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As a lay divorce recovery leader in churches for the past 20 years, it's been my privilege to hear a lot of stories of committed Christians who had to leave their destructive marriages for the sake of their life or sanity. In this post, you'll meet Annette and hear...
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It appears that Focus on the Family® wishes it could have it both ways—a glowing reputation for defending abuse victims and the steady flow of donations tied to being fiercely anti-divorce. But it can’t. And yet, they’re trying hard to keep both plates spinning. Their...
What Experts in the PBS Documentary "Kids & Divorce" Say About Custody After Abuse The PBS documentary Kids & Divorce: For Better or Worse, hosted by journalist Dave Iverson, gathers psychologists, mediators, and judges to discuss how families can protect...
Weekend to Remember: Honest Stories from Real Attendees This is my second collection of firsthand, anonymized reviews from Christians who attended Weekend to Remember (WTR), the marriage retreat created by Dennis and Barbara Rainey, co-founders of FamilyLife under Cru...
🕊️ Weekend to Remember Marriage Retreat: Can it Fix a Bad Marriage? FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember (WTR) is one of the most recognizable Christian marriage retreats in the United States. It is promoted by CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ). According to founder Dennis...
“I Wish I’d Left Sooner”: What Parents Say About Timing Their Divorce When Kids Are Involved One of the hardest questions parents in destructive marriages ask is: “Should I wait until the kids are older?” Many fear that divorce will scar their children or destroy...
💔 Getting Through the Mandatory Divorce Parenting Class If you’re looking for Christian divorce support, you’re not alone. Many believers facing an abusive or high-conflict marriage are required to take court-ordered classes they find confusing or shaming. This post...
Hope Restored Marriage Intensive: Real Results From 44 Former Attendees As a Christian divorce recovery leader, I am asked frequently about marriage intensives. So I did a survey of 330 past participants of multi-day Christian marriage intensives or marriage retreats....
When “Restoring Hope” Meant Losing Safety: Patricia’s Story and the Hidden Cost of Christian Marriage Therapy Editor’s note (sources & ethics). Names and identifying details are changed for privacy; quotes are shared with consent. For research context: Hope...
🧩 Introduction In 2011, Focus on the Family’s Hope Restored marriage intensive—then known as the National Institute of Marriage (NIM)—published a paper it claimed proved the program’s success. More than a decade later, those same numbers are still being used in their...