A recent study suggests yet another reason why divorce is bad—it harms the planet. Two researchers at Michigan State University found that divorced households used much more electricity (73 billion kilowatt-hours) and water (627 billion gallons) than married households. They found that about 38 million extra rooms were needed with associated costs for heating and lighting because of divorce. Divorced households use 42-61% more resources than their married counterparts, and they spend 46% more for electricity 56 % more on water. So this study reveals another inconvenient truth-- divorce is not green.
Divorce has many negative impacts, and this is only one surprising one. Of greater concern is way divorce impacts children. Paul Faulkner points to a study that shows that adolescent boys from families that experience divorce begin sexual experimentation at a much earlier age. Teenaged boys who had not experienced divorce were 59% more likely to be virgins, and only 18% of teenagers who acted out in antisocial or delinquent behavior came from intact families. So the ripples of broken marriage vows spread to affect more people than just the two people getting the divorce.
The simple fact is that everyone believes that divorce is a bad thing. Perhaps those who have been through it will be the first to say that divorce is a bad thing. But then, those who have had root canals will say that it is a bad thing—it is just that sometimes it is necessary to get one done. I think that may be the inconvenient truth for many Christians and divorce. We know it is a bad thing, but we also suspect that sometimes it may just be unavoidable. That attitude just might keep divorce on the table as an option for us. It must—the national divorce rate and the divorce rate among Christians is virtually the same rate. That is another inconvenient truth.
2 comments:
That is a very interesting study and a fact that I heard when that study was on the news is this: In an areas were there is less population growth and divorce rates are high there is a housing shortage. It is true that when people don’t get along resources get wasted and that it takes less resources to support a large group in a small area (just look at the supper doom after the hurricane) and that bureaucracy kills. . . and I am getting off on another tangent. Back to the children living with fighting parents who do not teach children how to manipulate by example who are wasting resources. . . well you can see were I am going with this. . . just because a persons parents were bad examples that doesn’t mean that the child will have the same problems but we all need to be aware that how we behave or misbehave in front of the little ones will get learned by them and who knows how they will use what they have learned.
If a couple can not live together for 5, 15, 20 or how ever many years it takes for one of them to die they should not make a superficial commitment but we are all human. Who hasn’t kissed someone who they wanted to but didn’t marry. . . I know I am not about to do something that requires the removal of my shoes to count them. It is true people do sometimes misrepresent themselves to get what they want but the relationship of man and wife is to be holy and should be for life as God indented. So why do so many people get married and divorced? That are a few reasons. . . very few people get married to get divorced (unless they are going to get stuff from it) and many just don’t know that they are yokeing themselves to such a mean snake that they are getting tangled up with until it is to late. There is often unintended casualties and the only way to prevent that from happening is to use foresight and wisdom. . . seek trusted wise counseling from good friends who are, surely that will help prevent tragic divorces. (Bottom line. . “Christians make just as many mistakes as nons-”) and sometimes mistakes lead to other things that happens. Accidents don’t just happen they are caused by a chain of events. When human life results it is to be protected and guarded at the start as it a precious and delicate thing that transports our souls.
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