Marriage аnd divorce аrе bоth common experiences. In Western cultures, mоrе thаn 90 percent оf people marry bу age 50. Healthy marriages аrе good fоr couples’ mental аnd physical health. Thеу аrе аlѕо good fоr children; growing uр in a happy home protects children frоm mental, physical, educational аnd social problems. However, аbоut 40 tо 50 percent оf married couples in thе United States divorce. Thе divorce rate fоr subsequent marriages iѕ еvеn higher.
When I was a young man divorce was expensive and difficult to obtain ... Unless you went to Reno, of course. Then the laws, which were considered archaic, were changed and divorce became easy.
Now we can try out a marriage and, if it's genuinely bad or just requires a bit too much effort, we can discard our current spouse and try out another.
The result is that the divorce rate in the US and Australia (the only two countries for which I've seen the statistics) is getting far too close to 50%.
On Valentine's Day, 2000, I was on air with a community radio station. In the first part of the program I covered the romantic side of love; in the second part I covered the failures. (That's when I got my statistics so they may be out of date.)
I interviewed an Anglican (Episcopalian) minister who was coordinating a program in the Western Sydney churches to force engaged couples to attend a series of counselling sessions before they could be married in an Anglican church. He said it was a revelation for the couples involved and while some went into their marriage with a clearer idea of what it was all about, others realised, in time, that they were never going to be compatible. Some of the brides had an overly romantic view of married life while some of the grooms thought they were marrying a lackey who were marrying a lackey who would tend to their needs and warm their beds while they carried on their bachelor lifestyle. So some couples broke up and avoided making an expensive, distressing mistake.
In my opinion the church was taking a step in the right direction by pointing out the pitfalls. So what's your opinion? And what is your question really asking?
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