A new Barna study finds that the divorce rate among born again Christians, including evangelicals, is about the same as the national average. The Christian Post has this report:
After months of revived debate over divorce and its increasing acceptance among Americans, a new study affirmed born again Christians are just as likely as the average American couple to divorce.
The Barna Group found in its latest study that born again Christians who are not evangelical were indistinguishable from the national average on the matter of divorce with 33 percent having married and divorced at least once. Among all born again Christians, which includes evangelicals, the divorce figure is 32 percent, which is statistically identical to the 33 percent figure among non-born again adults, the research group noted.
“There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage,” George Barna, who directed the study, stated in the study, which was released Monday.
. . .
While a higher proportion of born again Christians marry (84 percent) compared to the national average (78 percent), recent trends indicate that Americans are growing more comfortable with divorce.
“Interviews with young adults suggest that they want their initial marriage to last, but are not particularly optimistic about that possibility,” Barna noted. “There is also evidence that many young people are moving toward embracing the idea of serial marriage, in which a person gets married two or three times, seeking a different partner for each phase of their adult life.”
Still, the divorce rate among evangelical Christians – who are defined as meeting the born again criteria plus other conditions – was lower (26 percent) than the national average. Meanwhile, those associated with a non-Christian faith were more likely to divorce (38 percent), the study showed.
Read it all here.