A friend of mine worried to me many years ago that his wife was hanging out with a woman who’d recently been divorced. He said he believed that their friendship was having a negative effect on his marriage. At the time I didn’t see how that could be but it seems I was wrong. My friend’s wife left him within that year.
That’s purely anecdotal I know but now there are scientists now saying divorce leads to more divorce.
Scientific research coming out of Brown University studied the marriages of 12,000 people and discovered “divorce clusters” and have concluded that if a friend of yours divorces the chances of you getting a divorce increase by 75 percent.
The researchers even concluded that even the divorce of a friend of a friend increases your likelihood of a divorce by a third.
July 8, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Shared on Facebook…..
July 8, 2010 at 3:38 pm
I agree about not scandalizing others and causing them to sin. But more importantly is the need to be scandal-proof. One must be able to stand on his principles and faith regardless of what others do. The domino effect presented in the article highlights a deeper and more serious problem that people are not solid in their faith and not mature enough to have the courage of their convictions.
July 8, 2010 at 5:53 pm
If your spouse divorces you because his/her friend divorced their spouse, then there may have been some concern with your marriage (or spouse) to begin with.
It could also be a case of correlation rather than causation. Couples who would even consider divorce hang out with other like-minded couples, and those that would never consider it hang out with like-minded couples.
July 8, 2010 at 10:10 pm
I have noticed about myself that if I am reading a book with friction between spouses in it, my marriage suffers (because of me). So I have made the choice to avoid such books–no story line or good moral is worth such a cost. I can only imagine that having this type of friction play out in one's life would be just as affecting or more so–at least for some of us.
This makes me think of the verse,
"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Phil 4:8
Off to think of good and gracious things and strive for excellence in my housekeeping 🙂
–mandamum
July 9, 2010 at 2:20 am
Does this work with contraception as well? A contraceptive mentality seems to come over pro-Humanae Vitae women when they hang out with anti-Humanae Vitae "Catholics" or Protestants.