So Jehovah's Witnesses can't claim the moral highground when it comes to being faithful to their marriage mates.
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=86808&sc=89
Faith and marital fidelity go hand in hand: study
SHANNON PROUDFOOT
CanWest News Service
Where you worship - and whether you worship at all - could be connected to your likelihood of straying from your marriage vows.
People who identify with a faith group are less likely to cheat on their spouses than those with no religious affiliation, a new study has found. But even among the religious set, the odds vary according to denomination.
"What matters the most is being involved in a religious organization," says Amy Burdette, co-author of the study and a post-doctoral scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Those who attend church more are less likely to cheat, and those who have more conservative views of the Bible are less likely to cheat."
That said, Baptists are one-third less likely to wander than those with no religious affiliation, researchers found, and Catholics display similar odds. Moderate Protestants such as Presbyterians and Lutherans have 37 per cent lower odds of cheating than the unaffiliated, while liberal Protestants such as those in the United and Anglican churches are 31 per cent more faithful.
Non-traditional conservative groups such as Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses display no less likelihood of cheating than people with no religious affiliation.
"That was a little bit surprising, considering you think of these conservative religious groups as having stricter teachings about sexuality," Burdette says.
Those belonging to "other" faiths, such as Judaism and Islam, also carry the same odds of infidelity as non-religious people, the researchers say.
The study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Family Issues, categorized faiths according to the American spiritual landscape. The Canadian denominational examples provided here are approximations.
All faith groups tend to emphasize family life and promote strong marital relationships, Burdette says, which may partly explain the results.
"I don't think there's any church that would say extramarital affairs are OK, even churches that are less strict on premarital sex, for example," she says. "There's a blanket condemnation of extramarital affairs."
The results of the present study don't mean that dragging your spouse to worship services is a surefire way to ensure loyalty, Burdette adds.
"It's not really prescribing religion as the solution, it's just this is what we've found to be related to marital infidelity," she says. "I don't think this study is implying these are the rules for getting your spouse not to cheat."
The study used data from the U.S. General Social Surveys of 1991 to 2004, analyzing the responses of almost 8,000 married people aged 18 to 89.
About 17 per cent admitted to sexual dalliance outside their marriages.