Summary of eRumor:
A procession of Christian couples has filed for divorce to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2015 ruling on gay marriage.
The Truth:
There haven’t been any confirmed cases of Christian couples filing for divorce to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage.
That report was started by United Media Publishing, a website that publishes a combination of real and fake news. After the Supreme Court ruled that bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional, the website (falsely) reported:
Thousands of Christian couples, some who have been married for decades, have vowed to file for divorce in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling which has legalized gay marriage nationwide.
Adam Cyrus is the founder of Christ in Family Services which provides bible-based counseling to married Christian couples throughout Topeka Kansas. Cyrus says he supports the wave of high-principled duos seeking divorce as an act of protest. “We are symbolically divorcing a government which no longer honors our culture and values. We have no desire to benefit from a system which characterizes us as the enemy and enables and rewards sin under the guise of holy matrimony. If they wish to reward and empower those who desire to make a mockery of our faith, and misrepresent our religion, then we intend to remove ourselves altogether from this bureaucracy so that we may practice our faith in accordance to our beliefs.”
Mary Lambert and her husband Jay were among the first to arrive at the courthouse in Topeka Kansas to file for divorce. Despite having been married for over 14 years, they chose to call it quits to avoid affiliation with a government that no longer respects their values. “I love my husband very much, but above all, I love my god, Jesus Christ. This is why we are moving forward in defiance of the Supreme Court ruling. If our government chooses to celebrate sin and spit on one of the most righteous ceremonies within our faith, then they are on their own. Marriage is about so much more than love. A family cannot grow together if they have no relationship with Christ. Anything else is just a sad parody. It’s unfortunate that even our president has made the choice to stoop so low and pander to Satan’s agenda.”
The story was quickly shared more than 56,000 times on social media sites. Many believed it to be true, but a closer look reveals a number of false claims.
First, there’s no record of group called “Christ in Family Services” located in Topeka, Kansas. The group also doesn’t have an online footprint outside of the United Media Publishing report.
The report also cites a so-called employee of “Calvin and Hays Family Court” in San Diego, which doesn’t exist. All divorce proceedings in the San Diego area go through the San Diego County Family Law Courthouse.
At least one coupled did, however, actually threaten to divorce in protest of a gay marriage ruling. Nick and Sarah Jensen, high school sweethearts from Australia who had been married for 10 years, grabbed headlines when they made that threat in June 2015. But the Jensens threatened to divorce if gay marriage became legal in Australia — not the U.S.
Besides, it was later reported that Australia’s Family Law Act would make it difficult for Nick and Sarah Jensen to symbolically divorce. The law requires couples to live separately for at least 12 months before a divorce is granted.
So far, there haven’t been any confirmed cases of Christian couples actually divorcing in protest of the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling.