Divorce

In 1948, the famous Harvard social historian Pitirim Sorokin wrote an essay in which he sounded an alarm about the rapid disintegration of the stability of the American culture. In this essay, Sorokin pointed out that in 1910 the divorce rate in America was ten percent. Yet from 1910 to 1948, the rate of divorce in America escalated from ten to twenty-five percent. Sorokin indicated that if a quarter of the homes in any given nation are broken by divorce, the stability of the nation cannot endure. Its culture is torn to shreds. Arguing that the family unit is the most basic and foundational unit of every society, he said that when that unit breaks, the society itself suffers a shattered continuity.

One wonders what Sorokin would think if he observed the situation that exists in America today. Since 1948, the divorce rate has gone from twenty-five percent up to and beyond fifty percent: that is, at least half of those marriages that are contracted in America end in divorce. This also means that at least half of the families that are united by marriage suffer a fracture; in a word, they are broken.

Continue reading Divorce, R.C. Sproul's contribution to the December issue of Tabletalk.