You say that it doesn't matter that your parents aren't married, but that you would be happy if they walked down the aisle. Why would that make you happy? Why would you even care, if it truly is as unimpotant and unecessary as you claim?

You also ask where the studies come from, implying that someone just wrote a book off the top of their head and published it without bothering to care about facts. Look in the back of the book. There are over 100 references there, which is quite a few considering that the book itself is less than 100 pages long. I am aware that many other studies have been done, which drew similar conclusions, that were not even included in this book.

I have lived long enough to have observed for myself many of the things that are presented in this book. The studies simply back up with facts the truths that I have seen over the years. You may not realize the effects on your life now, but years from now you may. Or maybe you just don't know what you're missing.

As I read this review, I could not help but notice so much damage that it seems you cannot see in yourself. The fact that you think this sort of thing is OK is damage. The fact that you defend divorce shows you have learned to devalue marriage. Homosexuality is a choice and it is not a justification for breaking one's family. And, children need to grow up seeing the natural difference between the behavior and thought patters and to learn what it is to be a man or a woman, and they cannot get to know the differences well if they do not grow up raised by both a man and a woman. You've grown up thinking love is temporary and that the most sacred of promises are made to be broken and therefore a promise means nothing. You have no value for the integrity of a person who keeps his or her word as you sternly defend those who do not keep their word. You cannot see the value of intimacy at all because one cannot enjoy intimacy with a multitude of partners. So, you've lost what it means to honor promises, to honor marriage, to be a woman or a man, to be married, to be intimate, and to live in a real family, and by real, I mean real, not artificially declared to be real to make a political point.

Real research of the real kind shows that children of divorce, not always, but statistically are more likely to be violent, promiscuous, depressed, suicidal, and more likely to divorce or fear marriage in adulthood. They are more likely to become pregnant as teens and to get involved with drug abuse. And, if you check the prisons to see how many violent criminals come from intact families, you will find most are from broken families. Divorce often leads to poverty with one parent or the other or both or at the very best, a reduction of wealth.

And, you know what? Nobody really needs official statistics to see this. It's all around us in plain view, and anyone with more than half a brain and at least a tiny bit of integrity would have no choice but to admit to this truth. It's just too stupid to try to argue against it.

And, it makes sense. Psychologists agree that divorce is one of the greatest causes of stress. Children and abandoned adults often end up on anti-depressants for six months to three years or more. Some must stay on them for life. And it's very, very common. Normally children should not be put onto anti-depressants because there is a greater risk of suicide, but sometimes people cannot function without Prosac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc.

When your parents divorce, you grow up learning marriage and love are not forever. If parents can stop loving each other, then perhaps they can stop loving their children, too. No? How do you know? They promised? You mean as they promised when they gave their wedding vows?

Can anyone deny that people of integrity, courage, and sincerity of love will honor their vows to love their spouses faithfully as long as they both shall live?

I was forced through an unwanted divorce, and I'm doing better now six years after my wife started her affair. Now, it's easy to take advantage of a cheap shot and try to pretend that my anger against divorce was probably the cause for our break up. But, my wife had bipolar disorder, and I loved her and stood by her sacrificially and lovingly through the very worst of times as well as the best of times. There were times she was an absolute angel and I knew for certain given the chance I would marry her all over again. And the times she was a horrible living terror to us all, I kept faith believing that somehow the woman I had loved so long was somehow still alive within her somewhere. But, I loved her, and the divorce hurt us all.
Deeply.