Divorce is higher among religiously conservative Protestants – and even drives up divorce rates for other people living around them, a new study finds.
The study, slated to be published in the American Journal of Sociology, tackles the “puzzling paradox” of why divorce is more common in religiously conservative “red” states. If religious conservatives believe firmly in the value of marriage, why is divorce especially high in places like Alabama and Arkansas?
To figure that out, researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Iowa analyzed county divorce statistics against information from an earlier study of religious congregations. They categorized Protestant denominations that believe the Bible is literally true as "conservative Protestants."
Researchers discovered that higher divorce rates among conservative Protestants were tied to earlier marriages and childbearing – factors known to ramp up divorce. Starting families earlier tends to stop young adults from pursuing more education and depresses their wages, putting more strain on marriages, University of Texas at Austin professor Jennifer Glass said.
But the study went a step further: Glass and another researcher also discovered that people living in areas with lots of conservative Protestants were at higher risk of getting divorced, even if they weren’t conservative Protestants themselves.
And these are the people who want to "protect the sanctity of marriage" from the gays.
Kind of late for that, now isn't it?
To be fair I myself am twice divorced so I don't get to throw stones.
However I could mention that my second wife was the daughter of a minister, and that my first became a Fundamentalist right after we split up as my excuse. However that would be blaming others for my failings and I don't do that.
People fall out of love all the time. It happens.
However it just feels especially ironic to have so many from a group that places so much importance on the institution and who want to deny it to others.
Fundamentalist women are sexually sneaky since they’re often barred (for religious reasons or simple lack of education) from significant roles in society. They need meaning and excitement. They can, and do, put inappropriate pressure on brothers-in-law and male acquaintances. It’s not good for the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteFundamentalist men are more inclined to secretly abuse immediate family. They don’t dare buy dinner and drinks for an outsider.
One thing I've never understood about the Catholic religion is how you can have your marriage annulled after many years and kids (ala Kenndys) to marry another. You're DIVORCING, period.
ReplyDeleteMoney talks. It wasn't a gypsy who first said crease my palm with silver - it was a priest.
DeleteAs someone raised and schooled Catholic---it's a definitional thing.
DeleteTo get divorced is to end an existing marriage, to get an annullment is to obtain a decree from whatever relevant authority that the conditions necessary to enter into a valid marriage did not exist, therefore there never was any marriage.
Disqualifying conditions might be: lack of informed consent (youth, mental illness, intoxication, forced into it, and so on), or incapable of/ unwilling to perform the physical "duties" of
marriage (i.e., sex and its resultant babies.)
It's not just a Catholic thing, either. It's done by the state too---Britney Spears, for example, had one of her marriages legally annulled. Lots of other instances out there.
All that said, I'm now a recovering Catholic, and yes, I share your point of view that in most cases (especially after years and multiple children)---annullment is B.S., pure and simple.
Just admit you gave it your best, it didn't work out, end things, and move on with some dignity.
Another recovering Catholic.
DeleteThe annulment from the RCC has nothing to do with any state or country's laws, it is for religious one's only. Because the RCC believes that there should be no divorce, there are ways around that. To prove that one of the people was not or could not be invested in the marriage. It is not a quick or easy process and can take yrs( a friend got one yrs ago). She got hers based on the fact her exhusband had a girlfriend from day one. These annulments do not mean you do not need a civil divorce and are completely separate from any civil laws.What it is supposed to do is free the non guilty person to remarry within the catholic church, the annulment does not mean children from the first marriage are not recognized, it means one of the adults could not have made the marriage work under any circumstance do to an innate fault with the other party.
There ya see, if you want to know anything about the RCC all you have to do is ask the nearest recovering Catholic!
Thanks for your responses, and 9:26 AM brought up the term "innate fault." Doesn't everyone have them as humans? So one sin is judged worse than another when Christ said all are the same? Thank you for the discussion and, BTW, I was raised Lutheran, translated: Rebel Catholic, and haven't been to church in a couple years for reasons often stated here by fellow IMers.
