Is Marriage Obsolete?

Date Published: 11/18/2010

An Associated Press item that was in the Dallas Morning News today (p. 7A), and is circulating on the internet and undoubtedly appearing in other newspapers, suggests that marriage is becoming obsolete because a record high of 39% of children in the U.S. are growing up in homes with unmarried parents (most divorced or never married, a few surely widowed). The copy is written in such a way as to suggest that because that percentage has been growing, this is the norm. However, what it does not say is the obvious math, 71% of children in the U.S. are growing up in homes with married parents. Seems, that’s still pretty normal. If you keep reading to the end of the article, it also says that 46% of unmarried adults want to get married, and of those living with a partner 64% want to get married. The same Pew study also says that 67% of Americans are upbeat about the future of marriage.

I am posting this, not to blast the media for distorting the news, nor to promote handwringing over the growing proportion of the unmarried population, nor even to opine about marriage alternatives or toot the horn for traditional families (tongue in cheek – like Jacob and Rachel and Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah, Genesis 30:1-24). Rather, I hope it is an antidote for playing “Ain’t It Awful” (with apologies to Eric Berne) with rather fluid social trends. The alternative to fear mongering about what happens around us is to live our own lives and relationships with integrity as disciples of Jesus.