The Family in America is Worse Off Than We Thought

Those of us primarily concerned with preserving the unbought graces of life have long taken comfort in the fact that, despite all the radical changes in our culture and way of life, the divorce rates have actually been steadily decreasing. Or so we thought…

The narrative has been that divorce rates have been steadily declining since the 1980s, and that even the large numbers of divorce can be attributed to second and third marriages. Enter a new study that finds the divorce statistics supplied by the Census exclude the data from entire states. Since 1996 the Federal Government stopped providing funding for states to collect detailed statistics, and by 2005 at least six states, including California (which has a lot of people and a lot of divorces) have not been included in the Census divorce statistics.

I couldn’t believe this at first. I went and checked a few of the past census reports, and sure enough, right there in the footnotes is a list of states excluded from the statistics.

The new paper argues that instead of going down 20% since 1980, the divorce rate has actually gone up by 40%. Also gone is the comfort that most divorces can be attributed to 2^nd and 3^rd marriages. The report concludes that “almost half of ever married Americans had divorced or separated by the time they reached their late 50’s.”

I’m one of those conservatives that constantly battles between his Stoic and Christian sensibilities in trying not to despair at everything wrong with our culture, but I’m not sure there’s a way around this one.

Fortify the “Wintry Kingdom.” Pray for Resurrection.