Divorce Is Evil Towards Men, Women, Children, And Society
Table of Contents
Divorce Is Bad For Everyone
Divorce is a scourge of our society. It hurts everyone involved, except maybe divorce lawyers.
In this article, we will first go over how divorce hurts men, women, children and society.
After establishing that divorce is bad, we will then go over how no-fault divorce has created this epidemic.
Finally, we will show that the cure is obedience to Christ the King.
Divorce Negatively Affects Children
To begin, let’s go over how divorce negatively affects children.
Firstly, children that have divorced parents tend to be worse off physically, emotionally and academically:
Nearly three decades of research evaluating the impact of family structure on the health and well-being of children demonstrates that children living with their married, biological parents consistently have better physical, emotional, and academic well-being. Pediatricians and society should promote the family structure that has the best chance of producing healthy children. The best scientific literature to date suggests that, with the exception of parents faced with unresolvable marital violence, children fare better when parents work at maintaining the marriage. Consequently, society should make every effort to support healthy marriages and to discourage married couples from divorcing.
The Impact of Family Structure on the Health of Children: Effects of Divorce
Secondly, children of divorced parents tend towards substance abuse, depression, poverty, and risky sexual behaviors:
Research has documented that parental divorce/separation is associated with an increased risk for child and adolescent adjustment problems, including academic difficulties (e.g., lower grades and school dropout), disruptive behaviors (e.g., conduct and substance use problems), and depressed mood.
Offspring of divorced/separated parents are also more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, live in poverty, and experience their own family instability. Risk typically increases by a factor between 1.5 and 2.
Parental divorce or separation and children’s mental health
Thirdly, children of divorced parents tend to be less educated by adulthood:
Parental divorce adversely affects a variety of children’s outcomes, including educational attainment. Children whose parents divorce are, on average, less likely to complete high school and attend and complete college.
Why Does Parental Divorce Lower Children’s Educational Attainment? A Causal Mediation Analysis
Fourthly, children of divorced parents are more likely to commit suicide:
Having divorced parents increased by 14 percent the risk that a person would try to take his or her own life when compared to people whose parents did not divorce.
The Influence of Parental Divorce and Alcohol Abuse on Adult Offspring Risk of Lifetime Suicide Attempt in the United States
Fifthly, post-divorce mothers tend to neglect their parental duties to the detriment of their children:
We found that over half of [divorced] mothers, especially those with two or more minor children, were significantly less available and less responsive to their children in the postdivorce years than during the failing marriage. One third of the mothers turned their priority from parenting during four or more immediate, postdivorce years to rebuilding intimate relationships along with intensive training to achieve economic independence. During these years, many of the adolescents engaged in delinquent activities and truancy, which subsided when the mother resumed supervision and stabilized family life. A striking collapse in maternal parenting occurred for one quarter of the mothers who struggled during the failed marriage with psychiatric problems and, following divorce, lost access to ongoing psychological treatment and stable family structure. Most failed to recover and were cared for by their adolescent children who themselves were in desperate need of parenting and support. These findings challenge the view of divorce as a time-limited crisis from which children with continued access to both parents will recover in under a year after the litigation is completed.
Mothers and their children after divorce: Report from a 25-year longitudinal study.
Thus, divorce increases the likelihood of detrimental issues in children.
Divorce Negatively Affects Women
Next, let’s go over how divorce negatively affects women.
Firstly, divorced women suffer more health issues long-term than married women:
We examine four dimensions of health at mid-life: chronic conditions, mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms. We find that the experience of marital disruption damages health, with the effects still evident years later; among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions. Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health than the currently married on all dimensions. Dimensions of health that seem to develop slowly, such as chronic conditions and mobility limitations, show strong effects of past marital disruption, whereas others, such as depressive symptoms, seem more sensitive to current marital status. Those who spent more years divorced or widowed show more chronic conditions and mobility limitations.
Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life
Moreover, divorced women are more likely to suffer a heart attack than married women and men:
When compared to women who remained married, women who had been divorced once were 24% more likely to have a heart attack. Women divorced at least twice were 77% more likely to have a heart attack. Remarried women were 35% more likely to have a heart attack when compared to women who had never divorced.
In contrast, men only experienced increased heart attack risk if they had divorced two or more times. They were 30% more likely to have a heart attack than married men.
Association Between Divorce and Risks for Acute Myocardial Infarction
Secondly, divorce results in disproportionate loss of income and increased risk of poverty for women:
Most notably, women were strongly disadvantaged in terms of losses in household income and associated increases in the risk of poverty. Moreover, women’s disproportionate losses in these objective measures of economic status were permanent. Although the gender gaps in household income and risk of poverty narrowed somewhat over time, differences between women and men remained substantial.
Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Study of Multiple Outcomes
Thirdly, divorced women tend to suffer from more psychological issues:
The fact that widowed/divorced women suffer from varying psychological stressors is often ignored. It has been concluded in various studies that such stressors could be harbingers of psychiatric illnesses (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance dependence), and hence should be taken into account by treating physicians, social workers and others who come to the aid of such women.
Psychological Aspects of Widowhood and Divorce
Thus, divorce impacts women in a negative way, even if they are generally the ones who initiate most divorces.
Divorce Negatively Affects Men
Next, let’s go over how divorce negatively affects men.
Firstly, divorce negatively affects men’s physical health:
Getting divorced directly and indirectly affects men’s biological, psychological, social, and even spiritual health. For example, divorced men have higher rates of mortality, substance abuse, depression, and lack of social support.
The Influence of Divorce on Men’s Health
Secondly, men are more affected by divorce short-term than women:
Men experienced larger drops in satisfaction with life and particularly in satisfaction with family life observed in the year of divorce
Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Study of Multiple Outcomes
Thirdly, divorce negatively affects men’s diets:
Unhealthy changes to diet accompanying divorce, separation and becoming widowed may be more common among men than women.
Marital transitions and associated changes in fruit and vegetable intake: Findings from the population-based prospective EPIC-Norfolk cohort, UK
Fourthly, divorce can lead to drug abuse, particularly in divorced men:
Divorce is a potent risk factor for onset of drug abuse, even after adjusting for deviant behavior in adolescence and family history of drug abuse. The somewhat less-pronounced association with widowhood, particularly among men, suggests that the magnitude of association between divorce and drug abuse may not be generalizable to the end of a relationship.
Associations Between Divorce and Onset of Drug Abuse in a Swedish National Sample
Fifthly, divorced men that want to be a part of their children’s lives often miss their children.
Mothers tend to become the primary custodial parent the vast majority of the time.
Since this is the case, fathers cannot spend as much time with their children.
This leads to many men having less bonding time with their children than desired (by both fathers and children).
No Fault Divorce And Divorce Rates
Now that we have established that divorce is bad for all involved, let’s look at the impact of no-fault divorce.
No-fault divorce is essentially the ability for either husband or wife to terminate the legal marriage at will.
Before no-fault divorce became a thing, people had to prove that their was some wrongdoing in order for judges to dissolve a legal marriage.
(I am using the term “legal marriage” here, since Christians don’t believe divorce is possible).
Ronald Reagan enacted the no-fault divorce law in the US, as governor of California, in 1969.
In the decades that followed, the rest of the states enacted similar no-fault divorce laws.
So how did this affect the divorce rate in the US?
No-fault divorce laws correlated with a sharp increase in divorce up to 1980:
It would appear that after 1980 the divorce rate has been steadily decreasing.
This would normally be a good thing. But is it actually the case that married people are divorcing less?
Let’s look at this data compared to the marriage rate:
It seems pretty obvious from looking at the marriage data set that the marriage rate has sharply declined since 1980.
So we need to graph the ratio in order to have an accurate data model on how no fault divorce has impacted divorce:
As you can see, in reality, divorce per marriage rates shot up after no-fault divorce laws and has remained roughly the same since the mid-1970s.
The data shows that about 50% of all marriages end in divorce!
As opposed to less than 30% before no-fault divorce laws (which gradually went up from less than 5% in the mid-19th century, because of Modernist ideology watering down Christian morality).
Thus, it is rather clear that no-fault divorce laws have had a huge impact on the amount of divorces.
So what’s the solution to the divorce epidemic?
Divorce Would Be No More In A Catholic State
The solution is to obey Christ the King. So what did He say about divorce?
When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan. Great crowds followed him, and he cured them there. Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss [her]?” He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” [His] disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” He answered, “Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
Matthew 19:1-12
In other words, divorce is not a thing that Christians can do, whatsoever. God will not recognize a divorce.
And it must be said – it is especially sinful to remarry after a divorce because you will essentially be engaging in adultery.
Therefore, in a Catholic State, divorce would not be allowed under any circumstances.
Separation would be permitted, if the safety of one of the spouses or children were at risk.
However, since Christ the King doesn’t recognize divorce, a Catholic State wouldn’t either.
The Church could rule that a marriage should be annulled, and the state should recognize that.
However, as we have proven, divorce is harmful to men, women, and children, so a Catholic State couldn’t make such an evil thing lawful.
The first step us Catholic nationalists need to focus on is showing how divorce hurts everyone.
We also need to show how no-fault divorce caused this divorce epidemic, in spite of the decline of marriage.
Once we show everyone the facts are on our side, we can petition influencers and politicians to repeal no-fault divorce.
And God willing, we can eventually get divorce completely abolished in our future Catholic State!
Deus vult!
