O, the cost! Divorce scare tactics. - Divorce Minister
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
-I Timothy 6:10, KJV
A popular Christian curriculum for people going through divorce would regularly try to dissuade people from divorcing by pointing out the financial cost of divorce.
I find this scare tactic especially unhelpful for faithful spouses. It is just making it more difficult for them to take the hard, necessary action. Plus, motivation out of fear is not a godly motivation (see 2 Timothy 1:7).
Yes, divorces are costly.
This is a fact. What is missed in these scare tactics are the costs of staying in an abusive relationship. That is what staying with an unrepentant cheater is–namely, abusive.
I still believe divorce is a real, godly mercy (see Mt 19:9).
Like a costly surgery, divorce can be the gateway to life from a dangerous situation–namely, an attachment to a destructive person. The cost is not the point. If you have to amputate, you amputate.
