Sacred Divorce

Transcending barriers to build bridges between family psychology and religious organizations.

“…For example, in a national U.S. survey, only 25% of adolescents of divorced parents recalled that anyone in their church ever talked to them about the divorce (Marquardt, 2005). In an ethnographic study, Jenkins (2014) found that divorcees routinely seek out spiritual solace from psychotherapists or secular support groups rather than religious groups, and that most clergy also seem to be ambivalent about or uncomfortable regarding how to address divorce in a compassionate manner without condoning the event-except, perhaps, in more extreme circumstances (e.g., chronic domestic violence, infidelity). Concurrently, adults and children of divorce are more likely to switch or drop out from religious groups, especially if they were more devout prior to the divorce (Denton, 2012;Zhai, Ellison, Glenn, & Marquardt, 2007).…”