I promise to stop commenting on San Francisco’s frenzy of same-sex marriages at some point.
Here’s what set me off today. Dave Gibson, writing about Newsom in American Daily, says: “With the moral fiber of this country unraveling at an ever alarming rate, it is not surprising that so many people seem to find this event as “no big deal.” Well, like many, I think this is a big deal, although I suspect not in a way that Mr. Gibson would approve. Regardless, it’s interesting to note that whatever the result of this week’s events in San Francisco, it hasn’t yet caused the city to slide into the sea, people to turn into pillars of salt, or a plague of locusts. Check for yourself. Looks pretty normal to me…
What mostly interests me is this notion of declining moral fiber. I’m guessing that we’re not the first generation where half the population has complained that the other half is destroying their society’s moral fiber. I’d be interested in the history of this notion, because I suspect it goes back quite a ways. Temperance, Victorian England, Salem witch trials….
Like a number of writers this week, however, I find it oddly inconsistent to see the Religious Right oppose same-sex marriage on the basis that traditional concepts of marriage safeguard our families and children, while ignoring the effects of divorce. Given its effect on the traditional nuclear family, isn’t divorce even more of a contributor to our declining moral fiber? Shouldn’t the Religious Right do something about divorce, too? Well, it turns out they are…
They’re leading the nation in divorce, as a matter of fact. Or so reports a study done in 1999 by the Barna Research Group. Just so you don’t think I’m just picking studies from some left-wing-free-love focus group, let me point out that Barna is a “full-service marketing research company…providing information and analysis regarding cultural trends and the Christian Church since 1984.”
In a survey of 3800+ adults from 48 states, the Barna folks found that 27% of those describing themselves as “born-again” Christians are currently or have previously been divorced. This number rose in 2001 to 33%, statistically indistinguishable from the overall trend of 34% divorce rate found among all respondents.
In their 1999 study, Barna also found that divorce rates varied among groups: Baptists were highest with 29%, “mainstream” Protestants with 25%, Mormons 24%, Catholics and Lutherans with 21%.
Interestingly, in this study, “atheists and agnostics” were running about even with Catholics with 21%.
In other words, at least according to a study conducted by a Christian market research firm, born-again Christians (80% of whom, according to Barna, feel that homosexuality is wrong and strongly oppose same-sex marriage) are also having the most trouble maintaining the traditional nuclear family. Oh, and they’re also the folks who apparently think that the “moral fiber of this country is unraveling at an alarming rate.” Seems to me they need to get their own houses in order before telling the country how everyone should live their lives.
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