Divorce rates among JWs higher? (page 2)

Pubsinger

It's flooding back!

Got 51 couples in 20 mins

Pubsinger

59 couples in 30 mins.

I'll stop now I've got more useful things to do!!

Since evangelicals have no better divorce rate than the general public, and the society has been "beating the sheep" again on this very topic, I am very confident that the JW divorce statistics are no better than the general public:

http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=170

In Canada, divorce rates are dropping. The analysts speculate this is because people are generally waiting longer to get married. The younger the couple when they marry, the higher the incidence of break-up. This makes sense to me. Observing my children, they really came in to their own in their mid to late twenties. If a person marries too young, they may find they are hooked to someone at odds with their dreams and values.

And as you know the witnesses tend to marry young (at least the first time) in a futile attempt to forestall fornication.

http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/sup/pub/selstats2000/chap2.html

sammielee24

trying to work it out

All the older ones that I see still together aren't necessarily 'working it out' - in fact as my mother responded not so long ago to me - 'do you think anyone is happy?'. She was speaking in regards to the marital relationship within her JW community and she's over 80. Many that I know are just hanging around waiting for the new order so they can be free. They feel bound, not by love or desire, but by doctrine and fear. I don't think the rate of divorce is any less or more but I don't believe that they work any harder at it - in fact, among the women that I know there is a certain attitude that exists. They no longer have to exert themselves in any way to maintain a good relationship because they know that their mates cannot leave. I suppose the opposite may also be true but I can only speak to the women I know that make it 'look' good to the outside world. These facts can be shorn up time and again even on JWD when posters ask questions about 'scriptural' divorce.....the fact they even care about something beyond the legal definition of the word, indicates a 'bound' mentality to the organization. sammieswife.

greendawn

I wouldn't know what goes on at present but back in the eighties when I was there for seven or eight years there were no divorces at all in that time in the congo and the neighbouring ones that's a total of about 500 JWs. There was a case of adultery between an elder and another elder's wife but their spouses didn't demand a divorce, they forgave their unfaithful partners who were eventually reinstated. Before joining the dubs (I was told) an elder run away from his aging special pioneer wife with a young JW woman.

Pubsinger

40 of my 59 couples married under 25.

AK - Jeff

Many that I know are just hanging around waiting for the new order so they can be free. They feel bound, not by love or desire, but by doctrine and fear.

This triggered a memory of mine.

In the early 70's, I was a company man in training yet, newly baptized, when I had a discussion with an elder, who at the time was about 50. He brought up the latest Watchtower opinion that the elders would all be made 'princes in the earth' when the New World got here. He alluded to some of Freddy's latest prophetic spew, though I can't recall the publication he mentioned. Somewhere in all that, he had determined that 'perhaps, though we don't know for sure at this point, Jehovah may completely eliminate marriage, since there will be no need for additional children to fill the earth, and we would be perfect' [alluding that sexual intercourse would no longer be desired if Jehovah needed no more children to fill the earth]. He mentioned his own marriage and stated rather matter-of-factly that he would likely not be married any longer.

I think he might have wished an escape pod from his personal marital prison. To this date he is still married, and now over 80. How sad, the things these poor souls have wished for, and waited lifetime to see. Most of them with absolutely no root in Biblical Base to begin with.

Jeff

flipper

Hello Jeff. Mr. Flipper here. In my years as a witness I saw at least probably about 15 to 20 couples that I can think of that divorced. It happened often. I think it's probably near the national average of 50%.I think the org. wants to embellish their statistics so people on the outside think the witnesses are mostly immune to divorce, because of they're pushing goody,goody, family life principles. Don't want to lose converts, God forbid! Nevertheless, I was aware when in the witnesses of a case where a man and woman left their respective mates, got dfed, married each other while out, then got reinstated and put back in good standing within 2 to 3 years. I think they used to call that, "planning ahead for the desires of the flesh". I knew even close friends that got divorced. Some remarried, some didn't, but it goes without saying that divorce hurts whether it's in the witnesses or outside the witnesses. It's a sad thing.Peace out, Mr. Flipper

jgnat

He mentioned his own marriage and stated rather matter-of-factly that he would likely not be married any longer.

Hubby tried that on me the other day. He casually mentioned he'd likely be single in the new order. After all, how was I to be sure I'd make it? I let him know on no uncertain terms he could not get rid of me that easily!

LoverOfTruth

I think the Divorce Rate is probably lower among the JWs. Not so much because they have good marriages but because it is Required of them not to Divorce.

Divorce rates among JWs higher?

Share this