Christian Ethics Essay

Submitted By MrPastormike52
Words: 1124
Pages: 5

“One out of every two recent marriages in the United States could end in divorce, and children are involved more than half of the time. Forty­eight of the fifty states now have no fault divorce laws and in recent years there have been approximately
1 million divorces in America. The divorce rate in the united states has doubled since
1960.”
Kids from nonintact families, compared to those children from intact families, are more likely to engage in premarital sex, use alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. The sense of rejection, loneliness, and impaired academic achievement experienced by many children of divorce are often overlooked needs for ministry when churches confront the emotional trauma created by divorce.
The highest divorce rate is among the young couples,. Among white males the divorce rate is almost three times greater for those who never attend religious services than for those who attend religious services at least two or three times a month. The divorce rate is moderately higher for Protestants than Catholics. It is lower for Jews than for Catholics, and highest for those stating no religious preference. (Evangelical
Ethics, Jefferson Davis. Pg.99)
So what is a divorce? A divorce is the legal or customary degree that a marriage is dissolved. The term comes from the latin word divortium, meaning to separate.
Divorce is distinguished from annulment in that it is declared by an authoritative body that the marriage attempted by a couple was invalid according to the rules of society, and that as a consequence the marriage never existed.

In 1564 the council of trent made the matter of marriage being dissoluble a matter of faith. “if anyone shall say that the bond of matrimony can be dissolved for the cause of heresy, or of injury do to cohabitation, or of willful desertion, let him be anathema.” Martin Luther stated that “marriage is a worldly thing” rather than a sacrament of the church and he allowed for full divorce in cases of adultery and willful desertion. Deuteronomy 24:1­4
“if a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land that the Lord has given you as an inheritance.”
This divorce certificate was intended to keep up the reputation of the woman while also protecting her rights, including the right to remarry. The term used for indecent cannot be taken to mean adultery, because adultery was prescribed the death penalty instead of just divorce.
Concerning my personal life, I have dealt with divorce in my own family. My mother and father separated when I was 6 years old. They had been married for almost

9 years when my mother found out that my father had cheated on her, and soon after, my father packed his clothes while I was at school and my mother was at work. He called that night and let my mother know that he would not be coming home. My mother soon after filed for a divorce. I think the thing that I remember the most was the custody battle between them about me.
My father first wanted to take me, but when my mother protested, stating that she was the one who continually took care of me at home, my father proceeded to have a letter drawn up by his lawyer that states “so long as my client Michael E. Wooldridge
Sr. does not have to continue to pay the rent payments on the home or pay the utilities, he will grant full custody to Dawn Gibson, the mother of Michael E. Wooldridge Sr.”
I think this is one of the most important parts in