Survey shows religious Americans tolerate divorce

WASHINGTON — Most Americans continue to believe that “God’s plan for marriage is one man, one woman, for life,” but they are still tolerant of those who divorce, a new survey on family and faith shows.

A poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research conducted for the PBS television program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” found that 71 percent of Americans said they believe in the ideal of lifelong traditional marriage. But just 22 percent of those surveyed agreed that “divorce is a sin.”

Religious conservatives were most likely to agree that divorce is sinful. But they were still a minority within their own ranks, with 34 percent of evangelical Christians and 30 percent of traditional Catholics saying divorce is sinful.