Morality in the News Project Essay
For my English class I was assigned to write a paper about a controversial topic, I chose to do divorce. I was told to take this from a christian perspective and say why it shows how the world’s sense of morality has degraded. Unfortunately the way I was assigned to write the paper made my paper biased but overall I think that it is still a good paper, I would enjoy if you read it.
Jack Tewes
Ms. Snyder
English 2
2 October, 2018
Morality in the News Project
Divorce in the world today is very prominent for many reasons, but one is that people are getting married to others that they won’t want to be with for the rest of their lives. This shows that we have been falling away from God, but there is still hope to turn this around. There are two sides of the coin and both have very compelling arguments on why divorce should be allowed. One is based on facts, and one is based on the Word of God.
The argument that deems divorce acceptable supported by the fact that people make mistakes and they should be able to fix them by getting a divorce. Also in certain situation people are married, and then one of the partners begins to become abusive; rather than take it the victim decides to get a divorce so they can be safe. Nobody wants to be trapped in something that makes them unhappy, and, “recent studies indicate that individuals who were unhappily married report a significant increase in their overall levels of happiness following divorce.” (Issitt, “Counterpoint : Divorce Allows Individuals to Escape from Unhappy and Abusive Relationships and Enables Individuals to Pursue More Fulfilling Lives”)
People often say that divorce is bad for the offspring of the divorcees, but this just isn’t true, “Researchers have found that only a relatively small percentage of children experience serious problems in the wake of divorce or, later, as adults.” (Arkowitz, Hal) The children could also have been worse off when their parents were trapped in the marriage; “In a 1991 study, Paul Amato suggested…children in divorced families do demonstrate increased depression and other social dysfunction, these behavioral patterns may have stemmed from the environment of the unhappy marriage prior to divorce.” (Issitt, “Counterpoint : Divorce Allows Individuals to Escape from Unhappy and Abusive Relationships and Enables Individuals to Pursue More Fulfilling Lives.” ) The main arguments for why divorce should be allowed consist of the fact that it is a way out of an unhappy marriage, sometimes a divorce is necessary to get away from a dangerous individual, or that in certain cases the couple just doesn’t love each other anymore.
There is another side to this argument, some people deem divorce inappropriate in any circumstances. This is the Christian view, “God, the Creator of humanity and of marriage itself, has laid out His plan for marriage as a lifelong union.” (“How Should a Christian View Marriage and Divorce”) Although some Christians believe Divorce is acceptable in some Circumstances, “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (English Standaed Version Bible Matt 19:4-6) Jesus said that Marriage is a Sacred bond not to be broken by man.
This shows that the world has begun to degrade morally with Divorce. God meant it to be a sacred bond but we as sinful humans have ruined it. “When one’s mate is guilty of sexual immorality and is unwilling to repent and live faithfully with the marriage partner.” (English Standard Version Bible, Matt. 19:8-9) So according to the Bible Divorce is actually ok in certain circumstances but we are showing moral degradation in the fact that people are getting married to others that they don’t want to spend the rest of their lives with. We are also showing moral degradation in the fact that certain individuals are doing things to their spouses that would make divorcing them appropriate.
In conclusion Divorce is acceptable in certain circumstances when something terrible like abuse, happens that would constitute a divorce. If you do not love your spouse you should not be trapped in an unsatisfying relationship for the rest of your life as you deserve to be happy and live your life to the fullest, but we as Christians really need to take this into account. Before going through with something as serious as a marriage we have to ask ourselves if we really want this. As well as asking if our spouse would be a person we would want to spend the rest of our lives with. Also we can turn this around if we really try to be conscientious. We can’t be perfect but we can try and stay in God’s image to the best of our ability.
Works Cited
Arkowitz, Hal. “Is Divorce Bad for Children?” Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2013,
www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-divorce-bad-for-children/.
“Divorce.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,
www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/divorce.
“How Should a Christian View Marriage and Divorce?” Focus on the Family, 1 Jan.
Issitt, Micah. “Counterpoint: Divorce Allows Individuals to Escape from Unhappy and
Abusive Relationships and Enables Individuals to Pursue More Fulfilling Lives.” Points of View: Divorce Rate, Mar. 2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=93663184&site=pov-live.
Issitt, Micah. “Divorce Rate: Overview.” Points of View: Divorce Rate, Mar.
2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=pwh&AN=93663182&site=pov-live.