BYU ScholarsArchive

Article Title

Should I Keep Trying to Work It Out? Sacred and Secular Perspectives on the Crossroads of Divorce

Authors

Tamara A. Fackrell
Alan J. Hawkins

Keywords

Mormon studies, divorce, marriage, family

Abstract

While the divorce rate for faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is much lower than the average in the United States, still many Latter-day Saints face difficult decisions regarding serious problems in their marriages at one time or another. This article aims to help couples who find themselves at a crossroads, pondering whether their marriages can be repaired or would best be ended. Alan J. Hawkins, a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, and Tamara A. Fackrell, an attorney and PhD candidate in marriage, family, and human development at Brigham Young University, provide spiritual principles as taught by Church leaders and secular wisdom pertaining to the decision to divorce or stay together. They look specifically at counsel to divorce only with just cause, for example when the marriage is irredeemably destructive of a person's dignity for a lengthy period of time. This article is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Successful Marriages and Families, edited by Alan Hawkins, David Dollahite, and Thomas Draper.

Recommended Citation

Fackrell, Tamara A. and Hawkins, Alan J. (2011) "Should I Keep Trying to Work It Out? Sacred and Secular Perspectives on the Crossroads of Divorce," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 50: Iss. 2, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol50/iss2/7