Last week we ran two stories on the front page of this paper about divorce, attempting to highlight a problem that is apparently growing at BYU, not just nationally.
In one of the stories, “Students struggle with divorce stereotypes,” we investigated the effect of divorce on BYU students that are still at school – how they fit in, how they feel different or alienated, what challenges they face and how their experiences have changed them.
Unfortunately, in an attempt to address these issues, we touched on the backstory of a specific couple. This did not need to be done as the events surrounding the couple’s divorce were irrelavent to the broader topics under examination. More than that, the information, based on only one source, was biased and showed one party in a negative light.
For any pain we caused this person, her family and friends, we apologize.
If there is one thing we can learn from our mistreatment of this issue, it is that divorce is deeply painful experience with long-lasting and wide-ranging effects. It is a last resort and there is no easy way out.
Unfortunately, divorce is also sometimes necessary.
We hope that all of us will remember to heed “warning signs” before making the biggest decision we will ever make, that nobody will feel pressured into marriage and that nobody will rush in naively. We hope that we can treat the divorced in our community no differently than we would anyone else. We hope that the emotional scars of all those who have been divorced will heal. And we also hope that we can always remember there are two sides to every story.
