What is interesting is that despite banging on about Christian values, ultra conservative ‘Christians’ are the worst offenders when it comes to divorce rates, and this woman sounds like she herself belongs to this group. What a lot of the men from this group don’t realise is that Eve was created from the rib of Adam, to be under his protective arm and close to his heart. She was not made from his head bone to be above him, or from his toe bones to be under his foot and trodden on. All the time they deny their women the right to have a say in the marriage, they create the conditions that lead a woman to leave, strike out for herself and seek a divorce, despite the condemnation they will receive from their community for doing so.

What is needed is for the rich to be taxed considerably more, and for the money to be used to support families on low wages, so that the mother has a choice to stay at home and look after them properly. Or for legislation so that a working man with a family has a minimum wage at least triple that of now, so that he can support his family alone. Or there should be an absolute minimum income for all families that should be topped up with taxpayer’s money, (known as Tax Credits in the UK.) This would bring down the stress levels within a marriage, and bring the divorce rate right down.

As for ’secular’ and ‘Christian’ marriages, what’s the difference, really? In both you have to understand your commitment to each other, to love one another even when it’s hard. Even when she’s being a bitch and he’s being an a$$hole, you hang on in there because in being together in a marriage, you are part of something bigger than yourself. Not just a legal contract, but a spiritual union, a state of oneness that we have recognised throughout the ages as a natural need in all of us. Whether or not it is performed in a church is largely irrelevant.
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That lady you were talking to sounds crazy if you ask me. It almost sounds like she’s part of a cult. What she believes, doesn’t dictate what other Christian churches believe.

Divorce has nothing to do with the war and the economy. Like someone else said it’s the other way around.

If you ask me, taxes don’t hurt American culture, unless you consider American culture to be consumerism, abundance, and/or selfishness. Other countries pay more taxes than we do, but they also have nice things like free health care or free Universities.
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I will tell you from the start. I am not religious, but I am spiritual. I believe in a higher power, or at least, shun away from the notion that all this is really just random, and that it is matter that has always existed, instead of God. One way or another, you are stuck. I choose to go with God. It seems like life is not worth as much without a God. So when you tell me about this woman and her answers, I think, sure anyone can come up with answers that are founded in mysticism and not FACTS. Marriage has been around long before christianity. I find it funny that this woman thinks marriage was born out of christianity. It has existed for thousands of years, long before Christ. Furthermore, as a reasonable man, I cannot believe in magical stories, that defy logic and physics. I like what the overall message is, but I do not think that the bible is the word of god. Ok thats beside the point.

My overall theme is that the collapse of society is responsible for marriage/divorce rates going up, and it is not the other way around. I believe that it is only a symptom of the many things the powers that be have done to us. For starters, I’m not sure if you are familiar with Aaron Russo, but he was a good friend of the Rockefellers. Russo Claimed that Rockefeller told him that they were behind the women’s liberation movement, and pushed the idea of women getting into the work field. That way they could take the children at a young age from their mothers and into the apparatus of the state, our public education system. Here kids can be molded in the way the state wants them to be. Couple this with pharmaceuticals and doctors, who are hooking millions of adults on medications which turn them into zombies and you can see where we are going; but it gets worse. Since 1971, when the dollar was removed from gold. The value of our currency has devalued immensely. It seems like we are in a rat-race. In the 1950’s, you could raise a family of 4 and send your kids off to college with only one working parent. It is the fault of the government that we are seeing a breakdown in culture, which is affecting marriage. Both cohabitation and marriage are fine. I think marriage is done more for show than anything.

EDIT: PEON what do you mean by greed?People who pursue their own self-interests? People who pursue their own best interests will also advance society by doing so.

EDIT:EDIT: Well, so long as people aren’t violating the rights of others, I think competition is a good thing, and by being greedy,you find ways to become more competitive than others in your industry to make more money than you previously did. That is a net gain to society, but yet people can consider you greedy for price cutting. But if you do something fraudulently, or out of bad faith, then yes that is wrong and that type of greed should not go unpunished.

People only trade to make themselves better off. The more you trade, the better off you will be. Those greediest will trade the most, and will thus be better off than the rest. But on their quest to being really well off, they will have had to make a large number of people happy, because otherwise no one would be willing to trade with them, and they could not be successful. These trades can be anything which both parties, at least ex ante, agree makes them better off. It can be labor for money. Goods for money. Goods for other goods. services for money. etc. This is why I say you promoting your own self-interest is best for society. Greed has been given a bad name. In a voluntary society, no person is forced to deal with others who give them no consideration.
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I don’t want to say that divorce is destroying America. That lady sounds like a nut. If I had to be raised by parents who hated each other but would or could not divorce then I don’t think I would be better off by any means.

If there is anything destroying humanity (because it is not only in America) I would have to go with greed. As long as there are greedy people in the world then we will never truly coexist properly.

So I think that divorce is way far down on the list of evils.

ADD: Zen by greed I mean personal greed. So many people think only of themselves without regard for anyone else. People who use others for their own personal gain without regards to the people who’s necks they are stepping on to get their pretty green paper.
References :

http://www.aboutdivorce.org/us_divorce_rates.html

http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistfamiliesmarriage/a/AtheistsDivorce.htm

1. The property shall be held by the husband and wife upon a trust for land for themselves as beneficial joint tenants: and

2. In the event of the husband’s [i] remarriage or [ii] cohabitation for a period of 12 months or periods amounting to 12 months he will hold in trust together with the wife the entire beneficial interest of the property for the wife absolutely; and

3. At the wife’s written request to he shall transfer all his legal and beneficial interest in the property to his wife.

For those who may be inclined to comment at the favoritism shown to the wife in the settlement, it may interest you to know that my friend’s ex had an affair when she was heavily pregnant with their second child. He was the love of her life and she tried hard to forgive him for the sake of the children but he had broken their marriage and they could not fix it. She hasn’t had a boyfriend since the divorce, he’s had several girlfriends. She lives in the property with their children. She will contact her lawyer in due course, but she would love to hear from anybody who would be able to give her any advice prior to this as money’s tight and lawyers cost a lot. Thank you.

P.S. I have asked this question in "marriage and divorce" but as yet, haven’t received any replies from people who know the legal side, so I’m asking here in case anyone can help her.