Increase in the rate of divorce in our society

According to a projection, the number of family breakups doubled between 1970 and 1980. Though the rate slowed during 1980, the projection predicts that if the rate of divorce does not decrease in the coming years, permanent marriages will soon drop to below 50 percent of the population.

Analysts and different schools of thoughts have attributed the alarming increase in marriage breakups to several factors. It is argued that the hyper improvement in technology has foisted several adjustments in the lives of couples. Couples who were initially compatible in several ways have now drifted apart. These include the introduction of mobile gadgets which has ridiculous facilitated promiscuity among couples as a result of easy access to vital information.

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Besides, harsh economic situations have hit most families below the belt stretching the patience of most vulnerable wives to unprecedented limits. Now, the vow” for better, for worse” is now a story for the birds. When these wives could no longer bear the excruciating pains of the stings from the harsh economic conditions, they seek for greener pastures. In this vein, men are not spared as the severe financial situations have turned them to gold diggers. In their gold-digging adventures, they may dig deep into the gold mines of some easy virtue women and become trapped forever.

Most times, childlessness which exerts much pressure from the relatives of the couples may lead to marriage breakup if the couple fails to demonstrate great maturity and absorb the pressure.

Ordinarily, the church could have been succour or provided an alternative for marriages on the verge of collapse, but the reverse is the case as the church has in some instances facilitated marriage breakups.

Examples abound where wives who have gone to ministers of God to seek solutions for their marriage trials have ended up being wooed by the ministers. A startling number of veteran Christians, even high-profile preachers, have taken to divorce as a last resort to end their marriage disagreements. The church as soon as the previous marriage is dissolved presides over another marriage by the same preacher. It could have been more ideal for a preacher who resorted to divorce as the last effort to end marriage disagreements to lack the moral courage to preside over church activities. This is because one of the maxims of equity prescribes that” he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.”

Another major contributor to the unprecedented marriage breakups is the legal institutions. Our legal institutions by no means respect the sanctity of marriage institutions as they blink no eyelid in invoking some legal instruments to dissolve marriages even on ridiculous grounds.

Part of the efforts that would improve this worrisome situation is for intending couples not to go into marriage on face values or basing marriage consideration on elements that are transient or superficial such as wealth, beauty or family background.

By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu

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