Marriage – Page 38 – Family Council

Metaxas: Cohabiting “A Poor Substitute for Marriage”

Sep 9, 2013JerryMarriageCohabiting, Marriage

In a column published on Christian Post last week, Eric Metaxas articulates why living together is a poor substitute for marriage itself–and how it sets relationships up to fail.

Metaxas cites an opinion-editorial in the New York Times in which psychologist Meg Jay of the University of Virginia describes the “cohabitation effect”:

“Couples who cohabit before marriage . . . tend to be less satisfied with their marriages-and more likely to divorce-than couples who do not.”

This has been borne out by other studies and experts. As Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse notes in her column “Why Not Take Her for a Test Drive? Cohabitation Fast Facts,” there is a clear correlation between cohabitation and unhappiness and domestic violence. Nevertheless a lot of people picture living together before marriage as a way to take a relationship out for a “test drive.” Dr. Morse sums that point of view up pretty well:

“The analogy works great if you picture yourself as the driver. It stinks if you picture yourself as the car.”

Courts Will Use a Federal Equal Rights Amendment Against Marriage

Sep 5, 2013JerryMarriageDefense of Marriage ACt, Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage

Anyone who thinks states should consider ratifying the proposed Federal Equal Rights Amendment should look at what just happened in New Mexico.

A judge there took their state’s equal right amendment, worded almost identically to the proposed federal amendment, and used it to allow same-sex marriage in that state.

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Surprising Rice University Study on Same-Sex Marriage

Sep 2, 2013JerryMarriageMarriage, Same-Sex Marriage

Last June, just days before the U.S. Supreme Court struck part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, sociologists at Rice University published a significant study examining Americans’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage.

The study polled 1,300 random adults in 2006, asking them “The only legal marriage should be between one man and one woman. Agree? Neither Agree nor Disagree? Or Disagree?”

The folks conducting the study then polled the very same group of Americans 6 years later, asking them the same question.

The results were that in 2006, 57% of people said marriage ought to be the union of one man to one woman. In 2012, 53% of people agreed that’s how marriage ought to be defined. On its face, then, this study would seem to indicate support for traditional marriage fell by 4% from 2006 to 2012. That simply is not the case.

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