Faith is bad for families.
That is often the message that comes out of our pop culture, corporate media, and social media. A Daily Beast headline tells us “Religious Kids are Jerks.” The Nation asks, “Is Conservative Christianity Bad for Marriage?” and offers this answer: “Research Says Yes.” Online influencers like Pearl Davis suggest Christianity does little to stabilize marriage. Put another way, the culture offers up plenty of examples and arguments that would make you think the faith and family connection is generally a bad or inconsequential one.
But statistically speaking, cruel, repressed, and unhappy religious unions are the exception. The data shared in my new book Get Married is clear: Couples who go to church together typically have the happiest marriages and lowest risks of divorce. And, yes, we all know there are exceptions (e.g., the Duggars).
I identify four groups who are “Masters of Marriage” in my book. One of them is “The Faithful.” The Faithful are religious believers who regularly attend church, synagogue, temple, and so on, several times a month or more. Their ties to their local religious communities and their faith generally endow their marriages and family lives with greater spiritual significance. Those who regularly attend church are most likely to be married (56 percent), compared to those who attend only occasionally (44 percent), and those who rarely or never attend (39 percent), according to Get Married‘s analysis of the General Social Survey.
Marriages among regular churchgoers are more stable too. The data tells
