Pope:
8. Married love particularly reveals its true nature and nobility when we realize that it takes its origin from God, who "is love," (6) the Father "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." (7)
Marriage, then, is far from being the effect of chance or the result of the blind evolution of natural forces. It is in reality the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives.
The marriage of those who have been baptized is, in addition, invested with the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, for it represents the union of Christ and His Church.
After reading this message of the Pope, a lot of people may doubt and ask if a marriage between the husband and the wife is perfect and is in God's plan, how is it possible that the divorce rate is still this high in the United States, which some people refer the United States as a nation of Christianity. I did a little research after reading the message and find the following from Divorceguide.com:
For the past decade, the overall American divorce rate has remained stable, at around 50% for first marriages. The statistics are become more depressing for each successive marriage, with 65% of second marriage ending in divorce and even high rates for third marriages and beyond. Divorce rate statistics show that 3.6% to 5% of marriages are ending every year, cumulating in a large portion of adults who have personally experienced divorce at some point in their lives.
I felt okay when I was reading the first line that saying the divorce rate has remained stable, I thought it is good that rate did not increase that much during past decade, however, I had no clue that the rate already got this high as 50% for first marriage. Sure I have no clue why the rate is this high and I think I do understand why some people may argue that marriages these days are no longer perfect or are in God's plan. In my opinion, I as christian still think that marriage is still in God's hand and speaking of the issue of high divorce rate, I think it really does depend on what perspective you are looking from. I think that a lot of marriages these days or during past decades, they come fast and easy and go fast and easy as well. They are no longer like those in our parent's era. Perhaps people now don't think carefully or consider marriage well enough before they get married. May be the concept of marriage has changed? I don't know.
I think that the reason the divorce rate is so high is because people don't think the commitment through and they get married so fast and at a young age. I feel that many of the people who get married are not ready to commit to something that is so permanent because they still have yet to experience a lot of things in life. It is sad and I wish people would think it through more deeply before rushing into something that it suppose to be cherished. It kind of makes the whole marriage thing seem far less important than it should be.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point and I totally agree with you that perhaps a lot of people who got divorced did not really think careful enough or that they were not ready to commit. I have been in the states for a while and I do notice that quite a lot of young Americans get married early, a little earlier than Chinese people do relatively. I assume that part of this issue of high divorce rate can be related to cultural difference. But I think China will no longer be exception.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/05/china-divorce-rate-up_n_858156.html
The news said: The number of couples that formally notified the government of the end of their marriage increased by 17% in the first three months of 2011 from a year earlier to 465000.
So...
The increase of the divorce rate is certainly interesting and carries with it a lot of elements. The secularization of America, the equality of rights to women, and more lawyers around than ever before. The problem is that people don't look down upon it anymore. It's an accepted piece of our culture, and that's exactly why people have started to divorce more than before.
ReplyDelete