COSTLY
ADULTERY

Topics: Adultery; Cost; Divorce; Faithfulness; Marriage; Vows

References: Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:1–12

Adultery need not break up marriages. It’s the civilized way of dealing with the fault line of marriage—desire.

So says social commentator Minette Marrin in London’s Sunday Times. In America adultery is no longer a crime in half the states, and in the others adultery is seldom, if ever, prosecuted. But sexual straying from marriage remains a costly, if not criminal, practice. According to a recent estimate, the typical adulterous husband invests almost $26,000 over a four-month period in conducting an extramarital affair. Once his wife discovers his philandering, he can count on another $5,000 in legal bills, plus an $1,800 deposit on a place to live after she ejects him from their home.

Apart from its immorality, adultery is a terrible investment. Only 5 percent of men and women who leave their marriages for someone else actually end up marrying that person.

—David Yount, “The Cost of Adultery,” knoxnews.com (November 29, 2004)