Christians along with many other religions believe that a marriage relationship is entered into as a lifelong commitment. This can be seen in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said that divorce was wrong and that anyone “who divorces his wife is committing adultery.” However, within Christianity and elsewhere there are different attitudes to the subject of divorce.

The Catholic Church has very strict views on divorce and remarriage. The Roman Catholic Church are aware of the increasing number of divorces and they understand in some circumstances it is permissible. However, in these cases it is a divorce legally in a court, not spiritually by God. In that case they believe divorce is sinful. However, if they are divorce legally the Catholic Church is adamant on no re-marriage and having a sexual relationship with someone else is sinful. However, the Church does hold annulment services. This is when the marriage to start with was false or flawed; therefore the marriage did not take place under God. In these cases re-marriage is accepted.

The Anglican Church encourages that couples should work hard to keep their marriage in tact, nevertheless, they understand in some situations marriage is too broken to be fixed i.e. when there has been an affair within the couple or some form of abuse in involved. The Church of England feels it’s their duty to help the couple wanting to have divorce. If one party would like to re-marry, the vicar would decide if its appropriate, taking all factors into consideration. Most Christians take the teaching Ephesians 5: 24, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.” This explains that whatever happens you should love your partner. This can be reiterated in vows when it is explained that you should stay together through “thick and thin.”

Divorce is allowed in Islam, although it is regarded as a last resort. Muslims accept that sometimes