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Time to Challenge No-Fault Divorce
First Things ^ | December 8, 2014 12:00 GMT | Thomas F. Farr and Hilary Towers

Posted on 12/17/2014 1:07:54 PM PST by Up Yours Marxists

High in the catalogue of social pathologies afflicting marriage and the family in America stands our system of family law, the central purpose of which is to enforce no-fault divorce. In a letter to the Holy Father and the recent Extraordinary Synod on the Family, almost fifty international scholars and religious leaders joined us in urging the Church to consider the effects of no-fault divorce, along with other barriers to faithful, lifelong marriage.

State laws on divorce began to be implemented in the late 1960s, but today have been absorbed into the legal and cultural mainstream nationwide. The logic of no-fault divorce is that spouses should not be trapped in marriages that make them unhappy, or forced into the expense and psychological trauma of proving “fault” in divorce court. If one spouse wants out, the judge’s mandate is to manage the breakup of the family and to protect the interests of the children.

Like the increase in abortions after Roe v. Wade, divorce rates increased significantly with the onset of the policy. As with Roe, there were other contributing factors, especially the sexual revolution, which multiplied the “liberating” effects of the new legal regime. The clear losers in both were children—aborted in ever increasing numbers after Roe, and wounded socially, economically, and spiritually in the wake of no-fault divorce.

(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...


TOPICS: Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: catholic; christian; divorce; nofault
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To: KoRn

Let’s approach the subject a different way. The governments in the Western world have for centuries played a significant role in regulating marriages. In Rome I believe that the government had a role in marriage by setting forth 2 or 3 types. (I am reaching way back in my memory. Roman historians please step forth!) So there must be a reason for this government regulation. I think the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate why we should deviate from our history.


21 posted on 12/17/2014 2:49:51 PM PST by rcofdayton (.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
Considering that 2/3rds to 90 percent of those who initiate divorce are women I would say it is time to do so!

Without no-fault divorce, wives will just accuse their husbands of various abuses to get out of unhappy marriages.

Lot of unintended consequences in this.

22 posted on 12/17/2014 2:58:35 PM PST by Drew68
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To: rcofdayton

I view all government as innately tyrannical and liberal, but a necessary evil.

Less government is almost always better.

The liberals are using government’s involvement in marriage to attack religion and religious institutions, and, somehow under the current laws and make up of our government, have won.

The only solution left is to remove government from involvement in the religious rite.


23 posted on 12/17/2014 3:04:45 PM PST by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: Up Yours Marxists

People should learn that our government has no business trying to regulate morality any more than it has any business trying to legalize what kind of marriages or divorces God approves.

That is a personal thing between the couple and God....some people need divorcing! Cheats, wife batterers, and those who are gay and married. Jesus noted what constituted divorce, and that is what will be the standard on Judgment Day. Plenty of married people, who lust after other women or men have enough to answer for without trying to run other people’s lives.

Moses gave them the right to give their wife a divorce, and it never said anything about using lawyers or courts....it was a WRIT of Divorce, simple and not complicated. God will sort it out without man’s help.

You are NOT God, so take care of your own marriage, or lack thereof.


24 posted on 12/17/2014 3:11:17 PM PST by Kackikat
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To: Ghost of SVR4

Have you gone through one? I think you would be signing a different tune if you had.


You are singing to the choir.

But still... In my own case looking back on the marriage, divorce and post divorce I can now say that it was for the best for all. I would be dead now if I was still married to my first wife.


25 posted on 12/17/2014 3:16:11 PM PST by The Working Man
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To: Up Yours Marxists

I would support no-fault divorce, providing that all kids were put in orphanages at birth, and grew up there.

Likewise, I would support no-fault divorce for couples that have no children (an no children on the way).

Otherwise, the pure SELFISHNESS of some adults should not be wrecking the lives of kids. They don’t deserve to have new parents every few years just because the law makes it so easy to do so.


26 posted on 12/17/2014 4:37:28 PM PST by BobL (I'm so old, I can remember when most hate crimes were committed by whites - Thomas Sowell, 2014)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

Do you quit your job because you don’t get along with your peers? Quit voting because the elections stink? Stop driving after a major accident? Throw in the towel because of cancer? Quit when the impossible stares you in the face???

I’ve been married for almost 61 years. Been through it all, some crap that would make people divorce 2 or 3 times. I’ve also heard every excuse. Granted physical abuse is not acceptable. But I just laugh when I hear the justifications. Seriously.

Do you play the victim, or do you fight for your vows until your spouse abandons you after you do everything God commands us to do...


27 posted on 12/17/2014 5:18:14 PM PST by Up Yours Marxists
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To: Uncle Miltie

*****”I do not trust the government to make decisions on points of morality.”******

If the government were in charge of deserts, there would soon be a shortage of sand.

TT


28 posted on 12/18/2014 9:21:16 AM PST by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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To: Jewbacca

Hey, thanks for your response. There is much to ponder.


29 posted on 12/18/2014 3:41:40 PM PST by rcofdayton (.)
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To: Up Yours Marxists

I don’t think that this is an issue that should be decided by the government.


30 posted on 12/18/2014 3:47:55 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: BobL

I hear you. It is wrong for a couple with children to divorce.


31 posted on 12/18/2014 3:50:34 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Up Yours Marxists

Of course. “For better or for worse”.


32 posted on 12/18/2014 3:51:56 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Up Yours Marxists

Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana all offer the option for covenant marriages. A covenant marriage requires premarital counseling and restricts no-fault divorce.

Less than 1% of the marriages in these states opt to go that route.


33 posted on 12/18/2014 4:01:01 PM PST by Gideon7
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