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Comment by jqpabc123 | Hacker News Reader

Proof that we need more "family values"; more religious conservatism?

This is what a lot of people seem to believe --- people who've never bothered to look at the actual evidence --- or who refuse to accept it once they see.

A detailed county by county survey of the entire country shows that the most religious and conservative parts of the country have higher divorces rates by far.

Getting married in the Bible Belt and giving money to the church seems to *create* a lot of one parent families.

https://sites.utexas.edu/contemporaryfamilies/2014/01/16/imp...

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The study shows even non-religious people in those same counties have high rates of divorce, so it’s clearly an issue affecting everyone.

This is also pointless if they didn’t control for ethnicity. The South has a greater percentage of African-Americans who have higher rates of divorce. The problems beleaguering black communities has more to do with just living in religious or conservative counties

that study's numbers make no sense. Looks like a hit job on southern conservatives. Try this: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/divorce/divorce-statist...

Your link states that evangelicals have the highest divorce rate out of any religion.

Further, southern states do generally experience more divorce than areas like New England and CA.

Growing up in a southern evangelical environment I can say anecdotally this is no surprise. When one side of a partnership considers themselves their peers better it leads to a path that ends in divorce.

we do need more family values, but religious conservatism is not that. we also need equality between women and men, and that is where conservatism gets in the way. i suspect that lack of equality is what's driving most divorces in those conservative areas because women no longer allow themselves to be treated as being lesser than men, so they stand up for themselves and the conservative men can't handle that.

it appears that some people disagree with my comment. but i do not understand why.

am i misunderstanding what conservatism is?

or do people disagree with the idea of equality between men and women?

or with the idea that valuing family more would be better?

a response to this comment has been flagged, which hides further responses to that comment that you may want to read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37980225

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