Divorce happens when a marriage ends. Secular people accept that abusive or unhappy marriages are sometimes best ended and some religious people accept that as well. Islam and Judaism for example allow divorce. Liberal Christianity allows divorce but Roman Catholics are forbidden divorce as are Christian fundamentalists.
Unhappy marriages[]
When religions discourage divorce married people are pressured into staying unhappily together, and children grow up with unhappy parents. There is a particular problem when one partner is abusing the other, usually in patriarchal religions and patriarchal branches of Christianity that means the husband abuses the wife.
- Boys growing up in abusive households may model themselves on their fathers and become abusive husbands when they grow up.
- Girls growing up in abusive households may model themselves on their mothers and accept abuse when they marry.
Fundamentalist Christians[]
Despite religious pressure on married couples to stay together the divorce rate among fundamentalist Christians in the USA is above the national average. Statistics about how many Christians are staying in unhappy marriages due to religious pressure are unavailable.