Is divorce helping undermine religion?

The answer appears to be "yes" based from a new study showing that children raised by divorced parents are more likely to shun religion than those raised by married parents.

The survey, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) from July 27 and Aug. 9, shows that 35 percent of Americans raised by divorced parents say they are "religiously unaffiliated," as opposed to only 23 percent who were raised by married parents, The Washington Post reports.

More than half of the respondents (60 percent) say they left their faith because they do not believe anymore in what their religion teaches.

The study also found that 29 percent of adults who were raised by religious families but left their religion say they did so because of their faith's negative teachings about gay and lesbian people. Nineteen percent say they left because of clergy sexual-abuse scandals.

Researcher Daniel Cox told The Washington Post that the study shows the link between family structure and religious identity.

"There is no single reason the unaffiliated are growing so dramatically, but this survey finds new evidence that the structure of the family life is part of the story," he says.

"Americans raised by divorced parents or by parents in interfaith marriages are less likely than those brought up in two-parent or single-faith households to be religiously active as adults," he points out.

The survey shows that only 31 percent of Americans with divorced parents go to services every week, compared with 43 percent whose parents were married when they were growing up.

The study's findings did not surprise Luther Seminary Professor Andrew Root, who has written a book about the spiritual consequences of divorce for children.

"Everything in a divorce gets divided — literally everything. Parents' friends get divided. Relatives get divided. Everyone takes sides," Root said.

"Even religion takes sides. The church gets divided. Dad leaves Mom's faith, or vice versa," he said.

Root believes that churches are not exerting enough effort to address the concerns of children with divorced parents. As a result, these children lose faith in the ability of their church to help them.

He noted that in the 1980s, when the divorce rate soared, many church leaders, especially mainline Protestant pastors, stopped speaking out against divorce for fear that they could alienate the divorced members of their congregations. But by keeping silent on the subject, they failed to assuage the children of divorced parents, Root said.