Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: John_Graves@cellbio.duke.edu (John Graves) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Divorce and Unitarians Message-ID: Date: 6 Jun 91 03:49:01 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Duke University Medical Center Lines: 57 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article tblake@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Tom Blake) writes: In article , chappell@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (Glenn Chappell) writes: |>I believe that no appreciable difference has been found between the divorce |>rate for Christians and that for non-Christians. Of course, the people who |>gathered this information may very well have been using a rather loose |>definition of "Christian". It is interesting to note, however, that divorce |>is apparently nearly unknown among Christians who read the Bible daily. An article appeared recently in _The United Methodist Review_ on a survey of 113,000 adults performed by sociologists at CUNY. People were simply asked "What is you religion?", their answer to this question was then compared with their answers to a number of other questions. (The researchers were interested in how the participants perceived their religious identity.) While I don't see any specific results dealing with comparitive divorce rates of Christians and Non-Christians, there is some similar data. "Greater percentages of people with no religion stay single. Greek Orthodox have the lowest rate of divorce, Unitarians the highest. Roman Catholics run about even with mainstream Protestants." ____End of Quote Unitarian Universalism has the highest percentage of converts in its membership of any of the top 100 denominations in the United States. Not surprisingly, a number of these converts are divorced persons. Why? Simple. There is no stigma attached to being divorced within our denomination. We offer support to women (and men) who are looking towards new beginnings. We offer a home to the many people who have been shunned by their birthright denominations. Further we are open to gay and lesbian people, many of whom have come out after years in a heterosexual marriage. According to that poll we are the 18th largest denomination and are one of the fastest growing. My own church has grown from 190 to 450 adult members over 16 in just 5 years. The denomination is experiencing growth everywhere in the country and a large percentage of it is young single parents with children who are looking for religious education for their children. The same goes for same sex couples with children. I would be interested in seeing the results of a poll which compared the divorce rates of birthright UU's to those who converted to Unitarian Universalism. John Allan Graves Unitarian Universalism Duke University An inclusive religion! and all its components () including the Divinity School, \__/ disavow anything I say. II