A study of the difference in general tendency to forgive spousal transgressions between genders and across levels of religious commitment in selected Southern Baptist churches

Problem. The problem of this study was to determine whether general tendency to forgive spousal transgressions differed across levels of religious commitment in a sample that consisted of married members of selected Southern Baptist churches. The second problem of this study was to determine if males and females in the same sample differed in their general tendency to forgive spousal transgressions. The final problem of this study was to determine whether gender and religious commitment interacted.;Procedures. The sample consisted of married individuals from randomly selected Southern Baptist churches in the Tulsa Metro Association of Baptist Churches. Each individual in the sample received a measure of relational forgiveness and a measure of religious commitment.;Three variables were identified: the dependent, continuous variable forgiveness, the independent, categorical variable gender, and the independent, categorical variable religious commitment. The variable religious commitment had three groups: low, moderate, and high religious commitment.;A 2X3 two-way between-groups ANOVA was used to test differences on the variable forgiveness between male and female members of the sample and across the three levels of religious commitment.;Findings and conclusions. Results of the 2X3 two-way between-groups ANOVA revealed differences in general tendency to forgive spousal transgressions between members of the group low religious commitment and moderate religious commitment and low religious commitment and high religious commitment. There was no difference between the groups moderate and high religious commitment. There was no difference between males and females. There was no interaction between gender and religious commitment. All three hypotheses of this study were confirmed.;The Christian religion values interpersonal forgiveness. As expected, married Christians who were more religiously committed were also more forgiving. This was true for both males and females. The strength of this finding was weak. Forgiveness has previously been demonstrated to be a factor in maintaining satisfactory marriages, and interpersonal forgiveness is a mandate for Christians. Churches and other Christian agencies should purposely develop theologically sound forgiveness interventions to encourage forgiveness in marriage.