Comments on: Divorce Rate Down-Along With Marriage Rate

By: Just Me

Just Me — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:00:38 +0000

Being religious doesn't mean committed religious. Although divorce rates among the religious haven't been all that great either.

I actually agree that our tendancy to be mobile may play a factor-especially if one moves far from family and lacks that support (we have lived far from family since our marriage 13 years ago, and I can vouch that not being able to call on mom if needed is stressful at times).

I also very much agree with whoever said that the US tends to over romanticize marriage, and we tend to turn marriage into this happy fairtale land that just doesn't exist anywhere but the latest romance novel. That unrealistic expectation I think causes people to become dissatisfied with marriage and ready to give up on it more quickly.

Marriage is wonderful but it isn't all happy fairytale land either.

By: Daily Pundit

Daily Pundit — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 20:27:42 +0000

Skewered

Outside The Beltway : Divorce Rate Down-Along With Marriage Rate James Joyner reports that the rates of both divorce and...

By: ICallMasICM

ICallMasICM — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:22:29 +0000

'when one considers that the U.S. is also, by far, the most religious of the Western countries.'

I think you forgot to add when measured by church attendence and self identification. There's a big accounting of sins done up above and I'm sure that Americans come in pretty much with everybody else.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:47:22 +0000

Is Bierce really so unfair? If you're looking around and not seeing plenty to support that generalization, you're not looking very hard.

I'm a Christian myself, but I think satirists like Bierce help keep us conscious of the gap between our words & our deeds.

By: Will Franklin

Will Franklin — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:13:29 +0000

I wonder what the rates would be if you controlled for race and income and so on... just curious.

By: Jim Henley

Jim Henley — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 13:55:54 +0000

Isn't it great that the report gives us the decline in divorce rates since 1980, and marriage rates since 1970, so we can't make any reasonable comparison whatsoever?? Go EME!

By: RattlerGator

RattlerGator — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:12:58 +0000

Anderson -- unfair, it seems to me, completely unfair.

America also happens to be THE most mobile society by far -- and I do mean that in more than one way.

The most mobile vis-a-vis Upward Mobility and the most mobile, locale to locale.

That combination is a far more likely explanation of the curiousity Outside the Beltway notes.

Elliot, I tend to agree with you.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:26:11 +0000

It just tells you something about American religion.

Ambrose Bierce said it best:

"CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin."

By: Elliot Essman

Elliot Essman — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:23:09 +0000

Marriage in the USA doesn't stick because it is so heavy; by that I mean over-romanticized, over-iconized in media and popular culture, made into something it can never be. Unrealistic hopes are bound to be dashed, or, in some cases, taken into consideration in avoiding marriage entirely. We Americans tend to be sentimental, I guess to make up for the lack of some cultural cement.