http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44686
'Divorce' TV broadcast
inspired by WND
Columnist Bob Just key figure
in national show this weekend
Posted: June 10, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
An exclusive WorldNetDaily story instigated an eye-opening national
television broadcast this weekend on the subject of "adult children of
divorce."
"The Coral Ridge Hour," the popular weekly one-hour television ministry of
D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, and broadcast nationally for
over 25 years, will feature a segment on what happens to "children of
divorce" when they grow up ? a production inspired by WND columnist Bob
Just's recent article titled "Son of divorce."
The article was published originally in WND's acclaimed monthly
Whistleblower magazine's March issue, "DIVORCE WARS: What's really behind
America's epidemic of family breakdown?" Just is also editor-at-large of
Whistleblower.
When "Coral Ridge Hour" Executive Producer Debbie Revitzer read "Son of
divorce" on WorldNetDaily, she decided "children of divorce" was a topic
the show needed to cover.
"Debbie read it and was thinking about different subjects we could cover
for the month of June," Operations Producer Susie Dzuro told WND. "She
thought Bob's was an exceptional article, passed it long to me and asked
me to put together a story." Dzuro did many of the interviews for the
11-minute segment.
Notes Just: "I was completely caught off guard by the e-mail response to
"Son of divorce." "There's a lot of pain out there. One seminary professor
actually praised my 'courage' for being honest about the damaging effect
my parents' divorce had on me. I had no idea this was such a taboo
subject, but apparently it is."
In the article, Just writes not only about his own experience as an adult
child of divorce, but also about the confusion over marriage and
commitment caused by rampant divorce ? especially the impact divorce has
on children once they reach adulthood.
"The research is very, very dramatic on this point," says Glenn Stanton of
Focus on the Family, also interviewed by Coral Ridge for the segment,
"that not only does divorce have effects into adulthood, but the effects
get worse and worse into adulthood."
"The problem of silence," as Just describes it, is twofold: "First, most
adult children of divorce have little idea of how much they are hurting.
In 'The Unexplained Legacy of Divorce,' Judith Wallerstein describes
various telltale signs of trouble ACDs should look for, including
expectations of failure, fear of loss, fear of change, fear of conflict,
fear of betrayal and fear of loneliness. Lots of us live our lives
struggling with these kinds of issues, but we don't realize where they
come from."
The second part of problem, says Just, is simple enough. "Understandably,
no one wants to hurt their parents by revealing their own struggles.
Divorce is tough enough on the parents, and the adult children end up
protecting them. In the end, I guess it's just too painful to talk about.
But we have to talk about it."
"The delayed impact of divorce in adulthood is a revolutionary finding and
a stunning surprise," announced Wallerstein, along with the two other
women who authored the book, Julia M. Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee.
"We thought that children would be able to work through issues related to
divorce by the time they reached late adolescence or left home. We advised
parents that if they refrained from fighting and arranged their schedules
so that the children could see both of them often, the children would do
well. But these policies were based on adult needs and perceptions of
divorce. We failed to realize that living in a post-divorce family is an
entirely different experience for children as opposed to adults. The story
of divorce is far more complex and the impact more far-reaching than we
had ever imagined."
The "Coral Ridge Hour" program will air this weekend ? in most regions on
Sunday morning. To check local listings, go to the Coral Ridge Hour's
website and use the station finder ("Find a local listing") in the
left-hand navigation bar.
In addition, the entire program will be viewable online on the ministry's
website throughout the weekend.
"Children learn what they live"