Harvard-trained researcher Shaunti Feldhahn has published a book challenging the standard divorce rate statistics both for society at large and for “the church.” The book The Good News about Marriage: Debunking Discouraging Myths is the result of eight years of investigation. Feldhahn says the overall divorce rate in society is “about 31 percent” (for all marriages, first, second, etc.) and it has been declining for many years; the divorce-rate of first marriages is 20-25%; and the rate of those “who regularly go to church” is “maybe 15 percent, maybe 20 percent for all marriages (first, second, third).” Of course, the term “church” is used in a very general sense here, but I have long believed that the divorce rate for faithful members of Bible-believing churches is exceedingly low. That is my observation over the past 40 years of personal church membership and church planting, preaching in more than 500 churches, and communicating with leaders and members of literally thousands of churches. I doubt the divorce rate among faithful members of Bible-believing churches is even five percent. And I have known many people who have become faithful church members after a divorce, and I can’t think of any of those who divorced again (even though in the general population subsequent marriages typically have less chance of succeeding). Salvation and Bible living definitely changes things! Even when it comes to “evangelical” churches, Feldhahn gives statistics that the divorce rate is 10% or less. “Therefore if any man be in Christ,he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). (Friday Church News Notes, July 4, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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