Research paper
Marriage and divorce are common experiences faced by majority in the population. Healthy marriages are essential for the mental and physical health of couples. In the western cultures, 90% of the population marries by the age of fifty years. However, marriages, in the recent years are facing a lot challenges due to various misunderstandings between the couple or failure to understand what a marriage requires either of the individuals to do. Therefore, divorce has become a common experience to many people as the only way out of the problems being faced in marriages. There are different types of marriages; traditional marriage, Christian marriage and civil marriage.
The Christian marriage entails the couple to abide by what the Bible states in accordance to marriage. According to the Bible (1st Corinthians7) a man is allowed to have a sexual relation with a woman and therefore it states that every man should have his own wife as well as the case with women. It is as well stated in Genesis that a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become flesh and blood. This is a proof that the Bible clearly supports marriages.
On the other hand, the Bible condemns divorce as it is seen as a way of committing adultery. In the book of Matthew19, it is clearly stated that whoever leaves his wife and marries another, commits adultery. This means that God does not want whatever He has joined together to separate. However if unbelieving partner (one who does not believe in God) separates, the other partner is not enslaved to the action of the other. In this case, the divorced partner is called to the peace of Christianity.
In the current society, marriages do not go well as stated in the bible. In most cases, the reason behind this is lack of enough knowledge on what the bible requires one to do being a married partner. A few percentages are not successful in their marriage encounter due to misunderstandings and others due to cases of traditional and civil marriages.
In the western countries, marriage law allows contracts during marriage, whereby, an individual can marry for a certain period of time. Therefore, marriage is not taken seriously and with the same intensity as it is taken in the Christian marriage or as stated by the bible. Copying skills have influenced other countries to pick up this kind of marriage as in the western marriage probably to reduce the burden expected of a person during a marriage life.
According to my view on divorce, married couples should withstand challenges that come with the encounter. Couples should take their time to understand each other before a decision for divorce is made. This is because, in many cases of divorce, the divorced couples usually come into terms after a period of separation. Despite their reasons, this is evident that divorce is not always the best option.
In other cases, divorced couples usually fail in their succeeding marriages. The routine is usually similar to the previous marriages. As stated in the bible, for the believers, that whoever divorce their partners, are termed with the act of being sexually immoral.
The bible states that, a believer should not, at any case, leave his/her partner, however, if the unbelieving partner decides to leave his/ her partner, the other partner is set to live in the peace of the believers. This means that a partner is only allowed to remarry in the situation above as stated in 1st Corinthians. In cases where children are involved, divorce should not be an option at any circumstance. This is to reduce cases of single parenting which is a rising issue around the world.
Divorce has many effects both socially and spiritually on the concerned families. The most affected individuals are children. Hardly do we witness a positive outcome of a divorce but in any case, it is observed that, the advantages are one sided, such that, either the wife or the husband takes the privileges of being a divorcee. The children are left with the feeling of grief, and depression and this affects their live socially and spiritually.
According to the Christian faith, unless death separates a married couple, both their parents should/must raise children. Otherwise, divorce has brought an evil belief to our children in such a way that, they do not believe in marriages due to their experiences with their parents.
In most cases, children become demoralized in their social life and unacceptable character begins to develop within them. These may include behavior such as; smoking and excessive drinking, abuse of drugs, and sexual immorality.
On the side of the divorce couples, divorce may become unhealthy to them too. These effects may include; increased susceptibility to sickness, a propensity for crime, higher risk of stroke among other effects. It is therefore evident that, divorce has more negative impacts than positive ones.
Bibliography
Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001. ISBN: 978-0801020759.
Towns, Elmer L. Theology for Today. Mason, OH: Thomson Custom Solutions Center, 2001. ISBN: 9780155161382.
May, Elaine T. 1988. Great expectations: marriage and divorce in post-victorian America. Chicago [u.a.]: Univ. of Chicago Press.
