In a cultural change without historical precedent, marriage is increasingly seen as optional, disposable and redefinable.
1. Optional
Marriage is no longer an assumed requirement for setting up a household or having children. Cohabitation and out-of-wedlock childbearing are two of our fastest growing family configurations. These trends indicate that marriage is increasingly seen as superfluous.
2. Disposable
For those who do marry, we have lost the ideal of marital permanence. The skyrocketing divorce rate indicates we have lost the ideal of “til death do us part.” Instead, if marriage doesn’t work, we trade it in on a new one and hope for the best.
Interestingly, recent research indicates two things: most divorce stems from low-conflict marriages and divorce doesn’t lead to a happier life, but hanging in there and making your marriage work is much more likely to lead to happier life.1
3. Redefinable
We are entertaining a discussion in our culture that no other age or civilization has undertaken: that is to redefine marriage as a union between members of the same sex. We act as if marriage is simply a human invention, rather than something rooted in nature. The continuity and regularity of marriage that we observe throughout the course of human history and its various cultural and religious expressions reveal how natural and basic marriage is to humanity.
These three developments have all weakened marriage in unique, but significant ways.
Good News
There is, however, a vibrant movement to recover marriage as an ideal, led by sociologist and academics who are recognizing the large body of professional literature indicating that marriage provides rich health benefits for women, men and children. These scholars are joined by religious leaders, family therapists and political and community leaders who are working at national and local levels to recover the ideal of life-long, happy marriage as the foundation of family life in our nation. Focus on the Family has been a player in the formation of this movement.
