Save marriage. Examine high divorce rates among fundamentalist Christians.

[blm]

If the right is SERIOUS about protecting the sanctity of marriage they should be calling for a THOROUGH inquiry into what it is about fundamentalist Christians in red states who happen to have the highest divorce rates in our entire nation.

Let's call for Congressional hearings.

If we scrutinize EVERY aspect of their lives in Congressional hearings, then maybe we can come up with an answer that can be of help.

Maybe, if we act quickly, even Karl Rove will get rid of his girlfriend and keep better faith with his wife and family. Wouldn't that be a wonderful goal?

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. its usually cause of

abuse, neglect, incredible dullness, or child molestation

[Jasper 91]

36. I thought you were going to say that it was usually a case of

Do as I say, not as I do. The Right is very fond of preaching moral values, but not so fond of putting them into practice.

[Cheswick2.0]

2. Let's draft a letter to congress

Let's ask them what is wrong with rightwing fundamentalists and what can we do to help them so that they stop destroying our country with their casual divorces.

[blm]

5. Amen, sister. Let's SAVE those red state marriages.

.

[Soopercali]

3. They have a ready-made response.

It says in the Bible not to yoke a believer to a non-believer. If one partner becomes "born again" and the other one doesn't, well, there you go.

Just sayin'.

[MADem]

18. Yeah, but if they are real EVANGELICALS

...they oughta be preaching to their spouse, tryin' with all their spirit and soul ta bring that person ta JeeeeeeeeeeeSus, and not giving up so easily.

Sounds to me like a cheapass excuse to get some new nookie.

Wusses!

[Cheswick2.0]

21. So right wing fundamentalists are more likely to marry the ungodly?

What is it about the way they are trained up that causes them to marry casually and without thought?

[MADem]

22. Yes, it does seem rather irresponsible!!!

They need to choose more carefully, I suppose, but then they will be accused of being "deliberately childless!"

What's a poor fundie to do?

[madison2000]

24. they're horny as hell

:evilfrown: :evilfrown: :evilfrown:

[wtmusic]

4. Protecting OTHER marriages, sending OTHER young men to die in Iraq

Is there a pattern here?

[goodboy]

6. highest divorce rate in the country is in the bible-belt. nt

[Sputnik]

7. Not having kids is a sin too

According to this guy:

--snip--

"When you talk about protecting marriage, you need to talk about divorce," said Bryce Christensen, a Southern Utah University professor who writes frequently about family issues....

....If those initiatives are part of a broader effort to reaffirm lifetime fidelity in marriage, they're worthwhile," he said. "If they're isolated -- if we don't address cohabitation and casual divorce and deliberate childlessness -- then I think they're futile and will be brushed aside."

--snip--


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-protecting-marriage,0,2866837.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

"Deliberate childlessness"??? Do Conservatives REALLY want Liberals to have more children?

Nuts. They are completely nuts.

[blm]

11. Pat Buchanan chose to NOT have children. So did Bob and Elizabeth Dole.

Interesting....eh?

[Cheswick2.0]

23. they are deliberately childless

Now we are getting somewhere. What kind of example are their religious and political leaders setting them? Even Pickles and the Chimp remained deliberately childless after the twins.

[madrchsod]

8. but where would jerry springer get his "quests"

95% of jerry`s quests come from a red state....

[24HRrnr]

9. Could you please indicate a primary source for your hypothesis?

I have seen a multiplicity of claims of higher than average divorce rates in, variously, red states and the Bible Belt. I haven't seen any supporting documentation.

Could you indicate where I could verify that documentation myself.

[Cheswick2.0]

15. Here ya go

http://www.divorcereform.org/mel/rbaptisthigh.html

[tandot]

16. Glad I can help you:

http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS2.shtml

Scroll down to highest divorce rates by States:

Having the least divorces: liberal "gay-marriage" Massachusetts followed by Connecticut and New Jersey
Having the most divorces: Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Nevada (Nevada probably because of their quicky divorces that attracts more people from other States)

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

Divorce rates among Christian groups:
The slogan: "The family that prays together, stays together" is well known. There has been much anecdotal evidence that has led to "unsubstantiated claims that the divorce rate for Christians who attended church regularly, pray together or who meet other conditions is only 1 or 2 percent". 8 . Dr. Tom Ellis, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Council on the Family said that for "...born-again Christian couples who marry...in the church after having received premarital counseling...and attend church regularly and pray daily together..." experience only 1 divorce out of nearly 39,000 marriages -- or 0.00256 percent. 9

A recent study by the Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on these estimates. Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21. 1 They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The sampling error is within 2 percentage points. The survey found:

11% of the adult population is currently divorced.
25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime.
Divorce rates among conservative Christians were much higher than for other faith groups, and for Atheists and Agnostics.

