Marriage and the Family

The Christian institute

Section:

Marriage and the Family

Headings:

Facts | Key Statistics | Biblical Arguments 1
Church Viewpoints | Biblical Arguments 2 | Key Points

Facts

The five basic grounds for divorce are the same throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland¹:

1. Adultery
2. Unreasonable behaviour
3. Desertion
4. The parties to the marriage have lived apart for at least two years and both consent to the divorce
5. The parties have lived apart for at least five years

• The first three grounds are ‘faults’ that can be committed by one spouse against the other, allowing the ‘innocent’ spouse to apply for a divorce. Grounds 4 and 5 are ‘no-fault’ grounds requiring evidence of separation.
• Divorce was only legalised in 1857. Prior to that an Act of Parliament was needed to obtain a divorce. The 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act permitted divorce for the innocent party where their spouse had committed adultery.² The grounds for divorce were widened in 1937 to include desertion, cruelty and incurable insanity.³
• The 1969 Divorce Reform Act restated the three existing fault grounds of adultery, desertion and cruelty (widened to ‘unreasonable behaviour’) and added the two ‘no-fault’ separation grounds. Scotland and Northern Ireland subsequently adopted the same five grounds.
• The so-called ‘special procedure’ introduced in England and Wales in 1973 means a divorce can be conducted by post. In Northern Ireland the divorce rate is only a quarter of that in England and Wales. There must be a proper hearing before a judge where the reasons are explained. There is no special procedure where divorce is obtainable by post.
• The Family Law (Scotland) Act 2005 dramatically reduces the amount of time required for a divorce on the grounds of separation in Scotland. The five year period where one party does not consent has been reduced to two years. Where both parties consent the time period has been reduced from two years to one. The Act also abolishes desertion as a ground for divorce; though adultery and unreasonable behaviour remain.

Key Statistics

• In 2003 there were 166,700 divorces in the United Kingdom. In 2003 the percentage of married couples divorcing per year in England and Wales was 1.4%. In Scotland it was 1.0%.⁴
• More than half of divorces in England and Wales involve children under 16. In 2003, 55% of divorces involved one or more children under 16.⁵In 1997 it was calculated that more than one in four children will see their parents divorce before they are aged sixteen.⁶
• In 2001 11.5% of children lived in households headed by a divorced or separated parent (see table below). It still needs to be remembered that over 70% of children lived in a household headed by a married couple.

% of dependant children living in households by household type7
70.7	Married couple
6.5	Divorced parent
5.0	Separated parent
9.5	Cohabiting
7.2	Single parent, never married
1.2	Widowed

• For many years the UK had the highest crude divorce rate in the EU. ⁸
• In 2002, the UK had the 6th highest crude divorce rate (divorces per 1,000 population) out of the 25 countries in the Eurozone. Only Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania had a higher rate.⁹

Biblical arguments 1: The grounds for divorce

• God spelled out the importance of marriage for mankind right at the beginning of human history when, after Eve was created for Adam, the Bible records: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
• Jesus Christ was asked a specific question about ‘no-fault’ divorce by the Pharisees: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” (Matthew 19:3). His answer was emphatic “What …God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6 King James Version).
• Christ said that the provision in the Law of Moses permitting a man simply to write a certificate to divorce his wife was allowed only because of the hardness of men’s hearts. Christ rejected this by appealing directly to Genesis: “But it was not this way from the beginning”.¹⁰
• The apostle Paul emphasised the sanctity and permanence of marriage vows when he compared the relationship between a husband and wife with the relationship between Christ and the Church.¹¹ Such doctrine brings home the seriousness of divorce in the eyes of the God who says “I hate divorce” (Malachi 2:16).
• “No-fault” divorce is unknown in Christian theology.
• Jesus clearly taught that adultery is a basis for divorce (Matthew 19:9).  Some Christians also believe that in 1 Cor 7:15 Paul allows for desertion as a ground of divorce. Both of these are clearly grounds of ‘fault’.

