Marriage Myths

[MithLuin]

Oh, why not...another link:

[quote][b]Statistics about christian divorce rates[/b]


Many people believe that Christian marriages end in divorce just as often as non-Christian, but it turns out, using the best data available, that this is not true.

To illustrate, here are the divorce rates among ever-married respondents in the General Social Survey (GSS, 2000-2004)—one of the best known sources of sociological data. “Frequent” is attending church about once a week or more.

58%, non-frequent Black Protestants
54%, non-frequent Evangelicals
51%, no religion (e.g., atheists & agnostics)
[b]48%, ALL NON-CHRISTIANS[/b]
48%, non-frequent, other religions
47%, frequent Black Protestants
42%, non-frequent, mainline Protestants
[b]41%, ALL CHRISTIANS[/b]
41%, non-frequent Catholics
39%, Jews
38%, frequent other religions
34%, frequent Evangelicals
[b]32%, ALL FREQUENT CHRISTIANS[/b]
32%, frequent mainline Protestants
23%, frequent Catholics

I also analyzed data from previous years of the GSS and from five other national surveys, and they showed the same pattern: Christians, especially those who frequently attend church, have relatively low divorce rates.

This raises an interesting question: Why do so many people believe otherwise? It appears to stem from the work of George Barna. In well-publicized studies, he has compared divorce rates of “born again” Christians against non-Christians, and he finds little difference. Here’s the catch: his type of analysis labels as “non-Christian” many mainline Protestants, such as Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians, and most Catholics. [b]As such, he is comparing Christians against Christians.[/b] Ron Sider has publicized Barna’s statistics in his award winning [i]Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.[/i]

Some qualifications: The real question here is whether being Christian lessens divorce, and while the data above suggest “yes,” they can be interpreted otherwise. Perhaps people who get divorced also stop attending church. Perhaps those who attend church are also those who would stay married anyway. In addition, members of other religions also have low divorce rates.[/quote]

[url="http://brewright.blogspot.com/2006/12/christian-divorce-rates.html"]http://brewright.blogspot.com/2006/12/christian-divorce-rates.html[/url]

One could dispute that GSS is the best data to use to address this question, so please don't take these claims too seriously. Also note the absence of economic data in this list....

[Papist]

[quote][b]Statistics about christian divorce rates[/b]


Many people believe that Christian marriages end in divorce just as often as non-Christian, but it turns out, using the best data available, that this is not true.

To illustrate, here are the divorce rates among ever-married respondents in the General Social Survey (GSS, 2000-2004)—one of the best known sources of sociological data. “Frequent” is attending church about once a week or more.

58%, non-frequent Black Protestants
54%, non-frequent Evangelicals
51%, no religion (e.g., atheists & agnostics)
[b]48%, ALL NON-CHRISTIANS[/b]
48%, non-frequent, other religions
47%, frequent Black Protestants
42%, non-frequent, mainline Protestants
[b]41%, ALL CHRISTIANS[/b]
41%, non-frequent Catholics
39%, Jews
38%, frequent other religions
34%, frequent Evangelicals
[b]32%, ALL FREQUENT CHRISTIANS[/b]
32%, frequent mainline Protestants
23%, frequent Catholics
[color=#ff0000][b][i]0.2% NFP Users[/i][/b][/color]

I also analyzed data from previous years of the GSS and from five other national surveys, and they showed the same pattern: Christians, especially those who frequently attend church, have relatively low divorce rates.

This raises an interesting question: Why do so many people believe otherwise? It appears to stem from the work of George Barna. In well-publicized studies, he has compared divorce rates of “born again” Christians against non-Christians, and he finds little difference. Here’s the catch: his type of analysis labels as “non-Christian” many mainline Protestants, such as Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians, and most Catholics.[b]As such, he is comparing Christians against Christians.[/b] Ron Sider has publicized Barna’s statistics in his award winning [i]Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.[/i]

Some qualifications: The real question here is whether being Christian lessens divorce, and while the data above suggest “yes,” they can be interpreted otherwise. Perhaps people who get divorced also stop attending church. Perhaps those who attend church are also those who would stay married anyway. In addition, members of other religions also have low divorce rates.[/quote]

Added NFP users.


[url="http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/193/36/"]http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/193/36/[/url]

[url="http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/wils/wils_01naturalfamilyplanning2.html"]http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/wils/wils_01naturalfamilyplanning2.html[/url]

[MithLuin]

I'm not sure if NFP users were a significant enough proportion GSS data to calculate a statistic. I'm not disputing your divorce rate for them, merely mentioning that it shouldn't be on the same list. As you'll notice, the divorce rate in the GSS data is [i]much[/i] higher than the data reported by the CDC. So, it's not the same subset of the population being compared here.

Basically, if a couple gets married today, they have a 2/3 shot of still being married in 10 years (compared to the general population). If you know who they are, you can calculate more acurate odds rather than lumping in with the general population. But at the end of the day, it matters how committed the couple is to making the marriage work. Sure, that's easier if you can find steady work (so don't have serious money concerns), were old/mature enough to get married in the first place, and didn't feel 'forced' into the marriage by a pregnancy.

But anyone can get divorced. Even if you were both in the absolutely best stellar non-divorce demographic...doesn't mean your marriage is 'automatically' gonna work. Still, if you do things 'right', you have a better chance than people who (for instance) cheat on their spouse.

[Papist]

Oh man. You mean I can't use this in my doctorate thesis? Crud!

All polls, statistics and the like need to be taken with a grain of salt. They can easily be manipulated to what the audience desires.

There were 3 men interviewing for a Senior Math Analyst position.
The interviewer asked each man the same one question. What is 1+1?

Man 1: That is simple. 2.
Man 2: That is complex. Then goes on to explain the answer is 3 using Chebyshev's inequality and the Mandelbrot set. Most impressive.
Man 3: Well, what do you want it to be?

[Amppax]

[quote name='Winchester' timestamp='1315659428' post='2302882']
Lies, beaver dam lies, and statistics.
[/quote]
Mark Twain ftw!

[MithLuin]

The joke about the mathematicians reminds me of a similar joke from communist Poland. The Russians had a slogan about '2+2=5' to say that you could achieve the goals of the 5 year plan in 4 years if everyone worked really hard. So the Polish people joked that when asked, 'What is 2+2?' the correct response was something like, 'Whatever the comrade says it should be.' So when Solidarnosc, the Polish trade union came around...they challenged that notion!

[img]http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2009CA/2009CA2011_jpg_ds.jpg[/img]

May Poland be Poland; 2 + 2 must always equal four.

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
~George Orwell, [i]1984[/i]