Divorce

Latter-day Counsel

 

Gordon B. Hinckley, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has explained: “There is now and again a legitimate cause for divorce. I am not one to say that it is never justified. But I say without hesitation that this plague among us, which seems to be growing everywhere, is not of God, but rather is the work of the adversary of righteousness and peace and truth. “There is a remedy for all of this. The Lord proclaimed, ‘What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder’ (Matthew 19:6). The remedy for most marital stress is not in divorce. It is in repentance and forgiveness, in sincere expressions of charity and service. It is not in separation. It is in simple integrity that leads a man and woman to square up their shoulders and meet their obligations. It is found in the Golden Rule, a time-honored principle that should first and foremost find expression in marriage.” From http://www.mormon.org/question/faq/category/answer/0,9777,1601-1-1202-1,00.html

Marriage--especially temple marriage--and family ties involve covenant relationships. They cannot be regarded casually. With divorce rates escalating throughout the world today, it is apparent that many spouses are failing to endure to the end of their commitments to each other. And some temple marriages fail because a husband forgets that his highest and most important priesthood duty is to honor and sustain his wife. The best thing that a father can do for his children is to "love their mother."
Elder Russell M. Nelson (Gen Conf April 1997)

The adversary has long cultivated this overemphasis on personal autonomy, and now he feverishly exploits it. Our deepest God-given instinct is to run to the arms of those who need us and sustain us. But he drives us away from each other today with wedges of distrust and suspicion. He exaggerates the need for having space, getting out, and being left alone. Some people believe him-and then they wonder why they feel left alone. And despite admirable exceptions, children in America's growing number of single-parent families are clearly more at risk than children in two-parent families.9 Further, the rates of divorce and births outside marriage are now so high that we may be witnessing "the collapse of marriage."10
Elder Bruce C. Hafen (Gen Conf Oct 1996)

When couples who have not fully repented of past sins go to the temple to be married, they are starting their marriages on very shaky ground. I believe this is one of the main causes of divorce in temple marriages. If a man who is dishonest in his personal life, as it pertains to his wife and children or his business dealings, goes to the temple, he is heaping damnation upon his own soul and is in great need of repentance.
Elder J. Ballard Washburn (Gen Conf April 1995)

Marriage is a divine institution, ordained of God. Achieving success in the home is a supernal challenge--no other success can compensate for it. Unless, however, a husband and wife learn to work together as one, marriage can also be an infernal ordeal. There are too many unhappy marriages in the world today. There are too many marriages that do not stay the course, ending prematurely in divorce. There are too many children who are silently suffering from a lack of nurturing and care because their parents' union is unhappy or dissolved.
Elder L. Tom Perry (Gen Conf April 1995)

But among the greatest of tragedies, and I think the most common, is divorce. It has become as a great scourge. There is a remedy for all of this. It is not found in divorce. It is found in the gospel of the Son of God. He it was who said, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6). The remedy for most marriage stress is not in divorce. It is in repentance. It is not in separation. It is in simple integrity that leads a man to square up his shoulders and meet his obligations.
Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley (Gen Conf Apr 1991)

"If we continue with present trends, we can expect to have more emotionally disturbed young people, more divorce, more depression, and more suicide.
Pres. Ezra Taft Benson (Gen Conf Oct 1982)

Divorce can never really be final. How can mothers and fathers really divorce themselves from their own flesh and blood children, or from the memories of days and years of shared experiences which have become part of their very lives. Divorce rarely occurs without immense emotional, social, and financial upheaval. Most people underestimate the alienation, bitterness, disruption, and frustration between a divorcing couple, and among their children, friends, and relatives. Some never adjust to the resulting emotional consequences.
Elder David B. Haight (April 1984)

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