Barna Continues to Defend Survey Showing Divorce Rates Among Christians

By Allie Martin
AFR News
July 13, 2000

(AgapePress) — The Barna Research Firm is defending a recent survey which found some disturbing statistics regarding born-again Christians and divorce.  The survey found that born-again Christians were just as likely as non-believers to divorce.  In fact, the survey found that the divorce rate is higher for Christians when compared with non-believers.

Dave Kinnamon, who is with the Barna organization, says when it comes to the attitudes of Christians and non-Christians regarding marriage, there is not much difference.

"Born-again Christians don’t seem to be very different when it comes to their attitudes about marriage," Kinnamon says.  "If you look at their perspectives about what they hope to get in a marital relationship, about what level of sacrifice it takes…about whether divorce is an option they would realistically consider, their perspectives about marriage and about divorce are very similar to non-Christians."

Kinnamon believes part of the problem lies with churches and their reluctance to speak out against divorce.

"I think a lot of churches have failed to make a ‘full court press’ in defending marriages," he says.  "They’ve done everything they think they can, but I don’t know that they’ve developed a holistic strategy about how to prepare people for marriage appropriately before they get married, how to support marriages when things are going good, and how to bolster marriages that are ‘on the rocks.’"

Kinnamon says he was surprised at the harsh criticism of the survey from born-again believers.  Officials at Barna say they stand by the survey’s results.

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