DeleteShe's gonna have to shell out some cash to someone other than her family. http://lifeatthemoment.com/sarah-palin-loses-bid-to-move-copyright-lawsuit-to-alaska/
ReplyDeleteAlso, fundamentalist women are sexually repressed. Often they can't even date, and masturbation is forbidden, so the only thing they can do is marry, often very, very young. The person you are at 16 is often nothing like the person you are at 25.
ReplyDeleteEven as a child, I witnessed the flaws of even the most pious, religion, whatever faith it involves, is not a blanket protection from the weaknesses of man. I have gotten to hate the trope "I'm not perfect," which the Palins and righties who seek celebrity and power like to say, and they usually preface it with an excuse to be ugly to a large swath of people they want to believe they are better than, but not one is.
ReplyDeleteYou have good little Christian girls like Jamie Lynn Spears and Keisha Castle-Hughes getting pregnant at 16, (and one of them played the Virgin Mary for crying out loud) and getting beat up by the righteous Right, until Bristol Palin was rolled out for being preggers by 17 - then, voila, "Life Happens!" let's celebrate!
I guarantee you, (and I know we are always Palin-centric but she is an iconic reprsentation of the fundy's and the Right) if Sarah and Todd had the guts to divorce, their supporters would lay themselves on the mud for them to cross without dirtying their shoes and agreeing to the as much reasoning for her to quit her Governorship, essentially, the Haters broke them apart. But they never will, they'll ride that crazy train to the bitter end just to give America and the world the big middle finger - a classic Palin trait.
O/T why $carah has and Bitchtol, et al have such horrid posture? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/spanx-shapewear_n_4616907.html
ReplyDeleteI know fundies who quote the bible fore and aft. Yet when one of them "had troubles" in his marriage, it was all justification and exceptions for why he could get a divorce - even though Jesus himself preached against it.
ReplyDeleteThe high divorce rate among evangelicals is old news--Barna surveys have shown that for years, and they're an evangelical survey firm. What is news is the relational affect. The SBC has tried every way they can to deny the results, including saying that just because you say you're Baptist doesn't mean you are, but the data are undeniable.
ReplyDeleteWhy do evangelicals have the highest rates? ". . . many fundamentalist or evangelical couples base their marriages on 'very irrational and unrealistic principles,' he said. 'They say, "Put God first in your marriage" whatever that means to them "be faithful in church, be a good Christian, pray a lot, attend church, and God will work everything out for you." Then they find out that's a lot of hogwash.' He's also seen problems when some fundamentalist men, in leading the household, become 'cruel dictators' who 'expect their wives to become servants.' Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Marriage and director of the Center for Evangelical Spirituality in Bellingham, Wash., believes that men should head the family, but that means they ought to be servant-leaders. 'I think in many ways Christian marriage is harder,' he said. 'We're expected to forgive. We're expected to give of ourselves. Paul tells husbands that they ought to have the mind of a martyr.' A possible problem he sees is what he calls 'the myth of the evangelical husband.' 'This is a husband who is expected to make enough money that his wife can stay home, who goes to Promise Keepers and dates his wife every week and dates his kids every week and takes his kids out every month to talk about abstinence and men get tired,' Mr. Thomas said."
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html
Having lived my entire life around fundamentalists, the above study is no surprise to me. 30 years ago, I noticed the female fundamentalists socially acceptable excuse for divorce - or many times multiple divorces - was "He was a drunk". Among those that I know personally, sometimes that accusation was true but raises the question of why did they continue to go to bars to find spouses? One of the most extreme cases that I personally know of the woman was married and divorced six times before her youngest child reached 18. She wouldn't have dreamed of living with someone unless she was married because that "would have been a sin". She's predictably is violently opposed to homosexuality and gay marriage. A man in his early 30's had been married and divorced eight times - EIGHT times! He wouldn't permit Friends to be shown in his house because Ross's ex-wife was a Lesbian. Mind-boggling.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read stories like yours, I wonder what these peoples' understanding of "marriage" could possibly be?
