"We didn't want to support any more adultery scenes. There's enough on television." - 84 year-old Iowa farmer, Aaron Howell, explaining why his family rejected Warner Bros.' lucrative offer to rent their property for the filming of The Bridges of Madison County (Premiere, 2/95)

"One in four adults in your church has been involved in an extramarital affair…"

"Studies of married Americans reveal that approximately one in three men and one in six women enter an affair sometime during their wedded lives…"

"Affairs usually don't just happen, as television and popular romances would lead us to believe. And affairs are not the cause of marriage trouble, but a response to it…"

"When the cupboard is full at home, you don't go someplace else to eat…" -- Anonymous

"Adultery is never a sudden, spontaneous, and totally unexpected act. Therefore, the strongest protection against adultery in a marriage is an attitude of total commitment toward each other. The marriage vow commits one to the satisfaction and happiness of the partner. Sexual satisfaction becomes a gift to the other. In an extramarital friendship, there always comes a point of 'maybe' when there is the realization that the friendship could become something more. By closing the door to anything beyond friendship, each partner should try to see friends through the spouse's eyes. When adultery has occurred, forgiveness is the tool to restore the marriage. There will be feelings of anger, hatred, guilt, pain (physical as well as emotional) humiliation (adultery is a statement that the spouse's lovemaking was of little or no value) and confusion. To begin healing, find a trusted and wise friend, and express your feelings where it will not hurt anyone. Accept no excuses, rationalizations, promises, or defensiveness. Only accept genuine repentance." - Walter Wangerin, Jr. U.S. Catholic, March 1988, pages 27-31.

Adultery