/td][td]30%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Born-again Christians[/td][td]27%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Other Christians[/td][td]24%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Atheists, Agnostics[/td][td]21%[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Ron Barrier, Spokespersonn for American Atheists remarked on these findings with some rather caustic comments against organized religion. He said:

    "These findings confirm what I have been saying these last five years. Since Atheist ethics are of a higher caliber than religious morals, it stands to reason that our families would be dedicated more to each other than to some invisible monitor in the sky.  With Atheism, women and men are equally responsible for a healthy marriage.  There is no room in Atheist ethics for the type of 'submissive' nonsense preached by Baptists and other Christian and/or Jewish groups.  Atheists reject, and rightly so, the primitive patriarchal attitudes so prevalent in many religions with respect to marriage." 2

StopTheReligiousRight.org had some scathing comments as well:

    "We hear an awful lot from conservatives in the Bible Belt and on the TV about how we all should be living. Certainly a culture that teaches the conservative religious values of the Christian right must have clean living written all over it. And lots of ripe fruit from their morally superior lives abounding."

    "It doesn't. Far from it. People that talk the loudest may be the ones walking the slowest. Joining its history of Biblically correct bigotry and discrimination, it is an area with the highest divorce, murder, STD/HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, single parent homes, infant mortality, and obesity rates in the nation. As a region, the Bible Belt has the poorest health care systems and the lowest rates of high school graduation." 12


  Read here for more info 
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by noetic(m): 5:18am On Apr 18, 2009
so?
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Nobody: 3:38am On Apr 21, 2009
u even av time to read it
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by biina: 5:34am On Apr 21, 2009
Another case of misinterpreting data
1. US population is over 300,000,000. Sample size is 3854 adults (about 0.001%). Essentialy the survey used each person surveyed to predict 70,000 others  shocked
2. No information was provided on how the people were selected to justify that they are a true representation of the populace
3. What is the fraction of those surveyed that were married? Divorce rate should be considered in the context of the marriage rate.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by tpia: 7:28am On Apr 21, 2009
.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Nobody: 4:03pm On Apr 21, 2009
You guys need to understand this:

Not everyone who "goes to church and prays" is a born again Christian. Not everyone who claims to be a born again Christian is one. Only God knows people's hearts.

Born again Christians know what the Bible has to say about divorces, and they stick to it.

1 Like

Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Lady2(f): 5:58pm On Apr 22, 2009
Huxley

I agree with your post, however christianity doesn't only exist in the U.S. culture play a vital role in marriage, so going off of the U.S. alone honey you are bound to find flaws in the experiment.

But just to note. Divorce doesn't exist in the Catholic church. So for the survey to say that there are 21% of catholic divorces is misleading and therefore casts doubts on the survey itself.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Nobody: 1:23pm On May 02, 2009
~Lady~:

Huxley

I agree with your post, however christianity doesn't only exist in the U.S. culture play a vital role in marriage, so going off of the U.S. alone honey you are bound to find flaws in the experiment.

But just to note. Divorce doesn't exist in the Catholic church. So for the survey to say that there are 21% of catholic divorces is misleading and therefore casts doubts on the survey itself.

WHAT
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by duduspace(m): 1:59pm On May 02, 2009
@Lady

I agree wholeheartedly with your first statement but the second amounts to a very bad lie. I think you possibly mean something else totally different from what you've written.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Bastage: 3:42pm On May 02, 2009
LMAO.

Catholics don't get divorced.
They just stop being married to one another. grin grin grin grin
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by minute(f): 4:07pm On May 02, 2009
1999 is a 'recent' study? undecided undecided undecided


Oh well . . .if its true its because the Devil is hell bent on
destroying the the Xtian Families!!!! Its a spiritual warfare . . . . . undecided undecided undecided
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Nobody: 1:42am On May 06, 2009
@bastage,
you are to funny about your reply to her post.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by nelsonose: 1:00am On Oct 19, 2009
This info is quite rich. Can anyone post the Naija example.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Kunbee: 4:01am On Oct 19, 2009
undecided undecided undecided undecided undecided undecided
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Abuzola(m): 4:59pm On Oct 19, 2009
You now see why polygame is advantageous
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by bawomolo(m): 5:38pm On Oct 19, 2009
minute:

1999 is a 'recent' study? undecided undecided undecided


Oh well . . .if its true its because the Devil is hell bent on
destroying the the Xtian Families!!!! Its a spiritual warfare . . . . . undecided undecided undecided

the devil gets blamed for shit he did and shit he didn't do. na wa o
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by akered: 8:58pm On Jan 10, 2010
mactao:

You guys need to understand this:

Not everyone who "goes to church and prays" is a born again Christian. Not everyone who claims to be a born again Christian is one. Only God knows people's hearts.

Born again Christians know what the Bible has to say about divorces, and they stick to it.

This is what is called 'the real scotsman fallacy' "real" born-again christians dont divorce? shocked shocked Thats laughable!
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by jcross22: 1:34am On Jan 11, 2010
some people here are damn daft. can the poster please mention a single well known born again that get divorced we are not talking about the celebrities . please and forget about that forgery
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by akered: 2:03am On Jan 11, 2010
Chris Okotie
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by jcross22: 12:22pm On Jan 11, 2010
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I THINK THE POSTER SAID IN US , CHRIS OKOTIE IS HE NOW AMERICAN . AH AH AH AH AH AH AH WE ARE SAYING A ANOTHER FOOL SAYS B , AH AH AH AH . FOR YOUR INFORMATION HE WAS DIVORCED WHEN HE WAS LAWYER. OKAY.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by akered: 7:53pm On Jan 11, 2010
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by jcross22: 8:18pm On Jan 11, 2010
we thank GOD is divorce right then face the problem of terrorism and poverty in your religion.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by akered: 9:54pm On Jan 11, 2010
jcross22:

we thank GOD is divorce right then face the problem of terrorism and poverty in your religion.

It may suprise you to know that I am NOT a muslim. To me, Islam is even worse!!!
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by ula(f): 2:53pm On Jul 12, 2011
it doesn't exist in d Catholic church, that is why women are going through emotional traumas and men are getting away with abuse. of course, counseling is that the woman should be patient till she's six feet below. note: if the foundation is wrong, the marriage will require the special grace of God for it to work. my advice: if your marriage isnt working, walk away from it. learn from titi's death women, it doesn't have to get to that stage.
Re: Divorce Rates Amongst Born-again Christians Compared To Other Groups by Kobojunkie: 6:19pm On Apr 24, 2023
ula:
it doesn't exist in d Catholic church, that is why women are going through emotional traumas and men are getting away with abuse. of course, counseling is that the woman should be patient till she's six feet below. note: if the foundation is wrong, the marriage will require the special grace of God for it to work. my advice: if your marriage isnt working, walk away from it. learn from titi's death women, it doesn't have to get to that stage.
Divorce rates among Christians and none are the same everywhere. Marriage has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God, for one. undecided

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