DeleteHow is it possible to find eight different people within the space of 10 years that you would actually want to MARRY?? Marry?
I'm 57, and I've met 3 such men in my whole life (married to one for 30 years now).
But then, I haven't accepted Jesus as my personal savior, so I guess there are just things I can't possibly understand---what with me being cast into the outer darkness and all.
8:02 AM
DeleteI feel the same way you do, "How is it possible..."? In the young man's case, he was physically attractive, had a good job, can't possibly have stayed married long enough for the divorces to have cost him much money. I think it was more a case of the women thought found him, weren't too particular to begin with and maybe thought that things would be different. Or maybe, didn't care. The woman I talked about who was married 6 times, used to say she was a single mother. I heard it once and said "you've been married six times already so you were never single more than a few weeks at time the entire time your children were growing up!"
Those "marriages" are technical marriages only. Those people don't enter into them with the expectation that it will last.
I'm laughing about your last paragraph.
9:16 AM Both of the people that I mentioned in my comment at 6:56 AM were in Texas. In their later marriages, they too would leave the state to get married.
My favorite Fundie marriage/divorce story belongs to a brother of a friend. He is now on his 10th marriage, yup 10th.
ReplyDeleteNow he did have to get married out of Texas for the last 3 though. Texas has a very strange law, one that isn't used often but.....marriage licenses in the state are limited to 7 per person, now you can get married outside of the state and it will be recognized but you can only get 7 in the state of Texas.
A check of "The Google" reveals that the liberal state of Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the nation and has for a good many years. It is also classified by Gallup as one of the least religious in the nation (Actually, all six of the New England States make the top 10 of the least religious states).
ReplyDeleteIt'snot really a mystery to me. Who could stand being married to one of those people?
ReplyDeleteI am raymond . Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my wife after three(3) years of marriage, my wife left me with two kids . I felt like my life was about to end i almost committed suicide, i was emotionally down for a very long time. Thanks to a spell caster called High DRORRIWO which i met online. On one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet,I came across allot of testimonies about this particular spell caster. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb,cure cancer,and other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. i also come across one particular testimony,it was about a woman called laura,she testified about how he brought back her Ex lover in less than 7 days, and at the end of her testimony she dropped DRORRIWO e-mail address. After reading all these,I decided to give it a try. I contacted him via email and explained my problem to him. In just 3 days, my husband came back to me. We solved our issues, and we are even happier than before. High temple of DRORRIWO is really a gifted man and i will not stop publishing him because he is a wonderful man... If you have a problem and you are looking for a real and genuine spell caster to solve all your problems for you. Try DRORRIWO anytime, he might be the answer to your problems. Here's his contact:{DRORRIWO@GMAIL.COM
ReplyDeleteI think the evangelicals get married for all the wrong reasons. They need to keep up the appearance of a happy family, and love seldom has much to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI've known people who divorce, and somehow make things work out amicably, especially when kids are involved. And I've seen people in miserable marriages who damage their kids because they think they're doing them a favor by staying married.
This is the most obnoxious thing I've read all month. No way can you judge or stereotype people like this.
DeleteI don't see how we can compare people like that. Relationship are all the same in that they're all complex and only understood by the TWO people in them. That is why people are ridiculed for judging others'
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteGosh! My life entirely changed since I met dr.obodo by chance on internet! All my dreams has been turning to real, it's unbelievable! My wife came back to me 2 weeks after and... she changed! She loves me again, like the first day! Thanx again for all, my friend out there reach dr.obodo at: templeofanswer@hotmail.co.uk also with +2348155425481 and you will be glad to hear good news soon!
dwayne Bright - USA.
Dear Gryphen and Friends, the most vicious people can be found hiding out in church - and I may have ticked one off yesterday. Yeah, me and my big yap ;/ Good news is: The Lord Jesus Rules, so I'll be okay.
ReplyDelete