As you look over this chart it can be pretty disappointing. It is for me. It seems to me that the research on divorce in the past indicated that Christians had a lower rate than others. These data do not show thatis true.
In my limited experience, most churches actually do very little to build strong marriages and families. At the most, there is some preaching and teaching against divorces but after that the church leaders are silent. These data seem to reveal that the most active and highly active and committed Christians have the lowest rate of divorce but their rates are hardly anything to write home about.
The highest rate of divorce comes in the Conservative group. Does this indicate that those who are most conservative theologically but not so active in involvement are at a great risk of couple conflict? It seems so. This seems to correlate with research I saw from years ago about depression for different Christian groups. The highest rates of depression came in Pentecostals who were not active in church.
In fact, passive belief may be harmful in many ways. Is it related to the statement by St. James that "Faith without works is useless"? Faith with follow up is useful. Belief in God and His love is useful if followed by personal application. If I am unable to apply God's grace and mercy and love to myself and my family I am likely to get burned out and depressed.
Almost every person that came to our in patient hospital unit was a conservative Christian. However, they were unable to apply their faith to themselves so it was worse than useless. This is one reason I write so much about Power Christian Thinking to rid ourselves of Stinking Thinking. Applied faith is a living faith that gives us life.
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