[karlrschneider]

17. I don't have a cite handy, but it's often reported here in Oklahoma in

media that we have the highest divorce rate in the country...and it's about as 'red' as any...very homophobic too. :grr:

[Cheswick2.0]

10. Here is a letter

Please feel free to improve on it. I think it would be a serious hoot to send this to congress and the senate, as well as bush and all the state governors and legislators. If anyone has some statistics throw them in.


Dear Congressional Leaders;


We the undersigned are very concerned about the state of marriage in the United States of America. We are liberal and moderate democrats (and third party friends) of every religious persuasion including some of us who have no religion. It has come to our attention that the people most likely to get divorced are right wing Christian Fundamentalists.
We feel it would be beneficial to the fabric of our society to examine the culture and possible reasons for this phenomenon. We urge you to hold congressional hearings on this matter. By doing so we may be able to understand why Conservative Fundamentalists fail to sustain their commitment to God, by failing to uphold the holy sacrament of marriage. We must ensure the sanctity of the family in America. We must not allow these people to further tear at the very backbone of American culture, the institution of marriage. The voters of American made that very clear in the last election.

Concerned Citizens;

[blm]

14. Good start. Let's make sure ALL print/broadcast newsrooms get a copy.

The middle of the last paragraph is a little awkward. Love the "fail to sustain their commitment to God" part, though.

[Cheswick2.0]

19. I worked on it

is it better?

[blm]

31. How about adding that congressional hearings into the effects of the

fundamentalist FORM of Christianity which apparently attacks the very sanctity of marriage it purports to cherish?

I am not above laying it on thick and heavy. (heheh)

The last sentence should read America, not American.

[Cheswick2.0]

33. revision

Dear Congressional Leaders;


We the undersigned are very concerned about the state of marriage in the United States of America. We are liberal and moderate democrats (and third party friends) of every religious persuasion including some of us who have no religion. It has come to our attention that the people most likely to get divorced are right wing Christian Fundamentalists.
We feel it would be beneficial to the fabric of our society to examine the culture and possible reasons for this phenomenon. We urge you to hold congressional hearings on the Fundamentist form of Christianity. By doing so we may be able to understand why Conservative Fundamentalists fail to sustain their commitment to God, by failing to uphold the holy sacrament of marriage. We must ensure the sanctity of the family in America. We must not allow these people to further tear at the very backbone of American culture, the institution of marriage. The voters of America made that very clear in the last election.

Concerned Citizens;

[blm]

35. I like it.

The second Fundamentalist needs a spellcheck.

Where do we start sending this critter?

[Verve]

12. This is a great idea! Do you have any studies or research that back this?

We can then start getting the word out.

On a similar note, I've been meaning to look into abortion rates. My hypothesis is that women and teens raised in rigid, conservative families are more likely to have abortions than women raised in less rigid, accepting families. Obviously, this would hurt their "pro life" stance if we could show it is their own daughters getting abortions!

Extreme fundamentalists are such a disservice to American families! We need to look into their families and pull out all their dirty laundry. We need to show the rest of America that being rigidly religious isn't what it is cracked up to be.

[Cheswick2.0]

26. read it and weep

Literally, this is sad information.

http://home.att.net/~pcr-aar/2004/ellison.htm

[Verve]

30. Thank you for the info! Unfortuneatly, it looks like my hypothesis

may have some truth to it. A lot to digest!

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. When one person of a couple falls into the clutches of a cult

doesn't that usually result in divorce? When a couple are both in the cult, and one's eyes are opened by some crisis or another but the other remains steadfast, doesn't that usually result in divorce?

The fundigelicals really meet nearly all the qualifications of a cult, with the exception of there being a single, all-powerful leader. Instead there is like a corporate board of leaders: Robertson, Falwell, LaHaye, who promote the same ideology while cooperatively scamming their followers.

When a cult reaches a high proportion of the populace, nobody dares call it a cult. Only the farthest fringes of the fundigelical movement, like snake handlers, are considered sects. But fifty years ago a significant majority of them would be thought of as such.

Problem is, with 'freedom of religion' nobody dares call it like it is. David Koresh was not a cult leader who 'married' his teenage followers, and a dangerous lunatic who was amassing a huge arsenal of illegal weapons for the coming apocalypse; he was the leader of a small, fundamentalist congregation who was unjustly set upon by the government in violation of the first amendment. Even mainstream religious leaders defended him, the way good doctors refuse to kick bad doctors out of their profession, because it harms the image of the profession as a whole.