Church viewpoints on the grounds for divorce

• There are sincerely held differences of view amongst credally orthodox Churches on the question of re-marriage after divorce. There are essentially two views. Some do not allow remarriage at all; others permit it only for the innocent spouse.
• Amongst Protestants, theological conservatives can be found in both groups.
• The Church of England teaches that marriage is for life. Its long-standing position until very recently has been to permit divorce but not remarriage since it is argued that in God’s sight the couple are still married.¹² However, in 2002 the synod of the Church passed a motion stating that in exceptional circumstances, a divorced person may marry again in church during the lifetime of a former spouse.¹³
• The Roman Catholic Church believes divorce is immoral and a grave offence against the natural law. It therefore considers re-marriage while both husband and wife are alive as adultery. The Roman Catholic Church has said, “It can happen when one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage.”¹⁴
• The Westminster Confession (1647) associated with Presbyterian Churches permits divorce and re-marriage for the innocent party in the case of adultery.¹⁵
• Historically for centuries the tendency was for churches of all denominations not to permit any divorce at all. They only allowed legal separation (i.e. non-cohabitation) of spouses and even then only where one spouse had committed a serious sin against the other, such as adultery. Both parties remained legally married and therefore could not remarry.
• Outside the UK the reformers permitted remarriage after divorce for the innocent party. But despite the theoretical possibility of divorce and re-marriage, after a detailed study of court records in Reformation Germany, Joel Harrington found that “divorce was a relatively little exercised option”.¹⁶ The possibility of collusion in order to obtain a divorce “was considered so great by Protestant authorities that they would not even consider allowing re-marriage unless the innocent spouse was free from any suspicion and willing to endure a series of legal and financial obstacles intended to dissuade him or her from such a course”.¹⁷

Biblical arguments 2:
The case for promoting reconciliation

• The Bible is clear that marriage is intended to be lifelong. This is for everyone’s good irrespective of whether the married couple are Christians.
• Even where there are grounds for divorce in a particular case Christians have always advocated that strenuous efforts at reconciliation must be attempted first. In 1 Corinthians 7:10 Paul specifically requires spouses to stay together, or, if they have separated, to attempt reconciliation. When this fails legal separation (where the couple are still married in law) has often been seen as preferable to divorce.
• Christians must press for the law and public policy to support reconciliation for couples whose marriages are in difficulty.
• During the passage of the 1996 Act, Christians sought to extend the period before a ‘no-fault’ divorce could be obtained. This would have given more time for couples to work out their differences and save their marriages. In the event it is likely the 1996 Act will never be implemented (see below).
• Many divorced couples know how the divorce process can be like a conveyor belt. Even so, a significant number of people change their minds. Every year an average of 14% of husbands or wives drop their divorce petitions. Typically between 18,000 and 34,000 divorces are dropped every year. ¹⁸

Key Points

No-fault divorce

The 1996 Family Law Act replaced the 1969 Divorce Reform Act with no-fault divorce in England and Wales. It is a great relief that the ‘no-fault’ divorce provisions of the 1996 Act are to be repealed without ever having come into force.¹⁹ The reason for this is that the pilot schemes have shown the Act to be unworkable.

Under the Act, it would have been easier to get out of a marriage than a hire purchase agreement. 

The consequences of the high divorce rate

The breakdown of the traditional family structure has many consequences for society, including financial consequences.

• The average cost of divorce in the UK now costs £25, 575.  More than a third of couples are forced to sell their marital home when they split up.²⁰
• A report in 2000 put readily identifiable welfare costs of family breakdown at £8.5 billion and the total direct costs to the taxpayer as at least £15 billion.²¹
• In its green paper Supporting Families the Government itself acknowledged that “Rising crime and drug abuse are indirect symptoms of problems in the family.”²²
• Of the 60,000 children living in care, 98% are there due to family breakdown.²³
• As Professor A H Halsey, Professor of Social Policy at Nuffield College, Oxford and co-author of English Ethical Socialism states:

“No one can deny that divorce, separation, birth outside marriage and one-parent families as well as cohabitation and extra-marital sexual intercourse have increased rapidly. Many applaud these freedoms. But what should be universally acknowledged is that the children of parents who do not follow the traditional norm (i.e. taking on personal, active and long-term responsibility for the social upbringing of the children they generate) are thereby disadvantaged in many major aspects of their chances of living a successful life. On the evidence available such children tend to die earlier, to have more illness, to do less well at school, to exist at a lower level of nutrition, comfort and conviviality, to suffer more unemployment, to be more prone to deviance and crime, and finally to repeat the cycle of unstable parenting from which they themselves have suffered… The evidence all points in the same direction, is formidable, and tallies with common sense.”
²⁴

