Even if you don't buy the Barna study that says 32% of born again Christians are divorced, there are plenty of other studies done that indicate that we don't hold marriage in as high a regard as we claim.
Professor Bradley Wright, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut, explains from his analysis of people who identify as Christians but rarely attend church, that 60 percent of these have been divorced. Of those who attend church regularly, 38 percent have been divorced. (quoted at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=34656, from Bradley R.E. Wright, "Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites …and Other Lies You've Been Told," (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2010), p. 133.)
So 60% of professing Christians, 38% of "serious" Christians. Yeah, my 50% was off, but not by much
And that quote is from a guy defending Christians, so if the numbers are skewed, they're skewed low.
Guys, I've been in too many churches where they ran out of men qualified to be deacons because of divorce to think that divorce is rare among professing Christians. I've turned down churches because the deacons wanted to re-write the church constitution to allow divorced men serve as deacons. We cannot expect anyone else to take marriage seriously when we don't.
I know there are situations where divorce is really the "best" option (infidelity). But 38% of regular churchgoers are NOT committing adultery. They just give up. And we go into marriage too casually. People ask a pastor to marry them then get insulted when he tells them they have to attend counseling sessions before he'll perform the ceremony. They don't take it seriously. Sometimes I think the real reason we're worried about gay marriage is that we're afraid they'll show us they know what a committed relationship really means better than we do.
- By ECC29
- By Purple Haize