An interview with Elizabeth Marquardt, author of Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce.
Q. I imagine that children of divorce would also struggle with seeing God as a parent.
A. When I asked them if God is like a father or a parent, their reactions would tell me as much about what they thought about their parents as what they thought about God. One woman said, "God's not like a parent. God is something smarter than us." Another said, "God seems more distant, like a manager."
Q. How does divorce affect how the children of divorce read the Bible?
A. Let's take, for instance, the parable of the Prodigal Son. The children of divorce don't focus on the end of the story, when the child comes home and is welcomed by a loving parent. They focus on the beginning of the story, when someone leaves the family home. For them, it's not the child who leaves the home; it's the parent. ...One young woman told me, "When I hear the parable about the Prodigal Son, I always think maybe one of these days my dad will decide to come back, too."
...Then you realize that the parable is supposed to illustrate God's love and compassion and presence --- the ever-present, steady, everlasting presence. But children of divorce see themselves in the role of the father waiting for the child to come home; that's the role of God in the story. They have to be their own protector. They have to be the one waiting in the doorway for someone else to come home. It's a scary and anxiety-producing place for a child.
Interesting.
The armchair psychologist, seeking an explanation for my conversion to Catholicism and in particular for my marriage to a man from a firmly Catholic family, might point to my experiences as a child of divorce. According to Marquardt, that's not such a common response; kids from divorced families tend more toward evangelical churches or no church at all.
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