Fox News is loudly proclaiming that President Obama has declared War on Traditional Marriage!. really Fox? Then why were divorce rates among Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians the highest in the county since before someone even imagined that Gays and Lesbians should be allowed the same right to marry as other people? Those statistics came, by the way from a Evangekical Christian research institute, the Barna Group, in the year 2000:
Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate)
Non-denominational** 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%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.” […]
The data showed that the highest divorce rates were found in the Bible Belt.* “Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma round out the Top Five in frequency of divorce…the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average” of 4.2/1000 people.
* Note: Divorce rates were still higher in the Bible Belt as of 2009 according to a US Census report.
I don’t remember much discussion of marriage rights for same sex couples back in 2000, do you? Perhaps among gay activists but not in the national news. Maybe, just maybe, the people who fired the first shot in any so-called war on marriage were conservative Christians, and they were shooting themselves in the foot at that! After all, the divorce rate is lower among (drum roll please) atheists and agnostics than among Christians — yes, lower even then Catholics!
The Barna Research Group, an evangelical Christian organization that does surveys and research to better understand what Christians believe and how they behave, studied divorce rates in America in 1999 and found surprising evidence that divorce is far lower among atheists than among conservative Christians – exactly the opposite of what they were probably expecting.[…]
Barna should, however, acknowledge that the divorce rates for conservative Christians are higher than for liberal Christians. He also doesn’t take the further step of acknowledging that perhaps conservative Christianity and conservative religion in general are unable to provide a sound basis for marriage – that perhaps there are other, more secular foundations for marriage that conservative Christians are missing. What might they be? Well, an obvious possibility is treating women like fully autonomous equals in the relationship, something which conservative Christianity frequently denies.
The difference in divorce rates is particularly interesting given the fact that the Christians getting divorced in the highest numbers are among the same Christians who are most likely to raise an alarm about the state of marriage in society. They also tend to be the same Christians who want to deny gays the right to marry on the assumption that gay marriage is a “threat” to the institution of marriage. If marriage is in any danger in America, perhaps the threat comes from the unstable marriages of conservative Christians, not the relationships of gays or the marriages of godless atheists.
Yet I don’t see Fox or other right wing news/disinformation outlets claiming atheists pose a “fundamental threat” to marriage, do you? “Gay Marriage” is the supposedly the only danger to marriage among all the “Real Christians” (i.e., the ones who aren’t liberal, who by the way also have lower divorce rates than fundamentalists).
You know what? If the Fundies want to save traditional marriage maybe they should all convert to Hinduism. According to a Pew survey in 2008, American Hindus have the lowest divorce rate in the country at 5%. Obviously gay marriage doesn’t seem to have affected them much. Just a thought my fundamentalist Christian friends, just a thought.
What’s the marriage rate among these groups vs. coahbitation?
I don;t know Oscar. I’m not sure that’s a stat I’ve ever seen. Have to do that google thing and see. My guess is that it is low, but I could be wrong.
I ask because my thinking is that a higher rate of marriage would bring about a higher opportunity for divorce. It is impossible to track, but I do wonder if we were to add in the number of cohabitant relationships that ended would the numbers even out.
these clowns don’t need no stinking statistics.
they operate under the delusion that every thing that comes out the mouth of any, so called, liberal is……“lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”.
unfortunately for them, the facts do seem to have a liberal bias.
It’s the difference between getting married so you can have sex and getting married because you’ve found someone you think you could be monogamous with.
It’s not complicated. If you don’t kick the tires, don’t be surprised if you wind up with a lemon.
I had a similar but broader thought. I also suspect the problem is in social/religious pressure to get married without knowing whether the spouse is truly a good fit over time – but that’s not just about sex, or even daily compatibility. Most people in their 20s especially are still discovering who they are as adults, and I suspect that process gets delayed the more sheltered a childhood and adolescence you’ve had. Fundamentalist partners, I suspect, are not only less familiar with each other to start with, but are slso more likely to grow apart over time.
I’d say that sexual compatibility can carry a relationship at least seven years (the Seven-Year-Itch) but if you don’t even have that then your marriage is not going to be a long one unless you’re basically stuck with each other for religious, family, or financial reasons. It’s more important to have compatible personalities, but getting married so that you can lose your virginity is a recipe for failure on every level.
I’d actually put the over/under on a relationship built solely on sexual compatibility at three years – maybe longer if you’re in your 20s š – but for the long term, daily compatibility is much more important, and usually harder to find. And both can shift for young adults. But no matter how many factors we name, it boils down to the same thing: people facing religious and social pressure to get married when they’re not ready and/or it’s not the best fit.
I’d also be curious as to how many of those young evangelical couples, especially the guys, really are virgins. I’d bet a lot it’s less than what gets self-reported. Inexperienced, though, I can believe – especially inexperienced at pleasing a partner. They don’t exactly cover that (or much else) in the homeschool sex ed curricula.
What really intrigues me about the study, though, is the Hindu results. I’ve also seen studies that traditional, arranged Hindu marriages tend to last a relatively long time on average. That goes against just about everything we hold dear in the West – marriage for love or lust – and I’d love to see more on why researchers think such marriages last, and whether they are, relative to our norms, happy marriages. Who knows, we might learn something!
I wasn’t aware that they cover pleasing your partner in school sex ed either…unless you go to a Quaker School in Philadelphia and have this instructor:
Teaching Good Sex
I think the Hindu results come from social pressures. I’m currently in a friends with benefits situation with an Indian girl and her parents are Hindu (she’s not sure what she is). And 3 years ago I was in a relationship with a girl and her parents were Sikhs (she’s atheist). In both cases, despite the religious differences, the cultural stigma was still the same. They’re both frequently pressured to date/court Indian boys. And the community usually knows each other, so there’s also a lot of gossip.
Cultural compatibility is very important to a marriage over the long haul. This involves the obvious religious and political views, but also ideas about child rearing, the gender roles within a marriage, importance of education, money, leisure time, holidays, extended family relationships, etc., etc.
Prior to the 60’s, “kicking the tires” was much less common than today and definitely not socially acceptable. I suspect the pill is part of this generational change in behavior and attitude.
I’ve read that marriages following cohabitation have a lower success rate than those of people who haven’t lived together. Lack of a strong commitment? I don’t know that I’ve ever read a satisfactory explanation.
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Mitt needs to make up his mind …
Muslim religion and Gay advocacy don’t mix
Obama is courageous to call for equality marriage rights
It’s not possible for Obama to be a Muslim.
Oh dear, that’s much worse … could he be a true Christian and have moral values?
Mormon faith and late baptisms: after Anne Frank en Simon Wiesenthal, now the late Queen Juliana and Prince of the Netherlands have been baptized after death.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."