Divorce Is Changing the Face of Families

Divorce is changing the face of families, societies, and even nations. "Once Rare in Rural America, Divorce Is Changing the Face of Its Families," according to a recent New York Times.com piece at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/us/24divorce.html?pagewanted=2&hpw . "'Less educated Americans are far more likely to have babies while unmarried — and to divorce — than those with college degrees,' [family law expert,] Professor June Carbone said. That trend, once seen as a symptom of urban poverty, has now caught on in rural areas like this one. Leesa McNeil, a court administrator for a district that covers a wide area of northwest Iowa, said that custody cases involving unmarried people used to be so rare that the court did not even have a category for them."
Divorce is affecting other nations, as well, and often unexpectedly. For example, the Associated Press recently reported on this phenomenon in India in an article entitled "Divorces Rise as Taboos Fall in Urbanizing India." The April 12 artucke by Muneeza Naqvi out of New Delhi stated in part:
"In a crowded courtroom on the city's outskirts, the once unthinkable is reality: dozens of couples -- rich and poor, educated and barely literate -- seek divorce for reasons as varied as domestic violence to a simple inability to live together. Just a decade ago, divorce was a dirty word in socially conservative India. The fear of social isolation, a sense of duty to extended families -- who likely arranged the marriage in the first place -- and financial dependence put nearly unbearable pressure on couples to stay together. But as the economy has boomed, the rigid boundaries governing traditional Indian life are beginning to fall, especially among the growing urban middle class. Dating among twentysomethings is growing popular, love matches (as opposed to arranged marriages) don't provoke the family scandals they once did and divorce is no longer out of bounds."
The unintended consequences of divorce weaken marriage and family life in dramatic ways - most of which eventually reap social devastation on a national scale - all begging for solutions that lead to family restoration.