Rhode Island Divorce Tips

Facebook has become a greater forum for opinions on marriage, divorce, politics, religion and many other subjects of debate.   

Some time back a Boston radio station asked that I be interviewed about an article written by a third-party who made the claim that Facebook has substantially contributed to the increased breakdown of marriages.  I declined the interview.  

However, as a lawyer focusing my law practice exclusively in the area of divorce and family law I found it interesting that the media has drawn it's own attention not simply to Facebook but to it's affects on various aspects of life and relationships.

I found this posting on Facebook at one time.  I did not write it, nor is it meant to reflect my views or thoughts with respect to the subject.  It is a post that has likely scrolled off into infinity in the history of Facebook and yet it is certainly one of the tamer posts that have been made by those who tend to be more aggressive advocates for one position or another.  Yet I found it interesting that this posting has been only one of countless strings of discussions and disputes about the subject of same sex marriages.

The Facebook posting was as follows:

There seems to be more and more posting with regard to same sex marriages. I just want to state that God created man and woman. Read Genesis Chapter 2, 21-24, and you will find that God took the rib of Adam to make Eve and Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."How then can marriage relationship be any other way but the way GOD ordained it????????

[No change has been made to the post.]

This one Facebook posting is perhaps illustrative of one key point.  Many people in life go through life without taking time to consciously and knowledgeably considering all the aspects of marriage, love, life, law, relationships and the overall impacts that one change may or will have on society and life as a whole.

If you have beliefs by which you live, you are certainly entitled to them.  However, it is always good to question them.  If you cannot verbalize and/or justify the underlying reasons for your belief in something other than perhaps a reliance upon blanket statements such as,

1.  That's what I was taught.

2.  I was brought up Catholic, or Baptist, or Jewish, etc... and that's what our faith believes.

3.  That's something we take on faith, it isn't questioned.

or

4.  That's just the way it is.

Then, you may wish to ask a few more questions to insure that YOU truly believe what you believe for the right reasons.  Keep in mind that much of what we believe and learn is based upon those who have taught and/or raised us over the years and who we may respect or look up to.  Much of it is not by choice but rather by an adoption of another person's teachings, beliefs, or reasons and may exist in you not by actual thought or questioning but simply because it is easier to believe that those you have learned from would never mislead you.  Though it may be true that they would never knowingly mislead you, what if they only taught you what they learned from the person before them?  What if the first person who cared and had good intentions about friends and family was incorrect in what they taught?  What if society and history changed in such a way that we learned more about a particular subject than was known "back then?"  

A search for meaning and correct beliefs, in my own humble opinion, is never an unrewarding endeavor.  It leads us to enlightenment and enrichment of our lives by exploration and understanding of more than what we may have been taught.

In the end, my philosophy is this.  Without questioning our beliefs so we know why we truly believe them, we are all like a chain of people playing a game of follow the leader with none of us realizing that the person in the lead who has been leading everyone else in our chain is actually blind.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts either on the Facebook posting in defense of opposite sex marriages or on this article generally.  Constructive postings that do not denegrate anyone and use appropriate language will be approved.

My Very Best to All During this Holiday Season!