OK, this is turning into a rant, but I think the main point holds.

[madison2000]

20. If you need a license to allow yourself have sex

you're going to get married very young, in the heat of lust, to a partner which may or may not be well chosen. That's why a lot of the fundamentalist marriages don't last. They are doomed from day one because they don't make reasonable adult choices.

[ooglymoogly]

25. ever hear of the greek word h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e quiz

1. beware the hypocrite for he will destroy your life. true or false 2. steering clear of the red states and not buying anything coming from that bizarre nowhereland might keep you out of speed traps in georgia and jail.
true or false
3. hypocrites are usually dumber than honest folk. true or false
4. red states should be called hypocred states. true or false
5. black athletes have learned to stay out of hypocrite states like colorado and alabama lest they be falsely accused or even hanged. true or false.
6. hypocrite and born again are synonymous. true or false
7. right wing cristian and dumb have similar meanings. true or false
8. hypocrites voted for bush, honest folk voted for kerry. true or false
9. hypocrites will destroy a democracy. true or false
10. hypocrites think jesus is coming tomorrow because they cannot bear their shallow sorry lives. true or false

[Nicholas_J]

27. Well you have to remember

That fundamentalists invented the idea of the "double standard".

Considering that they are now questioning what they cal "deliberate childlessness", trhey never have had a proble, with inconsistancy.

THey oppose abortion, then they oppose couples who chose not to have children, they are now questionina and attackoing couples who choose not to get married, but simply live together, and yet they deny marriage to gays.

The difference between liberals and fundies isthat fundies intend to force their beliefs and lifestyles onto others,while liberals do not deny them their right to practice whatever the hell distorted pagan based form of christianity that they feel like.

Margaret Atwood may heve gotten it correct in the Handmaids Tale. These people will not stop until they can burn non-beleivers at the stake.

[PurityOfEssence]

28. Living together and having some premarital sex is a good preventer

of divorce.

Fundies HATE the earthly: sex is bad, acceptance of human foibles is wrong, and they reap what they sow. Love is fabulous, but for a relationship to laugh, you have to have similar sexual appetites and compatible living habits. It's idiotic to pledge yourself to someone without honestly exploring these two issues.

Spending their whole lives cutting against the grain takes a huge toll on fundies: they seethe at the joy they deny themselves, they obsess about things, and they harbor deep hatred of those who don't deny themselves pleasure. This is just another reason for hating gays: jealously based on the silly assumption that they're all getting lots of sex all the time.

Unfortunately, by distancing themselves from reality, they can create a fantasy utopia that's much better than what actually exists, and no untidy proof will ever intrude upon their certainty.

[Cheswick2.0]

29. actually that is not true either

I have read stats that say you are more slightly more likely to get divorced if you first lived together.

[JitterbugPerfume]

32. uhhhhhhh----

my fundy right wing "I will pray for you Aunt @@@@ " nephew is working on his SECOND divorce, and al I hear from certain family members is what a good christain he is

go figure

[BrklynLiberal]

34. Good Christians

How many times have the following been married?
Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Dole, Bob Barr, Rudolph Giuliani, Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Senator Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Sen. John Warner (Va.), Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Colo.), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas), and there are many more that I cannot think of right now.
Should we mention the sexual/drug abuse scandals of some of the well known evangelists and conservative media loudmouths?
I think that in some foreign language we don't know yet, fundamentalist = hypocrite.
:puke:

[blm]

37. So, it's not gays who broke up their marriages, it was POWER and MONEY

and the constant quest for both.

That's another issue that needs a congressional hearing. The quest for power and money consumes TOO many marriages.

Why, imagine if those who held power and money as their priority ALSO were Christian fundamentalists. That would surely doom any marriage. We really need to get to work on this issue.

[DuaneBidoux]

38. My fundie dad: four times!!! Big Bush supporter.

My wife and I 22 years, and "liberal sinners." My Unitarian church, with all these lefty people had, I think 1 divorce in that last year.

Fuck these assholes...They want cultural warfare, and we haven't been fighting back. Time to fuckin' fight back.

Put a bumper sticker on your car that says: Goddess Bless America

Where a t-shirt with a hangar and the phrase "Republican Abortion Kit."

Go rent a porn and a dildo and play all night with your spouse (or whomever the fuck you want to).


You get the idea...

[CitySky]

39. gutsy bumper sticker

(here in Texas)

God Forgive America