Marriage – Page 3 – Family Council

Divorce is Down and Family Stability is Up: New Study

Aug 11, 2025Jerry CoxMarriageMarriage

A new study by scholars at the Institute for Family Studies has found divorce rates are down, family stability is improving, and most children are being raised in two-parent households.

While IFS predicts that one-third of young adults will never marry and one-fourth may not have children, the study found “major shifts” suggesting that marriage is becoming stronger in America. “Divorce is down,” the authors write, “as is single parenthood, and the share of kids being raised in stable married families is ticking up.”

When it comes to divorce rates, the study says, “The bottom line: Most married couples will make it.”

All of this is good news for several reasons.

Marriage is not “just a piece of paper,” and a wedding is more than just a social event.

Research repeatedly has shown that healthy marriages are good for adults, good for children, and good for society.

Cohabiting relationships tend to be less happy and less healthy. Meanwhile, children with a married mother and father are less likely to live in poverty.

Married couples report more satisfaction across the board than cohabiting couples, and marriage is also broadly connected with better health and wellbeing. In fact, a 2016 article from Harvard noted that marriage is tied to living longer, having fewer strokes, and enjoying better mental wellbeing.

Good relationships and healthy marriages are part of human flourishing. We ought to do what we can to promote marriage in Arkansas, and we ought to celebrate the fact that marriage rates seem to be on the upswing in our country.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Southern Baptist Convention Affirms Biblical Views on Marriage, Gender-Identity

Jun 12, 2025Jerry CoxMarriageReligious Freedom, Religious Liberty, SAFE Act, Same-Sex Marriage, Transgender

The Associated Press reports the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution affirming marriage as the union of one man and one woman and opposing transgender ideology during its annual meeting in Dallas on Tuesday.

The convention also hosted a conversation with Tennessee’s attorney general and with an Alliance Defending Freedom attorney regarding laws that protect children from sex-change procedures.

This month marks ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Obergefell v. Hodges decision that struck down state marriage laws nationwide.

From 2004 to 2015, voters in more than three-fifths of the country democratically passed laws and amendments defining marriage in their respective states. In most cases, those measures defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Obergefell ruling nullified all of those state laws.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution affirms biblical marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and it calls for the reversal of the supreme court’s bad Obergefell ruling. It also opposes the normalization of transgender ideology.

Some member of the media have seemed surprised the Sothern Baptist Convention would approve a resolution like this, but there really should not be anything shocking about a Christian denomination holding Christian beliefs on marriage and gender-identity.

In 2004, the SBC approved a pro-marriage resolution saying, “The union of one man and one woman is the only form of marriage prescribed in the Bible as God’s perfect design for the family.” That resolution also called for passage of a federal marriage amendment defining marriage in America as the union of one man and one woman.

In 2014, the convention approved a resolution affirming “God’s good design that gender identity is determined by biological sex and not by one’s self-perception.”

In light of that, the SBC’s latest resolution isn’t exactly new.

Support for same-sex marriage has actually declined in recent years, and about half the states —including Arkansas — have passed laws protecting children from sex-change procedures. Many of the world’s leading health experts have found these procedures are dangerous. Americans have also expressed widespread backlash against corporations that pander to pro-LGBT groups.

Reversing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision does not seem likely right now, but the same thing seemed true of Roe v. Wade 50 years ago. We appreciate the Southern Baptist Convention maintaining its biblical convictions regarding marriage and gender-identity.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

A Wedding Isn’t Just a Party: Guest Column

Mar 27, 2024John StonestreetMarriageHomosexuality, LGBT, Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage

Recent debates about whether Christians should go to so-called same-sex “weddings” have revealed a lot, and not just about how normalized homosexuality has become. Some of those who argued Christians should attend asked, “Why turn down an invitation to a wedding when we’re fine eating with, working with, or being friends with people who call themselves gay?”

But this assumes that weddings are just another social event, a time for people to express their feelings and celebrate their happiness. In a Christian view, they’re much more than that. They’re a public act inseparably joining two lives and creating a family—a God-ordained covenant with a purpose that goes back to creation and symbolism that reaches into New Creation, whether those getting married realize it or not. Those who go don’t merely attend, they participate as witnesses.

We have a serious failure of catechesis if Christians don’t understand how marriage ceremonies are fundamentally different than a party. For today’s confusion, Christians need to know what marriage is, not just what it isn’t.