Another testimony for permanent marriages

In yesterday's blog, Al Mohler, citing a recent article from the Washington Post, articulates a downside to divorce that has rarely been mentioned. We speak often of the impact of divorce on young children, and the detriment it is to the marriage partners, but after decades of increased divorce rates, the influence on divorce for aging parents is also being realized.

The strained relationships that result from divorce when the children are young carry over to adulthood so they are disinclined to visit their aging parents often, cultivate a meaningful relationship, or care for them in their illness.

Mohler concludes his commentary this way:

Almost 40 percent of adults have divorced parents. The bonds of family and kinship have been strained over the last century by advanced industrialization, career mobility, and a host of developments that have subverted family intactness and intimacy. But none of these can equal the total impact of easy divorce and the divorce culture that is now simply taken as a fact of life.

The impact of divorce on children has been a controversial issue for decades now. Marquardt and Glenn now point to a challenge that will explode in significance in years to come. They warn of "lonely grief" as a common experience.

In Marquardt's words:

As the generation that ushered in widespread divorce ages, an epidemic of such lonely grief may well sweep in behind it. Much of the expert literature on death and dying implicitly assumes an intact family experience. It assumes that people grow up with their mothers and fathers, who are married to each other when one of them dies. Some scholars are beginning to investigate aging and dying in families already visited by divorce. But most scholars and the public still give scant attention to the loss of other parent figures or to the deeply complicating, long-lasting effects of family fragmentation.

Here is yet another warning and reminder of what divorce represents and what happens when marriage is undermined by a social and legal revolution of this significance. This will challenge churches as well as families. "The New Alone" is a very troubling report.

The believer is not committed to marriage because of social implications or statistical surveys which might reinforce the benefits of a permanent marriage. We are committed to marriage because God is committed to His marriage to His people Israel, because Christ is committed to His marriage with His bride, the church, and because Scripture consistently teaches the righteousness of permanence in marriage.

This report does not change the reason why we are committed to marriage; but it does offer testimony to God's good and eternal plan for the family.