According to the Barna Research Group, a Christian-based organization, there is something askew when it comes to Christians, especially "born-again", and divorce rates.
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 within 2 percentage points. The survey found:
11% of the adult population is currently divorced.
25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime.
Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significently higher than for other faith groups, and for Atheists and Agnostics.
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George Barna stated-
"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."
Now many of us saw a lot of this on ready in many of the well written diaries about the hypocrisy of churches that stood against same-sex marriage. The arguments were easily made that it was heterosexuals that were the ones that were destroying marriage. It is now more apparent that it is the "born again" Christians that are the group doing even more of that damage.
Mr. Barna and his organization has come under some heat over this and some have attacked his research, but just listening to their criticism, you can tell that Mr. Barna may be on to something.
David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University
Trying to imply that the Bible states what the model of marriage should be.
"...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."
Saying it is so, doesn't make it so Mr. Popenoe.
Tom Ellis of the Southern Baptist Convention
Stating that Mr. Barna did not poll the "true Born Again Christians".
"We believe that there is something more to being a Christian...Just saying you are Christian is not going to guarantee that your marriage is going to stay together."
Will the true Christians please stand up, please stand up! Using this logic, how many Americans are truly Christian then?
Then there are some researchers that stated that it is not religion, but due to educational or financial reasons. So it other words, Born Again Christians are poorly educated and poor - is that what they are saying. I just want to be clear on that one, is that what they are truly saying?
By the numbers -
By Religion / Divorce Rates
Jews - 30%
Born Again Christians - 27%
Other Christians - 24%
Atheists / Agnostics - 21%
I enjoyed the quote from Donald Hughes, author of The Divorce Reality -
"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."
Mr. Hughes also claimed that 90% of divorces for Born Agains happen after they were supposedly saved.
So my bit of advice to the megachurches out there that are going to be yelling about those damn queers out there trying to get married, maybe just maybe you should look out at all of those "couples" in your own house and make sure they stayed "in the club" before you prevent others from joining.