Tuesday, December 20, 2011 By Ellen Azizian - Ellen Azizian Advertising Redifining the sanctity of marriage and divorce (December 20, 2011) -- “I, (name), take you (name), to be my lawfully wedded (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.” This once “traditional” wedding vow has been made a mockery by numerous people included in the 49% divorce statistic in the United States, done by Divorce.com, which also states that the United States is number 12 in worldwide divorce statistics. According to attorneys on the Divorce Guide website, “money problems are often cited as the number one cause of divorce in America.” To me, this is very ironic when the vows that two people — two people who were supposedly in love — said to each other included the phrase “for richer, for poorer.” It seems as if people take marriage and vows for granted, not even taking the holy words they once said into consideration before signing a piece of paper. People who get married today always view divorce as a back-up just in case they don’t like what they got themselves into. The only couples who have successful marriages today are the ones who don’t even view divorce as an option. One celebrity couple, Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett, says that no matter how bad of a fight they get into, they never dare say the word divorce. While some celebrity couples are a good example of marriage and the value of wedding vows, most make a mockery of it. Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, who were married for 72 days, held a “fairytale” wedding in August, giving the illusion that they were madly in love while making millions of dollars in interviews and TV specials. I was one of the many fans who were fooled into thinking that after many disastrous relationships, Kardashian had finally found the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. In reality, however, she was just trying to find a way out of the marriage after the second the couple said their “I do’s.” In the end, it took just one “big” fight to make Kardashian file for divorce against her spouse citing “'irreconcilable differences.” The Kardashian and Humphries marriage was just one of many celebrity marriages to end in a divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” — which accounts for about half of American divorces — in 2011. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher (married six years), Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony (married seven years), and Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson (married two years) all cited “irreconcilable differences” for the reason of their divorce. I view this reason for divorce like a get-out-of-jail-free card for many Americans. If a couple loved each other enough to get married and make promises to each other, then they should be willing to do whatever it takes to stay with the one they were oh-so-deeply in love with. However, sometimes divorce is very necessary. An example of a necessary divorce is the termination of the marriage between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. The couple was married for 25 years when Shriver filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences.” Schwarzenegger had cheated on Shriver for many years, but once Shriver found out that her husband had fathered another woman’s child, she had had the last straw and decided that the marriage was over. If the marriage had gone on, it would have caused even more heartbreak and tension for the couple and their children, while also making a fool out of Shriver in the media for staying with a man who would treat her so badly. Divorce should be the very last option for a couple and not just a way to get out of a fight. Americans need to pay more attention to the vows they are about to say before getting married and decide for themselves whether they can live up to them or not.

Back to the articles list