Is marriage a thing of the past or has the news media been reporting the wrong story…..
Marriage, the fundamental building block of society, is still strong — especially among devoted Christians. Divorce rates are lower than predicted and marriages are much happier than is commonly believed.
Those findings come from Shauti Feldhahn, a Harvard alum social researcher and author. She documents her 8 year research project in the book The Good News About Marriage: Debunking Discouraging Myths about Marriage and Divorce.
Perhaps due to the hookups in TV shows and the divorces of pop stars, many people believe that only 30 percent of marriages are happy. In reality however, that number is closer to 80 percent.
Of course, many marriages do end in divorce — but not nearly as many as people think. It is commonly said that half of marriages end in divorce — but this number comes from a flawed projection. In the 1970s and 1980s, when states around the U.S. were passing “no-fault divorce” laws, the divorce rate skyrocketed. Worried researchers estimated that if the trend continued, the divorce rate would reach 50 percent.
But for first-time marriages, the study found that only between 20 and 25 percent end in divorce.
And it should come as no surprise that Christians who are devoted to their faith do not get divorced as often as non-Christians. According to Feldhahn’s research, the divorce rate among those active in their church is between 27 and 50 percent lower than among non-churchgoers.