GCx Claims low divorce rate?

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[steelgirl]

To Linda and Wasted, yes, I agree, the "statistics" of GCx divorce rates are invalid absurdities.  They are not in fact data or statistics.  Memories are anecdotes at best.

We actually discussed the invalid nature of their "statistics" from that same article in another thread some months ago. 

I am particularly amused by the reality that GCx goes out of its way to discipline, and therefore kick out into the street, those of its members who are contemplating divorces.  How could their divorce stats be anything but low when they disown anyone who gets divorced?  It's kind of like the police department bragging that only 2% of its force is comprised of active criminals...when they get caught being a criminal they get fired then jailed.   

If their divorce rates were anything but low in any given church would not the national leaders descend on that church to find out why it is tolerating evil and not putting the evil doers out of their church?  GCx marriages are not "better," GCx churches are just less willing to let families with damaged marriages stick around for long.
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They discipline uif you are not settled and have a steady job from my experience.

[Linda]

Just saw this link. Interesting read.

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=34656

The article begins:

"Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as the world!" It's one of the most quoted stats by Christian leaders today. And it's perhaps one of the most inaccurate.

Based on the best data available, the divorce rate among Christians is significantly lower than the general population..."

[Neverbeengcm]

The Great Commission leaders are really masters of deception and lies...well, they think they are masters.  The problem is that they can only see the world through their narrow tunnel vision.  The rest of us can see through the idiocracy. Anyway, I like what they posted in the article in the original post:

"Recently, we did an internal poll with the pastors of Great Commission Churches on the subject of divorce. The pastors were asked to count the number of committed member couples that were part of their church in the past 10 years--together with the number of these couples who have since gotten divorced. (If a couple left the church and got divorced later, they were included in these statistics.) Based on the responses to these questions, it was determined that the divorce rate in Great Commission churches of committed member couples in the last 10 years has been 2.5%."

Intuitively, I know that the divorce rate for all normal human beings who have ever attended a GC church is about the same as the divorce rate is in the rest of society.  But, you can skew the divorce numbers by changing your definition of "committed couples".

GC definition of "committed couple" ~ Any couple who:

A- does not question the great commission doctrine in any way
B- blindly follows the pastor's lead and seeks counsel with only their GC Pastor when it comes to marital problems
C- puts their family and their emotional needs way down on the list things on their list of importance in life
D-and, most importantly, does not get divorced (because the Pastor counsels them to stay married in "B").
E-has moved, they still might be committed if they left the church and attended another GC church (we are all supposed to be committed to the Great Commission for life).


IF you eliminate people who think on their own (and get divorced after being counseled to not get divorced by their pastor) from the list of people getting divorced...the number of "committed couples" getting divorced in the GC will be a low number. Probably really should be 0% because it against GC doctrine to get divorced...therefore, any "committed couples"  actually getting divorced are not "committed couples".

It is my experience that people who leave a GCx church are disregarded and shunned because they are no longer worthy. Additionally, if a couple actually has left the church…How the heck would anyone in the great commission know for sure if they got divorced or not? The rumor mill is not a recognized part of the US Census bureau at this time. Do these GCX Pastors have some kind of marital tracking system on people who leave them?  

The thing that is hardest for me to believe is that some people hang on for every word these idiots speak because they have been led to believe that God speaks through them. These people (GCx Pastors/Leaders) really have advanced to the highest level of their incompetence.

[Linda]

Also, they randomly pick a 10 year time frame. Of all the people I know who do NOT profess to be Christians, some are divorced, but none have gotten divorced in the last 10 years. So, then, the divorce rate of non-Christians I associate with is 0%.

[wastedyearsthere]

Plus I've heard that if couples are having marital troubles and on the brink of divorce they are either asked to leave or leave because they know they won't be accepted in that church. 

[hurtfamily]

I know for a fact that one of the Cedar Rapids pastors him and his former wife were GC members, and they divorced and she was looked down on even though this man had his hand in it and now is a Pastor remarried in the church.

[calgal]

The blind devotion to this organization is so sad. The original post/link propaganda talks about how it can bring couples together. Well, I am proof as to how it can tear couples apart. 

I was in a loveless marriage and begged my then husband to jointly work on a real relationship. He would not see a professional ("worldly" although Christian) counselor. We had no meaningful conversations about anything and if we tried, he would fall asleep sitting up. He saw all of this as me being insubordinate and told me that "god wants me (i.e. him) to do all the thinking for you (i.e. me) from now on."  Basically, in the end he chose the church over me. We are now divorced, he moved on and years later he became a pastor.

[FeministRebel]

At the GC church I went, the pastors always bragged about their low divorce rate. They claimed this was because of the beauty of letting God speak to a man about who they were supposed to marry, and follow courtship, versus dating.

The thing is, I was always hearing "through the grape vine" of people getting divorced...

It's not surprising, considering college kids were forced to get married by their parents or elders all the time if they had "sinned" outside of marriage; sometimes, because someone got pregnant... other times, for simply confessing to having sex before marriage.

These days, I could never FATHOM forcing any child of mine to marry, because they got pregnant, much less for not staying a virgin. (This wasn't that long ago, either... I left in 2003.)