• A devastating report produced in 1998 and reviewed by the liberal-minded Joseph Rowntree Foundation concluded that:
  “Children of separated families have a higher probability of:
  • being in poverty and poor housing;
  • being poorer when they are adults;
  • behavioural problems;
  • performing less well at school;
  • needing medical treatment;
  • leaving school/home when young;
  • becoming sexually active, pregnant, or a parent at an early age;
  • depressive symptoms, high levels of smoking and drinking and drug use during adolescence and adulthood.”²⁵
• The Exeter Family Study found that divorce does not usually reduce conflict for the children: in fact the opposite is true:
  “…the experience of most children whose parents have divorced is of increased conflict over an extended period, with the child involved to an extent that may not have been the case while the marriage lasted.”²⁶
• A report from One Plus One has shown that adults who divorce have a greatly increased incidence (compared to those who remain married) of heart disease, cancer, alcoholism and suicide.²⁷
• Given the devastating effects of divorce on adults, children and society, even those who do not hold to a Christian view of divorce should be opposed to measures which make divorce even easier. The statistics show that every time the law on divorce has been liberalised, the number of divorces has increased.
• In 1936 some 5,915 divorce petitions were filed. In 1938 (the first year of operation of the more liberal provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937) there were 10,350 divorce petitions.²⁸
• By 1961 there were around 32,000 new divorce petitions a year. In 1971 (the first year of operation of the 1969 Divorce Reform Act) the number rose sharply to around 110,000.²⁹

• ¹For England and Wales see section 1(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. For Northern Ireland see Matrimonial Causes (Northern Ireland) Order 1978
• ²Cretney S M Elements of Family Law (Second Edition), Sweet & Maxwell, 1992, page 30
• ³Cretney S M, and Masson, JM, Principles of Family Law, Sweet & Maxwell, 1997, page 307
• ⁴Provisional figures from the Office of National Statistics, see Population Trends 118, Winter 2004, ONS, pages 43-44
• ⁵Population Trends 117, Autumn 2004, ONS, page 76
• ⁶See Children who experience divorce in their family in Population Trends, Spring 1997, ONS, page 9
• ⁷Table extracted by the Office for National Statistics from the Labour Force Survey, autumn 2000, quoted in House of  Commons Hansard 11 May 2001 Col 453W
• ⁸See Demographic statistics data 1995-1998, European Commission, Eurostat, 1999, Table F19, pages 148 and 149
• ⁹Statistics in Focus: Population and Social Conditions, Eurostat, 13/2004, 2004, table 5, page 7
• ¹⁰Matthew 19:8
• ¹¹Ephesians 5:22-29
• ¹²For an explanation of the Anglican view see Cornes A Divorce & Remarriage, Biblical Principles & Pastoral Practice, Hodder & Stoughton, 1993. Cornes writes from a conservative evangelical perspective.
• ¹³Marriage In Church After Divorce (Updated  February 2003), Church of England, seehttp://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mcad/index.html as at 11 March 2005
• ¹⁴The Catholic Church in England and Wales, see http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/faith/living/divorce.htm as at 11 March 2005
• ¹⁵Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 24, Of Marriage and Divorce found athttp://www.opc.org/documents/wcf24.html as at 3 May 2001
• ¹⁶Harrington, J F. Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany,Cambridge University Press, 1995, page 269
• ¹⁷Harrington, J F. Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany,Cambridge University Press, 1995, page 270
• ¹⁸Marriage, Divorce and Adoption Statistics (England and Wales) 1998, ONS, 2000, Table 4.23
• ¹⁹See Press Release, Divorce Law Reform – Government Proposes To Repeal Part II of the Family Law Act 1996, Lord Chancellor’s Department, 16 January 2001
• ²⁰The Times, 23 October 2004
• ²¹Lindsay, D, The Cost of Family Breakdown, Family Matters, 2000, page 5
• ²²Supporting Families, A Consultation Document, The Home Office, 1998, page 4, para 2.
• ²³Baroness Seccombe, House of Lords, Hansard, 17 March 2004, col. 297
• ²⁴Halsey A H Quoted in Dennis N and Erdos G Families without Fatherhood, IEA, 1993, page xii
• ²⁵See Divorce and separation: The outcomes for children, Foundations series, JRF, June 1998. The full report is published as Rodgers B and Pryor J Divorce and Separation: The outcomes for children, JRF, 1998
• ²⁶Cockett M and Tripp J The Exeter Family Study: Family Breakdown and its impact on Children , University of Exeter Press, 1996, page 58
• ²⁷McAllister, F (Ed.) Marital Breakdown and the Health of the Nation 2nd Edition, One plus One, 1995, pages 16, 20, 23
• ²⁸Deech R Divorce Dissent – Dangers in Divorce Reform, Centre for Policy Studies, 1994, page 22
• ²⁹Figures compiled from Marriage and Divorce Statistics (England and Wales) 1993, Table 2.1, OPCS, 1995 and comparable earlier editions in Murray C Underclass: The Crisis Deepens, IEA, 1994, page 33