I just want to share a word of warning to those who are free about offering advice to other people about their marriage. I am not calling into question anyone's honesty in particular, but I want to share an observation.
One person's account of their own marriage may not exactly represent reality. There is a saying, there is his version, there is her version, and then there is the truth. We only see things from our own perspective.
Maybe some of you married folks have never experienced this, but I have had a few arguments with my wife over 20 years of marriage. For the most part, it has been fairly peaceful, but on occasion, it has not. Usually, this happened at certain times of the month or during or after pregnancy. But during arguments, sometimes my wife's understanding of what I said or what I meant did not actually represent what I recalled I said or what I meant. She could occasionally read ideas into what I said that were not there.
My wife had a friend who had lots of kids with her husband. They were having marriage problems while losing their apartment due to financial reasons. I had not met the wife at this point, but my wife knew her. She called to talk to my wife, and ended up unloading on me for a long time about her marriage problems. Her husband had done some bad stuff, had a baby with another woman, and disappeared for a while. She said he kept saying things like, "Why don't I just die?" or "Why don't I just go sleep on the beach then?" She complained he did not care about the family and just wanted to sleep on the beach by himself.
So, after moving, they came over to see us. I think this was to line up us housing some small percentage of their many children during their transition to finding a new apartment. They were going to basically be homeless for a little while.
Anyway, the wife just laid into him, verbally, just attacking the poor guy. I know he'd done awful stuff. They were supposed to have reconciled. But it was just a constant stream of harsh criticism. We fed her and she toned it down just a little bit. Just a little. Then I heard the comments. Basically, after talking to him like he did not deserve to live on this earth, from the types of things she was saying, he said, "Why don't I just die then?" or "Why don't I just go be homeless and sleep on the beach?" What he was saying was that if I am as worthless as you are saying, then why should I exist or why should I be with you? He wasn't threatening suicide or threatening to abandon her, as far as I could tell. She just did not get what he was saying. There were a number of other comments. She totally misunderstood and totally misconstrued the situation when she talked to me.
What he did was not right, but I understand why he had left her before. It was probably her mouth. If she attacked him like that before he cheated on her, I know why he left. He said he slept with that woman after he'd had a conversation with his wife and she said it is over. Some people, especially unbelievers, think a conversation like that makes adultery okay. I've heard a couple of people use that justification in TV and online media recently. At this point in his life, he knew that was wrong.
People in these painful emotional situations can misinterpret information. They can also edit history in their minds. A couple meet, fall in love, and get married and have a wonderful time together. Five years later, she tells him she wants a divorce. If you talk to her, she has a revised history of their marriage in her head. They were never in love. Their marriage was awful from the start. She latches on to a few bad memories. His telling her she looked fat in that dress or a few off comments when he is in a bad mood or when she has talked to him terribly during an argument become a history of 'verbal abuse.' His controlling the money becomes financial abuse. If she gets ahold of some materials from a domestic violence center, if he's a Christian, his quoting verses about wives submitting to their husband gets labeled as part of a 'divorce wheel.' If they argue-- and she is as big of an instigator as him-- and they make up, and it happens over and over again, that 'cycle' is part of an 'abusive' cycle she reads about. There is a lot of reading material out there to make people feel like a woman has been 'abused' when no one has laid a 'finger' on her.
There is also some percentage of abuse that involves the story of the woman who hits her man. They get into a fight, and she starts punching. He can't hit back, because she's a girl, and that is heavily stigmatized in our culture. One day, he bruises her wrists restraining her, or loses it and slaps her or hits her after she'd been wailing on him. She calls the cops and he goes to jail. The police may have a policy of arresting someone for a domestic violence call. They usually take the men away. If too many violent women get hauled away, feminist activists might complain. There aren't many male activists groups applying pressure the other way. So he gets a mark against his record that can be used against him in divorce court and custody battles in the future.
There are cases where the woman is the victim, where the husband is a big violent bully. But there are a lot of other cases where it is more complicated. And there are cases where the man is the victim of a violent, irrational woman, too. There are also exaggerated perceptions. There are divorcees who talk about being 'abused'. They are talking about mean words or the other person controlling the bank account, etc., not fists flying. You hear 'abuse' and you think black eyes and broken bones. If you say, "Divorce him" or "You were right to divorce him." you could be encouraging someone to sin, based on misleading information.
Proverbs 18:17
The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.
(ESV)
My wife and I have never cussed at each other. I've never threatened my wife with divorce. But I have said some things to my wife that I wish I could take back. She's done the same with me. If you are married, and your spouse took the worst words you have ever said, strung them all together in a story about how you are as a wife or a husband, he or she could probably paint a rather abusive picture of you. And that is what some people do when going through the pain of a damaged relationship. Some of these things may be sinful, but they are not beyond the scope of 'normal' stuff that many married couples go through. If you had a spouse who editted your marriage in his/her brain and told a pastor who believes in divorce..... and remarriage... over 'abuse' of every kind, you might find advocating for your partner to end your marriage. This is dangerous stuff, and we need to be aware of this.
There was a 'Christian counsellor' show that I occasionally caught a bit of when I was in the car. I never heard the whole thing, but the time or two I heard it, one person called in, described a situation, and the 'Christian counselor' advised separation--- based on one person's testimony. I think one was a case of 'verbal abuse.' I wonder how some people keep their license diagnosing people over the radio having heard only one side of the story.