By: Don Caldwell
Is marriage important? Why?
Excerpts italicized:
As families gather for Thanksgiving this year, nearly one in three American children is living with a parent who is divorced, separated or never-married. More people are accepting the view that wedding bells aren't needed to have a family.
A study by the Pew Research Center, in association with Time magazine, highlights rapidly changing notions of the American family. And the Census Bureau, too, is planning to incorporate broader definitions of family when measuring poverty, a shift caused partly by recent jumps in unmarried couples living together.
About 29 percent of children under 18 now live with a parent or parents who are unwed or no longer married, a fivefold increase from 1960, according to the Pew report being released Thursday. Broken down further, about 15 percent have parents who are divorced or separated and 14 percent who were never married. Within those two groups, a sizable chunk — 6 percent — have parents who are live-in couples who opted to raise kids together without getting married.
Indeed, about 39 percent of Americans said marriage was becoming obsolete. And that sentiment follows U.S. census data released in September that showed marriages hit an all-time low of 52 percent for adults 18 and over.
In 1978, just 28 percent believed marriage was becoming obsolete.
When asked what constitutes a family, the vast majority of Americans agree that a married couple, with or without children, fits that description. But four of five surveyed pointed also to an unmarried, opposite-sex couple with children or a single parent. Three of 5 people said a same-sex couple with children was a family.
The changing views of family are being driven largely by young adults 18-29, who are more likely than older generations to have an unmarried or divorced parent or have friends who do. Young adults also tend to have more liberal attitudes when it comes to spousal roles and living together before marriage, the survey found.
But economic factors, too, are playing a role. The Census Bureau recently reported that opposite-sex unmarried couples living together jumped 13 percent this year to 7.5 million. It was a sharp one-year increase that analysts largely attributed to people unwilling to make long-term marriage commitments in the face of persistent unemployment.
And about half of all currently unmarried adults, 46 percent, say they want to get married. Among those unmarried who are living with a partner, the share rises to 64 percent.
About 62 percent say that the best marriage is one where the husband and wife both work and both take care of the household and children. That's up from 48 percent who held that view in 1977.
In our increasingly secular society, marriage has become little more than a contractual arrangement. With what used to be a sacred joining of two souls in this life, has turned into a combination of tax break and a showing of the person you are “currently” serious with.
It is interesting how a majority of americans now blieve that a marriage is better when both spouses work. How does this affect the family? How is it better?
How has thing change affected our children?
How does this change affect the quality of our lives today?
Has this cheapened life in general?
Has it let us to value things differently in our lives?
Would we be happier if we needed to depend on marriage, as we did long ago?
How has the definition of what a “marriage” is changed?
Should the definition of “marriage” change?
What can we do to strengthen marriage?
Or is it better to adopt a more “progressive” view of the changing face of what it means to be a family?
And why is it, considering the increasingly "progressive" view of marriage / family, do fewer and fewer people want to get married? What does that say?
(ORIGINAL LINK) Four in 10 say marriage is becoming obsolete - Yahoo! News
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