The Religion Debate: Is Divorce Immoral? 

I sat next to a woman in class the other day and we got to talking, and she wound up mentioning to me that she doesn’t “believe in” divorce.  I found her phrasing odd.  Belief is usually attributed to things whose existence is up for debate.  Divorce, while a daunting and unhappy task, obviously exists. 

“You don’t believe in it?” I asked.

“No,” she replied, absentmindedly, while peeling a very smelly orange.  “It is immoral.  And the Church is against it.”

“Who cares what the Church wants,” I asked, perhaps crudely, but in my agnostic mind the church’s stance mattered about as much as a nosy neighbor’s.

“You’re not a Christian, are you,” she said, familiarly, like she ran into people like me all the time.  She proceeded to explain to me how marriage was a unity under God, and that it was God’s will that it not be destroyed.  I wanted to throw her, her orange, and her green monogrammed handbag across the room.

“So what if your husband is abusive and tries to kill you, endangers your life, stuff like that?” I asked, hoping I’d found a loophole in her Swiss Cheese logic.

“The Lord works in mysterious ways…” she said, and trailed off, like she knew that we both knew that just that sentence was enough to profoundly move me.  It wasn’t.  I scrunched up my face in confusion and was about to launch into a tangent of my own, when the Professor came in and class had to begin.  But it got me thinking…

Do people really stay married and avoid divorce because of religion?  I would’ve bet the farm that this was an antiquated notion at best, or maybe something only practiced in heavily religious locales in Europe.  But this woman – who wasn’t what I’d consider a “senior citizen” – sat there and spoke these words like it was the truest and most obvious truth either of us could ever hear.  It offended me, and I couldn’t figure out why.  I think she used that “the Lord works in mysterious ways” line because she really didn’t have an answer to my questions.  I noticed she had a wedding ring and I stared at it all through class, wondering if she and her husband had a  good relationship.  I don’t even know this woman, nor do I even like her, and now I’m worried about her!  I’m worried that her husband – a man I don’t even know – is going to do something horrible to her, and that she’ll never leave him!

Why on earth would someone put their well being, their life and their love, on the backburner to their faith?  I read Pascal’s Wager; I know that if you’re a believer the odds are in your favor, but still.  I couldn’t place myself in the mind of this woman.  Divorce – at times – can be a necessary and beneficial part of life.  I needed other minds to mull this over.  I couldn’t go to my friends; none of them are very religious, and neither are my parents.  So I ask you – divorcees and marrieds alike – is the supposed word of God enough to keep you in a bad relationship?  I hope not!