Now, you have to wonder if that actually works. Better yet, you have to wonder if most Christians are taught the same thing before they’re married. Either way it doesn’t look like the institution of the Christian Marriage is a foolproof system as the University of Chicago found that the divorce rates among my peers are an abysmal 42% which is just eeking out the national rate of the unaffiliated at 50%.

That means that two out of five Christian marriages will and have ended in divorce, something which at one point was so sacrilege you’d dare not mention the idea of getting a divorce. Don’t you remember the whole Henry VII, Church of England, debacle? A 3 out of 5 success rate isn’t exactly a standard of excellence, which is why some scholars consider the idea of a Christian marriage being stronger than a typical marriage to be nothing more than “a useful myth” as said by Bradley Wright, a University of Connecticut sociologist who penned the book “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites… and Other Lies You’ve Been Told” [this guy needs to work on his tactfulness a bit doesn't he?].

Well, if you stopped reading this at that malicious title you’d might think that we can just quip that Christians are like everyone else and leave it at that (laughing and high-fiving like the justified heathens we’ve discovered ourselves to be) but, it’s not that simple!

It turns out that when dealing with Christians (of the evangelical persuasion) worship attendance played a huge part in the success of the marriages. For the couples that never attended worship services together 60% of them ended up getting divorced or separated while only 38% of those who attended service together weekly did.

So while you wouldn’t fly with an airline that had a 38% failure rate, it’s easy to admit that 38% is much better that 60%.

It was this study that lead to Glenn Stanton of the organization “Focus on the Family” to say that, “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.”

Now, I’m not as willing to go out on a limb as Mr. Stanton was and say that is has to do with being Christian as I am likely to admit that it probably is a case of causation versus correlation.

In other words–maybe it’s not that people going to church together makes a difference, but that people who get more proactive in strengthening their relationships are more likely to go to church together (if they’re Christian).

Either way, there are probably tens of thousands of ordained ministers out there just furious with their flock. Think about it… Every Christian marriage includes the line “till death do us part”, but only 42% actually followed that.

Maybe that’s why we’re born again?! The first death wasn’t in the flesh, it was because our marriage was literally that miserable.

Let’s take a brief look into how other countries and cultures fare when it comes to keeping a lasting and happy marriage. Let’s see how other legal systems come into play as well as if there’s a correlation between a country’s economy and happiness index with its divorce rate. That’s right, let’s see how divorce rates really stand throughout the world.

Starting with the country with the highest divorce rate: Sweden. The land of cheap furniture and safe cars, Sweden boasts a less-than desirable divorce rate of 54.9%. As the third largest country in the European Union we know that the Swedes enjoy life immensely. Ranking fourth in the world according to The Economist’s Democracy Index and ninth in the United Nation’s HDI we can’t say that they’re getting divorced because life is rough and the men are honestly sick and tired of being married to beautiful, tall and slender blondes.

So maybe we can compare them to the country with the lowest divorce rate to see if there’s an inverse relationship that we can create some inferences from.

India. The Indians have a divorce rate that’s so low it’s almost embarrassingly low (it’s that possible with divorce rates). The Indian subcontinent boasts a divorce rate of 1.1%. That means that you’re more likely to crash your car on the way to work tomorrow morning than an Indian marriage is to end for any reason other than death EVER.

Just to round out the numbers it’s safe to say that, depending on which numbers you’re reading, the American divorce rate is somewhere between 45-51% for any given year.

It looks like we might be able to assume that maybe Indians can’t afford to get divorced at all. I mean, Californians seem to get divorced whenever they’re not happy at Starbucks and the Swedes get divorced whenever they crash the Saab on the way to IKEA.

Sri Lankans get divorced at a rate of 1.5% and going up the list Albanians only divorce each other at a rate of 10.9%

Now, before we get hasty and assume that it’s poverty that keeps marriages together (regardless of how miserable they probably are) it looks like there’s another reason for a low divorce rate and it comes as soon as we say which country’s divorce rate is slightly higher than our Albanian friends:

Israel’s divorce rate is only 14.8%.

We think that the phenomenon of a society’s divorce rate is directly tied to its idea of divorce itself. Nearly every country on the bottom of the list is either heavily Eastern Orthodox, Muslim, or Catholic which might explain the low divorce rates (aside from India which has an extremely well known marriage and dowry system). In countries where people abhor divorce for being an egregious offense in the eyes of God, it’s easy to see how a divorce rate stays low.

It’s literally that simple. International divorce rates are set by moral foundations—many of which were created through their religious upbringing.

“You don’t plan on crashing your car today, but you’re probably going to wear a seat belt, right?”

Now, let me ask you a question: Would you drive in a car if the average accident rate was 75%? Now, unless you have a sick pain fetish or have really good insurance (Mayhem anyone?) chances are driving wouldn’t be a good idea, but for some reason people still seem to get married in the state the Governator built even though the divorce rates in California are at 75% on average.

To make things a little more amusing (and less depressing as it really is) divorce attorneys consider California to be the “divorce capital of the world” and we’re not making that up! While over half of all marriages in the United States of America end in divorce it turns out that three out of four end in divorce in the Golden State. While we’d like to chalk this up to nothing more than the Kim Kardashians and Kris Humphries of the world getting divorced then just saying that they ALL happen to live in California we have to be honest with ourselves for a second… California is bigger than Hollywood.

So, what’s the beef? Why are so many people getting divorced in the land of wild fires and earthquakes?

Well, I personally think it has to do with the voyeuristic lives that Californians live. Ranging from the rich and famous Spears and Lopez’s to the affluent and anonymous, couples all over the state seem to be too entrenched with a certain lifestyle that (for some reason) ends in divorce.

It might have to do with the burgeoning levels of vanity that nearly rolls in with the smog or it may be the active lifestyles lived by the residents, either way it’s an issue that the rest of the country doesn’t seem to have to deal with at such record levels.

Typically every divorce rate discussion I’ve been in has led to someone asserting that certain philosophies or religions or the lack of them is the reason behind the reasonably high national average of 51%, but if we’re talking about California we can’t just dismiss this as a matter of faith or lack of it.

Californians of all ages, races, sexes, and creeds are getting divorced in record numbers; it actually became such an issue that some marital counselors have actually petitioned the state to declare it a “marital state of emergency”.

So whether we can chalk it up to the Californian “culture of me” or the weather and increasing life expectancies it’s clear that we’re no longer living in Pleasantville (if we’re card carrying members of the Golden State that is). Which brings me back to my original point about the whole seat belt idea.

When you put on a seat belt you don’t expect to crash, heck even if you do expect to crash it’s unlikely that you’re going to know why you do until it happens. So the same way you’d put on a seat belt, go ahead and get yourself a prenuptial agreement.

Chances are (75% chances that is) you’re going to need it and don’t ask me, just look at the California divorce rates to prove it.