The family is the cornerstone of our culture. When the family is not healthy the culture is in trouble. Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship, has spoken and written often about the troubled family backgrounds of many of the men he has counseled in prison.
The Christian church is supposed to be a bulwark against the erosion of the family. But in recent years we’ve heard that divorce rates are as high amongst the families of the church as amongst the families outside the church. Now, though, there is new research that clarifies the picture.
New information comes from sociologist Bradley Wright, the author of the recent book “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites … and Other Lies You’ve Been Told.” Adelle Banks, has the story for Religion News Service (RNS). Baptist Press also covered the story.
The most powerful message in the RNS report is the last three paragraphs:
Wilcox’s analysis of the National Survey of Families and Households has found that Americans who attend religious services several times a month were about 35 percent less likely to divorce than those with no religious affiliation.
Nominal conservative Protestants, on the other hand, were 20 percent more likely to divorce than the religiously unaffiliated.
“There’s something about being a nominal `Christian’ that is linked to a lot of negative outcomes when it comes to family life,” Wilcox said.
If there was ever a message about the importance of walking the talk, it’s right there.