The Myth of Christian Divorce

While it's true that people who report  themselves to be Christian are just as likely to divorce as the general population, it is not true if you factor religious attendance (a reasonable proxy for level of religiosity/strength of belief).  Here is an excerpt from a recent interview with University of Virginia Sociologist, W. Bradford Wilcox:

This idea that Christians are just as likely to divorce as secular folks is not correct if we factor church attendance into our thinking. Churchgoing evangelical Protestants, churchgoing Catholics, and churchgoing mainline Protestants are all significantly less likely to divorce.

How much less likely?

I estimate between 35 and 50 percent less likely than Americans who attend church just nominally, just once or twice a year, or who don't attend church at all. It is true that people who say they've had a born-again experience are about as likely to divorce as people who are completely secular. But if you look at this through the lens of church attendance, you see a very different story.

Read the whole thing!

This certainly runs counter to much of what is reported about divorce statistics by both the media and by pastors in churches.  It is evidence that religious belief does make a difference in behavior, attitudes, and outcomes in life.  Churchgoers should take heart.

Wilcox's research is also empirical evidence to support the traditional Christian notion that if you're religious, you will be much better off if you marry someone who shares your level of belief and religiosity.  (Or as the Bible puts it: "Do not be unequally yoked.")

Related links on Wilcox and his work:

Here are Wilcox and Steven L. Nock's findings: "What's Love Got to Do with It? Equality, Equity, Commitment, and Women's Marital Quality." And www.happiestwives.org is a website about the study.

Here is his page at the University of Virginia sociology department.

Slate has some more on this same study, focusing on the fate of feminists in view of Wilcox and Nock's findings.

PBS interviewed Wilcox on family and parenting

Douglas LeBlanc interviewed Wilcox for CT about his book, Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands

(Hattip Joe Carter)