The Superstition of Divorce
Lecture XXXIII
By Dale Ahlquist |
In 1918, Chesterton wrote a series of articles called "The
Superstition of Divorce" for the New Witness. The essays
were published as a collection under the same title in 1920.
He said it wasn't supposed to be a book, but a pamphlet, and
the object of a pamphlet is to be out of date as soon as
possible. "It can only survive when it does not succeed."
Unfortunately, it survived. Chesterton's warnings about the
rise of divorce have gone unheeded, warnings best summed up
in his prophetic line: "The obvious effect of frivolous
divorce will be frivolous marriage. If people can be
separated for no reason they will feel it all the easier to
be united for no reason."
In this book, Chesterton for the most part does not talk
about the sacramental and religious nature of marriage, but
rather focuses on the practical and historical and social
reasons for it. His main point is that if the family breaks
apart, the whole society will break apart.
Divorce, by any account, is a failure. But the modern world
has begun to portray divorce as a freedom. This comes as no
surprise to Chesterton. The modern world, he says,
specializes in two forms of freedom: suicide and divorce.
"In a dreary time we listen to two counsels of despair: the
freedom from life and the freedom from love." In our
society, he says, where every real freedom has been
curtailed, the two doors of death and divorce stand open.
But just as we should not accept a system that drives men to
drown and shoot themselves, we should not accept a system
that produces so many divorces. He insists that we admit
that divorce is a failure and that it would be much better
for us to find the cause and cure rather than allow divorce
to complete its destructive effect.
But freedom means the freedom to make a vow, not break a
vow. A vow, says Chesterton, "is a tryst with oneself."
Divorce, he argues, is a superstition. In fact, it is more
of a superstition than sacramental marriage itself. The
advocates of divorce believe that a vow can be undone by a
mere ceremony, disposed of by a mysterious and magical rite.
The superstition also applies to the idea of re-marriage,
that the mere ceremony will undo a vow so that the vow can
be made vow again. Chesterton says they want to have their
wedding cake and eat it, too. And we have now created a
system where this is possible. We now reward a man for
deserting his wife by letting him have another wife. We
never encourage him to go back to the woman he first chose
from all the women in the world.
But besides the horrible problem of disloyalty, there are
other enemies, both philosophical and practical, attacking
marriage and the family. This revolt against the family is
utterly unnatural, a revolt against nature itself and the
natural attraction between father and mother. This natural
attraction, says Chesterton, is called a child. It is a
simple truth that the modern world insists on ignoring.
A family is of course the best way to create, to protect and
to raise children. Besides this obvious truth, Chesterton
also argues that the family must be kept intact because the
home is the greatest refuge of freedom in the world.
Divorce is not an act of freedom. On the contrary, it is an
act of slavery. A society where vows can be easily broken is
not a free society. A free society cannot function without
volunteers keeping their commitments to each other. When the
most basic unit of society, the family, breaks apart, some
other institution will try to replace it and restore order,
and will then become more important than the family.
Chesterton knew that the proponents of divorce would object
to his characterization of divorce as being an act of
slavery. But he reminds them that anyone who's ever read
Uncle Tom's Cabin knows that one of the oldest and simplest
charges against slavery was that it broke up families.
Chesterton said that the two greatest enemies to freedom in
our society are big government and big business. And they
are also enemies of the family. Families are a nuisance to
businesses that have to provide a living wage, health care
plans, maternity leave, and have to put up with employees
coming in late or going home early because a child is sick
or missed the school bus. And families are a nuisance to the
State because they interfere with regulation,
standardization, officialism, and the secularization of
everything sacred. Traditionally, the State has been
subordinate to the family, but when the family loses its
strength, the government gains extraordinary power over
people's personal lives. Chesterton says that without the
family we are helpless before the State.
The solution? Instead of rejecting marriage, we have to
reject the poisonous modern philosophies and get back to the
primary things, the permanent things. We have to honor the
family above the State, and more importantly, above the
office or the factory. And we begin to honor the family by
honoring marriage.
Chesterton says quite frankly that anyone who believes that
marriage is a divine institution would not believe in
divorce. But he is not asking anyone assume the worth of his
creed, but simply to consider the worth of the claims made
by modern society. He asks those who are so caught up in
defending divorce: what do they really finally expect for
themselves and for their children?
Father-mother-child, says Chesterton, form a sacred triangle
that cannot be destroyed. It will only destroy the
civilization that disregards it. And the Church has held up
a mystical mirror to that sacred triangle in which the order
of the three things is reversed, the Holy Family of Child,
Mother, and Father.
You can find this Lecture XXXIII at: http://chesterton.org/discover/lectures/33superstitionofdivorce.html
If you would like to purchase this book, it is available in
Vol.4 of the Collected Works.
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