How to make Glenn Stanton’s day.

An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas

–Matt 12:39

Should you ever cross paths with Mr. Glenn Stanton, Director for Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, be sure to brighten his day by telling him:

38% of the most devout Christians have divorced at least once!

You may be wondering how this could possibly brighten his day.  For most people the fact that Christians (especially the most devout Christians) are flouting Christian sexual morality in such incredibly high numbers would be considered extremely shameful.  This is what an adulterous generation looks like.  However, don’t worry;  by saying this to Mr. Stanton I’m confident that you will make his day.   Mr. Stanton seems quite proud of this fact, because less devout Christians and non believers divorce at even higher rates!

That’s right, the most devout Christians are slightly better at obeying God’s command for sex and the family than non believers!  Here is how Mr. Stanton phrases this:

The divorce rates of Christian believers are not identical to the general population — not even close. Being a committed, faithful believer makes a measurable difference in marriage.

Keep in mind that it is only a subset of Christians who divorced at the excitingly low rate of 38%.  Another subset of Christians divorced at 60%, while non believers in the same study divorced at 50% (source).  But Glenn Stanton is a glass is half full kind of man.  A subset of Christians divorcing at only 38% is good news he wants to share!  Christians everywhere rejoiced when he wrote about this triumph back in February 2011 in his article The Christian divorce rate myth (what you’ve heard is wrong).  Lest the celebration end after only one year, he wrote about it again in April 2012, The Christian Divorce Rate Myth – it is LOWER than the general population (H/T Empathologicalism).

So go ahead fellow Christians, take a moment to celebrate that the most devout amongst us violate God’s command for marriage slightly less than those who don’t believe in such a command at all, while other Christians violate the command even more often than non believers!