Avoiding Evil

The evidence is quite clear that there is a breakdown of families in our society today. There are more children growing up in a painful and warped environment today than there ever has been before.

• One million children a year see their parents divorce. (Heritage Foundation)

• America’s divorce rate is now more than double that in 1960.

• 35% of our nation’s children live apart from their biological fathers. (U.S. Census)

• In the last 40 years, pregnancies out-of-wedlock have increased 600%. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)

• In less than 40 years cohabitation by unmarried couples has increased almost 1,000%. (U.S. Census Bureau)

• 32% of all births in 1995 were out-of-wedlock. (Leading Cultural Indicators, Bill Bennett)

• Most people now live together before they marry for the first time.

• Currently more marriages are terminated by divorce than by the death of a spouse.

• Less than 40% of married people claim to be very happy. (National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago)

• 50% of children who do not live with their fathers have, in fact, never stepped foot in their father’s home. (Leading Cultural Indicators, Bill Bennett)

More statistics at http://sbc.net/default.asp

• Overall, 33% of all born again individuals who have been married have gone through a divorce, which is statistically identical to the 34% incidence among non-born again adults.

• During the period during which they were single, one out of every three adults (33%) has lived with someone of the opposite gender, other than family members or relatives.

Co-habitation is much more common among men (39% have done so) than among women (28%).

Almost half (44%) of those under age 35 have co-habited, compared to one-third (33%) of those in the 35 to 49 age bracket, one-quarter (24%) of those in their fifties and sixties, and just 1% of adults who are in their seventies or older.

One-quarter (25%) of born again Christians have co-habited. Among self-identified Christian who do not hold beliefs that classify them as “born again,” 37% have co-habited. Forty-two percent of adults who associate with a faith other than Christianity have co-habited, and 51% of atheists have co-habited.
Catholics are more likely than are Protestants to have cohabited (36% to 30%, respectively).

Surprisingly, the Christian denomination whose adherents have the highest likelihood of getting divorced are Baptists. Nationally, 29% of all Baptist adults have been divorced. The only Christian group to surpass that level are those associated with non-denominational Protestant churches: 34% of those adults have undergone a divorce. Of the nation’s major Christian groups, Catholics and Lutherans have the lowest percentage of divorced individuals (21%). People who attend mainline Protestant churches, overall, experience divorce on par with the national average (25%).

From Barna Research Online http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageCategory.asp#TOP

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