As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“To those who have had to conclude that they married poorly, I offer my sympathy. I am glad you are admitting what you are admitting, as it can be helpful to simply state this, even if only in your own mind. Of course, the main matter is what you intend to do about it. How will you live within your difficult marriage?” - Challies
Editor’s note: Baptist Bulletin ran a three article set on the topic of divorce and remarriage in the November/December 2020 issue. Below is the first, an introduction by the magazine’s then managing editor.
By David Gunn
“After peaking in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the divorce rate has been falling in recent decades. In fact, the divorce rate has hit a 50-year-low. Since the 1980s, each cohort of married couples has seen their risk of divorce decline, as the figure below indicates.” - IFS
“The new research just published by NBER charts new findings into how divorce is far more damaging to children than anyone ever imagined. It also quantifies deleterious effects far into adulthood and documents the causal effect by examining a million sibling groups to measure differing before/after affects within a family.” - World
“Couples who practice the Christian faith seriously and the disciplines and values it teaches face a substantially decreased life-time risk of divorce, some by as much as 30 to 50% reduced risk relative to the general population.” - Daily Citizen
“ ‘Do I have to stay in this marriage?’ Carol asked. As her pastor, my first response was to show compassion and work with a team of church members to ensure Carol’s ongoing safety. But I also had a responsibility to give a clear answer to Carol’s question.” - TGC
On a gushing Facebook post, a parent proudly proclaims with an abundance of heart emojis, “I love my kids to the moon and back!” Do you, really?
Scrolling through Facebook, I sometimes see a Christian friend whose wife does not look the same as I remember her, or else she has mysteriously disappeared from all of his pictures. I then realize that his old wife is gone. Divorce has struck another home! It breaks my heart to see so many marriages dissolving within the body of Christ.
“When divorce is difficult or impossible to secure, marriage is thought of as an enduring, tighter community, and small irritants can be forgotten or forgiven. When divorce is easy to secure, partners in a marriage tend to think of themselves as individuals first before marriage partners” - IFS
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