A Divorce Manifesto
Rev. Dr. Rebecca Armstrong
I believe – if our thoughts were unburdened of
inherited social, moral and religious dogmas – that the following
propositions would be self-evident:
1. A good divorce is better
than a bad marriage.
2. The purpose of divorce
is to liberate two human beings from self-imposed bondage.
3. The freedom to love
one’s life in the pursuit of happiness and wholeness is a choice that can
made at every moment.
4. Divorce, like any
crisis, is an opportunity for growth in grace, kindness, compassion and
understanding.
5. The mutual respect
between two people in the present is vastly more important than a
sentimental idea about “happily ever after” in some imagined future.
6. Divorce is the spiritual
companion to marriage as death is the spiritual companion to life.
7. Excessive measures to
prolong any mortal form beyond its natural life span – whether that be a
human body or a marriage – is an affront to dignity and a thief of joy.
8. Getting a divorce does
not make you a bad person; living in anger, pain, resentment and despair
makes you a bad person.
9. A good divorce is better
for the children than a bad marriage. (This proposition has been confirmed
by numerous studies.)
10. Divorce is the heart
storm that cleanses and renews and makes another springtime of love
possible.
11. Divorce is a fact of
life, not an aberration.
12.
The courage to divorce with integrity, kindness and mutual respect is the
new badge of honor for the 21st century.
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