Divorce

Physics Geek is talking about how much he hates it after a friend recently filed. A guy in my old bible study was divorced, he has two daughters with his ex-wife. He has actively counseled several friends and coworkers not to do it especially if you have kids. The long and short of it is that if you intend to be a good father after the divorce, just stay married. Getting divorced won't make your life any easier because the kids mean you'll still be seeing your ex-wife on a regular basis. Plus he was constantly moving to keep close to his daughters after every time his ex changed boyfriends (and therefore residences).

I often wonder if the prevalence of divorce is one of the reasons why homosexuality is on the rise in American culture. Geek deals with the debasement of the sanctity of marriage over at his place. And he's probably right. Once upon a time, the failure rate of homosexual relationships was a pretty good reason to oppose same-sex marriage. Now the heterosexual failure rate is also huge, so that rhetoric is just a wash.

But I often wonder if divorce isn't promoting the homosexual lifestyle in other ways than just debasing the institution of marriage. I've heard a lot about strong correlations between gay lifestyles and poor parental figures (distant fathers or weak mothers depending on the sex of the individual). I wonder if there is also a correlation with divorce for similar reasons. It seems to me that divorce would often degrade one parent as a role model. The current high divorce rate would increase the likelihood of children growing up under those conditions.

UPDATE: At the end of last month, Anna Venger discussed a study that examined family life and gay marriage rates in Denmark. It essentially confirms my suspicions.