02/25/11
Quoting sociologists from several universities, Glenn T. Stanton wrote in a commentary with The Baptist Press that one of the most-quoted statistics by preachers and Christian leaders is in fact inaccurate. “Here’s the truth,” he says. “Many people who seriously practice a traditional religious faith—be it Christian or other—have a divorce rate markedly lower than the general population.” Typically, church leaders have made it a practice to say the faithful divorce at the same rate as the general population. But Stanton refers to data from researchers at the University of Connecticut, the University of Virginia, and the University of Denver who say those who take their faith seriously have a significantly higher level of marital stability than those who do not. One of these researchers summed it up: “Whether young or old, male or female, low-income or not, those who said that they were more religious reported higher average levels of commitment to their partners, higher levels of marital satisfaction, less thinking and talking about divorce, and lower levels of negative interaction. These patterns held true when controlling for such important variables as income, education, and age at first marriage.”
